FRONTBENCHER

May 2003
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 Saturday, May 03, 2003

 

As the victorious US military overtly withdraws from Saudi Arabia, the spineless US media covertly withdraws from the petri dish that is liberated Iraq. Flagrantly contradictory versions of lethal events in Mosul and Fallujah add to a perception of foreboding, a sense of déjà vu.

 

War and apathy cheapen life and life over there is cheapest of all.

 

At the core of the imperial impulse is a psychotic sense of inherent superiority, a cavalier conviction that there is indeed a white man’s burden whereby the end can justify the means. Americans by nature and education are not imperial but indifference will be gleefully misinterpreted.

 

In the clear interest of the deceased, the bereaved and the accused, disputed killings must be thoroughly investigated whether in Chechnya, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Northern Ireland or wherever.

 

The alternative is more costly, time-consuming and dehumanizing. It leads to obfuscation, sanitized history, imperial apologists and asinine repetition. Empire Maker is a horse.

 

The US as a Leviathan on the world stage enables President Bush declare the convergence of American values and American interests. Speaking appropriately aboard the Lincoln, in sensational isolation, Bush rejected moral relativism opening up the possibility that American Exceptionalism will no longer be the exception.

 

A principled democratic Foreign Policy imbued with the notion that all people should be defined as “rights-carrying individuals” is at once worthy and quixotic. It is predicated on the maintenance of an almighty military machine brooking no rivals, inviting no suitors.

 

It's also predicated on the ability of the Bush administration to overcome its instinctive solipsism.

Statistics indicating a languid economy and the reflexive tax-cutting response come as no surprise. The impression that those who oppose more tax cuts are somehow responsible for economic torpor will play well in the build-up to 2004.

Greenspan is opposed to more tax cuts without reining in spending but Bush is undeterred. The President is clearly hoping the race for the White House will be as uncompetitive as the bidding process for lucrative military contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A motley group of Democratic Presidential candidates is increasingly invisible in the fog of war. From the hodge-podge one candidate will gain cachet by making a credible commitment to National Security combined with bold initiatives to stimulate the economy and improve health care.


11:00:26 AM