05 Jul 2009 |
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CAN AMERICA’S MILITARY BE USEFUL FOR AFRICA?
Ozodi Thomas Osuji Looking forward to a long weekend, the forth of July Weekend (celebration of America’s independence), I was panicked that I did not have good books to read. I am one of those persons that must be reading books or they go bunkers. Thus, on Friday evening I rushed to the local library before it closed and checked out several books. One of the books that I checked out was Paul Starobin, After America ( New York: Viking, 2009). I did not put that book down, except to engage in the usual activities of daily living, until I had read all of it. I felt a powerful urge to write my thoughts on it hence this write up (on Sunday morning, July 5, 2009). In a nutshell, Mr. Starobin, a journalist of some note, repeated the argument that I have made in my writings. He noted that America is like any other empire and that since history shows that empires come and empires go that there is no reason why America should be an exception, American exceptionalism notwithstanding. There was Sumer, Egypt, Greece, India, China, the Mongols, Rome, France, Britain, the Soviet Union and other empires and they are all gone and there is no reason to see America as not part of historical inevitability, realism. His thesis is that America, like past empires, will decline. Indeed, he suggested that America is already in decline and that Americans, especially so-called neoconservatives of the Hoover Institution, American Heritage and Cato foundations, are playing the ostrich and hiding their heads in sand, not wanting to accept this reality and go on pretending that they are still the sole superpower of the world. As it were, many Americans are living in their country’s yester years' glory; they are being nostalgic, living in fantasy land, really, and those living in fantasy land can do a whole lot of damage, so they must be disabused of their illusions and delusions, and Mr. Starobin proceeded to do so. The Neoconservatives have to be given the lay of the land before they embark on another war of choice, a preemptive war that they do not have the resources to prosecute. Mr. Starobin reviewed American history (scantly, I should say; he probably presumed that the reader already knows American history) and traced America’s journey to greatness. We all know about the John Smith led British settlement at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, and the Pilgrim Fathers settlement at Plymouth in Massachusetts a few years later. We all know how America was originally an insignificant agricultural society and how gradually it was transformed into a great industrial power. The author reviewed significant benchmarks in America’s journey to greatness: 1776 Revolutionary war, the Jacksonian populist democracy of the 1830s, the civil war (1860s) and efforts to preserve the union (and, may be, free African slaves), the reconstruction era, the progressive era when robber barons industrialized America and made out like bandits, FDR’s New Neal era of the 1930s, the Second World War (1940s) etc. It was at the close of the Second World War that America emerged as the great political and military power she now is. Starobin described the post war American politics and educated those who are not aware of this era what it was all about, the beginning of the American century (fulfilling Henry Luce’s desire). The cold war began in earnest; America was in competition with the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. The competition was to see who would conquer and dominate the world. America had exploded the atomic bomb in 1945 and by 1949 the Soviet Union did the same. In 1958 the Russians beat the Americans into space (Yuri Gagarin’s sputnik) and America panicked and threw every thing she had into the space race and, as John F. Kennedy promised, America put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s decade, in July, 1969 when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Then there was the tumultuous 1960s and its efforts to change the ethos of an ossified polity and make America live up to its promises (such as the equality of all people written in its declaration of independence). This was the era of struggles for civil rights, calls for economic justice and, of course, the Vietnam War and demonstrations against it. President Lynden Baines Johnson and Congress enacted the great society Acts, such as Medicare (health care for older citizens) and Medicaid (health care for the poor). In 1975 the Vietnam War was lost and America’s pride was hurt. Americans yearned for a savior on a white horse. After the feckless Jimmy Carter administration, Ronald Reagan came along and promised that it would be morning in America, again. He made Americans walk tall. America outspent the Soviet Union in the race to see who could destroy the world over and over, again. By the end of the 1980s decade the Soviet Union imploded and America emerged as the sole super power and the “ass kissing” Japanese American pseudo scholar, Francis Fakiyama, wrote about “the end of history”. The struggle between capitalism and communism, democracy and