April 15, 2006
"The
struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological
conflict of the early years of the 21st century and finds the great
powers all on the same side – opposing the terrorists." – George Bush
This past 10 April the Guardian published an extremely misleading article that is worth addressing for everything that it doesn't
say concerning US plans for the future and its so-called 'long war’
against 'international terrorism’ and it sums up the corporate media’s
treatment of the continuation of the Cold War by another name.
Titled 'The trailer park HQ where the 'long war’ is being waged’
and bylined to Suzanne Goldenberg, it purports to be an examination of
the fight against 'al-Qu’eda’ which is we told, what the 'long war’ is
all about. Based, she tells us in a trailer park in Fort McDill,
Florida, the story creates the entirely false impression that the 'long
war’ is some crack-brained scheme dreamt up by a bunch of army guys
hanging out in some caravans:
It
may look like one of the multitude of retirement communities that dot
the shores of the sunshine state. But this set of trailers in Fort
MacDill, near Tampa, and the military officers who emerge from their
tin doors in various configurations of camouflage, are engaged in a far
more serious enterprise. They are planning for a global conflict that,
Washington believes, will dominate the next 20 years. The Pentagon
calls it the "long war": an integrated military, financial and
diplomatic campaign against al-Qaida and its affiliates that will
eventually span the globe, shaping the lives of the coming generation
much as the cold war defined the baby boomers. –
Yet
aside from revealing that the 63 countries that are allegedly a part of
an 'alliance’ have no common agenda about the 'long war’, the article
says absolutely nothing about the real strategic objectives that the
'long war’ obscures, namely as the Project for a New American Century
says, it is really all about "protecting US interests" (see 'PNAC: Rebuilding America’s Defenses – A Biopsy on Imperialism; Part II: "Special Interests" – The Persian Gulf’ By Sarah Meyer for the details of US 'interests'.
What
is most revealing about this alleged piece of news is the total lack of
context for the 'long war’ which even the most perfunctory research
reveals about the real objectives of the entirely misnamed 'long war’
and especially the specious objectives that Goldenberg regurgitates
without question, namely the war against the illusory 'al-Qu’eda’.
Spelt
out in Rumsfeld’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), published earlier
this year, the 'Long War’s’ objectives are as follows:
[To]
"swiftly defeat" two adversaries in overlapping military campaigns,
with the option of overthrowing a hostile government in one. In the new
strategy, one of those two campaigns can be a large-scale, prolonged
"irregular" conflict [and] to "operate around the globe, and not only
in and from the four regions [Europe, the Middle East, the "Asian
littoral" and Northeast Asia]." – 'Ability to Wage 'Long War’ Is Key To Pentagon Plan’, By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post, Saturday, February 4, 2006; Page A01
Revealingly,
the 'Long War’ bears more than a little resemblance to Reagan’s 'Low
Intensity Conflict’ of the 1980s with the QDR’s objective of a 15
percent increase in U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF), with 52,000
personnel, including secret Delta Force operatives skilled in
counterterrorism. The QDR defines a new
20-year
defense strategy that envisions U.S. troops deployed, often
clandestinely, in dozens of countries at once to fight terrorism and
other nontraditional threats. [ibid]
Publicly,
the focus is on 'Islamic extremism’ but most notable is the fact that
rather than focus on the non-existent 'al-Qu-eda’, the QDR singles out
China as having
"the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States," – 'Ability to Wage 'Long War’ Is Key To Pentagon Plan’ [ibid]
Thus
the QDR calls for a build-up of a new Air Force long-range strike
force, as well as developing undersea warfare capabilities, not exactly
the environment that terrorists operate in.
The QDR goes on to tell us that the 'Long War’ will be of
"Long
duration, [with] complex operations involving the US military, other
government agencies and international partners will be waged
simultaneously in multiple countries round the world, relying on a
combination of direct (visible) and indirect (clandestine) approaches …
Above all they will require persistent surveillance and vastly better
intelligence to locate enemy capabilities and personnel. They will also
require global mobility, rapid strike, sustained unconventional
warfare, foreign internal defence, counter-terrorism and
counter-insurgency capabilities. Maintaining a long-term,
low-visibility presence in many areas of the world where US forces do
not traditionally operate will be required.
