| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-Misc |
| User: |
"Prisoner #6" |
| Date: |
11 Sep 2003 07:00:22 PM |
| Object: |
WAR OF THE WORLDS |
WAR OF THE WORLDS
"This crusade, this war on terrorism,
is going to take a while. We will
rid the world of the evil-doers."
President George W. Bush, 16 Sept
The United States of America will surely prevail in the new war of our
worlds -- in the short term.
That is the case not because of any gods out there taking sides and not
because of good or evil - metaphysical concepts both of the mismatched
combatants constantly insist on invoking each within their own rich
historical paradigms. The sheer military might and technological
superiority of the Americans, now fully engaged in the wake of the
surreal events of 11 September 2001, is simply beyond the capabilities
of anyone else on the planet to successfully resist -- in the short
term.
In the case of America's new war, the full might of the USA is being
mobilized not against the armies of other nation states, but against the
fanatical descendants of a puritanical militant Islam whose calling has
become relentless opposition to American hegemony and passionate
assertion of their own quaintly medieval religious constructs.
This is hardly the next war that most anticipated since the Great Wars
that decimated so much of Europe and Asia in the last century. But
radical as it may sound to many this is the war many in the American
military-industrial establishment have been waiting to engage.
And certainly this is not a war that actually began on 11 September
2001. Rather it is a war that has been alternatively erupting and
smoldering around the globe for some time now with engagements already
fought in many locales with a human toll already in the millions. From
the "genocide" perpetrated on the people of Iraq (the chosen word of
none other than a former Attorney General of the United States as well
as a resigned-in-moral-disgust Assistant Secretary of General of the
United Nations); to the teeming refugee camps of Lebanon and occupied
Palestine; to the now rekindled war in Afghanistan; to the bloodbaths
which have in recent years savaged places like Algeria, Kashmir,
Chechnya and the former Yugoslavia.
Not even consciously aware of where and how the early battles of this
new war have already been fought, nor of the immense number of
casualties others have already endured, the American people are now
embarking on a crusade to cleanse the world of their enemies. All who
oppose them are branded with the broad-brush label "terrorists" to be
hunted down and destroyed; all who refuse to comply with the new order
of things are to be considered complicitous and targeted.
And yet, there is an ominous nevousness at least within American
intellectual circles as this massive reassertion of the "New World
Order" begins to unfold. Whatever the upcoming fate of America's
enemies, there will also be a huge cost the Americans will bear at least
in economic and psychological ways if not in a basic undermining of the
very pillars of their empire both at home and abroad.
New World Order Revisited
Like the term "Star Wars" before it, "New World Order" was understood by
the powers that be to represent too many negative associations to be
carried over into the 21st Century. But a fading of terminology only
masked the underlying depths of both policy and perspective. It took
President George W. only a few days to evoke the refrain "This Will Not
Stand", just as his father did a decade ago. Never abandoned, the "New
World Order" is now being resurrected in far more massive form even
though this time heavily masked under tons of rhetoric about "the war
against international terrorism". The fact that the American President
has himself publicly used the very terminology of "crusade" shows just
how insensitive the Americans still remain to Arab and Islamic history.
Like most serious wars, underneath all the saber rattling and patriotic
slogans are imperial goals. The U.S at this historical moment is the
only "superpower"; but others, most especially the Chinese, are rising
up determined to assert their own interests and visions of the future.
As for the Arab and Muslim countries, they remain essentially carved up
and de facto occupied, the lingering result of the end of World War I
when the dominant European powers of that day brought about at the Paris
Conference the "Peace To End All Peace" -- leading to the bloodiest era
in history to date.
Who Will Be Left Standing?
Like the huge Trade Towers which to everyone's amazement crashed down in
just a few moments, the real questions about the future of our world
are, when the winds of war subside this time, which regimes will be left
fully standing; which will be so weakened they will have to dismantled
and rebuilt; and what political, military and economic structures will
emerge anew to replace the dead, the dying, and the disfigured.
The recent events already now behind us and sure to reverberate for
foreseeable history on planet earth are historical blowback for so much
that has happened around the world in recent history. Future blowback
because of what is happening now is inevitable, but not really
predictable.
This new War of the Worlds is not likely to end soon or cleanly. Even
should some new unstable point be reached by overwhelming force of arms
the whole host of terrible world tensions from before will remain - from
the new space arms race; to the potentially cataclysmic conflicts in
Palestine and in Kashmir; to the proliferation of deadly weapons of mass
destruction; to the contradictions and inequities inherent in another of
those American paradigms, "globalization". And when it comes to this new
War of the Worlds exploding in front of our eyes, it needs to be
appreciated that a whole new generation of destitute, desperate, and
outraged Osamas has already been born.
The "New World Order" was originally a construct attempting to explain
and to organize the post-Cold War world according to multi-faceted
Western interests, overwhelming American power, and considerable
American public innocence. Like "Star Wars" before it, the "New World
Order" was abandoned rhetorically in order to further disguise it's
actuality. Now both are reborn with a second President Bush as
Commander-in-Chief leading America on a crusade it doesn't really
understand, one that has very little to do with the previous world of
Pearl Harbor, and one which will surely not end with a clear-cut
surrender on the Battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
--
"Having A Free Thought Is The Most Radical Act You Can Commit! "
"Expressing That Free Thought Is Your Right As A Human Being!"
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