Fear of the US government is not based solely on this
invasion, but on the background from which it arises: An
openly-declared determination to rule the world by force, the
one dimension in which US power is supreme, and to make
sure that there will never be any challenge to that
domination. Preventive wars are to be fought at will:
Preventive, not Pre-emptive. Whatever the justifications for
pre-emptive war might sometimes be, they do not hold for
the very different category of preventive war: the use of
military force to eliminate an imagined or invented threat. The
openly-announced goal is to prevent an challenge to
the "power, position, and prestige of the United States." Such
challenge, now or in the future, and any sign that it may
emerge, will be met without overwhelming force by the rulers
of the country that now apparently outspends the rest of the
world combined on means of violence, and is forging new and
very dangerous paths over near-unanimous world opposition:
development of lethal weaponry in space, for example.
It is worth bearing in mind that the words I quoted are not
those of Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld or other radical
statist extremists now in charge. Rather, they are the words
of the respected elder statesman Dean Acheson, 40 years
ago, when he was a senior advisor to the Kennedy
Administration. He was justifying US actions against Cuba -
knowing that the international terrorist campaign aimed
at "regime change" had just brought the world close to
terminal nuclear war. Nevertheless, he instructed the
American Society of International Law, no "legal issue"
arises in the case of a US response to a challenge to
its "power, position, and prestige," specifically terrorist
attacks and economic warfare against Cuba.
I bring this up as a reminder that the issues are deep-seated.
The current administration is at the extremist end of the
policy-planning spectrum, and its adventurism and penchant
for violence are unusually dangerous. But the spectrum is not
that broad, and unless these deeper issues are addressed,
we can be confident that other ultrareactionary extremists will
gain control of incredible means of devastation and
repression.
The "imperial ambition" of the current power holders, as it is
frankly called, has aroused shudders throughout the world,
including the mainstream of the establishment at home.
Elsewhere, of course, the reactions are far more fearful,
particularly among the traditional victims. They know too
much history, the hard way, to be comforted by
exalted rhetoric. They have heard enough of that over the
centuries as they were being beaten by the club
called "civilization." Just a few days ago, the head of the non-
aligned movement, which includes the governments of most
of the world's population, described the Bush
administration as more aggressive than Hitler. He happens to
be very pro-American, and right in the middle of Washington's
international economic projects. And there is little doubt that
he speaks for many of the traditional victims, and by now
even for many of their traditional oppressors.
Alhamdillillahi rabi al'amin.
"...Say: Allah's guidance is the only guidance, and we have
been directed to submit ourselves to the Lord of the
Worlds..." Al-Qur’an 6:71
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