Posted on 5-9-2002
The
Other American Dream
By William Rivers Pitt
No other nation on the face of the earth uses the words "Life,
Liberty, and
the Pursuit of Happiness" as the premise for their foundation
in government.
America does, and scads of Constitutional law have been written
and
re-written, debated and considered, because a long time ago
the Founders
decided to base everything upon the absolute necessity of those
three
concepts. America is and has always been a nation of immigrants,
because
the promise of these simple ideals has lured millions of people
from every
corner of the globe to these shores.
These words are the basis of the American Dream, a concept so
simple and
yet so huge that it is difficult to define. How does one encapsulate
the
concept of "the pursuit of happiness" in so diverse a nation?
The answer to
that question lies in the interpretation of the word that comes
before it,
"liberty." Above all, and first in line, is "life." Americans
have the
right to be alive, free, and to pursue fulfillment in whatever
way suits
them, so long as that pursuit does not grossly interfere with
the life,
freedom and happiness of a neighbor.
The American Dream has come to mean a variety of things pertaining
to
ownership. Having your own home is part of the American Dream,
as is owning
a car, having a job, and the pursuit of monetary wealth. This
is all well
and good, for we live in a capitalist society so large that
it would make
Adam Smith faint dead away. Through it all, however, runs the
pulsing
heartbeat of those three simple concepts.
Of course, we have never achieved the lofty goals set by the
Founders in
this regard; liberty is still denied to many, and the pursuit
of happiness
is impossible for citizens treated unequally. Yet the American
Dream, at
bottom, is bent towards the creation of that more perfect union,
where
wrongs are made right and happiness is well within reach.
This is the American Dream we speak of openly, in daylight,
when the
children gather to learn about the land they call home. This
is what we
tell the immigrants when they raise their hands to take the
pledge and
become citizens. This is what we tell ourselves when we feel
the need to be
convinced that this nation is indeed good and great.
There is another American Dream which lurks in shadow, and speaks
only in
whispers of its designs. This other American Dream runs dark
and silent, on
rails lubricated by oil, blood and power. It works at all hours
of the day
and night to achieve its goals. It does not sleep. The existence
of this
other American Dream places the first one, the real one, the
true one, in
terrible peril. If this other American Dream is allowed to blossom
into its
intended potential, the American Dream we speak of to our children
will
cease completely to exist.
The proponents of this other American Dream look at the world
in terms of
empire. They seek to achieve hegemony over great swaths of
strategically-important territory, and will do whatever is necessary
to
gain this control. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, they
see America
as the first truly global superpower. With the use of economic
and military
might, they seek to gain absolute dominion in the space opened
by the fall
of our former rival. The term "Globalization" encapsulates only
a fraction
of the plan.
For many years, the proponents of this other American Dream
lingered in
neo-conservative think tanks, like the Committee on the Present
Danger,
where they could only snipe from the fringes. With the rise
to power of
George W. Bush, in an election that denied him even the pretense
of a
mandate, these neo-conservative strategists suddenly found themselves
walking the halls of power, because Bush was forced in the absence
of a
mandate to fall back upon his neo-conservative base for support.
The other
American Dream, alive for so long only in white papers within
these think
tanks, has become the central framework of American policy.
One proponent of this strategy is Richard Perle, a former Defense
Department official within the Reagan administration. Perle
is now chairman
of the powerful Defense Policy Board, which carries great weight
within the
Pentagon. Recently, this board listened with avid attention
to a policy
briefing proffered by other hard-right think tankers that proposed
a "Grand
Strategy for the Middle East." The final slide of their presentation
offered "Iraq as the tactical pivot, Saudi Arabia as the strategic
pivot
(and) Egypt as the prize" in an effort to extend American hegemony
over the
entire Middle East. Such plans cast into deep shade the reasons
put forth
by the Bush administration to defend war against Iraq. There
is far more on
the table here than the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
The framework for this other American Dream has other champions
in
positions of great influence within the Bush administration.
Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and his assistant Paul Wolfowitz, spring
from the
same neo-conservative think-tank roots as Richard Perle. From
their places
high in government, these fringe elements have gained the required
position
to push forward with their plans.
This other American Dream is not solely a creation of Bush administration
officials, nor has it just recently come to fruition, nor is
it fixated
solely upon the Middle East. The bloody history of Afghanistan
represents a
clear example of the kind of geopolitical gamesmanship that
characterizes
the plans these people have for America. Afghanistan in 1978
was ruled by a
Communist puppet regime called the People's Democratic Party
of Afghanistan
(PDPA). To foster a destabilization of that regime, so as to
counter the
growing Soviet influence in that strategically vital region,
America began
arming and training Afghan mujeheddin warriors, with Pakistan's
assistance,
in an effort to undermine the PDPA.
