Global Eye -- Dark Passage

By Chris Floyd

Not since "Mein Kampf" has a geopolitical punch been so blatantly 
telegraphed, years ahead of the blow.  

Adolf Hitler clearly spelled out his plans to destroy the Jews and launch 
wars of conquest to secure German domination of world affairs in his 
1925 book, long before he ever assumed power. Despite the zigzags of 
rhetoric he later employed, the various PR spins and temporary 
justifications offered for this or that particular policy, any attentive 
reader of his vile regurgitation could have divined his intentions as he 
drove his country -- and the world -- to murderous upheaval.  

Similarly -- in method, if not entirely in substance -- the Bush Regime's 
foreign policy is also being carried out according to a strict blueprint 
written years ago, then renewed a few months before the Regime was 
installed in power by the judicial coup of December 2000.  

The first version, mentioned in passing here last week, was drafted by a 
team operating under then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in 1992. It 
set out a new doctrine for U.S. power in the 21st century, an aggressive, 
unilateral approach that would secure American domination of world affairs 
-- "by force if necessary," as one of the acolytes put it.  

When the Dominators were temporarily ousted from government after 
1992, they continued their strategic planning with funding from the 
military- energy-security apparatus and right-wing foundations. This 
culminated in a new group, the aptly-named Project for a New American 
Century (PNAC). Members included hard-right players like Cheney, 
Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad (now "special 
envoy" to the satrapy of Afghanistan) and other empire aspirants 
currently perched in the upper reaches of government power.  

In September 2000, PNAC updated the original Cheney plan in a published 
report, "Strengthening America's Defenses." In this and related documents, 
the earlier precepts were reiterated and refined. The plans called for 
unprecedented hikes in military spending, the plantation of American 
bases in Central Asia and the Middle East, the toppling of recalcitrant 
regimes, the militarization of outer space, the abrogation of 
international treaties, the willingness to use nuclear weapons 
and control of the world's energy resources.  

And the present course of action was clearly set forth: "The United 
States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf 
regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides 
the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force 
presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam 
Hussein."  

But Iraq is just a stepping stone. Iran is next -- indeed, Cheney, 
Rumsfeld and the PNAC team say that Iran is "perhaps a far greater 
threat" to U.S. oil hegemony. Other nations will follow, including 
Russia and China. In one way or another -- by military means or economic 
dominance, by conquest, alliance or silent acquiescence -- they must 
all be brought to heel, forcibly prevented from "challenging our 
leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role."  

These texts spring from the Dominators' quasi-religious cult of 
"American exceptionalism," the belief in the unique and utter goodness 
of the American soul -- embodied chiefly by the nation's moneyed elite, 
of course -- and the irredeemable, metaphysical evil of all those who 
would oppose or criticize the elite's righteous (and conveniently self-
serving) policies.  

Anyone still "puzzled" over the Bush Regime's behavior need only look 
to these documents for enlightenment. They have long been available to 
the media -- which accepted Bush's transparent campaign lies about a 
"more humble foreign policy" at face value -- but have only now started 
attracting wider notice, in the New Yorker magazine this spring, and this 
week in the Glasgow Sunday Herald.  

The documents explain America's relentless march across Afghanistan, 
Central Asia and soon into the Middle East. They explain the Bush 
Regime's otherwise unfathomable rejection of international law, its 
fanatical devotion to so-called missile defense, its gargantuan increases 
in military spending -- even its antediluvian energy policy, which 
mandates the continued primacy of oil and gas in the world economy. 
(They can't conquer the sun or monopolize the wind, so there's no profit, 
no leverage for personal gain and geopolitical power in pursuing viable 
alternatives to oil.) The Sept. 11 attacks gave the Regime a pretext for 
greatly accelerating this published program of global dominance, but 
they would have pursued it in any case.  

So there will be war: either soon, after the November mid-term elections, 
or -- in the unlikely event that Iraq's offer of inspections is accepted 
-- then later, after some "provocation" or
"obstruction," no doubt in good 
time before the 2004 presidential vote. The purse-lipped rhetoric about 
"liberation" and "moral clarity" is just so much desert
sand being thrown 
in our eyes. Backstage, the Bush Regime is playing Mafia-style 
hardball, warning reluctant allies to get on board now or else miss out 
on their cut of the loot when America -- not a "democratic Iraq"
-- divvies 
up Saddam's oil fields: a shakedown detailed this week by the 
Economist, among many others.  

The Dominators dream of empire. Not only will it extend their temporal 
power, they believe it will also give them immortality. One of their 
chief gurus, Reaganite firebreather Michael Ledeen, says that if the 
Dominators reject "clever diplomacy" and "just wage total
war" to 
subjugate the Middle East, "our children will sing great songs about 
us years from now." This madness, this bin Laden-like megalomania, is 
now driving the hijacked American republic -- and the world -- to 
murderous upheaval.   

It's all there in the text, set down in black and white.

Read it and weep.

"Bush Planned Iraq 'Regime Change' Before Becoming President,"
http://www.sundayherald.com/27735
Glasgow Sunday Herald, Sept. 15, 2002

"Foreign Policy Blueprint,"
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5345
TomPaine.com, March 2002

"US and the Triumph of Unilateralism,"
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DI10Ak03.html
Asia Times, Sept. 10, 2002

"George Bush and the World,"
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15698
New York Review of Books, Sept. 26, 2002 issue

"The Next World Order,"
http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/020401fa_FACT1
The New Yorker, March 25, 2002

"Saddam in the Crosshairs,"
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0147/vest.php
Village Voice, Nov. 21-27, 2001

"Rebuilding America's Defenses,"
http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
Project for a New Century, September 2000

"Statement of Principles,"
http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm
Project for a New American Century, June 3, 1997

"Fortunes of war await Bush's circle after attacks on Iraq,"
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=333400
The Independent (UK), Sept. 15, 2002

"Don't Mention the O-Word,"
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1325264
The Economist, Sept. 12, 2002

"Backing on Iraq? Let's Make a Deal,"
http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-bazaar13sep13.story
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 13, 2002

"In Iraqi War Scenario, Oil is a Key Issue,"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18841-2002Sep14.html
Washington Post, Sept. 15, 2002

"Cronies in Arms,"
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/17/opinion/17KRUG.html
New York Times, Sept. 17, 2002

Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq,"
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/cr091002.htm
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, Republican, Texas, Sept. 10, 2002

Bombs Will Deepen Iraq's Nightmare: An Iraqi Dissident Speaks,"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,793464,00.html
The Guardian, Sept. 17, 2002

Looking War in the Face,"
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/253/oped/Looking_war_in_the_face+.shtml
Boston Globe, Sept. 10, 2002

"Iraqgate,"
http://www.cjr.org/year/93/2/iraqgate.asp
Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 1993

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Source & copyright: Information Clearinghouse
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2326.htm

Cheers, Steve..

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