[Mb-civic] MUST READ: "They Are a Force for Good:" Have You Read Your QDR? - Paul Street - ZNet Commentary

[William Swiggard]

   "They Are a Force for Good:" Have You Read Your QDR?

By Paul Street

My fellow Americans, have you read your QDR?

"My QD what?" you say.

I am referring to the Pentagon's recently released Quadrennial Defense 
Review Report (QDR). It's a 92-page document in which the United States 
(U.S.) Department of "Defense's" (DOD's) "senior leadership sets out," 
in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's words, "where the DOD 
currently is and the direction we believe it needs to go in fulfilling 
our responsibilities to the American people" (you can read it online at 
qdy/qdr2006.pdf).

It's not a riveting read, but you might want to give it a look. After 
all, something like half of your federal tax dollars go to sustaining 
the federal "defense" budget. That budget accounts for nearly half the 
world's military spending and pays for more than 700 U.S. military bases 
located in nearly every country on the planet.

The "Defense" Department's invasion of Iraq has cost many hundreds of 
billions of dollars so far, an enormous sum that combines with overall 
military spending to significantly disable our federal government's 
ability to meet basic social needs within the significantly 
poverty-stricken U.S.

Sounds a little more like "offense" (or what Pentagon planners and 
"defense" contractors like to call "forward global force projection") 
than "defense," but Or-, I mean oh, well.

Reading the QDR with a skeptical and yes George Orwell-inspired eye can 
give you some new insight into why "rogue state America" is broadly 
feared and loathed outside its borders.

Listen to the QDR's stark opening paragraph, replete with shrill 
Rumsfeldian hyperbole:

"The United States is a nation engaged in what will be a long war. Since 
the attacks of September 11, 2001, our Nation has fought a global war 
against violent extremists who use terrorism as their weapon of choice, 
and who seek to destroy our free way of life. Our enemies seek weapons 
of mass destruction and, if they are successful, will likely attempt to 
use them in their conflict with free people everywhere. Currently, the 
struggle is centered in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we will need to be 
prepared and arranged to successfully defend our Nation and its 
interests around the globe for many years to come."

The authoritarian hypocrisy and related lack of clear definition of 
terms in this passage are remarkable.

Technically speaking, terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation 
to achieve political objectives. And nobody has practiced it on a larger 
and more murderous scale than the U.S. since (and for that matter 
before) 9/11.

A conservative British medical- and social-scientific study published 
nearly in October 2004 estimated that 100,000 Iraqis were killed by the 
American and British invasion and occupation of their country between 
March 19, 2003 (the first day of "Operation Iraqi Freedom") and the 
middle of September, 2004 (see BBC News, "Iraq Death Toll Soared Post 
War," 29 October, 2004, available online at 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3962969.stm).

"Liberated" Iraq's post-invasion body count is certainly much higher 
today. It has been accumulated through large-scale deployment of 
"weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) and "violent extremist" methods by 
the most lethal military force known to human history: the United States 
Armed Forces. The WMDs "of [U.S.] choice" include Blackhawk Helicopters, 
A-10 Warthogs, B-2 Stealth Bombers, unmanned aerial drones, depleted 
uranium, cluster bombs, cruise missiles, M-16s, F-14s, napalm, and 
phosphorous.

Here are some of the the "violent extremist" methods employed in 
America's state-terrorist "war on terror:" attacking hospitals, leveling 
resistance-friendly (hence "terrorist") cities, bombing civilians (whose 
consequent deaths and maiming are written off as unintentional 
"collateral damage" - a "price worth paying" for the advance of 
America's inherently noble objectives), and torturing innocent civilians 
in places like Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Force Base, and Guantanamo Bay.

It's probably for some good reasons that the QDR gives no precise 
meaning to the phrases "free people" and "our free way of life." There's 
not a lot of "free people" living under the Saudi Arabian state, the 
arch-repressive tyranny with whom American policymakers have long 
maintained a crucial alliance based on U.S. control over much of the 
kingdom's oil wealth. Another U.S. ally in the supposed conflict between 
the American-led forces of "freedom" and the evil forces of "terrorism" 
includes Uzbekistan, where regime opponents are sometimes boiled alive.