This effort, however, had more in mind than the overthrow of
the PDPA. Elie
Krakowski, in a study written for the Institute for Advanced
Strategic and
Political Studies in April of 2000, described Afghanistan's
importance as
going far beyond the dictates of the Cold War:
"(Afghanistan) owes its importance to its location at the confluence
of
major routes. A boundary between land power and sea power, it
is the
meeting point between opposing forces larger than itself. With
the collapse
of the Soviet Union, it has become an important potential opening
to the
sea for the landlocked new states of Central Asia. The presence
of large
oil and gas deposits in that area has attracted countries and
multinational
corporations. Because Afghanistan is a major strategic pivot,
what happens
there affects the world."
This places American aid to the mujeheddin in 1978 in a broader
perspective. Our actions were not simply about attacking communism.
In
attempting to destabilize the PDPA, we were hoping to tempt
the wrath of
the Soviet Union. It worked: The USSR invaded and eventually
destroyed its
ability to extend influence into the region against the unyielding
rock of
Afghanistan, eliminating a strategic enemy and opening the region
to
broadening American hegemony.
Zbignew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor for President
Carter during
this period, bluntly confirmed this in 1998. "We did not push
the Russians
into invading," said Brzezinski, "but we knowingly increased
the
probability that they would. The secret operation was an excellent
idea.
The effect was to draw the Russians into the Afghan trap."
Brzezinski's brag is revelatory, for it describes the lengths
to which the
proponents of this other American Dream will go to achieve this
goal.
Afghanistan was utterly destroyed by the Soviet invasion in
1979, by the
ten-year war fought by Afghan warriors to remove them, and by
the ravaging
civil war that descended in the aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal.
In that
span was born the Taliban, trained to fight, and to propound
their deadly
interpretation of Islam, in Pakistani religious schools funded
and
supported by the American CIA.
Brzezinski's "Afghan trap" gave birth, as well, to Osama bin
Laden, whose
reputation as a heroic anti-Soviet mujeheddin warrior made him
a demigod
within Afghanistan. None of this - the Soviet invasion, the
Taliban, Osama
bin Laden, the wretchedness of life in Afghanistan - would have
come into
existence without the forces behind the other American Dream
playing out
geopolitical strategies designed to augment American control
in the world.
This other American Dream was codified by Brzezinski in 1998,
who authored
in 1998 a study for the Council on Foreign Relations entitled,
"The Grand
Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives."
The study
describes in detail the importance of Afghanistan and the entire
Central
Asian region, which is described in its entirety as "Eurasia."
According to
the study, America must gain military and economic control of
the region to
stave off competition from China, Russia and Europe. The guts
of the study
are quoted below:
"But the Eurasian Balkans are infinitely more important as a
potential
economic prize: an enormous concentration of natural gas and
oil reserves
is located in the region, in addition to important minerals
including
gold...It is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges,
capable of
dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America...A
power that
dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most
advanced and
economically productive regions.
"To put it in terminology that harkens back to the more brutal
age of
ancient empires, the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy
are to
prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the
vassals, to
keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians
from
coming together."
Profoundly disquieting are the conclusions reached by Brzezinski
regarding
the means by which the American populace could be directed into
supporting
the actions required to achieve control in that region. "As
America becomes
an increasingly multicultural society, it may find it more difficult
to
fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the
circumstance of
a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat."
The danger is clear. This geopolitical strategy of dominion
in Central
Asia, begun in 1978 with the "Afghan trap," put in motion a
series of
events that ultimately led to the creation of the Taliban, the
empowerment
of Osama bin Laden, and the attacks of September 11th. The plans
described
to Richard Perle's Defense Policy Board that target not only
Iraq, but
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and indeed the entire Middle East, were
born from the
same strategic imperatives.
This is the other American Dream. Already, the blowback from
its dictates
have dealt a terrible blow to the true dream we wish to live
by. We live in
fear now of mega-terrorism that was spawned by our actions in
Central Asia
and the Middle East, and by our desire for economic control
of those
regions and their resources. Because of the terrorism we have
already
endured, many of our essential liberties have been taken away
in the
blasphemous guise of protecting freedom. Because of the terrorism
we have
already endured, the fundamental right of life was taken from
thousands of
our citizens. The three pillars of our society have been shattered.
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