Mike Benz thinks American Prosperity is in Jeopardy

I listened to Mike Benz on the Tucker Carlson show, and I’ve started his episode with Joe Rogan. I like to listen to the same person on different shows because the differing views and interviewing style of the hosts gives you slightly different insights and information.

But in this case I put the Rogan episode on immediately after because I wanted to make sure, to confirm, what I thought I heard Mike Benz saying on Tucker Carlson. And that is, once USAID is gone, as it is anticipated to be, then we are going to need to find new ways of manipulating foreign governments and overthrowing politicians who are unfriendly to the US. We’re going to need a new way of accomplishing these same goals so that the US can maintain its dominance in the world and continue to live the prosperous lives we’ve become accustomed to.

Things like cheap oil for cheap gas. Favorable import and export agreements. Our inventory of over 700 military bases around the world, many of which are on “hostile” soil in places such as Cuba and Syria. These are things that have been accomplished according to Mike Benz, in part, because of USAID.

Mike Benz says he has spent the last 8+ years blowing the whistle on all of the nefarious things that USAID has been involved in. Both domestically and abroad. According to him, and documents that have been brought to light in recent weeks, USAID has not been operating solely in the humanitarian capacity we all believed it was. The AID in USAID stands for Agency of International Development, a name that could take on many different meanings, but is apparently not AID the way we all think about it. Rather part of its budget has been used to influence foreign governments into our favor.

And now that the cover has been blown, instead of being elated that his work has played a role, Mike Benz is nervous that the current administration and its elected officials don’t have the experience or insight necessary to dismantle USAID and maintain the US stranglehold on the world. That without USAID funded protests, riots, information gathering, misinformation campaigns, and influence on foreign judicial systems, the US might not be as prosperous as it currently is.

Over the past year or more I’ve finally begun to understand what it means to live in America and be an American citizen. This awakening first after I learned about how United Fruit Company, a US company, successfully lobbied the US government to overthrow Guatemala’s democratically elected president, Jacobo Arbenz, in 1954. Arbenz was nationalizing land, reclaiming uncultivated land and redistributing it to poor peasants in the country. Unfortunately the reform bill greatly impacted United Fruit Company’s land holdings. [read: The Fish That Ate the Whale for more details]. The CIA ended up backing a coup that successfully ousted the president and installed a military dictator with close ties to the US government.

I learned how a similar playbook was used in Cuba after Fidel Castro came to power and nationalized American businesses. Sugar was Cuba’s main export and most sugar plantations were US owned. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro and secure American prosperity. [read: Cuba: An American History for the full history]. Or how the US has historically used its influence to keep coffee export prices down in South America, causing massive amounts of economic hardships in those countries [read: Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and how it Transformed our World for more].

In more recent times I’ve read about the economic sanctions and oil embargoes placed on Venezuela with a stated aim of squeezing the “illegitimate” government of Nicolas Maduro. It’s merely coincidence that Venezuela has the world’s largest known oil reserve in the world. The sanctions and embargoes imposed on Venezuela have not brought legitimacy, instead they have crippled the economy and caused the great migration of Venezuelans to America seeking opportunity.

Or take this comment from Lindsey Graham telling you in plain detail why we really support the war in Ukraine. “They’re sitting on $10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals in Ukraine”, Graham stressed. “They could be the richest country in all of Europe. I don’t want to give that money and those assets to Putin to share with China.”

If Trump and Israel succeed in displacing 2 million Palestinians that call Gaza home, and taking control of the land, it will be just one more example of the empire’s control.

At times during the interview Tucker Carlson pushed back saying why can’t we just use our power to promote peace and security. But at all times they regressed to the need of controlling foreign interests. It was shocking to hear the cavalier way in which two grown and educated men spoke about controlling the resources of other countries, and the fear they projected about the possibility of it coming to an end.

We claim to be the richest and most powerful country on earth because we promote freedom, democracy, and capitalism. That we are the best because we allow the best to come here and innovate. But that’s not really the case at all. We are the richest and most powerful nation on earth because we rob, rape, and plunder every other nation’s resources. 

I recently read Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia, in which I learned that since WWII Japan has not had a military. Their defense department is in place solely, as the name suggests, for defense. They are not allowed to be the aggressor in any war. It was part of the agreement that ended WWII. And up until learning that, I had never even considered that an army would be used for anything other than aggression abroad. That’s not something that was ever on my radar growing up in the US. We have the most powerful army and we use it often and loosely.

With the dismantling of USAID, and other peace talks happening right now, my hope is that we can finally start to turn the tide of who we are as a nation. That for once in my lifetime, and maybe in the last 100 years, our foreign policy could actually align to the principles we claim to promote. That we can use our wealth, power, and influence to promote peace, prosperity, and security both here at home and abroad. There are more than enough resources in the world for everyone to prosper. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone did.