When you read newspaper reports like this or editorials like this they suggest that the US is engaged in mopping up operations in Iraq. The war has been won and the rebuilding has begun. True, there is a bit of law and order involved in cleaning up a few troublemakers left over from the creaky old dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. That mopping up of the remnants of the old regime won't take too long. Things are well in hand with the good guys on top of things.

Then you read this about Afghanistan and Iraq and begin to wonder. How much of all this quick pacification mop up is spin? What is going on is indicated here: the anti-American resistance forces that have been bedeviling US troops north of Baghdad are being organized by Syria. Syria is also deeply involved in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict sending a steady stream of fighters, funds, weapons and explosives to the Palestinian areas of the West Bank controlled by Yasser Arafat.

Then you read US op.eds like this from Robert Kagan about the weapons of mass destruction issue and you begin to wonder about the mindset of these journalists. The issue is not that the failure so far to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq means that there never were any in the first place. The weapons existed. The issues is about the imminent threat posed by Iraq to the US< the UK and Australia. The threat was so imminent that this coalition had to invade Iraq immediately, and not wait for the UN inspectors to do their job. The latter option would take too long.

Was the threat imminent? That's the issue. Conspiracy theories have nothing to do with it. They are a red herring; an attempt to deflect attention away from accountability issues within the US, UK and Australia.

What is not mentioned in all of this is the long-term geopolitical considerations that are signified by empire. This refers to ambitious US agenda for sweeping regime change and improvement in the volatile Persian Gulf and Middle East and the United States’ elevation to kingpin of these regions in control of its oil resources. At the same time the US is undertaking a similar objective in Central Asia and the Caucasus to build a strong overarching bridge linking the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent and China.

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Posted by: Niall | June 15, 2003 08:52 PM