Guest guest Posted September 20, 2005 Report Share Posted September 20, 2005 Tue, 20 Sep 2005 04:34:23 +0100 E Subject: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/760/in3.htm Global blowback Global warming and global war come together on this anniversary of 11 September. Will people wake up, asks Lieven De Cauter* Where Christmas is the day to embrace all people of good will, it seems the anniversary of 11 September has become a day to meditate on the state of the world. Everybody senses it somehow. The world is in a terrible state. An awareness is beginning to dawn. It was about time. Hurricane Katrina overshadows the fourth anniversary of 9/11; or one could say that it echoes it. In newspapers and on the net, numerous comparisons are made between the handling of 9/11 and the handling of Katrina: no attention to clear warnings (a hurricane hitting New Orleans was the third biggest possibility of a national disaster, as forecast for years), a slow response followed by a covering up of what really happened. If we look at the world now, we see climate change becoming catastrophic with a speed that even leaves pessimists baffled: Portugal, Spain, France, Romania, Austria, Switzerland; all over Europe, this summer has been disastrous in proportions that beggar our memory of any previous summer in our lifetime. And now there is Katrina, the biggest natural disaster in American history. But everyday more so it proves to be also a manmade disaster; a disaster of neglect and indifference to the fate of people; especially the blacks and the poor, of course. The war on terror has proved equally disastrous. It enhanced terrorist attacks, because the war in Iraq that was linked with the war on terror, via a web of lies, incensed sensibilities all over the world. You don't have to be a Muslim, let alone a fundamentalist, to be angry, but anger is a reason to radicalise, and with no real political alternative people are seduced into fundamentalism. Just like in an asymmetrical war, people who see thousands of their innocent compatriots killed some day decide to bring it home to the aggressor by killing innocent people. That is the logic of terrorism: it is the response to overpowering military aggression (of the US in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iraq; of Israel in Palestine; of Russia in Chechnya, etc). It is time we start thinking of terrorism as a response to asymmetrical warfare, and time we call halt to this logic. Shortly after 9/11, I wrote: " The war on terror is extremely dangerous. It has the potential of thrusting us into a spiral of violence. The logic of war, in any case, will only help terrorism to reach a new level of magnitude. " I am almost flabbergasted myself as to how true these words have proved since. Their truth carries names: Istanbul, Madrid and London -- sad anniversaries in the making. So, one thing is clear on this fourth anniversary of 9/11: terrorism cannot be fought by a " war on terror " . It is only enhanced by it. And to speak frankly: quite rightly so. What do they expect? That millions of Muslims sit down and watch while tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis, who had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 -- often women and children -- are slaughtered for oil, geo- strategic military presence and neo-con and Likudnik extremism? Come on. It is time to wake up. Another prediction I made was that all that would come out of the war in Iraq was the total destruction of the country and a few hundred thousand dead Iraqis. Well, they're getting there. Trust me. Unlike Katrina, the state of emergency the Bush administration brought to the world was manmade, a " willed state of emergency " , as it were. The war on terror is indeed, juridically speaking, a " state of exception " . When you put together the doctrine of pre- emptive strikes (a supreme crime against peace, for it claims the right to a war of aggression), the non- signing of the Kyoto Agreements, the non-signing of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the suspension of basic civil rights by the Patriot Act, the making of extrajudicial spaces like Guantanamo and Diego Garcia (they are concentration camps in the true sense of the word), the systematic use of torture (not only in Guantanamo but also in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, and it is ongoing), the secrecy, the propaganda and lies that are becoming second nature to government, the weeding out of " unembedded " journalists, the non-recognition of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, one has to admit the Bushite politics is based on exceptionalism, on the proliferation of the state of emergency, defined as the suspension of normal law (both of international law and of the American constitution itself). This logic of exceptionalism will also proliferate worldwide. Even military magazines have warned that if enemy prisoners are not treated as prisoners of war under international law, others will treat American soldiers likewise outside the Geneva Conventions. Instead of bringing democracy and freedom to the world, the Bush administration is spreading lawlessness and disorder. The fact is and remains, the war in Iraq as a war of aggression has destroyed the international legal order that was building up slowly but steadily since World War II. Add to this war crimes like the use of cluster bombs against civilians and the use of depleted uranium in munitions, the slaughtering of entire cities (Falluja, Al Qaim, Haditha -- ongoing but we don't know because Western mainstream media doesn't bother reporting it), the practices of systematic torture, endemic disappearances and the privatisation of warfare (thousands of paramilitary contractors who are as much " non-legal combatants " as the inmates of Guantanamo), and you get the picture: all this has destroyed the international legal framework of warfare. It is proving disastrous for the people of Iraq. It is proving disastrous for the American troops. It will prove disastrous for many wars to come. But something might change. Whether you read The International Herald Tribune, listen to the radio or watch television, or read news via the Internet, it grabs you by the throat: the anger in America over Katrina is overwhelming. And the link to the war in Iraq is made in almost every article. It is because of Bush's war plans that funds for repairing the levee and the pumps were reduced. And it is because of the war that the army and the National Guard were failing in numbers and material resources. It seems that there were not enough helicopters to fill the breach in the levee. Can you believe it? " Imperial overstretch " in its most painful version. It is as if America woke up overnight. The façade of America as a wealthy superpower fell. It is faced with a traumatic reflection of itself in the mirror: a deeply divided society ridden by race and class conflict, where the poor, like on the Titanic, are the last to be rescued. Anger in America is immense and deep. It is mingled with shame and disgust. And the worst revelations -- like the many decaying corpses floating in the muddy waters of New Orleans. But if Katrina proves to be a turning point in American politics, then and only then, in a sense, it might give their humiliation -- their ugly death -- some dignity. All depends on the power of anger in the American people, now and in the months to come. Maybe this time there is an alarm sounding off that Bush cannot silence. Not even with all the corporate media in this, or his world. Maybe the American people hear it, finally, loud and clear: " This is your wake up call. " Maybe. * The writer teaches at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and is author of The Capsular Civilisation and On the City in the Age of Fear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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