There are real questions, moreover, about the extent of human freedom 
within the openly corporate-plutocratic U.S. The "best democracy that 
money can [and did] buy" is home to the most unequal distribution of 
wealth and longest working hours in the industrialized world. It 
possesses the highest incarceration rate on earth. Alone among 
industrialized nations, it lacks a socially inclusive national health 
insurance program - this despite clear majority support for such a 
system among the American populace.

The majority of the American citizenry is so impressed by the grassroots 
vibrancy of the nation's corporate-crafted "dollar democracy" that it 
refuses to participate in the nation's "free" elections. A shockingly 
authoritarian U.S. state pursues hard-right policy agendas that are 
opposed by most "free people" within a sullen, depressed, and purposely 
depoliticized American ex-citizenry (see Jacob S. Hacker and Paul 
Pierson, Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of 
Democracy [Yale, 2005]).

How exactly has the provocative and monumentally illegal and immoral 
assault on Iraq - the centerpiece of Rumsfeld et al.'s so-called "long 
war on terror" - "defend[ed] our Nation and its interests around the 
globe?"

There are numerous reasons to think that this vast terrorist operation 
has endangered the security, status and well-being of Americans at home 
and abroad.

And what precisely are "our [curiously capitalized] Nation's interests 
around the globe"? On pages 21 and 24 of the QDR, Rumsfeld and Co. 
denounce Islamic "terrorists" for "opposing globalization and the 
freedom it brings." They cite "globalization's " "positive" aspects: 
"the free movement of capital, goods, services, information, people, and 
technology."

As should be obvious to anyone remotely familiar with the American class 
structure and the specifically corporate-capitalist form of 
"globalization" (globalization under the command of corporate capital) 
that has provoked so much protest in recent decades, however, such "free 
movement" is hardly in the self-evidently shared interest of all "free 
people" inside the American "Nation. " Many working-class Americans are 
significantly victimized by hyper-mobile capital, commodity, labor, and 
technology flows that create enormous profits for fantastically wealthy 
"elites" within and beyond "the Nation."

At the same time, the costs and benefits of the military empire that 
exists precisely to expand and defend corporate globalization are not 
distributed in an equal fashion across "the Nation." The costs of empire 
are externalized and spread across the entire society. The benefits fall 
disproportionately to a privileged minority.

Contrary to Rumsfeld and Co.'s proto-fascistic determination to submerge 
internal socioeconomic differences under the falsely solidaristic banner 
of the blood-and-soil Nation State, neither "globalization" nor its 
partner Empire are class-neutral expressions of a common "National 
interest."

The rising number of dead Pashtuns and Arabs "sacrificed" for Empire 
during the last four-and-a-half years offer ghostly backdrop for 
Rumsfeld and Co.'s QDR claim that "much has been accomplished since that 
tragic day: September 11, 2001" (QDR, p.v). There have been many "tragic 
days" in Southwest Asia since 9/11, thanks to a U.S. assault that has 
created casualty tolls that make the jetliner attacks seem minor by 
comparison.

How comforting it must be to the people of that region to know that the 
Pentagon is "placing emphasis on the ability [of Rogue State America] to 
surge quickly to trouble spots across the globe" in a noble U.S. 
commitment to "shaping the future" (QDR, p.v) along the (undefined) 
principle of "freedom."

And how reassuring it must to be proud Americans to know that Rummy et 
al. will not let "enemy non-state actors" use "irregular warfare - 
including terrorism, insurgency, or guerilla warfare - in an attempt to 
break our will through protracted conflict" (QDR, p.19). To "break our 
will," that is, to follow through on a monumentally illegal and brazenly 
imperialist occupation that has been clearly carried out to deepen U.S. 
control over Middle Eastern oil. To "break our will" to impose empire on 
people trying to defend their nation and achieve independence through 
the same methods ("irregular warfare - including terrorism, insurgency, 
or guerilla warfare" in "a protracted conflict") those "terrorist 
non-state actors" the American revolutionaries deployed against the 
British Empire between 1775 and 1783!

