Larissa
22nd March 2003, 02:18
Today's commentary: worth to read IMO
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/200...3/21vltchek.cfm (http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2003-03/21vltchek.cfm)
==================================
ZNet Commentary
The New, Deadly Beginning Of History March 21, 2003
By Andre Vltchek
Francis Fukuyama was wrong: history didn't end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The world is at war again and this time the war is not 'cold' at all - it is extremely 'hot'. This war brings a rough awakening for those who hoped that there would be a long, cosy period marked by our world order - a period of peaceful economic dictatorship imposed by the handful of rich and
mainly Western states and their multi-national companies.
Such global arrangements proved to be simply not good enough for our political leaders and their backers in the corporate world. They obviously felt they have to make a point, to show to the rest of the world who 'is really in charge', to leave no doubts.
Even if we accept that history ended more than a decade ago (just for the sake of argument, since almost nobody really believes that it did) we have to admit that it is starting again, right now, at full speed. If stripped to basics, Fukuyama's theory is based on the doubtful thesis that the end of the history comes when the polarization of the world, 'us' and the Soviets, ends. It comes with the end of the conflict.
There is no Soviet Union anymore, but the world is as polarized as ever. It is still 'us' against 'them', but now 'them' includes almost the entire world, from Latin America to Africa, from Southeast Asia to the Middle East. 'Them' even includes the majority of American people and the overwhelming majority of the citizens of Europe.
This polarization is dangerous for everyone as it is deadly for global democracy. We convinced the great majority of the world that it became 'irrelevant', we spat on the rules of the United Nations. We tried to buy or blackmail foreign governments into submission and into supporting our expansionism. We proved that we don't care what the rest of the world thinks, since we are the
biggest bully on the block, that we are 'more equal than the others', that our interests are above anything in the world.
And now we are alone. Governments of the countries that are willing to support our invasion of Iraq (isn't it ironic that the UK and Spain are two of the most brutal colonial powers in human history?) are doing so strictly against the will of their own citizens, yet again re-defining the word 'democracy', a term that is quickly becoming just another cliché.
It seems that we don't care about our isolation, about our unpopularity. Or at least our government doesn't. We don't care that, in a few days and weeks, the whole world will be watching their television screens to see how we will be killing tens, maybe hundreds of thousands, of innocent people in order to satisfy our global dictatorial aspirations.
Most foreign governments will still be cordial towards us. They can't afford not to be - we are too big and too strong and, if they insult us, we may single their countries out and declare them our enemies, terrorists, rogue states. It's fear, a survival instinct, not real, full-hearted support. And submission through fear is what Bush and his administration really wants. As long as
we can rule and be obeyed, we don't need to be loved and admired.
While our previous history of the polarized world has been brutal and unsettling (who could ever forget our acts of terror against Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Chile, Nicaragua and Cuba to mention just a few places), the emerging chapter of history may be devastating.
If we don't stop now, or if we are not stopped by the rest of the world, our ruling elites may really start to believe that we have been chosen by God to enlighten and save the universe by sword. They will not be the first in the long history of the tyrants ruling enormous and brutal empires.
As a result of this war, we may harvest a tempest. The
impoverished world can be expected to revolt and it may do it in an uncontrollable, brutal manner. This revolt would probably be fragmented, uncoordinated and could reduce entire continents to chaos. In such an event, millions of people might lose their lives, hundreds of millions might become hungry and desperate.
Saudi Arabia is one of the best candidates for such a scenario, Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation on earth, is another.
The only possible way to stop this madness is to immediately inform the American public about the sentiments or the rest of the world. It is an extremely difficult task, since the interests of big business and the elites control the media. But there may be no other way: the great majority of the American public doesn't realize the gravity of the present situation, for it is not being informed about the fears and grievances of men and women in faraway nations. It doesn't know to what disaster Bush and his backers have been pushing the planet.
If there is anything that can stop the world from our terror, it is the American public itself. Our citizens are not any better or any worst that the citizens of other countries. They possess a natural sense of fair play and, if informed correctly about the situation, most of them will not be willing to support our expansionism. Most of them didn't vote for this president, anyway. Most of them are still against the war!
Public outcry may not stop this war. Nothing can, anymore. But it can prevent many future horrors.
So history is back. We won over the Soviet Union (we starved it through the arms race, to be exact) and we will most definitely win over Iraq, again. We tried to starve Iraq, too, but starvation didn't prove to be a sufficient tool to force its leaders from power. Now we will bomb the Iraqi people back to the Stone Age, in order to get our hands on their natural resources.
But this may be our last major victory. There will be no
further support anywhere in the world for our expansionism. Our mafia techniques may mobilize and unite the planet against us. People are afraid only when divided. The last meeting of non-allied nations showed an unprecedented unity of almost all the poor and developing nations (read: the great majority of the
world) in their opposition to our hegemony.
Our sixty years of world leadership has proved devastating to almost all continents except Europe. Its cost can be counted in millions of innocent human lives. We should not be allowed to continue. We should be disarmed and forced to rejoin the world community as a nation equal to any other nation on earth, with the same rights and responsibilities, with no nuclear, chemical or biological weapons (we had proved that we cannot be trusted with their possession), a nation respectful of UN resolutions and international treaties.
Let's hope that the human lives that are being lost in Iraq right now will be the last casualties of our complexes of superiority, of our belief that we have a right to sacrifice any number of human beings abroad for our own interests, of the certainty that we are unique and the wisest. And let's hope that, one day, there will be an enormous monument to all those victims
of our brutal, merciless imperial past, and Francis Fukuyama's 'end of history' will become a reality.
*************
I hope all of us could think a bit after reading this article a quit posting shitty comments like fuck commies or whoever, etc.
