The Bush administration’s Imperial Grand Strategy

October 11, 2003 4:16 AM

Dominance and Its DilemmasNoam Chomsky.What more be said? Those on the Left: Appaud. On the Right: sneer. If you are brither than a 15 watt bulb : read and then decide.
posted by Postroad (17 comments total)

sorry about typs! early in the morning.
posted by Postroad at 4:17 AM on October 11, 2003

I really enjoy these tranquil and sedate weekend mornings ...
posted by RavinDave at 4:35 AM on October 11, 2003

Given what has happened in the last year or so, Chomsky doesn't sound as radical as he used to (except, perhaps, when he calls preventive war "very simply, the “supreme crime” condemned at Nuremberg.").
posted by kozad at 5:06 AM on October 11, 2003

I'm brither than the sun, baby.
posted by angry modem at 6:16 AM on October 11, 2003

I am more blithe than a 15 watt bulb. Thanks for the post.
posted by y2karl at 6:47 AM on October 11, 2003

I can't wait for the missiles to start flying towards Ottawa whenever we disobey.

Oh wait, I forgot, they don't need to use missiles on everyone; too expensive... they already routinely violate others' sovereignty by threatening to destroy free trade, slowing truck traffic to a molasses crawl and imposing fictitious and draconian tariffs on goods if their laws are not obeyed in other countries.

"If they don't give us what we like...."

A janus of peaceful and warlike hegemony, certainly.
posted by drgonzo at 6:50 AM on October 11, 2003

*sneer*
posted by hama7 at 8:08 AM on October 11, 2003

Ownership of space? I guess it is important to own a way out for the elite commanders when they nuke the earth to oblivion.
posted by adnanbwp at 8:51 AM on October 11, 2003

Those on the Left: Appaud. On the Right: sneer.

Those in the middle: duck.
posted by srboisvert at 9:43 AM on October 11, 2003

Those in the middle: duck.

Those in the Z-2 layer: scramble for the vomit bags.
posted by billsaysthis at 9:48 AM on October 11, 2003

Left, Right, Dems, Reps , Nazi, Commy ...this is all so 1990.
Now it's Evil vs Good. Just history repeating, I guess...
posted by elpapacito at 11:59 AM on October 11, 2003

When the occupying army failed to discover WMD, the administration’s stance shifted from “absolute certainty” that Iraq possessed WMD to the position that the accusations were “justified by the discovery of equipment that potentially could be used to produce weapons.” Senior officials suggested a “refinement” in the concept of preventive war that entitles the United States to attack “a country that has deadly weapons in mass quantities.” The revision “suggests instead that the administration will act against a hostile regime that has nothing more than the intent and ability to develop [WMD].” The bars for resort to force are significantly lowered. This modification of the doctrine of “preventive war” may prove to be the most significant consequence of the collapse of the declared argument for the invasion.

Here's hopin' not.
posted by y2karl at 12:27 PM on October 11, 2003

US soldiers bulldoze farmers' crops

US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.
posted by y2karl at 6:42 PM on October 11, 2003

I didn't know jazz could blare.
posted by Sxyzzx at 6:57 PM on October 11, 2003

An excellent point is made regarding the uprising in the early nineties. There was a great chance for an Iraq led by the people, or the Kurds, at least, as Washington allowed them to die in terrible, mass death. Was Sadaam so much better for invading?
posted by the fire you left me at 7:22 PM on October 11, 2003

Speaking of the Kurds, don't miss Ralph Peters' latest column: Bush's Betrayal.
posted by homunculus at 7:36 PM on October 11, 2003

kurds = red herring

after all what interest do neocons have in giving kurds a state?

none in fact, though they enjoy talking about it for symbolic reasons
posted by mitchel at 7:27 AM on October 14, 2003