"The economic, social and political tensions within the Reich became steadily more acute after the summer of 1937; while it seems safe to say that Hitler himself understood very little of their technical content, it can be proved that he was informed of their existence and was aware of their gravity. If the existence in the winter of 1937-8 of a conscious connection in Hitler's mind between this general crisis and the need for a more dynamic foreign policy cannot yet be established, functional relationships between these two aspects may nonetheless be suggested."The only 'solution' open to this regime of the structural tensions and crises produced by dictatorship and rearmament was more dictatorship and rearmament, then expansion, then war and terror, then plunder and enslavement. The stark, ever-present alternative was collapse and chaos, and so all solutions were temporary, hectic, hand-to-mouth affairs, increasingly barbaric improvisations around a brutal theme."
Obama is not Hitler and the US has not fallen to fascism. Nonetheless, similar "functional relationships" can be detected between, on the one hand, the economic and social crisis gripping the United States and, on the other, the increasingly reckless character of the operations of the US military and intelligence apparatus on the world stage.
Changing what needs to be changed, there is the same "temporary, hectic, hand-to-mouth" character of the US administration's policies. They too are characterized by wild and "barbaric" improvisations, from the drone war and political provocations in Pakistan, to the war for "regime change" in Libya and now to a belligerent confrontation with Iran.
The turn toward war abroad and the promotion of "terror" scares at home is driven largely by domestic considerations. Increasingly nervous over mass social discontent and the threat of renewed class struggle reflected in the nationwide demonstrations against Wall Street, the American ruling elite is desperate to somehow change the subject. This consideration undoubtedly played a pivotal role in the decision to make public the mad allegations of an Iranian "plot" to kill the Saudi ambassador.
This strange case constitutes a serious warning. The decision to turn it into an international confrontation is indicative of increasing disorientation at the highest levels of the American state. No one knows precisely how the events flowing from it will unfold, but it seems that question is not if, but when, another major war will be sprung upon the American people.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
