Americas Moral DegeneracyPaul Craig Roberts, Contributor Despite the murder of its citizen, Washington immediately took the side of the crazed Israeli government. The Turks had a different response. The prime minister of Turkey, Erdogan, said that the next aid ships would be protected by the Turkish navy. But Washington got hold of its puppet and paid him to shut up. Once upon a time, the Turks were a fierce people. Today they are Washingtons puppets. We have witnessed this during the past week. The Turkish government is permitting the Islamists from outside Syria, organized by the CIA and Israel, to attack Syria from Turkish territory. On several occasions a mortar shell has, according to news reports if you believe them, fallen just inside the Turkey border. The Turkish military has used the excuse to launch artillery barrages into Syria. People who with good cause no longer believe the US and western media or the US and western governments think that the mortar shells were fired by US or Israeli operatives, or by the rebels they support, in order to give Turkey the excuse to start a NATO war with Syria. A UN sanctioned NATO invasion or air strikes, as in Libya, has been blocked by the Russians and Chinese. But if Syria and Turkey get into a war, NATO must come to the aid of its NATO member, Turkey. Washington knows this, which is one reason why Washington began its assertion of world hegemony in the Muslim Middle East. In the West, the Ministry of Propaganda continues to talk about the Syrian revolt. There is no revolt. What has happened is that the US and Israel have equipped with weapons and sent into Syria Islamists who wish to overthrow the secular Syrian government. Washington knows that if the Syrian government can be destroyed, the country will dissolve into waring factions like Iraq and Libya. Americas European and Japanese puppet states are, of course, part of Washingtons operation. There will be no complaints from them. But why is the rest of the world content for Washington to interfere in the sovereign affairs of nations to the point of invading, sending in drones and assassination teams, and murdering vast numbers of citizens in seven countries? Does this acquiescence mean that the world has accepted Washingtons claim that it is the indispensable country with the right to rule the world? Why, for example, do Russia and Venezuela permit the US government to fund their political opposition? The one-party American state has no political opposition. But imagine if it did. Would Washington tolerate the funding of its opposition by Russia or Venezuela? Obviously not. Those running against America with foreign money would be arrested and imprisoned, but not in Venezuela or Russia, countries where, apparently, treason is legal. On September 8, Hugo Chavez defeated his American-financed opponent, Henrique Capriles, 54% to 44%. This would be an amazing margin of victory in a US presidential election. However, in his previous reelection Chavez won by 27%. Obviously, Washingtons money and the propaganda activities of the US-financed Non-Governmental Organizations succeeded in swaying Venezuelans and reducing Chavezs margin of victory to 10%. Washingtons interference is a massive barrier to leadership in other countries. Fully 44% of the Venezuelan people were too brainwashed or too stupid to vote for their own countrys candidate and voted instead for Washingtons candidate. It is extraordinary that 44% of the Venezuelan voters voted to become an American puppet state, like Turkey, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, the Baltics, Scandinavia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Mexico, Belgium, Taiwan, Columbia, Pakistan, Yemen. Probably, I have left out a few. As a high government official once told me, Empire costs us a great deal of money. Washington has to pay its puppets to represent Washington instead of their own peoples. Washington in its hubris forgets that its rule is purchased and not loved. Washingtons puppets have sold their integrity and that of their countries for filthy lucre. When the money runs out, so does the empire. By then the American people will be as corrupted as the foreign leaders. In his review of The United States And Torture, edited by Marjorie Cohn (New York University Press, 2011) in the Fall 2012 Independent Review, Anthony Gregory writes: In Reagans America, a common theme in Cold War rhetoric was that the Soviets tortured people and detained them without cause, extracted phony confessions through cruel violence, and did the unspeakable to detainees who were helpless against the full, heartless weight of the Communist state. As much as any other evil, torture differentiated the bad guys, the Commies, from the good guys, the American people and their government. However imperfect the U.S. system might be, it had civilized standards that the enemy rejected. By 2005, a year after torture photos from Abu Ghraib were leaked, polls of Americans showed that 38% had succumbed to the propaganda that torture was justified in some circumstances. After four more years of neoconservative advocacy of torture, an Associated Press poll reported in 2009 that 52% of Americans approved of torture. We can conclude with Anthony Gregory that it is not only foreign political regimes that are corrupted by Washingtons evil, but also Americans themselves. Nothing better demonstrates the moral degeneracy of American political culture than the U.S. torture state. Washington still masquerades wearing the white hat, and most of the rest of the world is paid to go along with the masquerade. This article first appeared at Paul Craig Roberts new website Institute For Political Economy. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His Internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. 