"The
US will work to ensure that all major and emerging powers are
integrated as constructive actors and stakeholders into the
international system. It will also seek to ensure that no foreign power
can dictate the terms of regional or global security.
"It
will attempt to dissuade any military competitor from developing
disruptive capabilities that could enable regional hegemony or hostile
action against the US and friendly countries." – 'America’s Long War’, The Guardian,
But
as with the Cold War, the propaganda aspect ignores the underlying
reality and deals almost exclusively with the 'terrorist threat’ and
the 'clash of civilisations’ especially the idea of a 'Caliphate’ whose
centre we are told is now in Iraq.
In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute, Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno told his audience that
The American people must remind themselves every day that the United States is at war
Newsspeak
for the fact that the US government must remind the public that it is
at 'war’ and keep on doing it relentlessly. Odierno went on to tell his
audience
"The
propaganda on the Internet is clear, they want to re-establish the
caliphate … The center of the caliphate was initially going to be
Afghanistan and was supported by the Taliban. Once the Taliban was
defeated and overthrown, they shifted. And now in all their writings
they say the center of the caliphate will be in the 'Land of Two
Rivers’ — Iraq." – 'Americans Must Understand U.S. Is at War, General Says’, Jim Garamone, American Defense Review.
And just in case the audience didn’t get the message clearly Odierno went on
Americans
need to talk about these terror goals … Americans need to understand
the way the terrorists think and understand the threat they pose,
because this may help Americans foster the will to combat these groups.
– [ibid]
Once
again emphasising the fact that whatever the real objectives of the
'Long War’ are, as far as the public is concerned, the focus must be on
the 'terrorists’ as
"violent,
elusive, global in nature and loosely connected … The only tie is the
tie of ideology, and that ideology is to make a "caliphate" — a land in
which political, social and religious aspects of life are solidified
and led by a single supreme ruler. [ibid]
There
could be no clearer examples of the role of propaganda in creating a
climate of fear within which the real objectives of the 'Long War’ are
buried which is what makes articles such as the one cited in the
Guardian so dangerous and misleading. Such uncritical journalism is
dangerous and inflammatory contributing as it does to the creation of
an environment that justifies the US spending $513 billion on 'defence’
by 2007 and furthermore, it justifies the US objective of involving its
'allies’, especially through NATO in waging a war that the US admits it
can’t win unless there is a
…
much higher level of cooperation and integration with Britain and other
Nato allies, and the increased recruitment of regional governments
through the use of economic, political, military and security means.
[The report calls on it allies] … to share the risks and
responsibilities of today’s complex challenges".
The
Pentagon must become adept at working with interior ministries as well
as defence ministries, the report says. It describes this as "a
substantial shift in emphasis that demands broader and more flexible
legal authorities and cooperative mechanisms … Bringing all the
elements of US power to bear to win the long war requires overhauling
traditional foreign assistance and export control activities and laws."
– America’s Long War’
The 'Long War’ is truly the continuation of the Cold War differing only in that the
"The
Long War will require different military capabilities and require U.S.
leaders to develop a holistic concept of how to defeat these networks.
Odierno said this entails being able to coordinate the military aspect
of the fight with the efforts of diplomats, financial experts, police
officials and others. It also will entail countering propaganda and
misinformation extremists release. – 'Military Culture Must Change to Fight 'Long War’’,
Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the assistant to the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the American Forces Press Service.
And,
just as with the Cold War, the 'enemy’ is an invention to justify US
economic domination of the world which, when all is said is done, what
it’s all about regardless of the kind of society the US claims it is
opposed to, one that its support of repressive dictatorships down the
years surely illustrates. For make no mistake, the 'Long War' is
entirely about not only protecting US economic interests, its primary
objective is to make damn sure that the US will continue to be the 'top
dog' regardless of the consequences for the rest of us.
For
fifty years we were terrorised into supporting the doctrine of MAD
(Mutually Assured Destruction) only to find it replaced by USWOP (US
War On the Planet), are we so dumb to be conned again for another fifty
years?