The spread of chaos

At first glance, American foreign policy appears directionless. Terrorism remains a threat, nuclear weapons are spreading, the weather keeps getting hotter (this past January was the hottest January in recorded history in America), oil prices remain high, and American troops are overstretched and bogged down in a civil war in Iraq. Major problems that ought to be addressed remain ignored, and every day seems to bring news of another area of lost American influence.

Yet in fact, there is a method to this madness. One must give the devil his due — the people who occupy leadership positions in this country are all very smart people. Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in particular, have spent decades close to the machinery of government; if they now occupy the very seat of imperial power, it is because they have spent a long time plotting on how to get there.

The reason there is chaos in the world is because the United States government wants chaos on the world. Call it “Plan B”.

“Plan A” was to use the American military to secure much needed access to natural resources, and just as importantly, to prevent rival powers such as China and Russia from gaining access to those same resources. The United States invaded Iraq not only to secure oil for itself, but also to control the spigot. This would have allowed the United States to stop its reliance on the increasingly unstable (and dwindling) Saudi Arabian oil fields, while also permitting the construction of military bases right in the heart of the volatile Middle East. A garrison of troops and warplanes in Iraq would have been well within striking distance of China, Russia, and Iran; combined with an already established military presence in South Korea and Japan, American supremacy in the region would have been assured.

Anyone keeping track of the news will realize that things are not going according to plan. Currently, there is a strong push for troop withdrawal both in the United States and Iraq. The new Iraqi government is friendly with Iran and has no interest in permanent American military bases. Trillions of dollars have been spent with little political return.

Because the United States has failed in its primary mission — controlling the resources of Iraq and the larger Middle East — it is now doing the next best thing: destabilizing the region to the point where no one else will be able to exercise control either.

This is why there are no plans for American troops to come home anytime soon, despite the fact that it is by now common knowledge that American forces are fueling the insurgency in Iraq. The reason is that an unstable, violent Iraq prevents the formation of a goverment which will inevitably want America out and Iran (and other countries) in.

There is no way — no way — that any type of peace will transpire in Iraq as long as American troops remain there, and this is precisely the reason why troops will remain in Iraq for the foreseeable future.

The rationale behind the heating rhetoric over Iran’s nuclear research is also illuminated from this perspective. Every reliable intelligence assessment (including ones conducted by Americans) estimates that Iran is at least 10 years away from making a nuclear weapon. Yet we are witnessing a strong push for war so as to counter Iran’s influence in the region. The country’s ties to the Shia government in Iraq, as well as its growing intimacy with China and Russia, means that Iran is actively looking to counter American influence in the region. Since the United States cannot control Iran, the next best thing is to spread chaos and violence so that no one, not even the Iranians, will be able to control the region either.

Still not convinced? Consider the fact that the injection of instability as a way of furthering American aims has been a key component of American foreign policy in a number of different areas of the world. The United States government funded death squads in Nicaragua as a way of destabilizing Nicaragua’s leftist government, and also funded Afghan holy warriers, or “Mujahadeen” to fight against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. One of those mujahadeen was named Osama bin Laden.

This modus operandi is now being employed writ large over the entire Middle Eastern region. It is why American troops will continue to die, and why the United States will likely be involved in a conflict with Iran before the year is over.

To spread chaos is to spread fear. Members of the Bush Administration believe that by threatening countries with social disorder, violence, and war, they will be able to secure American supremacy for the next century. Those who are at the height of power always make the mistake of pride, and current American leaders are no different. Despite all their education, pedigrees, and wealth, they are just as human as the rest of us, except that their inevitable mistakes will leave the world in a state of utter catastrophe.

If nothing else, I can finally confirm my suspicions about the type of people who attend Harvard, Princeton and Yale.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 at 11:15 am and is filed under Executive Power, Fear and Tyranny, Government Accountability, International Relations, Structure and System, The Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.