When U.S. President George W. Bush launched into his bellicose State
of the Union address recently, and called Iran, Iraq and North Korea the
"Axis of Evil," Europeans, Asians and people the world overreacted with
shock, fear and wide-eyed disbelief of the American implication that
these nations were the next targets in the never-ending war against
"Evil."
Many of these erstwhile "allies" (really junior partners) looked at
the Americans as if they were crazy. "Were they planning a world war?"
many wondered. They did not want this. For who knows where this will
end?
American saber rattling and war-talk may sound like madness, but
there�s a method to the madness. Indeed, it�s more than a method�it�s a
policy.
In 1995, the U.S. Strategic Command (the group responsible for the
nation�s nuclear arsenal) prepared an internal study called, "Essentials
of Post-Cold War Deterrence." Here are some excerpts:
"Because of the value that comes from the ambiguity of what the U.S.
may do to an adversary if the acts we seek to deter are carried out, it
hurts to portray ourselves as too fully rational and cool-headed. The
fact that some elements may appear to be potentially �out of control�
can be beneficial to creating and reinforcing fears and doubts within
the minds of an adversary�s decision makers. This essential sense of
fear is the working force of deterrence. The U.S. may become irrational
and vindictive if its vital interests are attacked should be a part of
the national persona we project to all adversaries." [See Boston
Globe, Mar. 2, 1998, pg. 5]
This, then, is the method behind the madness, it seems.
These crazy Americans!
Drunk on the ambrosia of empire, striking matches in a room reeking
of gasoline, shocking the world with bombast and bluster, the U.S. is a
power that sends shudders through a hundred capitals on every continent.
They shudder because they know, perhaps better than most Americans, the
horrific costs that America has imposed on the world in the name of
capital. As former CIA station Chief John Stockwell noted in
"Praetorian Guard "(1991):
"Coming to grips with these U.S./CIA activities in broad numbers and
figuring out how many people have been killed in the jungles of Laos or
the hills of Nicaragua is very difficult. But, adding them up as best we
can, we come up with a figure of six million people killed�and this is a
minimum figure. Included are: one million killed in the Korean War, two
million in the Vietnam War, 800,000 killed in Indonesia, one million in
Cambodia, 20,000 killed in Angola�the operation I was a part of and
20,000 killed in Nicaragua."[p. 81].
These Americans! Like wild cowboys!
Crazy, no?
We shall not be moved.