authoritarian, was over, he believed, and America has won and from now on the world would be America’s oyster. Poor fool, he needed to have gone to real school and learned something useful instead of been another empty headed idiot produced by failing American schools. Communist Russia died, as it should, but Russian nationalism resurfaced. For a while Boris Yeltsen the Drunk was over fascinated by America’s razzmatazz but soon reality struck and Vladimir Putin returned Russia to its senses and mother Russia is now on the ascendency, asserting Russian traditions and interests, not America’s traditions and interests. Russia was not going to be America’s puddle as the Neoconservative fools thought that she would be in a world led by America. We have returned to history, if we ever left it. China, India, Brazil and the European Union are surging economic giants. The Islamic nations, though they refuse to modernize their countries and become relevant players in the world economy, are asking to be heard and taken seriously (for what only God knows). Samuel Huntington reminds us of the clash of civilizations, especially the Christian and Islamic civilizations, a clash that made itself manifest one fine September morning. On a fine morning on September 11, 2001, Muslim terrorists, in hijacked airplanes, hauled themselves at the world trade center building, New York, and America was returned to the reality of history. George Bush, the cowboy President, believing that apparent American military power could solve all problems, went to war and quickly dispatched the Talibans of Afghanistan into the country side. Drunk with seeming victory and feeling invincible, Mr. Bush went to Iraq under the pretext that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Actually, he wanted to conquer some Islamic nation and make himself a great leader (history judges mostly leaders who won wars as great). His operation shuck and awe seemed successful except that America is now bogged down in the Arabian Desert. Besides, America had to borrow the money to wage that war. Bush junior practically mortgaged America to China to be able to amuse himself with his military power. That is no way to be a great power, borrow money to fight wars! We all have eyes to see and can see that the American economy, while still dominant, is challenged by ascendant China, India and Brazil. Starobin suggests that it is only a matter of time before Brazil, China and India make their moves to over take the USA. He wonders what the after American empire world would look like. Would we have chaos, the reign of the ascendant Asiatic hordes: China, Japan and India? The answer is no. In my view, Asians do not have what it takes to be world powers. Both China and Japan are essentially mono ethnic nations. Russia is an Eastern European power and so will remain, it is not a universal empire, for it to become one it has to diversify its population and can begin by importing, at least, thirty million Africans so that they give that cultural waste land some culture (as Africans did for the Americas). The world of the future cannot be dominated by mono ethnic nations, only heterogeneous nations can prevail. India is a superstitious country, what with all the rubbish about the Hindu three classes: Brahmin, Kastryas and Sudras and untouchables. Given Indians apparent inability to rise above this religious superstition, this class nonsense, one cannot see them become a universal empire. Brazil comes close to having the population mix needed to become the world power except that she is Portuguese and we are not yet done with the reign of English speaking people. America is the only universal nation; she is a veritable united nations with people from all corners of the world living in it; see, even a descendant of Africans, those considered unintelligent, Barack Obama, is now the President of America. Can you imagine that happening in parochial China, superstitious India where black persons (Dravidians) are called untouchables or arrogant Japan (where foreigners are treated as pariah) and benighted Russia (where skinheads think it fun to beat up dark skinned persons from the Caucasus)? It seems to me that America is still going to be the center of action for most of the twenty first century. If America conquers her racism, I actually think that no other country is going to be able to compete with her, what with her harnessing the strengths of her diverse population (rather than marginalizing some groups). There will, of course, be other centers of power, such as the European Union, Russia, China, India, Japan, Brazil etc but I am not sure that such a world is going to be like the traditional European concept of Multi-polar international system. I believe that we are moving, Wily Nelly, to a World Government. We are going to have a unified world with capital in Africa, the heartland of all mankind, where all human beings originated, the Garden of Eden (on the Kenyan highlands). Starobin speculated on what the world after the decline of America would look like. This is good effort but essentially he was engaged in conjectures and those are interesting but not facts hence need not detain us. His book is a good read; I recommend it, especially if you are into American politics and international politics. There is a debate going on. That debate is whether Americans should make reparations to Africa for using African slaves to build their economy. I do not have sympathy for this debate because Africans were complicit in selling their people to Arabs and Americans. If any one needs reparation at all it is black Americans. Even then they should not be given cash (they would spend it in riotous living and in a few years would wound up where they began, poor) but paid in other ways, such as having all their school fees paid for a generation (34 years). If African politicians, as the putative leaders of their people, on behalf of their people were to be given Western reparative money, given what we know about them, they are to a man thieves, they would spend that money on themselves and Africans would remain as they have always been, poor. Nevertheless, as Walter Rodney (How Europe Underdeveloped Africa) pointed out, Africa’s population was depleted when Africans for over a thousand years (900-1900 AD) were sold to Arabs and for over five hundred years (1500-1900) sold to the Americas. Africa was economically devastated by slavery. More importantly, Africans acquired a cultural trait that if left alone would take hundreds of years to be changed. Africans learned to undervalue their lives. Africans do not have value for their lives, they do not respect their lives and they do not see human life as dignified. The process of capturing and selling their people into slavery led Africans to devalue their people’s lives. At the moment Africans do not construe people as having value and worth. For over a thousand years, Africans sold their people and in the process developed the view that they are valueless. This inherited aspect of Africa’s culture is now responsible for Africans not caring for each other. Africans lack of respect for human dignity is responsible for their amazing level of corruption, and stealing from their people. Instead of dedicating their services to working to improve their peoples welfare, African politicians and bureaucrats almost to a man are thieves and construe their positions as from which they steal from their countries national treasuries and with the help of stolen wealth and power pretend to be very important persons (Africans enter politics to become African big men and have other Africans admire and worship them, as they used to worship those who sold more slaves and bought the Ozo title and pretended to be important persons). Without mincing words and beating about the bush, contemporary Africans are, more or less, lawless persons. Africans will require a couple more hundred years before the stink of savagery is washed from their minds; Africans need to be taught to live to serve their people. In the meantime, Africans are unable to correctly govern themselves. The rest of the world is making economic headways but Africans are regressing. It is here that Americans with their NATO allies can perform a charitable service for Africa (if you like, they should do it as reparation for their role in slavery, their gift to Africa). America should use its military to conquer all of sub-Saharan Africa, from Sudan to South Africa. It will probably take the US military less than six months to clear out the thieves ruling Africa. After chasing the thieves calling themselves African leaders away from office, Americans should reconstitute Africa along the line that I have written about in many papers. After performing this service and staying for a while to see that democracy took root and that Africans do not degenerate to their habitual corruption, thirty four years stay should do it, then Americans should withdraw their troops and public managers from Africa. AFRICA FEDERATION There are about four hundred large ethnic groups in Africa (such as Igbo, Yoruba, Tiv, Edo, Efik, Ijaw, Kanuri, Hausa, Fulani, Ashanti, Fante, Ewe, Wolof, Kikuyu, Luo, Buganda, Dinka, Congo, Ovambo, Heroro, Zulu, Xhosa, Pando, Swazi, Sotho…I enumerated the various African tribes in a different paper) and hundreds of smaller ones. Each of the major tribes should be made a state. The smaller ethnic groups should be lumped together into another one hundred states. Africa would have five hundred states. The five hundred states of Africa would become part of what I have called Africa Federation (or Union). The constitution would be like that of America. A central government with well defined powers; states with well defined powers; districts within states with well defined powers; towns and cities in districts with well defined powers. In several papers, I delineated the details of this natural structure for Africa. Briefly, at the center would be a unicameral law making legislature (to be called Federation Legislative Council) with a representative from each state. The total number would add up to five hundred members. The term of service is five year, with total of six possible terms for each member. These people make the laws of the land. There should be an executive council (Federation Executive Council) composed of five hundred members, a