One of my favorite parts in the QDR comes on page 28, where Rumsfeld and 
Co. talk about "the threat of Islamist terrorist extremism" in Central 
Asia. "The energy resources of the region," the QDR explains, "offer 
both and opportunity for economic development, as well as a danger that 
outside powers may seek to gain influence over those resources."

"Good heavens," as Rummy might say, but wouldn't it be terrible if 
"outside powers" tried to "gain influence" over Asian "energy resources?"

As anyone with a moderately informed mind knows, the final clause of 
that last quoted sentence from the QDR offers an excellent description 
of the Bush administration's motivation in occupying Mesopotamia. This 
is perfectly obvious to even the mildly attentive follower of modern and 
current history, no matter how many times Bush and the Pentagon prattle 
about their desire to "liberate the Iraqi people" (see the QDR, p. 10 
for two such statements).

Another richly hypocritical QDR moment comes when Rumsfeld and his team 
rip Iran's "pursuit of weapons of mass destruction" for being "a 
destabilizing factor in the region" (QDR, p. 28).

Anybody interested in "destabilizing" forces in the Middle East might 
want to examine the provocative mass deployment of WMD by Uncle Sam in 
the illegal occupation of Iraq, a lethal operation that has made it 
clear to Iran's leaders that they would be crazy not to try to develop 
nuclear weapons.

As predicted even by numerous conservative U.S. observers (George Bush 
Senior's National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, for one), the U.S. 
invasion has helped enflame the region, fueling a serious escalation of 
Middle Eastern violence, political instability, and terrorism.

But my favorite part comes on page 9, where Donny Pentagon and his 
writers remind us that world history's greatest institutionalized global 
killing machine is both a trusty guarantor of "the Nation's interest and 
values" and a marvelous instrument of human benevolence:

"On any given day, nearly 350,000 men and women of the U.S. armed Forces 
are deployed or stationed in approximately 130 countries. They are 
battle-hardened from operations over the past four years, fighting the 
enemies of freedom as part of this long war. They maintain the Nation's 
treaty obligations and international commitments. They protect and 
advance U.S. interests and values. They are often asked to be protectors 
of peace and providers of relief. They are a force for good."

Remember that, fellow Americans, the next time you hear some ungrateful 
Iraqi complaining because a freedom-loving F-14 just wiped out his 
family or because his son or daughter was tortured in a 
liberty-advancing U.S. prison.

Remember it also the next time you hear some bleeding heart, 
tofu-munching, and latte-sipping ACLU-socialist- type bemoaning the fact 
that millions are going hungry and hopeless within the U.S. while Uncle 
Sam pours trillions of your tax dollars into what the QDR calls "modern 
warfighting."

Do not let your patriotic guard down. Get behind your Nation's 
freedom-fighters and never forget that all those imperial weapons, 
troops, and prisons you are paying for are "A FORCE FOR GOOD."

Repeat that phrase enough times to yourself and you'll start to believe 
it in your heart and soul....just like the thought-controlled masses in 
Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four, living under the magical spell of "Big 
Brother," who told them that:

War is Peace

Ignorance is Strength

Love is Hate

Freedom is Slavery

The "long war," a phrase that recurs numerous times in the QDR, is also 
all-too like something out of Orwell. It's the modern imperial U.S. 
version of the "permanent war" that Big Brother's totalitarian state 
Oceania proclaimed in order to justify endless military production and 
related societal repression.

Paul Street (pstreet at niu.edu) is a Visiting Professor of American 
History at Northern Illinois University. He is the author of Empire and 
Inequality: America and the World Since 9/11 (Boulder, CO: Paradigm 
Publishers, 2004), and Segregated Schools: Educational Apartheid in the 
Post-Civil Rights Era (New York, NY: Routledge, 2005).

http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/Content/2006-02/25street.cfm
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