Empire Notes

The so-called “war on terrorism” stands on a cusp, in Iraq and around the world. One path forward leads to at least the possibility of de-escalating the tension and level of global danger; the other is the path the administration is taking.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the administration’s plan for establishing neocolonial governments and calling it democracy, bombing people and calling it liberation is not working. It’s so clear that finally members of the national security establishment are discovering what some of us have known for three years now. The Defense Science Board, an advisory group of scientific and technical members, recently released a report about the new problems of “strategic communication” with some conclusions that will be startling to those who have never read a newspaper.

Here’s one: “Muslims do not “hate our freedom,” but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf states. Thus when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy.”

A little more: “Furthermore, in the eyes of Muslims, American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has not led to democracy there, but only more chaos and suffering. U.S. actions appear in contrast to be motivated by ulterior motives, and deliberately controlled in order to best serve American national interests at the expense of truly Muslim self-determination.”

And even: “Therefore, the dramatic narrative since 9/11 has essentially borne out the entire radical Islamist bill of particulars. American actions and the flow of events have elevated the authority of the Jihadi insurgents and tended to ratify their legitimacy among Muslims. Fighting groups portray themselves as the true defenders of an Ummah (the entire Muslim community) invaded and under attack — to broad public support. What was a marginal network is now an Ummah-wide movement of fighting groups.”

The “hate our freedom” canard, something that could only be believed in a society that is highly submissive to government indoctrination and in which the average member is virtually incapable of simply imagining the “enemy” as human being like themselves, was debunked by many of us on the left within weeks or months of the 9/11 attacks.

The verdict on the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq is obvious – and has been for quite some time. And the proliferation of international jihadi groups, clear for two years now, was predicted by us whacko leftists before the war on Afghanistan started.

There’s nothing new here, nothing that requires any great insight. What’s amazing is that, in our polity which so values freedom, independence of thought, and candor of expression, finally some semi-official body has said what’s obvious to the casual observer. Depend on it, if this group has said it so openly, there are thousands of policymakers and ex-policymakers who are aware of it, including most vocally, ex-CIA analyst Michael Scheuer, author of Imperial Hubris.

Unless it wants to keep going from failure to failure, the administration has to acknowledge reality and change course. And, in fact, since the election and Bush’s assumption of the Mandate of Heaven, there has been a notable shift in policy. Unfortunately, it’s in the wrong direction.

The assault on Fallujah indicated the new trends that will be emerging in the “war on terrorism.” First, abandonment of previous restraints. The gloves are off. Second, more and more explicit invocation of this as a literal crusade, with fewer and feebler pro forma demurrals from the administration – most of you were no doubt struck by stories about the fervent Christian revival meetings before the assault, and the Marine commander saying that the enemy in Fallujah was Satan.

The administration seems poised to drag us further into our own heart of darkness – of the racism, Christian fundamentalism, and xenophobia that have characterized America from the beginning. To counteract it will require that we also delve into and expose that darkness; pragmatic arguments will not suffice.