member from each state (elected from administrators in the state, such as governors and district administrators). The executive council has five year term of office with six terms limit. The executive council selects the president and the president selects his cabinet members from the rest of the council. The president serves a five year term, with two terms limit, ten years. There should be a judicial council (Federal Judicial Council). The judicial council is composed of five hundred members, a member from each state (elected by and from the state supreme court). The judicial council supervises the judicial system and has the power of Judicial Review. The judicial system has bureaucratically recruited judges, that is, on merit, with the usual three tier court system: Supreme Court, Appellate Courts and District Courts. The central structure of governing is to be replicated at the state, district and town/city levels. It is time that human militaries are put to positive uses rather than merely exist to be used to conquer, subjugate and humiliates people for the sake of gratifying our sadistic desires. The stupendous American military could be put to a positive service for all mankind. Africans have been seriously damaged by their history of slavery and at present seem unable to govern themselves correctly; all Africans seem to know how to do is steal. Criminality is not in their blood; they learned it from the process of selling their people into slavery. Left alone they will muddle through and change their nefarious ways but they could be helped along that way by men of goodwill. The West could use its military to perform a public service for Africans. I make this request not because I feel that white folk are superior to Africans. People are the same and equal. I make it because the more I appraise Africans the more I realized how psychologically damaged they are, and how they would require hundreds of years to do what they ought to be able to do, govern themselves correctly. Conquer Africa, impose democratic institutions, build schools everywhere so that all Africans go to school, elementary, secondary, university and technical schools; construct infrastructures that the continent needs to take off economically (roads, railways, airports, electricity, water works, hospitals etc) and then hand over their governance to Africans. A generation of this public service would be enough to retrain Africans and literally transform them from savages to real human beings. What preoccupied me after reading Starobin’s book is what to do with America? Clearly, America is now on the path to fall but can we do something about it? Isn’t it possible to stem her decline by putting her awesome military power to some altruistic use and in the process buy her another century in existence as the world sole superpower? Africans are a people that time forgot and some one have to help them catch up with time. That someone might as well be America! I have a love hate relationship with America. As an African I resent that my people were used as free labor in developing America and I equally resent white America’s racism and discrimination. In America a black man is automatically presumed to be unintelligent and relegated to the dustbin, or given menial jobs. My racial pride is hurt by white Americans arrogance and to assuage that injured vanity nothing would please me more than to see the demise of white folk. On the other hand, I am acutely aware that Americans, despite their racial silliness, have made considerable contribution to the rest of the world. A part of me wants America to succeed and another part wants her to fail, to fall flat on her back so as to learn the cost of hubris; in fact, I sort of believe that unless Americans fall and are humiliated that they would not grow up and become real adult human beings. At present they seem childish. As I wrote elsewhere, one of the great mysteries of being is how a totally ridiculous people came to dominate the world economically, militarily and culturally. I do not get it. How did white Americans, a people that, to me, seem the most childish breed of human beings, come to be the world’s Hegemon, the world’s policeman? When the American century ends, as it obviously is going to end, folk would be asking: how on earth did these barbarians control the world? Look, if Africans stopped stealing too much and get a handle on ruling themselves, develop leadership skills and govern their continent well I do not believe that white Americans would see their back in any field of human endeavor. Americans cannot compete with Africans in anything. At present American whites amuse themselves with their supposed higher intelligence Vis a Vis African Americans but the question one has asked is: if what these fools consider to be sign of intelligence is intelligence then they are not intelligent! The typical Nigerian child in the villages knows more about his natural environment (climate, vegetation etc) than Americans with PhDs know about their environment. Well, I have a love hate relationship with America, I love her but I also hate what she has done to my people; I wish her well and at the same time sort of hope