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CounterPunch
October
10, 2002
What She Really
Said
Condoleezza Rice at the Waldorf
Astoria
by KURT NIMMO
On October 1, Dubya's National Security Adviser,
Condoleezza Rice, delivered a speech at the exclusive Waldorf
Astoria in New York. Members of the Manhattan Institute for Policy
Research were in attendance. The Manhattan Institute is a CIA-sponsored
far right "think tank" (founded in 1978 by William
Casey, who subsequently became Reagan's CIA director). The Manhattan
Institute concerns itself with such things as "welfare reform"
(dismantling social programs), "faith-based initiatives"
(blurring the distinction between church and state), and "education
reform" (destroying public education).
It is curious Rice would deliver a speech
before the Manhattan Institute, considering the organization's
close relationship with Charles Murray, a far right ideologue
who wrote The Bell Curve in 1984, a book that essentially argues
black people are genetically and intellectually inferior to white
people.
Rice's speech consisted of a series of
generalities related to various aspects of the Dubya Doctrine.
These sorely need translation and clarification. What follows
is a series of quotes lifted from Rice's speech, followed by
commentary.
Foreign policy is ultimately about security
-- about defending our people, our society and our values, such
as freedom, tolerance, openness and diversity.
She is only partially right. Certainly,
US foreign policy is about security -- the security of the only
remaining post-colonialist super-power and the multinational
corporations it fronts. This alliance is increasingly confronted
with global resistance to its greedy desire for unimpeded access
to labor and natural resources. Freedom, tolerance, and diversity
have nothing to do with it -- in fact, these lofty (and, in a
predatory global business sense, impractical) ideals are significant
obstacles. Even so, they sound inspirational when laced through
an Orwellian speech delivered by a Dubya functionary with a Chevron
oil tanker named after her.
President Bush's new National Security
Strategy offers a bold vision for protecting our nation that
captures today's new realities and opportunities.
The ideological foundation of Bush's
National Security Strategy is simple: the US will no longer tolerate
economic rivals such as Germany and Japan or possible military
rivals such as China and Russia. As Dubya's NSS document outlines,
"America will act against such emerging threats before they
are fully formed." Or, as Dick Cheney said when he worked
for Dubya's daddy, "Our first objective is to prevent the
re-emergence of a new rival that poses a threat on the order
of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union." The Borgs of
Star Trek fame could not have said it better: You will be assimilated
-- or else we will drop cluster bombs on your neighborhoods and
water treatment plants. The NSS document, which is available
on the White House website, does not speak quite so bluntly,
preferring instead to use more polite language to express these
ideas. Actions, however -- in Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan
-- speak louder than words.
We will defend the peace by opposing
and preventing violence by terrorists and outlaw regimes.
But only terrorists and outlaw regimes
the US disagrees with. US-backed terrorist states -- Israel,
Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and others -- have
nothing to worry about, so long as they don't get any funny ideas
like Saddam Hussein. If they insist on going their own way like
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, well, there will be trouble,
maybe even a whole lot of dead people.
US allies -- or, more appropriately,
client states -- are defined by their obedience, not their values.
Iraq is a perfect example of a client state that became an "outlaw
regime" after it served its usefulness and its leader became
troublesome and disobedient. The message of the brutal sanctions
imposed on Iraq over the last decade is simple: the people of
Iraq will suffer for allowing themselves to be ruled by a cruel
dictator who once received ample US aid (including chemical and
biological weapons).
Pre-emption is not a new concept. There
has never been a moral or legal requirement that a country wait
to be attacked before it can address existential threats. As
George Shultz recently wrote, "If there is a rattlesnake
in the yard, you don't wait for it to strike before you take
action in self-defense."
"Pre-emption" is a clinical
substitute for "first strike." Immanuel Wallerstein
had something to say about this: "First strikes are against
international law. First strikes are immoral. If it is a political
error, we may survive that. An error in law (of this magnitude)
undermines the very possibility of law. And an error in morality
(some call it a sin) is one that transforms us, not visibly for
the better." As for rattlesnakes -- they usually don't bite
unless threatened. Of course, it helps as well not to feed them,
encourage them, and make sure they don't end up in the front
yard.
