Elections of Fears and the Empire
Mohamad Awad Al-Hayat 2004/09/20
On the surface, things seem to be confusing and contradictory. In the United States, George W. Bush is eleven points up in the poles against John Kerry, after his popularity dropped to its lowest levels last May. This increase in popularity came at a time when Iraqi resistance is escalating and the American death toll is over 1,000; and when the transfer of authority in Iraq failed to supply the necessary cover for the American occupation. Bush is up after the Republican Convention, which focused on attacking the other candidate as a person and a program.
At the same time, we find published studies showing 76% of Europeans are against Bush's policies and that this opposition has been increasing for the past two years; we find surveys that show a trend of disliking Bush's policy and favoring Kerry for presidency by a landslide in countries like Germany and Norway. The situation is reversed inside America where there are six weeks remaining for Election Day. It is true that Bush is ahead but that is an immediate reaction to the Republican Convention; putting that aside, each candidate has 45% and the rest 10% are swinging between the two; and hence will be the focus of both parties' propaganda in the next few weeks.
Some expect Republican surprises on the eve of the Elections; Madeleine Albright, the former Secretary of State did not rule out the possibility of declaring the arrest or death of Osama bin Laden; but even without theatrical surprises there is the programmed Afghani elections next month paralleled by a visit of the Iraqi Prime Minister to Washington in an attempt to highlight the success of Bush's policy and his liberation of 50 million citizens from tyranny. Bush can also wave the card of Libya's caving in, Syria's accountability, the Liberation of Lebanon, the sanctioning of Sudan, the privatization of what is left from the Egyptian economy, and pulling a siege around Iran and the rest of the Greater Middle East (GME), which the administration employs as a title for its imperial scheme.
With or without an imperial scheme, the main card for the current administration is spreading fear among American citizens, fear from terrorism right around the corner, or a bin Laden on tape, a Zarkawi or his likes on cable networks or internet sites, fear from Arabs and Muslims, fear from an old Europe and rebelling allies, a rising China, and diminishing petroleum reserve, and finally, a fear from an internal opposition that was surrounded and smothered by accusations of lack of patriotism. This hysterical election atmosphere, unprecedented in the history of American politics since the McCarthyism wave in the early 1950s, is very necessary for the Neo-conservatives to get four additional years in power. It is necessary for weapons budgets and for petroleum-military industry conglomerates, and for the American imperial scheme.
In 1945, when the U.S. came out victorious from World War II, the American people were looking for a dramatic cut in military spending in order to invest in peace; especially after the USSR - an ideological adversary - has suffered intensely after losing 20 million of its citizens in the war. George Kennan, the Director of Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State, wrote a memorandum expecting the fall of Communism on the long run if America practices "containment" policies in an attempt to stop Soviet expansionism to Western Europe. However, he noted - as we can tell from his memoirs - that the military industry conglomerates were not enthusiastic about "containment" policies, but were eager to jump at the opportunity of striking a hard blow at the USSR. It was not before the USSR gained nuclear capabilities that the senses came back to the hotheaded people in Washington and they were convinced with "containment."
At the end of the Cold War and the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the Neo-cons regained the appetite to take control once and for all. The military and strategic expansion towards the south and the east, which took place later on, did not stop at building a siege around the shrinking Russia and the rising China, but also aimed at gaining control of the Third World and its postponed trophy: Petroleum.
The new strategy for national security, declared in September 2002, was explicit and specific: the United States, from now on, will never allow the existence of a competitor, or even someone who dreams of being one on neither economic, nor political, nor strategic levels, whether it be a country or a group of countries. From now on, America is above the law, above coalitions, settlements, and deliberations. America is ready with its pre-emptive wars and the biggest military budget in history and an out of control slogan: "You are either with us, or against us." It is the new American imperial scheme, no doubt about it.
The neo-cons came up with strong justifications for the American imperial scheme: a GNP three times greater than the British GNP when Great Britain was an empire, complete control, not only over the seas, but also space; control over Iraq and the Gulf and monopolization of Iran's oil with no apparent competitors, at least for a certain time. The neo-cons' justifications do not end, but they ignore the counter-facts. America that made its currency the reserve currency of the world and the means for international trade relies on a two billion dollar daily inflow of capital from other countries for its flourishing economy to be sustained; that America did not dismantle the USSR, because of its military power, but because of its allies, its democratic values and open society. Now, the allies are evaporating, democracy is retreating and society is not open anymore. The United States that seduced Eastern Europe with its Capitalism did not do it with its own version of capitalism -savage capitalism - but with German and French Capitalisms, which are committed to social responsibilities that are completely rejected by the American version. America is the country that took away retirement funds from its citizens and gave it to big corporations; it is the country where 45 million people live in poverty and lack the most basic rights of health and social care. America, the country that wants to control the world with its military bases, IMF, WTO, and Kofi Annan is the same America that does not dare impose the draft, which practically means supporting an army through conscripts who are in fact the poor citizens striving to make up for deprivation; the result is poor Americans sacrificing their lives on foreign lands while defending the interests of rich Americans.
This brings us back to the imperial scheme, called for by the neo-cons, powered by huge corporations, and protected by emergency laws that tied down civil liberties and intimidated political opposition in America. Abroad, Costa Rica informed President Bush that it no longer supports American interference in Iraq after the Costa Rica Supreme Court declared the war illegal. The situation is ironic, because its counterpart, the U.S. Supreme Court made Bush President despite losing the popular vote. Both are Supreme Courts, but the currency difference is crucial and very dangerous.
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