that she falls flat on her back so as to learn humility. Reading Starobin’s book got me thinking how Americans can be put to good use. Since contemporary Africans seem unable to govern themselves and all they seem able to do is steal why not have Americans go to Africa and show them how to do certain things right. Americans know how to do many things right. Imperfect as their democracy is it is still second to none in the world. America’s technical ingenuity is well known; practically every electronic gizmo we use in the modern world has its origin in Yankee ingenuity. So, why not have Americans put their military power to good use and take over Africa, and help to establish good governance in Africa and then leave after a generation? In fact, why should they leave? As I see it, every part of this world belongs to all of us. I certainly see Europe, Asia, the Americas and every part of them as my world. I look forward to a world where all of us human beings are citizens of every where. I have never bought into the artificial man made construct called nation-state (which Starobin broached on). America has a stupendous military but increasingly is lacking in an economy to support that military. We all know that great armies must be supported by great economies. It does not take a rocket scientist to know that the Second World War has finally ended. When the war ended in 1945 Europe was flat on its back and could not compete with America; indeed, she needed America’s Marshall Plan to resurrect her economy. Asia was similarly supine. Africa, well, what can I say. The war is now over and Europe is resuscitated and Asia is climbing from the valley to the mountain top. America’s share of the world economy has decreased from 40% in 1945 to, may be, 20% today. All things been constant, America’s share of the world economy would fall to ten percent, making her a great but not dominant power. So, I ask myself, why not have Americans do for Africans what they do best, transform them, bring them into the modern global economy? America’s temporary intervention in Africa could bring her share of the world economy back up to, say, thirty percent. Am I being overly optimistic? A part of me keeps saying: don’t kid yourself; if America conquers Africa she would subjugate Africans to slavery. I am a student of real politics, of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Pareto, Schumpeter, Morgenthau, Kissinger, Metternich, Bismarck etc. Okay, Americans can become monsters and wipe out Africans and take their lands, as they did to Indians. Yet given Africans shiftlessness, their apparent inability to fend for themselves may be we ought to try having them ruled by other persons for a while and take the risk that those others are men of good will? Is my wish not a symptom of defeatism; does it not show that I am totally defeated and now believe that Africans (me) cannot do any thing right? Why not let Africans keep making their mistakes and eventually learn from their mistakes and thereafter govern themselves right? Other groups learned from their past mistakes, so why shouldn’t Africans do the same (and where were Africans when other groups were learning from their mistakes?). I do not know the answer to any of these questions; they are pregnant with possibilities. So, I say, let us consider them, what have we got to lose? Africans are poor, starving, and suffering and beg white folk for hand outs. Given their abject, groveling status what have they to lose by wondering whether they need others help in governing themselves? Someone may ask whether I am kidding or serious. Am I really serious in asking for Americans to take Africa over and have I thought the matter through? America taking over Africa entails her imposing her culture and values on Africa, especially her version of Christianity, specifically her war mongering evangelical Christianity on Africa. Is this what I want? I do not think that we have to worry about this cultural matter. America itself is actually culturally conquered by Africans. Africans are a resilient people; they will not be converted to American brand of Christianity; in fact, if anything they will convert Americans to real Christianity. See, I have lived in America since leaving secondary school but her Christianity did not make an impact on me. As a matter of fact, I have even jettisoned my inherited Catholicism and Anglicanism. I have forced myself to read the bible, over and over and give it the interpretation that I believe its writers intended. I do not mean the Old Testament part of the Bible for that is Jewish Fairy tales; I mean the New Testament. In several writing I have explored what true Christianity means. My interpretation of Christianity is close to Polonius’ (Ennead) Gnosticism, without the escapist aspect of Gnosticism. If you recall, the basic tenet of Gnosticism is that our world is evil, is a dark place that was created by an evil, dark force, variously called the Demiurge or Lucifer or Satan. The idea is that there is a good God and that he could not have created our evil world. A Son of God, a fallen angel of God, or something left the good God and came to earth to create our world. In