Lara
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/200...3/21vltchek.cfm (http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2003-03/21vltchek.cfm)
==================================
ZNet Commentary
The New, Deadly Beginning Of History March 21, 2003
By Andre Vltchek
Francis Fukuyama was wrong: history didn't end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The world is at war again and this time the war is not 'cold' at all - it is extremely 'hot'. This war brings a rough awakening for those who hoped that there would be a long, cosy period marked by our world order - a period of peaceful economic dictatorship imposed by the handful of rich and
mainly Western states and their multi-national companies.
Such global arrangements proved to be simply not good enough for our political leaders and their backers in the corporate world. They obviously felt they have to make a point, to show to the rest of the world who 'is really in charge', to leave no doubts.
Even if we accept that history ended more than a decade ago (just for the sake of argument, since almost nobody really believes that it did) we have to admit that it is starting again, right now, at full speed. If stripped to basics, Fukuyama's theory is based on the doubtful thesis that the end of the history comes when the polarization of the world, 'us' and the Soviets, ends. It comes with the end of the conflict.
There is no Soviet Union anymore, but the world is as polarized as ever. It is still 'us' against 'them', but now 'them' includes almost the entire world, from Latin America to Africa, from Southeast Asia to the Middle East. 'Them' even includes the majority of American people and the overwhelming majority of the citizens of Europe.
This polarization is dangerous for everyone as it is deadly for global democracy. We convinced the great majority of the world that it became 'irrelevant', we spat on the rules of the United Nations. We tried to buy or blackmail foreign governments into submission and into supporting our expansionism. We proved that we don't care what the rest of the world thinks, since we are the
biggest bully on the block, that we are 'more equal than the others', that our interests are above anything in the world.
And now we are alone. Governments of the countries that are willing to support our invasion of Iraq (isn't it ironic that the UK and Spain are two of the most brutal colonial powers in human history?) are doing so strictly against the will of their own citizens, yet again re-defining the word 'democracy', a term that is quickly becoming just another cliché.
It seems that we don't care about our isolation, about our unpopularity. Or at least our government doesn't. We don't care that, in a few days and weeks, the whole world will be watching their television screens to see how we will be killing tens, maybe hundreds of thousands, of innocent people in order to satisfy our global dictatorial aspirations.
Most foreign governments will still be cordial towards us. They can't afford not to be - we are too big and too strong and, if they insult us, we may single their countries out and declare them our enemies, terrorists, rogue states. It's fear, a survival instinct, not real, full-hearted support. And submission through fear is what Bush and his administration really wants. As long as
we can rule and be obeyed, we don't need to be loved and admired.
While our previous history of the polarized world has been brutal and unsettling (who could ever forget our acts of terror against Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Chile, Nicaragua and Cuba to mention just a few places), the emerging chapter of history may be devastating.
If we don't stop now, or if we are not stopped by the rest of the world, our ruling elites may really start to believe that we have been chosen by God to enlighten and save the universe by sword. They will not be the first in the long history of the tyrants ruling enormous and brutal empires.
As a result of this war, we may harvest a tempest. The
impoverished world can be expected to revolt and it may do it in an uncontrollable, brutal manner. This revolt would probably be fragmented, uncoordinated and could reduce entire continents to chaos. In such an event, millions of people might lose their lives, hundreds of millions might become hungry and desperate.
Saudi Arabia is one of the best candidates for such a scenario, Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation on earth, is another.
The only possible way to stop this madness is to immediately inform the American public about the sentiments or the rest of the world. It is an extremely difficult task, since the interests of big business and the elites control the media. But there may be no other way: the great majority of the American public doesn't realize the gravity of the present situation, for it is not being informed about the fears and grievances of men and women in faraway nations. It doesn't know to what disaster Bush and his backers have been pushing the planet.
If there is anything that can stop the world from our terror, it is the American public itself. Our citizens are not any better or any worst that the citizens of other countries. They possess a natural sense of fair play and, if informed correctly about the situation, most of them will not be willing to support our expansionism. Most of them didn't vote for this president, anyway. Most of them are still against the war!
Public outcry may not stop this war. Nothing can, anymore. But it can prevent many future horrors.
So history is back. We won over the Soviet Union (we starved it through the arms race, to be exact) and we will most definitely win over Iraq, again. We tried to starve Iraq, too, but starvation didn't prove to be a sufficient tool to force its leaders from power. Now we will bomb the Iraqi people back to the Stone Age, in order to get our hands on their natural resources.
But this may be our last major victory. There will be no
further support anywhere in the world for our expansionism. Our mafia techniques may mobilize and unite the planet against us. People are afraid only when divided. The last meeting of non-allied nations showed an unprecedented unity of almost all the poor and developing nations (read: the great majority of the
world) in their opposition to our hegemony.
Our sixty years of world leadership has proved devastating to almost all continents except Europe. Its cost can be counted in millions of innocent human lives. We should not be allowed to continue. We should be disarmed and forced to rejoin the world community as a nation equal to any other nation on earth, with the same rights and responsibilities, with no nuclear, chemical or biological weapons (we had proved that we cannot be trusted with their possession), a nation respectful of UN resolutions and international treaties.
Let's hope that the human lives that are being lost in Iraq right now will be the last casualties of our complexes of superiority, of our belief that we have a right to sacrifice any number of human beings abroad for our own interests, of the certainty that we are unique and the wisest. And let's hope that, one day, there will be an enormous monument to all those victims
of our brutal, merciless imperial past, and Francis Fukuyama's 'end of history' will become a reality.
*************
I hope all of us could think a bit after reading this article a quit posting shitty comments like fuck commies or whoever, etc.
Lara