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Recent
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April
10, 2003
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Grossman
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the Victory, the Harder the Peace
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April 14,
2003
War Without
End, Amen:
Crawford's
Caligula Eyes Next Conquest
by
CHRIS FLOYD
As shovels scoop the shredded viscera of cold
collaterals in Baghdad, and brisk hoses scour the blood from
market stalls and children's bedrooms -- festive preparations
to make ready for the enthronement of the new lords of Babylon
-- we cast an anxious gaze beyond the barbed steel of the security
perimeter, to a column of troops and ordnance rumbling toward
the horizon. Whither are they bound? Who's next to feel the mailed
fist of liberation?
At the moment, all signs point to Syria.
Iran, of course, would be a more glittering prize -- not to mention
a more remunerative one for the unholy trinity of Oil, Arms and
Construction, whose mephitic spirit broods over the rising American
Empire. But Iran is a big beast; first Iraq must be chewed, swallowed
and digested before there is sufficient room in the imperial
gut -- and sufficient loot in the imperial treasury -- for another
sumptuous banquet.
Syria, however, would make a tasty snack
-- rough fare gulped down on the long, circuitous march to Persia
and Cathay. What's more, a dose of shock and awe for Damascus
would secure the rear for any eventual push on Teheran. And once
recalcitrant Syria is brought to heel, the juicy olive of Lebanon
would surely fall of its own ripe weight, without any need of
brutal plucking. Then, with the equally cowed Jordan, it could
serve as a -- what should we call it? repository? refuge? --
yes, a refuge for the troublesome hordes of Palestine, transferred
-- humanely and happily, of course -- from the newly cleansed
lands of Judea and Samaria.
Such are the utopian visions that allure
the policy-makers in the court of the imperator, George Augustus.
But there are practical considerations that drive them on as
well. Their leader excepted, these are not vain or stupid men.
They can certainly see what the blind, bedazzled and bought-off
media refuse to show the rest of the nation: that the U.S. economy
is in serious decay, that the infrastructure of American society
-- its ability to provide education, medicine, roads, justice,
security, stability, opportunity, equality -- is being severely
fractured by the ever-growing, unconstrained imbalance between
a small circle of powerful elites and the increasingly disempowered
multitudes who serve them.
Of course, the imperial courtiers applaud
this imbalance; they believe it's the best, most efficient ordering
of society. (The fact that their own wealth and privilege are
enhanced by this higher order is simply a happy accident.) That's
why they're striving mightily to increase the imbalance through
their radical domestic policies: their deliberate bankrupting
of national and state governments through massive tax cuts for
the wealthy, coupled with gargantuan military spending that siphons
any remaining funds away from public services. The Imperator's
own political mentor, Grover Norquist, put it well -- long before
that other happy accident on Sept. 11: "We want to shrink
government down so we can drown it in the bath water."
But vestiges of America's democratic
system remain. As in the dying days of the Roman Republic, the
traditional structures of self-governance -- though increasingly
gutted -- are still in place and retain their old meaning for
many Americans. (Many others, of course, are glad to see their
liberties subsumed by the growing authoritarian cult of the Commander
in Chief.) The Commander and his courtiers cannot yet rule solely
by fiat -- though they're almost there, as shown by Bush's still-unchallenged
assertion of his right to order the extrajudicial killing of
anyone on earth whom he deems -- on secret evidence, or none
at all -- a "terrorist," or even just an undefined
"supporter" of terrorism.
But as long as some semblance of democracy
survives, there is a danger that the courtiers could be tumbled
from power by the multitude. Therefore, the true nature of America's
societal rot must be kept hidden at all costs. The courtiers
know they cannot govern a country at peace and hope to survive
politically. Only war -- with its upsurge of tribal feeling,
its emotional floodtides sweeping away doubt, dissent and reason
-- can provide the necessary diversion from the Regime's fanatical
policies of Imbalance.
So there must be more war, and soon.
Syria is currently being sized up as a prospect. Unsubtle hints
are being floated in the press: Damascus "aided and abetted"
Saddam, Damascus is sheltering Hussein's minions, Damascus might
be hiding Hussein's vast storehouses of weapons of mass destruction,
which the cluster-bombing liberators failed to find. Damascus
has its own weapons of mass destruction, supports terrorism,
has invaded neighboring countries, and might, conceivable, possibly,
one day threaten the United States in some hypothetical fashion
-- just like Hussein. And last week, Bush courtiers suddenly
began trumpeting the fact that the repressive Syrian regime --
a Baathist Party state, just like Iraq! -- sadistically tortures
its prisoners, who are often snatched in secret arrests and held
without charges or trial. This fact has hitherto been conveniently
overlooked by the Bushist Party state, which has been sending
some of its own Guantanamo zeks -- often snatched in secret arrests
and held without charges or trial -- to Syria's torture chambers
for "special interrogation."
But as Saddam has learned, doing America's
dirty work -- which he did for many years, bombing, brutalizing
and gassing with the gushing support of Ronald Reagan, Don Rumsfeld,
Dick Cheney and George Bush Senior -- cuts no ice when the courtiers
change their plans. So keep looking for that light on the road
to Damascus -- not the blinding glory that converted Saul of
Tarsus, but the flash of flesh-chewing MOABs launched by the
Crawford Caligula, George Widowmaker Bush.
Chris Floyd
is a columnist for the Moscow Times and a regular contributor
to CounterPunch. He can be reached at: cfloyd72@hotmail.com
Yesterday's
Features
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
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