The Latest Imperial Power
17/02/2003
- Opinión
Liberating Kuwait from Iraq was the pretext for the Gulf War in 1991.
But the president of the United States at the time, George H. W. Bush,
confessed that the war was actually about oil, for there were several
countries that had attacked their neighbors, but since there was no
oil involved, a military response wasn't necessary.
This time, a war will change the geopolitical map of the region,
introducing the latest imperial power. Everybody knows the United
States plans to maintain a prolonged and indefinite control in the
heart of the Middle East. If that happens, Syria and Saudi Arabia
would be surrounded by U.S. troops and military bases. Iran would be
left with few friendly borders. The United States could then
militarily intervene in any country in the region without needing to
ask any other nation for access through their territory - as it has to
do currently with Kuwait and Turkey in order to invade Iraq. The
United States would no longer be a power with a strong regional
presence through its coalition of allied countries; instead it would
become a regional power capable of acting on its own accord.
Beyond that, once in control of Iraq, the United States will
appropriate the second largest oil reserves in the world and will be
able to significantly alter the world oil market. The United States
could rapidly increase oil production, causing lower prices and the
weakening of OPEC countries like Libya, Iran and Venezuela. The United
States will also be able to replenish its oil reserves, which will let
it distance from Saudi Arabia, presently an inconvenient ally, and
allow for a return to the development of the U.S. economy.
With this war, the United States will then put into play its new plan
for the Middle East. Looking to "modernize" the Arab countries along
the lines of "Western" Israel, this region will now import the model
of a liberal democracy and free markets. This is meant to set up a
"war of civilizations" in the heart of the Middle East. It needs to be
understood that destroying Arafat's government is also an integral
part to this obsessive mission of "modernization" and "democracy."
Beginning with Iraq and Palestine, free-market capitalism will be
introduced to the entire region. Then, with military bases on the
borders of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Turkey and Jordan, the
U.S. will be able to pressure or threaten all of these countries –
with direct military interventions -, and so spread this stain of
"civilization" from within the "barbarism" of the Arab world.
Theoretically, the United States has a military advantage that would
allow it to impose a war for a short period of time. It would pay a
relatively low price, regardless of the amount of victims, for acting
without the basic political conditions for this type of intervention.
Domestically, election-year campaigning will begin soon after, and
Bush's re-election (or as some say: so Bush can be elected president
of the United States) will be decided by the end of next year. Bush
will go back to a strategy that, up to now, has served him well: a
climate of hysteria and a country under the threat of terrorist
attack.
Internationally, if the United States can finish this war in its
favor, it will have been able to transform force into a legitimate
argument, with the so-called "international community" collaborating
or colluding with U.S. interests and aggressions. But the world will
be more, not less, unstable. It will also only be the first in a
series of wars and actions of indiscriminate use of force and
disregard for any kind of international legality.
We will have the latest empire. The colonial British Empire would
militarily occupy any territory as if it were a part of its domain. In
the twentieth century, the United States showed its imperial hegemony
by combining ideological influence with economic exploitation and
dependence, as well as military intervention. This new U.S. Empire of
the twenty-first century combines elements of colonial domination - as
it has already done in Afghanistan and wants to do in Iraq -, with
ideological and economic domination, while trying to build a global
empire based on its definitive military superiority.
But the United States will claim that it is promoting liberal
political and economic ideals like human rights and freedom of
expression. But this argument – based on the free-market economic
model - falls apart when everything can be bought or sold. This is the
fallacy of liberalism as a political or ideological system which tries
to embody freedom and democracy, but also spread discrimination, the
disregard of laws and the domination of the weak. It is time for
another world that looks for a renaissance of humanism and solidarity
through different kind of politics, economics, culture and values. The
United States, the privileged offspring of capitalism, obscenely
exposes itself and pushes the limits of a society where only strongest
and richest win. The rest of us have two choices: free ourselves from
this world or give into it.
*Brazilian sociologist, professor at Universidad de Río de Janeiro
Translation from Spanish to English: David Pegg
https://www.alainet.org/pt/node/107019
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