| Will
Bush prevail, or listen and think?
PressInfo # 169
February
17, 2003
By
Jan
Oberg, TFF director
Will the Bush regime "prevail" and go to war? Or will
it listen to citizens - and quite a few governments - around the world
and think?
Could it be that President Bush is projecting his own
subconscious and fears when he tells Saddam that "the game is
over"? Could it be that he and the apparently desperate people
around him are beginning to feel that their bullying and vision-less
game - not with the world but against it - could spell the end of
their regime and the U.S. empire?
Political fundamentalism
The Bush regime is politically fundamentalist: we are right,
they are wrong. It's based on the flawed assumption that
policies can be based on a) dictating to friends and foes alike that
they are either with us/U.S. or against us/U.S., and b) ignoring every
type of listening, consulting and consensus-building policies with
rightfully concerned parties, including its closest friends.
So, regrettable as it is, it's the Bush regime's policies, not
Saddam Hussein's, that have split the West and now shake institutions
such as the United Nations, the EU and NATO.
We are not talking about events and statements made the last few
weeks. Citizens in virtually all Western democracies, in the Arab
world and elsewhere, as well as a growing number of governments, have
accumulated their anger and fears over several years.
The overwhelming protests by millions of citizens all over our
common world on February 15 draws upon a deep-seated resentment and a
sense of having been humiliated by those in power. They feel that they
have had enough after years of the Bush regime's insensitivity,
arrogance and bellicosity.
The destructiveness of the Bush
regime
Here are some of the unilaterally destructive results of the Bush
regime's activities.
1. Mistaking the criminal act on September 11 for a war. Then
building up a world-wide war on terror that is out of proportion with
the problem and will cause more, not less, terrorism. (In the year
2000, about 400 people were killed world wide in terrorism - many
lives, yes, but not exactly the largest problem in the world).
2. Ignoring civil rights in the U.S. and elsewhere (Guantanamo) in
the struggle against this terrorism. More Orwellian legislation is
being prepared by Attorney General John Ashcroft: Patriot
Act II.
3. Undermining international law by withdrawing from important
treaties, fundamental principles and norms of the UN Charter and
refusing to participate in summits where the common problems of
humankind are being discussed (often problems caused predominantly by
the American lifestyle and consumption patterns). These policies are
associated with fundamentally important issues such as the Kyoto
treaty, The International Criminal Court, ICC, the Johannesburg World
Summit and the decision to stop funding the UN Population Fund as well
as with outmaneouvring heads or international organisations and
missions.
4. Forgetting to consult, after September 11, with the sincerely
sympathetic Europeans, ignoring NATO - that evoked its Article 5 - and
attacking Afghanistan virtually alone.
5. Devastating Afghanistan and killing 5,000-10,000 innocent people
in this country with a population of about one-tenth that of the U.S.
In short, retaliating completely out of proportion to the harm done on
September 11 (and they're still bombing).
6. Bombing Afghanistan and contributing far too little to minimum
humanitarian and economic aid. And then rushing on to Iraq and Korea
(and Saudi-Arabia, Iran, and...?)
7. Talking about the "Axis of Evil" which is based on a
simplified and paranoid worldview that provides the U.S. a role
similar to that of the Messiah and the Chosen People - chosen to
cleanse the world from that Evil.
8. Antagonising the Koreans, north and south, dismissing the
"sunshine policy" and ignoring the commitments made in the
1994 agreement with North Korea.
9. Promoting the expansion of NATO and then undermining it because
the Allies will not blindly and obediently accept that a member state
is used in a U.S. attack. Turkey, against the will of 90 per cent of
its citizens, is being blackmailed to serve a military springboard for
attacking Iraq and thereby could draw the whole alliance into the
disaster.
10. Antagonising both Russia, India and China on a variety of
issues and thereby potentially moving towards a new Cold War.
11. Introducing a nuclear posture, a Ballistic Missile Defence and
a pre-emptive war-fighting strategy. The Bush regime refuses to see
that this amounts to blatant violations of international law and
common norms laboriously built up and solidified over five decades.
These strategies also effectively prevents the United States from
providing moral leadership towards a more peaceful world.
