Countering the vision of endless war
By Joanne Cvar
Pacific Green Party of Oregon

The current administration has been open about its plans for full-spectrum world dominance, as outlined in the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), the 2003 National Security Strategy, and the lesser-known U.S. Space Command Vision for 2020, whose lofty goal is "dominating the space dimension…to protect U.S. business interests." Space is the ultimate high ground, crucial to gaining and retaining control. The administration lied not only about the justification for the attack on Iraq and its continuing occupation, but they are lying about the billions of dollars spent on missile defense research. It is not for defense at all, but to further their aggressive strategy for an ongoing series of "preventive wars" (illegal under international law). The so-called War on Terror will not end, they tell us, in our lifetimes.

Many of these neoconservative administration elites (for example PNAC members Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, William Kristol, et al.) have ties to the defense industry, and they have been planning to keep us in line for much longer than the past two administrations. In his influential book, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Carter, warned of this necessity in the face of the growing gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots": "It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially its capacity for military intimidation." (Brzezinski was a founding member of the Trilateral Commission.)

So to keep its power, the administration controls us with fear, the very Terror it claims to be fighting to eliminate. The catastrophic events of 9/11 provided these fanatics with the "new Pearl Harbor" they needed in order to generate the funding for their ambitious plans. It is not defense spending. It is a drive for empire, and it is not benign. The wars of terror have served as a pretext for new bases in central Asia and Iraq. If civilians stand in their way, they become simply collateral damage. Those with no voice do not count.

In The Normalization of War, Andrew Bacevich claims that our propensity to use force, regardless of the dictates of morality or international law, has led to the normalization of a militaristic mentality in this country. If we are spending nearly half a trillion dollars annually on defense (in addition to Homeland Security and a classified amount on at least 11 intelligence agencies), we will have to justify such priority on weapons rather than human needs by actually using those weapons. Bacevich claims that our almost annual military excursions since the fall of the Berlin wall have accustomed Americans to a perpetual state of war--preventive, pre-emptive, or otherwise. This acceptance has become, in fact, a new aesthetic of violence and power, replacing in film and fiction the World War I concept of war as barbaric and brutal armed conflict with an image of high-tech warfare waged by skilled professionals equipped with "smart" weapons making "surgical" strikes. Or so they would have us believe.

Bush II works hard to promote his image as warlord of the world, and the 2004 presidential election demonstrated clearly that American militarism has bipartisan support. Opposition to war is seen as a political third rail for the Democrats. Yet perhaps Bacevich is wrong about our acceptance of a militaristic future. A majority of Americans, recently polled, indicate they are troubled by our illegal wars and want our troops home.

Greens stand in brave opposition to the major political parties' policy of endless war and world domination. The foreign policy platform of the Green Party of the United Sates promotes reducing militarism and reliance on arms policies as key to progress toward collective security. Greens are also demanding closure of our more than 700 military bases abroad and to bring our troops home. They are, after all, our troops.

Just prior to the attack on Iraq, Global Greens issued a statement calling for longstanding peace in the Middle East, and in the fall of 2003, the GP-US endorsed a resolution calling for an end to the corporate occupation of Iraq. It is time for Greens to revisit and broaden the scope of those declarations, proclaiming our counter-vision to the corrupt and manifestly insane dream of endless war and endless profit that has been held before us. I believe the American people yearn for the positive vision of global security achieved through peaceful and humane means that we hold out to them. If we Greens can raise our voices against war and for humanity loudly enough, the people will respond.

Joanne Cvar is a past co-chair and current co-coordinator of media for the PGP.

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