Chalmers Johnson (1931-2010) - UPDATED

Chalmers Johnson (as quoted by Avedon Carol):

If present trends continue, four sorrows, it seems to me, are certain to be visited on the United States. Their cumulative impact guarantees that the United States will cease to bear any resemblance to the country once outlined in our Constitution. First there will be a state of perpetual war leading to more terrorism against Americans wherever they may be and a growing reliance on weapons of mass destruction as they try to ward off the imperial juggernaut. Second, there will be a loss of democracy and constitutional rights as the presidency fully eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from an 'executive branch' of government into something more like a Pentagonized presidency. Third, an already well-shredded principle of truthfulness will increasingly be replaced by a system of propaganda, disinformation, and glorification of war, power, and the military legions. Lastly, there will be bankruptcy, as we pour our economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchange the education, health, and safety of our fellow citizens.

It must have been really difficult for this man, not easily pigeonholed and full of such contradictions in life, by the time of his death to be proven right about such important and tragic matters. R.I.P. Chalmers Johnson.

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UPDATE: the wiki links an excellent assortment of Johnson's recent articles in significant periodicals:

• Republic or Empire: A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States (Harper's)
• Empire v. Democracy: Why Nemesis Is at Our Door(with Tom Englehardt)
  
• Blowback (The Nation)
  
• Cold Warrior in a Strange Land (again with Tom Englehardt) (... part 2)
  
• Can We End the American Empire Before it Ends Us? (alternet)
  
• Three Good Reasons to Liquidate Our Empire (Huffington Post)