Posted on 27-2-2003
Iraq
Excuse For Empire
by Norman Mailer
There is a subtext to what the Bushites are doing as they prepare
for war
in Iraq. My hypothesis is that President George W. Bush and
many
conservatives have come to the conclusion that the only way
they can save
America and get if off its present downslope is to become a
regime with a
greater military presence and drive toward empire. My fear is
that
Americans might lose their democracy in the process.
By downslope I'm referring not only to the corporate scandals,
the church
scandals and the FBI scandals. The country has gone kind of
crazy in the
eyes of conservatives. Also, kids can't read anymore. Especially
for
conservatives, the culture has become too sexual.
Iraq is the excuse for moving in an imperial direction. War
with Iraq, as
they originally conceived it, would be a quick, dramatic step
that would
enable them to control the Near East as a powerful base - not
least
because of the oil there, as well as the water supplies from
the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers - to build a world empire.
The Bushites also expect to bring democracy to the region and
believe that
in itself will help to diminish terrorism. But I expect the
opposite will
happen: terrorists are not impressed by democracy. They loathe
it. They
are fundamentalists of the most basic kind. The more successful
democracy
is in the Near East - not likely in my view - the more terrorism
it will
generate.
The only outstanding obstacle to the drive toward empire in
the Bushites'
minds is China. Indeed, one of the great fears in the Bush administration
about America's downslope is that the "stem studies" such as
science,
technology and engineering are all faring poorly in U.S. universities.
The
number of American doctorates is going down and down. But the
number of
Asians obtaining doctorates in those same stem studies are increasing
at a
great rate.
Looking 20 years ahead, the administration perceives that there
will come
a time when China will have technology superior to America's.
When that
time comes, America might well say to China that "we can work
together,"
we will be as the Romans to you Greeks. You will be our extraordinary,
well-cultivated slaves. But don't try to dominate us. That would
be your
disaster. This is the scenario that some of the brightest neoconservatives
are thinking about. (I use Rome as a metaphor, because metaphors
are
usually much closer to the truth than facts).
What has happened, of course, is that the Bushites have run
into much more
opposition than they thought they would from other countries
and among the
home population. It may well end up that we won't have a war,
but a new
strategy to contain Iraq and wear Saddam down. If that occurs,
Bush is in
terrible trouble.
My guess though, is that, like it or not, want it or not, America
is going
to go to war because that is the only solution Bush and his
people can
see.
The dire prospect that opens, therefore, is that America is
going to
become a mega-banana republic where the army will have more
and more
importance in Americans' lives. It will be an ever greater and
greater
overlay on the American system. And before it is all over, democracy,
noble and delicate as it is, may give way. My long experience
with human
nature - I'm 80 years old now - suggests that it is possible
that fascism,
not democracy, is the natural state.
Indeed, democracy is the special condition - a condition we
will be called
upon to defend in the coming years. That will be enormously
difficult
because the combination of the corporation, the military and
the complete
investiture of the flag with mass spectator sports has set up
a
pre-fascistic atmosphere in America already.
Norman Mailer's latest book is "The Spooky Art: Some Thoughts
on Writing."
This comment was adapted from remarks Feb. 22 to the Los Angeles
Institute
for the Humanities and distributed by Global Viewpoint/Tribune
Media
Services International.
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