"Greetings, comrades! Today's Michael Parenti reading comes from his 1995 book, Against Empire. Military force is in even greater evidence today than during the era of colonial conquest and occupation. The United States maintains the most powerful military machine on Earth. Its supposed purpose was to protect democracy from communist aggression. But the US military's actual mission, as demonstrated in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Lebanon, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, and Panama, has been not to ward off Russian or Cuban invasions, but to prevent indigenous, anti-capitalist, revolutionary, or populist nationalist governments from prevailing. The US military force is also applied indirectly by sponsoring third world armies, gendarmerie, and intelligence and security units, including death squads. Their purpose is not to safeguard their autocratic governments from a non-existent communist invasion, but to suppress and terrorize rebellious elements within their own populations or in adjacent countries. Something to think about this weekend, while you are celebrating the US's 250th birthday, is considering what people that live under the boot of US imperialism think when they see that flag. Cheers!"