What Do We Celebrate on July 4th?

As our nation celebrated Independence Day, we held parades, we set off and viewed magnificent fireworks, and honored our veterans with television specials praising those who died to preserve our independence. There was one thing missing, however: no one asked what independence means to us. We were told, with these displays of affection for our independence, what to celebrate, but no qualification of this celebration was offered. If we as Americans are to celebrate our independence, then shouldn’t we at least know what we are celebrating? George W. Bush asserts that independence is something we value universally, which is the reason why we are the leaders of the "free world", and as such, we "freed" Iraq. But how do we define independence? Do we support independence in a universal manner? Or, do we support it only when it suits our interests? If the latter is true, then how can independence be considered an American value? Isn’t independence something every human being wants? Certainly no American would argue that a person chooses to be under the control of someone else; ie, not independent. Seen in this light, if we only respect independence when it suits us, then how are we "exceptional" with regard for our value of the concept of independence?

Blasphemy!, they say. Don’t you love America? Don’t you enjoy your freedoms? If you lived any place else, you would killed for writing this essay! I agree, I say. Especially in nations that we arm to the teeth, and in places where we have countless times violated this concept of independence. Any good argument deserves a good explanation based on a solid foundation of examples and logic. I don’t deny that we like the privileges that freedom entails, and that we enjoy many freedoms unheard of in other countries, but, if we are to truly celebrate this holiday, then shouldn’t we at least know our history with regard to respect for independence? After all, we can’t just be expected to march for an idea, if we have little understanding of it meaning, can we?

Did we value the independence of Cuba and the Philippines in the late 1800s/early 1900s when we made those places into our virtual colonies, killing hundreds of thousands of Filipino independence fighters in the process? Did we support the independence of the Caribbean Basin when we supported coups and intervened dozens of times in the first four decades of the twentieth century? How much did America support the independence of Iran, when we orchestrated the overthrow of their prime minister, installed the Shah, and supported that dictator during his slaughter and torture of thousands of dissidents, who only sought to restore freedoms taken away by that dictator? How did we deem the independence of Guatemala in 1954, when we helped oust the democratically elected president, Jacobo Arbenz, and installed a dictator, who, along with his successors over the next four decades, killed and tortured hundreds of thousands? Did we respect the independence of Chile when we supported the overthrow of the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, on Sept. 11, 1973, and then supported the dictator, who killed and tortured thousands of Chileans? Did we honor the independence of the Congo in 1961, when we supported the assassination of the first ever-elected prime minister of that country, and then supported the Mobutu dictatorship over the next three and a half decades, while the bodies of his opponents seeking independence piled up in mass graves? Did we respect the independence of the majority of El Salvador’s poor population in the 1980s, whose only crime was to seek the very things we Americans demand, such as health care, food, potable water, and to NOT be repressed by death squads supporting the right wing government? If so, then how is it that we gave six billion dollars in military hardware and training to the death squads, who killed and tortured tens of thousands of unarmed Salvadorans? Did we support the independence of Cuba and Nicaragua after people’s revolts overthrew the long-time dictatorships that curtailed freedoms of expression and assembly we as Americans demand? Or, did we support covert, anti-independence movements, which used terror tactics and sabotage against civilians, for the purposes of overthrowing those popular governments?

Unfortunately, the thwarting of independence goes on and on and on. If this list, which is nowhere near complete, demonstrates a slight level of disdain for independence of the "Other", then shouldn’t this factor into our perspective for celebrating the concept of an Independence Day? If the United States has indeed violated the independence of so many countries, then would it at least be a bit more accurate to celebrate this day in its true context? That is, we like OUR independence, but any one in the 3rd World seeking independence will have to go through US first. If this is generally true, as I see the historical record, then how can we honestly say that we value independence universally? After all, this is what George Bush states was the positive side of our war against Iraq. The people of Iraq are free from an evil tyrant, he says, but he stops there, failing to mention how we supported Saddam throughout most of his worst atrocities: namely the invasion of Iran and the suppression of all Iraqi independence movements, from 1980-91. We even stood by after the first Gulf War and watched while Saddam crushed two simultaneous popular independence movements with awesome brutality. So, again we are left with the question: given our long history of thwarting independence movements, what do we truly celebrate on July 4?

CHRIS WHITE, a former Marine Sgt who served from 1994-98, is currently working on his PhD in history at the University of Kansas. He is a contributor to CounterPunch’s new history of the last decade of war, Imperial Crusades. He can be reached at: juliopac@swbell.net