Many Americans love to tell themselves that the current war in Iraq and the larger war on terror was masterminded by a coven of neoconservatives ready to sink their fangs into Iraqi oil fields, but is it just a spooky story we tell ourselves?
Read on...
Foreign Policy's November cover story by Alasdair Roberts (subscription necessary) believes it is. Where he lays the blame will make many hairs stand on end. Referring to the neocon scare story, he writes:
Unfortunately, though, this convenient story is fiction, and it's peddling a dangerously misguided view of history. The American public at large is more deeply implicated in the design and execution of the war on terror than it is comfortable to admit. In the six years of the war, through an invasion of Afghanistan, a wave of anthrax attacks, and an occupation of Iraq, Americans have remained largely unshaken in their commitment to a political philosophy that demands much from its government but asks little of its citizens. And there is no reason to believe that the weight of that responsibility will shift after the next attack.
The political philosophy he's talking about is neoliberalism, ideologically pushed most effectively by President Reagan, but continued by every president since. Essentially, neoliberalism is the belief in the superiority of a more or less untrammeled free market and the concomitant desire to kill off big government. Its results: lower taxes, freer trade, and less corporate regulation.
It's an intriguing argument and worthy of reflection. (And yes he addresses whether or not Bush is a spendthrift.)
But what I found most interesting, and disconcerting, is Roberts' contention that by refusing to sacrifice ourselves, Americans have been carefree about making others suffer so we can go about indifferent to the sacrifice needed when confronted by war:
Foreigners, in contrast, had a much rougher time. The second distinguishing feature of the war on terror, insofar as basic rights are concerned, is the extent to which the heaviest burdens were sent abroad. The most obvious and grievous harms - kidnapping, secret detention, abusive interrogation, denial of habeas corpus - have been deliberately perpetrated against foreigners rather than citizens.
I think Roberts has a point, so I put it to Guardian readers in the UK and abroad: Is he right?
And just to underscore my point, here's what torture - hopefully to my countrymen's dismay - really looks like.