Gnosticism, our world is seen as a dark place and Gnostics want to overcome it and return to the light world that is God’s world. Gnosticism sees all that has to do with matter as evil and wants to return to formless spiritual being in God. A Jewish clinical psychologist, Helen Schucman, reworked Gnosticism and wrote a fascinating metaphysical poem called a course in miracles (she claimed that the book was channeled from Jesus Christ). I am not interested in negating this world or escaping from it. I know that it will take us thousands of years before we use the study of science to fully understand the workings of matter, energy, space and time and to device technologies to improve our adaptation to the world. It is exciting to be in the world and study science and technology and use them to cope with the exigencies of this world. It is cowardly seeking to escape from this world before we have understood and mastered it through science and technology. Why run away from a place that you have not yet fully understood? I am not an escapist and escapist’s religion like Hinduism, Buddhism and Gnosticism do not appeal to me. Yet their grasp of the fact that this world is an evil place and the need to improve it appeals to me. As for American evangelical Christianity, all I can say is that it appeals to children, not to old souls like me. I come from a family that traditionally were their people’s high priests and spiritual leaders. Indeed, I am the current “Onye ishe muo of Amadioha”, the high priest of the God of knowledge, aka God of light. You cannot reach me with infantile religion such as is propagated by American evangelical and Pentecostal religions. So, I say, let Americans teach their weird religions to Africans but Africans will take what they need from them and move on. See, Africans have correctly understood that homosexuality is an affliction that affects civilizations before they self destroy (as happened in Greece and Rome) hence oppose it. The Western Anglican branch of Christianity has embraced homosexuality, an absurd, perverted, bestial and animalistic life style and African Anglicans correctly decided to split from that type of perverted Anglicanism. My point is that the West is not very likely going to succeed in imposing its weird ideas on culture on Africans. Finally, one may ask: wouldn’t acceptance of America’s rule entail accepting the American political economy, especially her insistence on unfettered free enterprise, Adam Smith’s laissez fair capitalism and David Ricardo’s free trade? May be so but look where that has gotten America! Unregulated capitalism taught by the Chicago school of economics and led by the misguided Jewish Milton Friedman has wrought havoc on economies wherever they are taught and nearly brought about the collapse of the American economy. We are living in the era when the American government is rescuing America’s financial institutions, housing markets and major industries like the auto industry. Wall Street would have collapsed but for the Federal Government pumping well over two trillion dollars into it to shore it up. Whereas I am not sure that the apostles of unfettered free enterprise have learned their lesson (yesterday, I saw the idiot boy called Arthur Laffer on Fox Television still espousing his supply side economics, though his economy is hardly producing/ supplying any goods and services; that idiot boy ought to go to Wal-Mart and see that just about everything there is made in China, and that is thanks to his supply side economics and its shipping of American manufacturers overseas to take advantage of cheap labor!). Most rational persons agree that the free enterprise economy is the most productive economy there is but they all also know that it has a tendency to self destroy, has periods of boom and bust and must therefore be regulated by governments. We need a well regulated, mixed capitalist-socialist economy (John Maynard Keynes version of it). Socialism is overly idealistic and kills incentive to work and make profits but jungle capitalism produces extremes, such as social inequality. If, for example, wealth continues to be concentrated in a few hands in America and there are no more frontiers for the people to run to and go try their hands at making a living, within a few decades there would be a bloody revolution in America, bloodier than the French and Russian revolutions. The billionaires and millionaires heads would be chopped off and hung on poles lining major high ways to remind folk that whereas they are free to make profits that profits ought to be reasonably shared with the people. There is simply no reason why any person’s wages should be more than twenty times the least paid employed person’s wage. CEO’s making millions of dollars a year whereas the average stiff makes a couple dollars an hour simply does not make sense. Whereas we need to give folk incentive to work hard by having them keep their moneys it does not follow that some should be wealthy and many homeless. In other writings I painstakingly delineated an ideal political economy, which is a free enterprise economy but one where society pays for such things as education for all young persons, at