What none of us should want is the emergence
of a militarily powerful adversary who does not share our common
values.
In other words, if a third world nation
is against the IMF, World Bank, structural adjustment programs,
"lower marginal tax rates," sweatshop conditions for
workers, and US military bases -- the only "common values"
worth consideration -- the leader of that nation will be deposed,
possibly killed. In the not too distant past, troublesome leaders
were often assassinated by the CIA or its surrogates: Ngo Dinh
Diem in South Vietnam, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in the Dominican
Republic, Salvador Allende in Chile, and Zia ul-Haq in Pakistan.
In the future, truly fortunate leaders who have fallen from grace
will be allowed to share a prison cell with Manuel Noriega.
The United States will fight poverty,
disease and oppression because it is the right thing to do --
and the smart thing to do. We have seen how poor states can become
weak or even failed states, vulnerable to hijacking by terrorist
networks -- with potentially catastrophic consequences.
This sincerely transcends the boundaries
of doublespeak. In fact, the US is doing precisely the opposite
of what Rice says here. As the Institute for Economic Democracy
points out, the World Bank, IMF, NAFTA, GATT, the "military
colossus" of the United States is in fact insisting "other
nations reduce their education, reduce their health care, eliminate
supports for industry, reduce the wages of an already impoverished
labor force... developing countries [are] expected to lower their
living standards and export more minerals, lumber, and food,
all to pay debts that did little for their economic development...
for the enrichment of a reconstituted financial aristocracy,
the emerging corporate mercantilists," otherwise known as
multinational corporations. Indeed, such conditions ultimately
lead to "hijacking by terrorist networks," i.e., indigenous
anti-colonialist movements of national liberation, such as the
Zapatistas of Chiapas, and will likely continue to do so for
the foreseeable future. The "catastrophic consequences"
for the "weak or even failed states" Rice mentions
will be multiplied by US military power, resulting in even more
Amariyah bomb shelter and Chorrillo ghetto incidents, more Uruzgan
wedding "accidents," more terror, impoverishment, starvation,
and hopelessness. The US, following the path blazed by the NSS
document and its architects, will create more "poverty,
disease and oppression," not less.
At the core of America's foreign policy
is our resolve to stand on the side of men and women in every
nation who stand for what the president has called the "non-negotiable
demands of human dignity" - free speech, equal justice,
respect for women, religious tolerance and limits on the power
of the state.
Except in Saudi Arabia, of course. So
strong is the sense of "human dignity" in Saudi Arabia
that women are severely discriminated against in employment,
education, and family relationships. Even small infractions by
women -- such as drinking orange juice in public -- are punished
by the al-Mutawa'een, or the religious police, usually with beatings.
By late September 2000, at least 104 Saudis and foreigners had
been beheaded, exceeding in nine months the total of 103 that
Amnesty International recorded in 1999. The government does not
allow criticism of its policies or any independent thought or
activity that might challenge the status quo. The minority Shi'a
Muslim community is at constant risk of indefinite detention
without charge or trial. For its respect of "human dignity,"
Saudi Arabia receives $3 billion a year in military aid from
the US.
The "non-negotiable demands of human
dignity" are only cited when an enemy, such as Saddam Hussein,
is to be vilified. No such criticism is forthcoming for "democracies"
such as Israel, a nation that continually violates UN resolutions
and severely curtails the most basic human rights of Palestinians.
As a reward, the US showers $2.1 billion in military aid and
$600 million in economic support on Israel per year.
US foreign policy, as Condi Rice would
have it, is not designed to ensure "human dignity,"
but rather to erect authoritarian bulwarks against the aspirations
of millions of people in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Central
and South America.
We do not seek to impose democracy on
others, we seek only to help create conditions in which people
can claim a freer future for themselves. Germany, Indonesia,
Japan, the Philippines, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan and
Turkey show that freedom manifests itself differently around
the globe -- and that new liberties can find an honored place
amidst ancient traditions.
Condi may wish to ask the people of Indonesia,
South Korea, and Turkey -- or the people who fall under the purview
of these favored nations -- about the condition of their freedom.
