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Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:36:14 -0700 (PDT)

The New World Order

 

 

 

 

The New World Order

 

Tony Judt | July 14 Issue

New York Review of Books

 

 

 

Comments by By Sean Pau

 

 

 

NYRB - Those of us who opposed America's invasion of Iraq from the

outset can take no comfort from its catastrophic consequences. On the

contrary: we should now be asking ourselves some decidedly

uncomfortable questions. The first concerns the propriety of

" preventive " military intervention. If the Iraq war is wrong¡ª " the

wrong war at the wrong time " ¡ªwhy, then, was the 1999 US-led war on

Serbia right? That war, after all, also lacked the imprimatur of UN

Security Council approval. It too was an unauthorized and uninvited

attack on a sovereign state¡ªundertaken on " preventive " grounds¡ªthat

caused many civilian casualties and aroused bitter resentment against

the Americans who carried it out.

 

 

 

 

 

By Sean Paul in USA: Foreign Relations on Sun Jul 3rd, 2005 at

10:01:33 AM PDT

 

Judt writes:

 

Among democracies, only in America do soldiers and other uniformed

servicemen figure ubiquitously in political photo ops and popular

movies. Only in America do civilians eagerly buy expensive military

service vehicles for suburban shopping runs. In a country no longer

supreme in most other fields of human endeavor, war and warriors have

become the last, enduring symbols of American dominance and the

American way of life. " In war, it seemed, " writes Bacevich, " lay

America's true comparative advantage. "

 

 

 

(And this leads us to a perilous time in our history, one I do not

think enough people take seriously. Too many people in America are

a-historical. It seems to me they think that we are immune to

history's worst impulses. But we are not, as Judt notes:)

 

 

 

Historians and pundits who leap aboard the bandwagon of American

Empire have forgotten a little too quickly that for an empire to be

born, a republic has first to die. In the longer run no country can

expect to behave imperially¡ªbrutally, contemptuously,

illegally¡ªabroad while preserving republican values at home. For it

is a mistake to suppose that institutions alone will save a republic

from the abuses of power to which empire inevitably leads. It is not

institutions that make or break republics, it is men. And in the

United States today, the men (and women) of the country's political

class have failed. Congress appears helpless to impede the

concentration of power in the executive branch; indeed, with few

exceptions it has contributed actively and even enthusiastically to

the process.

 

 

 

(One of the most serious problems is that the opposition in this

country is almost too loyal, as Judt notes: " The " loyal opposition " is

altogether too loyal. Indeed there seems little to be hoped from the

Democratic Party. Terrified to be accused of transgressing the

consensus on " order " and " security, " its leaders now strive to emulate

and even outdo Republicans in their aggressive stances. " )

 

(This is why I am always beating the table on this, urging the

Democrats to stand up and fight the Republicans just as nastily and

dirtily as they fight against us. Of course, this is too 'frat boyish'

for some people. Fine. But politics is a rough business.)

 

(And if you think the media is going to help, well, just read this.

Howard Dean, the original angry man. But how about Tom DeLay and the

outrageous things he says? What about some of the other thugs in the

Republican Party?)

 

(But I digress.)

 

(Our fascination with all things military in this country will lead

only to grief. Of that I am convinced. But what worries me more is how

oblivious we are to international opinion, for example, authoritarian

China is now viewed more favorably than the United States. How did

this come to pass? More importantly, where does it lead:)

 

 

 

The American people have a touching faith in the invulnerability

of their republic. It would not occur to most of them even to

contemplate the possibility that their country might fall into the

hands of a meretricious oligarchy; that, as Andrew Bacevich puts it,

their political " system is fundamentally corrupt and functions in ways

inconsistent with the spirit of genuine democracy. " But the twentieth

century has taught most other peoples in the world to be less

cocksure. And when foreigners look across the oceans at the US today,

what they see is far from reassuring.

 

 

(Judt saves the best for last. And I think Judt should be applauded

for saying what needs to be said:)

 

 

For there is a precedent in modern Western history for a country

whose leader exploits national humiliation and fear to restrict public

freedoms; for a government that makes permanent war as a tool of state

policy and arranges for the torture of its political enemies; for a

ruling class that pursues divisive social goals under the guise of

national " values " ; for a culture that asserts its unique destiny and

superiority and that worships military prowess; for a political system

in which the dominant party manipulates procedural rules and threatens

to change the law in order to get its own way; where journalists are

intimidated into confessing their errors and made to do public

penance. Europeans in particular have experienced such a regime in the

recent past and they have a word for it. That word is not " democracy. "

 

 

 

(I can already hear some people say, " Judt's rhetoric goes to far. "

Whatever, because if you think our Republic is guaranteed to last

throughout your lifetime, think again. People, there are no guarantees

or insurance policies on this. And if they shove a radical winger

Justice down our gullets, well, you know. Speaking of justices, here's

the really scary part: what if Gonzales gets confirmed? Imagine it.)

 

(Yeah, I thought so.)

 

 

 

More- http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/signs20050704.htm

 

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