An IMINT satellite orbits Earth at 910 miles, tracking four men in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as they walk toward a parked Toyota truck. A middle-aged white man sits at a monitor in rural Virginia, the hum of the servers putting him in a soothing trance. With one keystroke, the man seals the fate of his targets. In nanoseconds, the satellite transmits real-time data to higher headquarters, setting in motion a precise intelligence chain with the power to affect millions.
Fortunately, the men’s lives are spared. For this isn’t Obama’s world; it’s the people’s world, and the satellite relays geographical information to Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior regarding the level of the Mianwali River. Thousands of Pakistanis within the Mianwali flood zone are evacuated thanks to USA’s advanced, humanitarian satellite technology.
This is our world. A world in which the U.S. Department of Health is allocated a baseline budget of $525 billion, not including supplemental allocations from Congress, additional $89 billion in Overseas Environmental Operations or $53 billion in EI (Environmental Intelligence) funding.
Curiously, since USA’s attitude adjustment – which took place around late-2013 – bellicose rhetoric against U.S. foreign policy has subsided considerably. After all, the political grievances that induce political violence are quickly becoming obsolete.
Wars of aggression are over. All U.S. military forces and mercenaries are gone from Afghanistan, Iraq, Philippines, Djibouti, and dozens of other sovereign countries. U.S. special operations forces no longer operate in over a hundred distinct nations (p. 7). With U.S. war profiteers losing revenue, innocents around the world are no longer killed at astonishing rates – two trends that are inextricably linked.
Drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and across AFRICOM have ceased. Teenagers and the elderly may now walk the streets without fear of incineration. The Pentagon has closed all but three overseas installations. The remaining three – in Okinawa, Rota, and Menwith Hill – are in the process of being handed over entirely to their respective host nations. Imperial wars for profit are on the decline.
With U.S. military assets no longer based on the Arabian Peninsula, extremists have lost another justifiable political grievance against U.S. foreign policy. Since the U.S. government stopped supporting oppressive or undemocratic regimes – like Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia – the people have breathed a sigh of relief; their oppressors are unable to maintain power through violence, ever since U.S. diplomatic aid and FMF dried up.
Israel stopped colonizing Palestinian land many moons ago because USA’s annual $3.3 billion gift to the IOF is now allocated to environmental remediation in and around the Jordan and Litani Rivers. AIPAC’s fortress in Washington, D.C. has been abandoned. The Right of Return is in effect, as millions of Palestinians migrate peacefully across demilitarized borders. Zionism’s racist apartheid state has collapsed; one state for all exists from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Jordan River.
The Big Four grievances – wars of aggression, military assets in Saudi Arabia, support for dictators, and USA’s unconditional support for Zionism – have crumbled. Every year, the FBI still tries to entrap dozens of people whose only discrepancy has been committing thoughtcrime. Fortunately, USA’s wise citizenry, who are empowered by a robust independent media, do not allow the Department of Justice to prosecute them.
Christian Sorensen for Media Roots
