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THE COLONIAL STAG
by Ann Berg
Antiwar.com, CA
Feb 20 2007
in Rutting Season
It begins with the visible swelling of the throat. Displays of
agitation - bellowing, prancing, and stomping - follow and culminate
in a frenzy of rivalrous assaults.
The beastly nature of U.S. foreign policy becomes more apparent
daily. As William Pfaff recently wrote, the current and future
preemptive wars in the greater Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa
are late tremors of colonialism, driven by America's deep-rooted
delusion over its own exceptionalism. Given its ascendant position
after World War II (comprising 40 percent of the world's GDP), the
rapid dollarization of the global economy, and the embrace of military
Keynesianism (deftly described by Chalmers Johnson), it is no wonder
that the U.S. finds itself stuck in overreach and blustery denial. Vice
President Cheney in particular seems to concur with the neoconservative
view that Arabs only understand force. And when President Bush, four
years into a war with a populace lacking air and sea command, speaks
of accepting nothing less than "total victory," he means achieving
pacification by fearful subjugation to American killing power.
The inherent blindness and racism of such a policy explains how
Bush and his supine Congress switch targets with relative ease. It
matters not that the Taliban has replaced al-Qaeda in U.S. sights in
Afghanistan and that the adversaries in Iraq have expanded to include
whomever the military pronounces the "ever adaptable enemy." The
neighboring Persians are now mixed in with intractable Arabs. The
mission has metastasized to the Horn of Africa to further curb
the Islamic blight. The one stable democratic ally in the region,
Turkey (with 98 percent Muslim population), awaits chastisement from
Pelosi's House in the form of a resolution declaring it guilty of
genocide against the largely Christian Armenians in 1915. Meanwhile,
Washington's Greek chorus, the American Enterprise Institute, emits
a constant drone in the background: "If we withdraw, they will follow
us here."
The rutting stag clashes with trees, bushes, and other upright objects
- whatever clouds its field of vision and blocks its goal of herd
domination.
The bestial-colonial U.S. approach to developing regions is an utter
disconnect with today's world. Setting aside the moral question,
colonialism hasn't worked for over half a century, after reaching its
highest profitability in the mid to late 19th century. Evolving from
mercantilism (essentially syndicated piracy), colonialism adopted a
muscular and integrative approach to enrichment, thanks to industrial
advances. Whereas the mercantilist VOC (Dutch East India Company)
exploited the trading-post system with a fleet of 150 ships -
colonialist countries created monopsony embeds with host colonies.
They could dictate the labor terms (often slave), buy off the "upper
management," and use superior technology (including weaponry) to
strip-mine the country. When Britain occupied India, it didn't pursue
a holistic infrastructure plan for the country but built railroads
that linked cotton, indigo, grain, and poppy production in direct
lines to seaports. Opium cultivation in India was so profitable
(several hundred percent) that Britain waged war against China in
1840 to gain treaty rights for the continued sale of the narcotic.
Belgium's King Leopold pursued the lucrative rubber trade in the
Congo in the 1880s by brutalizing the population - killing up to 8
million people. In the Eastern world, Japan seized control of the
Manchurian railroad and the Port Arthur terminus in 1904 to ensure
a steady flow of iron ore to its island economy. The rise of modern
capital markets and the extensive use of credit poured accelerant on
the industrialized colonial process.
But by the early 20th century, the shrinking returns on colonial
assets strained the multilateral balance-of-power system, ending in
the eruption of the First World War. Following the Second World War,
the power vacuum left by colonial withdrawal produced a checkerboard of
failed states and political alignments split along Western/Communist
fault lines. Kleptocratic strongman governments, swelled by Western
aid packages, stunted the political and economic growth throughout
Africa and the Middle East. When the pan-African leader Patrice
Lumumba was elected Congo's prime minister in 1960 and condemned
colonialism, the West arranged his execution. Thirty-seven years of
Mobutu followed. For the disenfranchised masses, ethnic and religious
fervor, which predated the imperial boundaries by centuries, became
uniting causes; these prevail today.
Because of colonialism's horrific legacy, the U.S. wove elaborate
tales to pitch its noble enterprise for subjugating the Islamic
region and using Iraq as its central command post to oversee
regional energy development. Prior to all its "liberation" talk,
the administration extolled the invasion as a bona fide investment -
yielding instant dividends and a continuous stream of good will. The
fact that investment was impossible because of U.S. prohibitions
against American/Iraqi capital ventures went unmentioned. Once the
weapons threat and the Saddam- 9/11 connection fizzled, the U.S.
ramped up the struggle as a clash of worldviews, one it couldn't afford
to lose. Details supporting this axiom appear closely guarded - hushed
circles must be envisioning Muslim hordes overrunning American soil -
turning symbols of culture, capital, and religion into rubble.
The U.S. is entangled in the most costly colonial experiment in
history. Ironically, 21st-century democratization, so glorified by the
Bush administration, has worked to the U.S. military's disadvantage:
shared technological innovation and universal connectivity have lent
strength to an insurgency unimaginable in King Leopold's time. Other
countries, particularly the developing ones, have managed to produce
economic growth without preemptive wars.
Indeed in 2006, the developing world surpassed the industrialized one
in terms of total GDP for the first time while the U.S. dipped to a
20 percent GDP share. China, the world's largest importer of steel,
copper, nickel, and tin, achieves productivity by striking bilateral
trade deals and structuring loan packages with the former colonial
world - without brandishing a gun. The "debate" over troop numbers in
Iraq doesn't go nearly far enough. The U.S. should vote for a wholesale
rejection of its mad colonial course, a course bound for ruin.
