-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,597128,00.html
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This raging colossus
The new US ruthlessness may turn out to be a greater threat than
the Islamist fanaticism that provoked it
Madeleine Bunting
Monday November 19, 2001
The Guardian
Over the past few days, I've been ordered on to a strict diet of my
words. A stream of emails arrived from American readers with
plenty of advice (get laid, get pregnant, shut your fat legs, shut up)
and prognostications for my future (you'll be fired). One told me that
I made them feel sick: "untouched by our tragedy, yet [you] feel
the right to criticise our country's actions". One asked if "you have
a molecule of shame or humility within your entire being?" and
promised to pray for me. Another asked: "how stupid do you feel
now?... this is one of the best wars ever fought" and another asked:
"as the US war on terror becomes increasingly successful, could
the world say 'thank you'?".
Thank God for the volume of seawater which puts these kind of
nutters on another continent. It's not so much the fine line in
misogynistic abuse from US patriots, but the intolerance of debate
and diversity of opinion whi
ch is really frightening. But the truth is that this kind of emotional intensity has
also seeped into the war on this side of the Atlantic - entrenched camps for and
against are waging a bitter war of words over the heads
of a majority who are worried and confused, but see no alternative to war.
Fear drives this kind of emotional intensity. It is a pitifully short time, only two
months, since we learned of a ruthlessness born of fanaticism which we had not thought
possible; our perception of human nature is havin
g to painfully readjust to the revelation of a capacity for calmly premeditated
brutality. I'm sure that fear has influenced my continuing conviction that waging war
on Afghanistan is unlikely in the long term to defeat t
hat kind of ruthless Islamist terrorism, and is very likely to have disastrous
consequences for the poor benighted country itself. I very much hope I will be proved
wrong.
It must have been so comforting to have been swept up in the emotional euphoria of VK
day. It was the ultimate Disney ending after a month of nation-builders' storytelling.
If only it were that simple. But even on VK day,
the excited reporters and commentators surrounded by a telegenic rabble of boys
curious at television cameras found no echo among anxious Afghan women, most of whom
remained behind their burkas.
Nor did the VK story last long, quickly replaced by the tension of warlords struggling
to position themselves; in Jalalabad, young men jostled around the cameras, their
eyes, cartridge belts and guns all gleaming, poise
d for what they know best - waging war.
And yet, it's not even those Jalalabad warriors that have made the last week's events
so troubling, but the growing appreciation of just how ruthless and ambitious the US
is likely to become in its war against terrorism.
What the events of the past few days have starkly revealed is that the US had only one
interest in this war in Afghanistan, capturing Bin Laden and destroying al-Qaida; that
imperative outstripped all considerations of Af
ghanistan's future. So the timing of the attack was decided by US military
preparedness rather than any coherent political strategy for the region, and the US
war aim determined the crucial switch in tactics around Novemb
er 4 when the US decided to throw its weight behind the unsavoury Northern Alliance by
bombing the Taliban frontlines.
For the US, the whole country of Afghanistan is collateral damage. Or, to put it
another way, a little hors d'oeuvre before they move on to the next course - Somalia,
Yemen or, most worryingly of all, Iraq? The latter is
already being openly touted in Washington as a possibility for the "second stage" and
tension is growing in the Gulf region. Meanwhile, as far as the US is concerned, the
UK with its nation-building agenda, the UN and ev
eryone else is welcome to spend their soldiers' lives on the onerous task of clearing
up the mess the US bombing has left behind, freeing it to concentrate on the next task.
All this strengthens the view that what we have to fear from September 11 is not just
Islamist fanaticism, but the US response to it. Indeed, the latter could well prove a
far greater threat to the stability of many count
ries, further stoking the Islamist fanaticism it seeks to extinguish. The template has
been developed in Afghanistan: lavish bribery of neighbours, unchecked deployment of
vicious military hardware, keep US soldiers out o
f it and use others to do the fighting. It is a foreign policy of brute force and it
draws legitimacy within the US from a lethal combination of three factors: a profound
sense of righteous anger, the reality of unchallen
ged economic and military power and a pervasive ignorance of and indifference to the
rest of the world.
To increase the danger, the US actions are unchecked by fear of another superpower
and, at present, unchecked by its usually vibrant civil society where debate about the
purposes or methods of the war against terrorism ha
s been cowed into virtual silence in the mainstream. The result is that an ugly
ruthlessness is creeping into US political culture. For example, "physical
interrogation" or torture is proposed in the columns of Newsweek w
hile President Bush signs an order allowing military tribunals of suspected terrorists
in private and without a jury, for the first time since the second world war.
In time we may come to see the disastrous timing of a rightwing presidency intent on
asserting US unilateralism assuming power shortly before September 11: that tragic
catastrophe has provided the moral mandate at home an
d the freedom for manoeuvre from allies for such a unilateralist policy. For all the
US has needed western support for its war, we seem to have been singularly
unsuccessful in extracting in return any compromises on US un
ilateralism. Putin's protestations on NMD are brushed off, and barely a murmur is
raised in criticism of the US's failure to deliver its climate change plan while the
world went ahead in Marrakesh last week.
>From the start, this administration has been unabashed, denying any sense of
>responsibility to anyone other than its own citizens. Now, everyone has the almighty
>headache of how they are to tiptoe round and placate this r
aging colossus. Blair, white with exhaustion, has opted for the role of chief
cheerleader, and while it may incense some that Britain, like every other country, is
reduced to such impotence, the harsh reality is that it
was AOS - all options stink. Bush will use and discard Blair, and
the British prime minister is likely to be one among many
casualties.
The Labour party has traditionally been deeply split over the
conduct of US foreign policy. Vietnam, Central and Latin America
and the Iran-contra affair all provoked intense controversy. That was
bad enough, but we were not involved in playing the supporting role.
At the risk of further incensing my American correspondents, the
manipulation of the CIA in Central America could come to seem
like child's play compared with what we are likely to glimpse over
the next decade.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
Edn<{{{
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
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