Found at: http://www.yclusa.org/article/articleprint/1529/-1/8/
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Book Review - Full Spectrum Dominance
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Top level
Issues & Ideas
Culture
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Author: John Kim
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Publishing date: 01.10.2003 00:00
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The events following 9/11 have been harried, and often times overwhelming. There has been a flood of new publications since that year trying to piece together a comprehensive analysis of what occurred, what is presently going on and most importantly, why?
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Full Spectrum Dominance by Rahul Mahajan
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The events following 9/11 have been harried, and often times overwhelming. There has been a flood of new publications since that year trying to piece together a comprehensive analysis of what occurred, what is presently going on and most importantly, why?
Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond by Rahul Mahajan is among the best analyses of the global events beginning with 9/11 and continuing through the current post-invasion occupation of Iraq. Mahajan skillfully constructs a framework dispelling the propaganda issued by the Bush administration concerning the “War on Terrorism� and comprehensively builds a case for the most compelling underlying reasons for their actions—a power grab by the U.S. far right ushering in an unprecedented era of U.S. imperialist hegemony. The points and evidence compiled are insightful, concise and best of all—quick to read.
Mahajan begins the book with a quote originating from a report issued by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which Army General Henry Sheltonmore called “Joint Vision 2020.�
“The overall goal of the transformation described in this document is the creation of a force that is dominant across the full spectrum of military operations—persuasive in peace, decisive in war, preeminent in any form of conflict…Full spectrum dominance—the ability of U.S. forces, operating unilaterally or in combination with multi-national and interagency partners, to defeat any adversary and control any situation across the full range of military operations.�
It is ironic that General Henry Sheltonmore issued “Joint Vision 2020� on May 30th 2000, more than a year before the tragic events of 9/11, since it sums up the Bush agenda from September 12, 2001 on. Similar reports were authored by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) as early as 1992. PNAC is a private think-tank whose goal is to further U.S. dominance. Unsurprisingly PNAC is home to such right wing neoconservatives such as Paul Wolfowitz. U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary and I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff.
Many people have seized on such evidence as proof of some conspiratorial plot on the part of the Bush administration demonstrating their complicity with the attacks on the world trade center. Mahajan however recasts such evidence as the logical ideological underpinning of the War on Terror, with the terror attacks serving as the predominating policy justification. For the extreme right-wing neoconservatives who had been envisioning and making preparations for an era of American preeminence, the 9/11 attacks must have been a blessing from heaven. Other intelligence specialists had termed the 9/11 attacks as an extreme form of “blowback,� a term used to refer to the unforeseen repercussions to earlier international policies.
Point after point, Mahajan refutes myths behind the U.S. government’s new international stance and reminds the reader that the invasion of Afghanistan had little affect on neutralizing Al Qaeda nor led to the capture of Osama bin Laden.
“The central conclusion is clear: The United States took a course of action that gave bin Laden and others a higher chance of escaping, because extradition would have meant the absence of any casus belli (cause for war), and presumably the war was more important to the United States than their apprehension.�
Mahajan also makes it clear that the War on Terrorism, very much like the War on Communism, is a smokescreen to advance the interests of the rightwing neoconservatives and monopoly corporations, but also outlines the characteristics of this new war that makes it distinct. Though the Bush Doctrine’s declaration of preemption—reserving the “right� to strike first without cause—is not entirely new (the Truman Doctrine issued similar justifications of intervention against “communists�) the emphasis of U.S. unilateral military domination is new.
Termed the “new imperialism,� Mahajan outlines key aspects of the neoconservative vision. The first aspect is astronomical military spending to “further increase America’s already unquestioned superiority.� This also calls for a renewed and transformed U.S. military. The second aspect is a continued expansion of U.S. military bases worldwide. Military bases are key in extending U.S. hegemony over the host countries as well as threatening neighboring “target� countries. The third aspect is “regime change,� or the “overt establishment of governments that are strongly beholden to the United States.� The fourth critical aspect, which according to Mahajan remains unspoken, is the “maximal control over the production and transportation of oil.�
While “unipolarity,� the fact that the U.S. is now the world’s only superpower is the decisive factor of the development of the new U.S. imperialism, other important characteristics also stem from this new dynamic. The policy of preemption is a central characteristic. Military mercantilism is another characteristic. Mahajan writes, “mercantilism is a policy designed to make a country’s balance of payments or current account as positive as possible.� In other words, the U.S. ensures economic domination with military might. Also important is the unity of Israeli and American strategic interests as it applies to the Middle East, and the conjoining of radical right wing neoconservatives and conservative moderates, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Geo-political control over the international supply of oil and strategic oil routes and the broad manipulation of global trade agreements would further consolidate U.S. hegemony. In the growing global economy, oil consumption by the European Union and Japan (and China more recently) has been increasing. The control over access to oil is not only about securing the lines of supply for one’s own country, but also controlling the access and flow of oil to the competitor nations. Another underlying, though not decisive, factor is the creation of the Euro unified currency in the European Union. Oil is traded in American dollars worldwide with a few exceptions, such as Iraq and North Korea. If major oil producing countries decide to switch to the Euro as a trade currency, it could be a great blow to the U.S. dollar and U.S. domination.
Full Spectrum Dominance makes connections between worldwide U.S. military deployments and the quest to secure the strategic oil and natural gas reserves that exist in these regions. In another example, the Bush administration has supported the attempted overthrow of democratically elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as retaliation for spearheading an increase in the price of oil OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. It was only a combined Venezuelan public and military counter-offensive that saved Chavez from certain assassination.
After Mahajan effectively disputes the official line on the War on Terror and lays bare the real motives of the right wing in Washington, the rest of the book delves into the root causes of the two wars against Iraq and reveals the real victims of U.S. aggression there—not Saddam Hussein’s regime, but the very oppressed people of Iraq whom the American forces were trying to “liberate�.
In conclusion, Mahajan deals specifically with the nature of modern imperialism that we as a mass anti-war movement are dealing with currently. Even though the war is about oil, peace activists also have to name the system of oppression that puts the greed of a few over the needs of the many.
More than ever, it is crucial for progressives and radicals to formulate anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist strategies in an era of renewed empire building and war. Full Spectrum Dominance reminds us that everyday working people in the U.S. need to build a deep and broad movement for peace and social justice to defend their right and lives and the very future of humanity.
For more information:
Seven Stories Press
http://www.sevenstories.com
John Kim is a contributor to
Political Affairs Magazine