12. In the process, creating jitters throughout the world economy
and causing the dollar to decline steadily, while oil prices are going
the other way. Just imagine what much higher oil prices will mean for
millions of people in poor oil-importing countries.
13. Putting thousands of American lives at risk: a) by sending
soldiers into combat and b) by steadily increasing the risk of future,
retaliative terror attacks on the U.S.
14. Planning a nuclear war on the Iraqis, something only a callous
and irresponsible person would do to further his own interests. In
addition, ignoring completely that, according to UN Security Council
Resolution 687 of 1991, the Middle East shall be a zone free of
Weapons of Mass Destruction and that, therefore, Israel is obliged to
be inspected, comply, co-operate and be disarmed like Iraq.
15. Undermining the United Nations and creating the conditions for
a deep split in its Security Council by exclusively imposing its own
will on the world organisation .
16. For all practical purposes conducting a political war on
"old" Europe and the European Union (which admittedly has
made a joke of its idea about a common EU foreign and security
policy). The U.S. will punish Germany in particular for its
"treachery" (See
the Guardian)
17. Creating a huge democratic deficit within the West: a) George
W. Bush, the world's most powerful leader, was not elected, he was
selected. b) according to opinion polls the majority of citizens
world-wide are against a war while a number of "democratic"
governments support the war. The Bush regime has been so amateurish
that it has never thought of a political exit strategy, should the war
option turn out to be unacceptable or infeasible
18. Developing an empire that is not built on vision, benevolence
or economic strength but on military power (half of the world's
military expenditures), economic exploitation of millions around the
world, megalomania, arrogance and plain contempt of virtually
everybody else who are not "with us."
There is nothing constructive about the Bush regime; it's a
political and civilisational destroyer. When did you last meet someone
who thought George W. Bush was a man with a rational policy or an
attractive vision of the future world? Many felt that about, say,
Kennedy, Carter, or Reagan. Today people around the world shake their
heads in resignation or feel that George W. Bush, his clique and
attitudes, begin to look like a serious danger to the world. This is
not anti-Americanism. But it is anti-Bushism. And we do need
non-violent confrontation.
Intellectual and moral power
versus military might - a deadly imbalance
Never has the gap between intellectual and moral power, and
technological and military power been so deep. There is nothing to
laugh about anymore, if there ever was.
Extrapolate the kinds of thinking, policies and trends above into
the future - 2, 5, 10 years. Do you think it can go well? How long
will it take before the international community, as we know it, breaks
down in chaos and, perhaps, world wide warfare? How much longer can
the real problems of humankind wait for solutions while the Bush
regime wastes the world's resources, derails our attention and
consumes our energies on foolish struggles against imagined and
self-contrived enemies?
Mr. Bush' game must come to an end before we all slide into
incurable decay. He is far more dangerous to the international
community than Saddam Hussein. They are both political fundamentalists
but only Bush seems to have the mind-set, the (weak) intellect and the
mighty military power to plunge the world into uncharted territories
of utter chaos and destruction.
Perhaps the best we can hope for at this juncture is some kind of
damage limitation. What is needed, however, in a world order
perspective is free, non-commercial and internationally monitored
elections leading to peaceful regime change in Washington.
U.S. democratisation through
world participation
Given the extent of the American empire in today's world, we must
also begin to think imaginatively about ways in which citizens around
the world, not only the American people, can influence the election of
future U.S. leaders and the course of its global policies. February 15
may be one indicator of something new: those influenced by U.S. power
voice their democratic opinion to influence U.S. policies.
Global democratisation should go through non-violent confrontation
with the Bush regime and co-operation with every American who is half
as scared as the rest of us are. February 15, 2003, was the largest
ever global, pre-war protest and it was a great sign of hope for
humanity and decency.
Masters of (Nuclear) War are
hardly deterred by a few million marchers...
But we must not be content now. The struggle for a peaceful
resolution to the Iraqi and other threatening conflicts, not to
mention the abolition of war as an accepted social institution,
requires a sustained peace debate and activism in the weeks, months
and years to come. We should not take for granted that Masters of War
who do not seem afraid to shake the fate of the earth with their
nuclear weapons, would be deterred to the point of backing down just
because a few million people protest.
© TFF 2003
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