A Moment
of Collective Vertigo
In the grand, operatic and enthralling modern American narrative then, few episodes compare with 9/11, the subsequent so-called War on Terror in general, and the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and occupations in particular, in demonstrating America's total commitment to promoting, preserving and exporting freedom and democracy to the ROW. It seemed to matter little if the world was not interested in playing America's version of The Great Game, especially if it was by America's rules.
And as noted, few people were as prepped as Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush and Wolfowitz especially for this epochal development in the terminal battle between the forces of good and evil. On September 10, 2001, as we have seen, this group -- the 'Shock and Awesome Foursome of the Bespoke Apocalypse' -- already had firm views on how the world should be and could be. Twenty-four hours later these views had morphed collectively into one of how it would be. The day after, in the words of Naomi Klein -- from her book The Shock Doctrine -- "they seized the moment of collective vertigo", then ran with it with both bits between their teeth.
As indicated the document proposed a major 're-pivot' -- to use the vernacular du jour -- of America's policy towards the Greater Middle East. Which is to say it morphed over the years from serious client dictator patronage to one of tolerance -- to one of out-and-out aggression (mostly via sanctions in the Clinton era) and then unilateral pre-emption avec extreme prejudice post-9/11. When one considers that it was the ubiquitous and iniquitous CIA in 1963 -- insofar as regime change went, a very busy, portentous year for the Langley Gang as it turned out -- that enthusiastically facilitated in the first instance the Iraqi dictator's rise to power and inevitably, despotism and geopolitical brinkmanship of the first order, his fall from grace in the eyes of the neo-cons and their ilk becomes even more compelling and profound.
In this case the Law of Unintended Consequences that so often accompanies the outcomes of both official and unofficial American foreign policy may have taken some time to kick in, but when it did, it had -- and continues to have -- disastrous consequences. The blowback to be sure has always been something of a feedback loop. Rarely in a good way mind you, and none more so than this time round.
And with an unwavering certainty surpassed on a level it seems only by the delusion that drives the thinking behind it, America seems determined well beyond Afghanistan and Iraq, to Libya -- and more recently Syria, Yemen, and the Ukraine -- to further extend, exert and consolidate its political, military and economic hegemony over the rest of the world. Even those with only a vague awareness of the grand sweep of of history as it has shape-shifted over the past century or so would have to agree the signs are not promising.
But as indicated, the predisposition to militarism, imperialism and global hegemony has been a 'work in progress' -- a 'sleeper cell' if one likes -- for some time in the American geopolitical psychopathology. As early as 1944, Friedrich Hayek -- of all people -- in his seminal tome The Road to Serfdom, posited the danger of the growth of "monopolistic organisation" and "inevitable industry restructure" from the political remnants World War II. It seemed Hayek saw such a development as inevitable, as if driven by the baser aspects of the human condition, possibly even underscored by some Nietzschean will to power. He had this to say:
"Another element which after this war is likely to strengthen the tendencies in this direction will be [that] some of the men who during the war tasted the powers of coercive control [and] will find it difficult to reconcile themselves with the humbler roles they'll have to play [in peaceful times]."
Uncle (Sam) Sucker to the Rescue
Later on, Charles Wright Mills' 1956 book The Power Elite talked about the frequently unholy alliances, interdependencies, connections, and interactions across the economic, political, military, legislative, intelligence, and academic hierarchies, aka the 'powers that be'. Tellingly here, without mincing his words, Mills noted that since end of the World War II:
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