"Stink Tanks" By Mumia Abu-Jamal

"Stink Tanks"

By Mumia Abu-Jamal

"Stink Tanks"

[col. writ. 8/9/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Deep in the American heart is a bitter hatred of intellectuals, thinkers of high education, who are seen, in nativist eyes, as traitors to nationalistic aims of empire and domination.

While it is daily seen and heard here, it did not begin here.

In the first third of the 20th century, French writer Julian Banda penned his classic La Trahison des Clercs (The Treason of the Intellectuals). In his 1928 work, Banda critiqued the damning effect of nationalism upon French intellectuals, writing:

I shall be told that during the past fifty years...the attitude of foreigners to France was such

that the most violent national partiality was forced upon all Frenchmen who wished to

safeguard the nation, and that the only true patriots are those who have consented to this

fanaticism. I say nothing to the contrary: I only say that the intellectuals who indulged in this

fanaticism betrayed their duty, which is precisely to set up a corporation whose sole cult

is that of justice and truth......

Julian Banda wrote these words almost 80 years ago. Then, state power hadn't risen to its present pinnacles; nor had corporate power.

While today's intellectuals claim fidelity to nationalism, many are in fact corporatists, who swear fealty to transnational corporate power.

Today they hang their shingles in US think tanks, the well-paid agents of globalized corporate wealth.

They provided the ideological cover and punditry to propel the US into this grotesque quasi-war of invasion and occupation. They promised tossed flowers, and tributes to the American liberators.

They promised democratic transformation in the region.

(Yeah -- How's that coming along?).

And, as Christine Ahn showed in her article, "Democratizing American Philanthropy", included in the recently published, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (edited by Incite! Women of Color Against Violence [Cambridge, MA.: South End Press, April '07], the wealthy in the US have created and funded right-wing think tanks to further their deeply held, anti-state beliefs. Through grants and other funds they use these agencies to do their will, as Ahn notes, this is hardly an equal opportunity program:

In contrast, their liberal counterparts have received only one fourth as much support to build a political infrastructure such as the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, the Cato Institute, and Citizens for a Sound Economy collectively had a revenue base of $77 million. In contrast, groups that might be considered their progressive counterparts -- the Institute for Policy Studies, the Economic Policy Institute, Citizens for Tax Justice, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Twentieth Century Fund, the Center for the Study of Social Policy, OMB Watch, and the Center for Community Change -- had on $18.6 million at their disposal. [pp.69-70]

This is a war brought to you by the Heritage Foundation, Cato, AEI, and the Project for a New American Century. It was conceived in greed, and nourished on nationalist arrogance.

The (so-called) war against terror has instead, strengthened the hand of jihadism, and further isolated despots throughout the region.

Is Pakistan's President (or is it President-General?) Pervez Musharraf stronger today, or measurably weaker?

Is Jordan's King Hussein in a better, or worse, position?

Are the sons of Sa'ud in Arabia more secure on their thrones, or less?

America threw a monkey wrench into the works of the Middle East, launching a campaign of chaos -- based on the empty promises of think tanks.

How then, can the US even really conceive of either peace, or 'victory?'

As bridges crumble, and schools become prisons, and a trillion dollars wing their way to the deserts of Iraq, who can be said to 'win'?

--(c) '07 maj

*******

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States, with what could be the final decision on his legal appeals possibly coming down this summer. That decision could give Mumia his freedom, a new trial, life in prison, or execution. It is time to turn up the heat against this injustice.

Free Mumia!

For more on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal read:

Top Ten “Fry Mumia” Myths Debunked

(Myth #1) “Five eyewitnesses saw Mumia shoot officer Faulkner.”

http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/19/18436405.php