In Indonesia, torture is commonly used
to punish, intimidate, extract confessions or extort money from
suspected supporters of independence movements and people involved
in land and labor disputes. So freedom-loving was the government
of Indonesia in 1975 that it invaded East Timor and -- with US
provided equipment and Henry Kissinger's blessing -- killed 200,000
people for the crime of demanding independence. When the East
Timorese population voted against continued integration with
Indonesia in 1999, militia thugs and Indonesian security forces
killed an additional 2,000 people. As a reward for slaughtering
voters in East Timor, Indonesia was the largest recipient of
US foreign aid among East Asian countries in 1998-2002, according
to the Congressional Research Service and the Library of Congress.
In South Korea, under the dictates of
the National Security Law, students, activists, trade unionists,
publishers, and others are arrested and detained for belonging
to student or activist groups with left-wing views and ideas.
According to Amnesty International, political prisoners are often
detained without a warrant, deprived of sleep for several days,
questioned throughout the night, threatened and sometimes beaten.
At least three criminal suspects are reported to have died in
custody between late 1997 and the early months of 1998 as a possible
result of ill treatment.
As for Turkey, the Anti-Terror Branch
of the Security Directorate of Turkey's Ministry of the Interior
is notorious for torturing and mistreating political detainees
and prisoners. "Torture methods are constantly updated and
improved to inflict pain but to avoid marks or bruises that can
be documented by human rights groups within Turkey or state forensic
doctors filling out mandatory detention medical reports,"
reports Human Rights Watch. Kurds, which comprise approximately
20% of the Turkish population, suffer immensely. 30,000 Kurds
fighting for national self-determination have died at the hands
of the Turkish military since 1984. Considering Turkey's impeccable
human rights record, the US has decided to reward the nation
with $17.5 million in military aid.
We have the ability to forge a 21st century
that lives up to our hopes and not down to our fears. But only
if we go about our work with purpose and clarity. Only if we
are unwavering in our refusal to live in a world governed by
terror and chaos. Only if we are unwilling to ignore growing
dangers from aggressive tyrants and deadly technologies.
The US will focus on the "growing
dangers" and "deadly technologies" of official
enemies -- members of a proscribed "axis of evil,"
such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, and North Korea (a list that will
undoubtedly grow and shrink as new enemies are created and eliminated).
The terror of client states will continue to be rewarded with
ample foreign aid; meanwhile, in America, the corporate media
will conceal or gloss over any uncomfortable facts, such as the
daily murder of Palestinians or the 5,000 children who die every
month in Iraq as a direct result of US and UN imposed sanctions.
"The goal of conservative rulers
around the world, led by those who occupy the seats of power
in Washington, is the systematic rollback of democratic gains,
public services, and common living standards around the world,"
writes Michael Parenti.
Condoleezza Rice's vision of the 21st
century is one of perpetual war, incessant conflict devised to
capture the planet's natural and human wealth for a very small
number of people while impoverishing the rest. In the post-Cold
War era -- now that the US has no rival, no counter balance --
the gloves are off and the sky is the limit. Now talk of nuclear
war is bandied about as if it were nothing more than another
tool for conquest. As the US gears up for the second salvo in
this war -- against the people of Iraq -- fear, loathing, and
hatred of the US government and its leaders grows. If anything
is certain about the future Bush, Rice, and the chicken hawk
neocons have mapped out for us, it is that we can expect more
war, more terrorism, more suffering -- and maybe, with nuclear
weapons -- the use of which Dubya put back on the table with
his Nuclear Posture Review earlier this year -- the end of the
planet as we know it.
"We are not hated because we practice
democracy, value freedom, or uphold human rights," Robert
Bowman, Vietnam veteran and bishop of the United Catholic Church
in Melbourne Beach, Florida, writes. "We are hated because
our government denies these things to people in Third World countries
whose resources are coveted by our multinational corporations.
That hatred we have sown has come back to haunt us in the form
of terrorism and in the future, nuclear terrorism."
Kurt Nimmo
is a photographer and multimedia developer in Las Cruces, New
Mexico. He can be reached at: nimmo@zianet.com
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