[bk. Rev. writ. 11/25/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
If Chalmers Johnson, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute, had done nothing else, his trilogy, beginning with his best- selling Blowback, The Sorrows of Empire, and Nemesis, would’ve cemented his reputation as an incisive and outstanding critic of American Empire, and one who longed for the return of the U.S. Republic.
His last work, Dismantling the Empire, (Metropolitan Bks: 2010), is a worthy successor to his previous works, and reflects his hope, fading though it may be, that the U.S., like Britain, may yet turn from its Imperial addiction, and become, again, a democracy.
To quote Johnson, “A country can be democratic or it can be Imperialistic, but it cannot be both.”
Johnson was a Navy veteran and a former CIA advisor, but he was also a student of Japan, and more importantly, Japanese language, history and its Empire.
He learned the parameters of Empire, and when he (years later, a Japanese scholar), examined American foreign policy, he recognized an eerie resemblance.
He recognized Empire.
Dismantling the Empire is his jeremiad; a work of prophecy from an elder who does not want his nation to perish from the Earth.
Chalmers Johnson is no longer with us, but thankfully, his work is.
–© ’12 maj