all levels (elementary, secondary and university and technical schools), pays for public health for all persons, and subsidize the major utilities, such as electricity, water, public transportation and housing. But beyond those the individual is on his own, to swim or sink. This is what I call capitalism with a human face, not the jungle capitalism of the robber barons, the survival of the fittest philosophy taught by Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. We do not have to have excessive conflict in society but some level of conflict is good. Competition brings the best out of people yet excessive competition without cooperation leads to chaos. The prudent thing to do is find a balance between competition and cooperation. I do not feel that given their inherent common sense that Africans would be hoodwinked by the more childish aspects of the American culture and political economy. Therefore, the objections to my call for America to take over Africa and help institutionalize a democratic and efficient polity are not persuasive. The only objection raised so far that seems to hold water is what such intervention would mean for Africans. It would mean that they have been judged and found incompetent. It would mean defeat for them. I have asked myself whether I am defeated and as such want somebody else to lead me. My Gnostic religion is essentially other worldly. Other worldly philosophies are generally found in persons who are world weary and want to escape from this world, a world they find painful and want to go to another world, one that they imagine is peaceful and happy. Has any one actually seen such a world, or is it not pure fantasy? Religion and philosophy, Boethius reminds us, is a consolation for our conflicted and perplexed souls but may be consoling us with mere magical thinking or, as Karl Marx said, opium. Whatever, I know that I tend to have an escapist streak in me. However, in the end, I am not defeated. I am talking about the American military being used to impose good governance in Africa. I did not say that I want the personnel of the government to be Americans. Americans may advice folk but the personnel would be Africans. I simply think that Africans did not have sufficient tutelage from their colonial masters hence make royal mess of things and need some couching by well intentioned couches. This is the idealistic aspect of me speaking for it assumes that there are well intentioned couches in this world; the realistic aspect of me tells me that all men are motivated by their self interests, do things because of what is in it for them and would not do anything for altruistic, so-called Christian agape purposes. The political realist in me tells me that if the white man is given the opportunity that he would enslave Africans in a jiffy. Didn’t John Stuart Mill (On Liberty) say that Liberty must be fought for and preserved by eternal vigilance? Thomas Paine (Common Sense) reminds us that the tree of liberty is watered with Patriots’ blood. So, where did I get this hair brained idea that white Americans can help Africans put their fallen house in order? I do not know. Questions are eternal. In the meantime, let it be emphasized that couches do not replace the players on the field. Africans would still be the players but others could advice them on how to do the playing for a period of time. Of course, there is a certain amount of defeatism in this view of things but given Africans seeming inability to do the right thing what else is left for one to do: give up and accept the criminals governing African states? How about revolutions, efforts to over throw the extant African governments? I have explored those options elsewhere. In this paper I am exploring yet one more option. CONCLUSION This paper was originally planned as a book review but quickly developed into what can be done with American power. The book in question, Starobin’s After America, talked about the waning American power and wondered what kind of world would succeed it: chaos, the emergence of a new Multipolar international system, the rise of India and or China as the new superpower (s), the global city state, and a world government with its accompanying universal civilization. Instead of merely reviewing the book I opted to propose a useful function to which we could put the American military and in so doing avert its implosion when the economy supporting it is gone. If you like you can see this paper as an exercise in utopian thinking, in political idealism, in magical thinking, in escape into fantasyland and conclude that it is not going to happen. May be so may be not. What have we got to lose in thinking out loud? The universe created us with minds and we must think. Decision making entails examining many alternatives before choosing the one deemed most likely to yield optimal results. Let us then say that in this paper I posited an alternative for our consideration before we choose what to do with our fallen house called Africa. * Paul Starobin, After America ( New York: Viking, 2009) 350 pages. Ozodi Thomas Osuji July 5, 2009 Dr Osuji welcomes your thoughts on this paper.
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