During the rut, the stag forgoes sleep and sustenance, losing up to
30 percent of its weight. Death from starvation and exhaustion often
precludes species propagation.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/berga.ph p?articleid=10552
by Ann Berg
Antiwar.com, CA
Feb 20 2007
in Rutting Season
It begins with the visible swelling of the throat. Displays of
agitation - bellowing, prancing, and stomping - follow and culminate
in a frenzy of rivalrous assaults.
The beastly nature of U.S. foreign policy becomes more apparent
daily. As William Pfaff recently wrote, the current and future
preemptive wars in the greater Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa
are late tremors of colonialism, driven by America's deep-rooted
delusion over its own exceptionalism. Given its ascendant position
after World War II (comprising 40 percent of the world's GDP), the
rapid dollarization of the global economy, and the embrace of military
Keynesianism (deftly described by Chalmers Johnson), it is no wonder
that the U.S. finds itself stuck in overreach and blustery denial. Vice
President Cheney in particular seems to concur with the neoconservative
view that Arabs only understand force. And when President Bush, four
years into a war with a populace lacking air and sea command, speaks
of accepting nothing less than "total victory," he means achieving
pacification by fearful subjugation to American killing power.
The inherent blindness and racism of such a policy explains how
Bush and his supine Congress switch targets with relative ease. It
matters not that the Taliban has replaced al-Qaeda in U.S. sights in
Afghanistan and that the adversaries in Iraq have expanded to include
whomever the military pronounces the "ever adaptable enemy." The
neighboring Persians are now mixed in with intractable Arabs. The
mission has metastasized to the Horn of Africa to further curb
the Islamic blight. The one stable democratic ally in the region,
Turkey (with 98 percent Muslim population), awaits chastisement from
Pelosi's House in the form of a resolution declaring it guilty of
genocide against the largely Christian Armenians in 1915. Meanwhile,
Washington's Greek chorus, the American Enterprise Institute, emits
a constant drone in the background: "If we withdraw, they will follow
us here."
The rutting stag clashes with trees, bushes, and other upright objects
- whatever clouds its field of vision and blocks its goal of herd
domination.
The bestial-colonial U.S. approach to developing regions is an utter
disconnect with today's world. Setting aside the moral question,
colonialism hasn't worked for over half a century, after reaching its
highest profitability in the mid to late 19th century. Evolving from
mercantilism (essentially syndicated piracy), colonialism adopted a
muscular and integrative approach to enrichment, thanks to industrial
advances. Whereas the mercantilist VOC (Dutch East India Company)
exploited the trading-post system with a fleet of 150 ships -
colonialist countries created monopsony embeds with host colonies.
They could dictate the labor terms (often slave), buy off the "upper
management," and use superior technology (including weaponry) to
strip-mine the country. When Britain occupied India, it didn't pursue
a holistic infrastructure plan for the country but built railroads
that linked cotton, indigo, grain, and poppy production in direct
lines to seaports. Opium cultivation in India was so profitable
(several hundred percent) that Britain waged war against China in
1840 to gain treaty rights for the continued sale of the narcotic.
Belgium's King Leopold pursued the lucrative rubber trade in the
Congo in the 1880s by brutalizing the population - killing up to 8
million people. In the Eastern world, Japan seized control of the
Manchurian railroad and the Port Arthur terminus in 1904 to ensure
a steady flow of iron ore to its island economy. The rise of modern
capital markets and the extensive use of credit poured accelerant on
the industrialized colonial process.
But by the early 20th century, the shrinking returns on colonial
assets strained the multilateral balance-of-power system, ending in
the eruption of the First World War. Following the Second World War,
the power vacuum left by colonial withdrawal produced a checkerboard of
failed states and political alignments split along Western/Communist
fault lines. Kleptocratic strongman governments, swelled by Western
aid packages, stunted the political and economic growth throughout
Africa and the Middle East. When the pan-African leader Patrice
Lumumba was elected Congo's prime minister in 1960 and condemned
colonialism, the West arranged his execution. Thirty-seven years of
Mobutu followed. For the disenfranchised masses, ethnic and religious
fervor, which predated the imperial boundaries by centuries, became
uniting causes; these prevail today.
Because of colonialism's horrific legacy, the U.S. wove elaborate
tales to pitch its noble enterprise for subjugating the Islamic
region and using Iraq as its central command post to oversee
regional energy development. Prior to all its "liberation" talk,
the administration extolled the invasion as a bona fide investment -
yielding instant dividends and a continuous stream of good will. The
fact that investment was impossible because of U.S. prohibitions
against American/Iraqi capital ventures went unmentioned. Once the
weapons threat and the Saddam- 9/11 connection fizzled, the U.S.
ramped up the struggle as a clash of worldviews, one it couldn't afford
to lose. Details supporting this axiom appear closely guarded - hushed
circles must be envisioning Muslim hordes overrunning American soil -
turning symbols of culture, capital, and religion into rubble.
The U.S. is entangled in the most costly colonial experiment in
history. Ironically, 21st-century democratization, so glorified by the
Bush administration, has worked to the U.S. military's disadvantage:
shared technological innovation and universal connectivity have lent
strength to an insurgency unimaginable in King Leopold's time. Other
countries, particularly the developing ones, have managed to produce
economic growth without preemptive wars.
Indeed in 2006, the developing world surpassed the industrialized one
in terms of total GDP for the first time while the U.S. dipped to a
20 percent GDP share. China, the world's largest importer of steel,
copper, nickel, and tin, achieves productivity by striking bilateral
trade deals and structuring loan packages with the former colonial
world - without brandishing a gun. The "debate" over troop numbers in
Iraq doesn't go nearly far enough. The U.S. should vote for a wholesale
rejection of its mad colonial course, a course bound for ruin.
During the rut, the stag forgoes sleep and sustenance, losing up to
30 percent of its weight. Death from starvation and exhaustion often
precludes species propagation.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/berga.ph p?articleid=10552