Loose Talk: Bush Redefines His Global War to Encompass a New Range of Enemies
Chris Floyd,
Tuesday, 26 December 2006
Wise man Robert Parry, who has been a light shining in the darkness for decades now , identifies an important – and entirely sinister – change in Bush's description of the "Long War" that he has initiated around the world. This semantic shift portends an even greater level of bloodshed, state terrorism and tyranny than we have yet seen, as it indicates another stage in the inexorable expansion of the "enemies" that the "forces of civilization" must crush by violence.
As Parry notes, this declension into madness has moved from very specific targets (“terrorist groups of global reach") to the more generalized and already impossibly vague "global war on terrorism" to the new formulation: a war against "radicals and extremists" – wherever they might be, however you decide, arbitrarily, to define them, and whether or not they engage in violence against the United States.
And make no mistake: the American Establishment as a whole has bought into the "war on terror" package in one form or another, i.e., viewing the murderous actions of a few bands of criminals not as a law enforcement problem to be tackled within the traditional systems of law and representative politics but as some wholly new, ludicrously overblown existential crisis of civilization that can only be "solved" by indiscriminate military force abroad and the gutting of civil liberties at home. In the Establishment, you will find almost no voice of any substance, reach or power that contests the latter view, although a few might quibble on how best to prosecute this endless war. Thus, the benchmarks that Bush is setting today, the way he is defining the "Long War" and establishing the patterns of executive power to deal with it will have a very large and continuing impact even when he is out of office. Why? Because as Parry shows here, Bush's expanding definitions of this endless war are being accepted by the Establishment – even now, when he is at one of the lowest ebbs of popular support that any president has ever faced.
So you should read Parry's whole piece. It's important not only as a description of what is happening today, but also as a guideline for where we will be heading in the future.
Bush's 'Global War on Radicals' (consortiumnews.com) >>>cont
Tuesday, 26 December 2006
Wise man Robert Parry, who has been a light shining in the darkness for decades now , identifies an important – and entirely sinister – change in Bush's description of the "Long War" that he has initiated around the world. This semantic shift portends an even greater level of bloodshed, state terrorism and tyranny than we have yet seen, as it indicates another stage in the inexorable expansion of the "enemies" that the "forces of civilization" must crush by violence.
As Parry notes, this declension into madness has moved from very specific targets (“terrorist groups of global reach") to the more generalized and already impossibly vague "global war on terrorism" to the new formulation: a war against "radicals and extremists" – wherever they might be, however you decide, arbitrarily, to define them, and whether or not they engage in violence against the United States.
And make no mistake: the American Establishment as a whole has bought into the "war on terror" package in one form or another, i.e., viewing the murderous actions of a few bands of criminals not as a law enforcement problem to be tackled within the traditional systems of law and representative politics but as some wholly new, ludicrously overblown existential crisis of civilization that can only be "solved" by indiscriminate military force abroad and the gutting of civil liberties at home. In the Establishment, you will find almost no voice of any substance, reach or power that contests the latter view, although a few might quibble on how best to prosecute this endless war. Thus, the benchmarks that Bush is setting today, the way he is defining the "Long War" and establishing the patterns of executive power to deal with it will have a very large and continuing impact even when he is out of office. Why? Because as Parry shows here, Bush's expanding definitions of this endless war are being accepted by the Establishment – even now, when he is at one of the lowest ebbs of popular support that any president has ever faced.
So you should read Parry's whole piece. It's important not only as a description of what is happening today, but also as a guideline for where we will be heading in the future.
Bush's 'Global War on Radicals' (consortiumnews.com) >>>cont
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 6:19 PM
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