The imperial delusions of the United States

موضوع: The imperial delusions of the United States 2011-09-16, 10:13 am

Quick military 'victories' in Afghanistan and Iraq soon proved to be illusory [EPA]

Ten years ago, critics of the United States' mad rush to war were right, but it didn't matter.
Within
hours after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it was clear that political
leaders were going to use the attacks to justify war in Central Asia
and the Middle East. And within hours, those of us critical of that
policy began to offer principled and practical arguments against
aggressive war as a response to the crimes.

It
didn't matter because neither the public nor policymakers were
interested in principled or practical arguments. People wanted revenge,
and the policymakers seized the opportunity to use US military power.
Critical thinking became a mark not of conscientious citizenship but of
dangerous disloyalty.

We were right, but the wars came.

The
destructive capacity of the US military meant quick "victories" that
just as quickly proved illusory. As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
dragged on, it became clearer that the position staked out by early
opponents was correct - the wars not only were illegal (conforming to
neither international nor constitutional law) and immoral (fought in
ways that guaranteed large-scale civilian casualties and displacement),
but a failure on any pragmatic criteria. The US military has killed
some of the people who were targeting the United States and destroyed
some of their infrastructure and organisation, but a decade later we are
weaker and our sense of safety is more fragile. The ability to
dominate militarily proved to be both inadequate and transitory, as
predicted.

Ten years later, we are still right and it still doesn't matter.

There's
a simple reason for this: Empires rarely learn in time, because power
tends to dull people's capacity for critical self-reflection. While
ascending to power, empires believe themselves to be invincible. While
declining in power, they cling desperately to old myths of remembered
glory.

Today,
the United States is morally bankrupt and spiritually broken. The
problem is not that we have strayed from our founding principles, but
that we are still operating on those principles - delusional notions
about manifest destiny, American exceptionalism, the right to take more
than our share of the world's resources by wlovever means necessary.
As the United States grew in wealth and power, bounty for the chosen
came at the cost of misery for the many.

After
World War II, as the United States became the central character not
just in the Americas but on the world stage, the principles didn't
change. US foreign policy sought to deepen and extend US power around
the world, especially in the energy-rich and strategically crucial
Middle East; always with an eye on derailing any Third World societies'
attempts to pursue a course of independent development outside the US
sphere; and containing the possibility of challenges to US dominance
from other powerful states.

Does
that summary sound like radical hysteria? Recall this statement from
President Jimmy Carter's 1980 State of the Union address: "An attempt
by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be
regarded as an mindault on the vital interests of the United States of
America, and such an mindault will be repelled by any means necessary,
including military force." Democrats and Republicans, before and after,
followed the same policy.

The
George W Bush administration offered a particularly intense
ideological fanaticism, but the course charted by the Obama
administration is much the same. Consider this 2006 statement by Robert
Gates, who served as Secretary of Defense in both administrations:

"I
think the message that we are sending to everyone, not just Iran, is
that the United States is an enduring presence in this part of the
world. We have been here for a long time. We will be here for a long
time and everybody needs to remember that - both our friends and those
who might consider themselves our adversaries."

If
the new boss sounds a lot like the old boss, it's because the problem
isn't just bad leaders but a bad system. That's why a critique of
today's wars sounds a lot like critiques of wars past. Here's Martin
Luther King, Jr's mindessment of the imperial war of his time: "[N]o one
who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can
ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned,
part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. It can never be saved so long
as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over."

Will our autopsy report read "global war on terror"?

That
sounds harsh, and it's tempting to argue that we should refrain from
political debate on the 9/11 anniversary to honour those who died and
to respect those who lost loved ones. I would be willing to do that if
the cheerleaders for the US empire would refrain from using the day to
justify the wars of aggression that followed 9/11. But given the events
of the past decade, there is no way to take the politics out of the
anniversary.

We
should take time on 9/11 to remember the nearly 3,000 victims who died
that day. But as responsible citizens, we also should face a harsh
reality: While the terrorism of fanatical individuals and groups is a
serious threat, much greater damage has been done by our nation-state
caught up in its own fanatical notions of imperial greatness.

That's
why I feel no satisfaction in being part of the anti-war/anti-empire
movement. Being right means nothing if we failed to create a more just
foreign policy conducted by a more humble nation.

Ten
years later, I feel the same thing that I felt on 9/11 - an
indescribable grief over the senseless death of that day and of days to
come.

Robert Jensen is a professor at the School of Journalism at the University of Texas, Austin. His latest book is titled, All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice.