July 5, 2006
What the War on Flanking Maneuvers is Really About
by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
OK, so now we finally know what the War on Flanking Maneuvers (otherwise known as the "War on Terror" ) is really about. Folks, it ain't about terror or terrorism (both tactics of violence that like obscenity are defined in the eye of the beholder). Nor for that matter is it about Flanking Maneuvers (a description of the "war" first made by an Army General --- whose name slips my mind --- not I).
Speaking to the subject, Bob Herbert began his New York Times column of June 29 with the following: "After all the sound and fury of the past few years, how is the U.S. doing in its fight against terrorism? Not too well, according to a recent survey of more than 100 highly respected foreign policy and national security experts. The survey, dubbed the 'Terrorism Index,' was conducted by the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy magazine. The respondents included Republicans and Democrats, moderates, liberals and conservatives. The survey's findings were striking. A strong, bipartisan consensus emerged on two crucial points: 84 percent of the respondents said the United States was not winning the war on terror, and 86 percent said the world was becoming more -- not less -- dangerous for Americans. The sound and fury since Sept. 11, 2001 -- the chest-thumping and muscle-flexing, the freedom fries, the Patriot Act, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the breathtaking expansion of presidential power, Guantanamo, rendition, the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars -- seems to have signified very little."
Signified very little in dealing with the tactic of terrorism, that is. It has had major significance in the development and illustration of Georgite foreign and domestic policy. I am certainly not the only progressive observer to come to this conclusion, but I do feel that it is useful to summarize the outcomes, as we celebrate the 230th anniversary of the issuance of one of humankind's greatest statements on reason and human rights. The preservation of the Constitutional Democracy created subsequent to the Declaration of Independence on these shores is clearly the central issue, as illustrated by the Supreme Court decision in Hamdan. (I regard that decision, while welcome, as only a temporary respite from the Georgite onslaught towards the institution of theocratic fascism. With their Republican majorities in both Houses and the aid of a number of "Democrats" as well, they will soon find a legislative way around that obstacle. Or they may choose to simply ignore it, as they have done or more than one occasion with judicial decisions, the judicial equivalent of a "Signing Statement.")
And so, what is the "War on Terror" really about? It is about invading Iraq to get control of as much Iraqi oil as possible, establish permanent US bases in the region, and "show the World and any who oppose us what American power is all about." It is about the anti-Constitutional Theory of the "Unitary Executive," otherwise known as Dictatorship. The Constitution's central elements of governance are the separation of powers and the institution of checks and balances to make sure that they stay separated. The use of "Signing Statements" to reject acts of Congress on his own authority rather than the use of the Constitutional veto, which can of course be over-ridden by Congress, shows how little regard this President (who, it has been reported, once referred to the document as "a scrap of paper") has for it. Using the excuse of "fighting the war on terror" this President has shown that his number one domestic objective is the scrapping of it.
Finally, the "war on terror" is about tax-cutting-for-the-rich, borrowing, and spending the nation into potential bankruptcy, to provide the excuse for eventually eliminating all functions of the Federal government, except those of the military, criminal law enforcement as they see it, oppression and repression of all the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights except for gun ownership (and that might eventually fall too), and the criminalization of both beliefs and genetically-determined ways of living other than those approved by the Christian Right. That is, along with broad swaths of the Bill of Rights and the First, Second, Third, and Sixth articles of the Constitution, the Georgites are out to repeal the Preamble as well. All of this is being done behind the convenient wall of the so-called "War on Terror."
And with that, I hope
that you had a Happy Fourth of July, focused not
on what the fake Georgite patriots say it is about, but on what it
is really about!
Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY) a weekly Contributing Author for The Political Junkies (www.thepoliticaljunkies.net) and a Columnist for BuzzFlash.