Le Carre: United States Has Gone Mad.

Englishman

This article by author John le Carre is in todays Times. It makes for interesting reading coming as it does from the master of the spy story himself.

Please note that his views are not neccessarily my views, I present this article simply as food for thought.

Englishman.

The United States of America has gone mad.

John le Carr

America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.

The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press.

The imminent war was planned years before bin Laden struck, but it was he who made it possible. Without bin Laden, the Bushjunta would still be trying to explain such tricky matters as how it came to be elected in the first place; Enron; its shameless favouring of the already-too-rich; its reckless disregard for the worlds poor, the ecology and a raft of unilaterally abrogated international treaties. They might also have to be telling us why they support Israel in its continuing disregard for UN resolutions.

But bin Laden conveniently swept all that under the carpet. The Bushies are riding high. Now 88 per cent of Americans want the war, we are told. The US defence budget has been raised by another $60 billion to around $360 billion. A splendid new generation of nuclear weapons is in the pipeline, so we can all breathe easy. Quite what war 88 per cent of Americans think they are supporting is a lot less clear. A war for how long, please? At what cost in American lives? At what cost to the American taxpayers pocket? At what cost because most of those 88 per cent are thoroughly decent and humane people in Iraqi lives?

How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting Americas anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history. But they swung it. A recent poll tells us that one in two Americans now believe Saddam was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre. But the American public is not merely being misled. It is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear. The carefully orchestrated neurosis should carry Bush and his fellow conspirators nicely into the next election.

Those who are not with Mr Bush are against him. Worse, they are with the enemy. Which is odd, because Im dead against Bush, but I would love to see Saddams downfall just not on Bushs terms and not by his methods. And not under the banner of such outrageous hypocrisy.

The religious cant that will send American troops into battle is perhaps the most sickening aspect of this surreal war-to-be. Bush has an arm-lock on God. And God has very particular political opinions. God appointed America to save the world in any way that suits America. God appointed Israel to be the nexus of Americas Middle Eastern policy, and anyone who wants to mess with that idea is a) anti-Semitic, b) anti-American, c) with the enemy, and d) a terrorist.

God also has pretty scary connections. In America, where all men are equal in His sight, if not in one anothers, the Bush family numbers one President, one ex-President, one ex-head of the CIA, the Governor of Florida and the ex-Governor of Texas.

Care for a few pointers? George W. Bush, 1978-84: senior executive, Arbusto Energy/Bush Exploration, an oil company; 1986-90: senior executive of the Harken oil company. Dick Cheney, 1995-2000: chief executive of the Halliburton oil company. Condoleezza Rice, 1991-2000: senior executive with the Chevron oil company, which named an oil tanker after her. And so on. But none of these trifling associations affects the integrity of Gods work.

In 1993, while ex-President George Bush was visiting the ever-democratic Kingdom of Kuwait to receive thanks for liberating them, somebody tried to kill him. The CIA believes that somebody was Saddam. Hence Bush Jrs cry: That man tried to kill my Daddy. But its still not personal, this war. Its still necessary. Its still Gods work. Its still about bringing freedom and democracy to oppressed Iraqi people.

To be a member of the team you must also believe in Absolute Good and Absolute Evil, and Bush, with a lot of help from his friends, family and God, is there to tell us which is which. What Bush wont tell us is the truth about why were going to war. What is at stake is not an Axis of Evil but oil, money and peoples lives. Saddams misfortune is to sit on the second biggest oilfield in the world. Bush wants it, and who helps him get it will receive a piece of the cake. And who doesnt, wont.

If Saddam didnt have the oil, he could torture his citizens to his hearts content. Other leaders do it every day think Saudi Arabia, think Pakistan, think Turkey, think Syria, think Egypt.

Baghdad represents no clear and present danger to its neighbours, and none to the US or Britain. Saddams weapons of mass destruction, if hes still got them, will be peanuts by comparison with the stuff Israel or America could hurl at him at five minutes notice. What is at stake is not an imminent military or terrorist threat, but the economic imperative of US growth. What is at stake is Americas need to demonstrate its military power to all of us to Europe and Russia and China, and poor mad little North Korea, as well as the Middle East; to show who rules America at home, and who is to be ruled by America abroad.

The most charitable interpretation of Tony Blairs part in all this is that he believed that, by riding the tiger, he could steer it. He cant. Instead, he gave it a phoney legitimacy, and a smooth voice. Now I fear, the same tiger has him penned into a corner, and he cant get out.

It is utterly laughable that, at a time when Blair has talked himself against the ropes, neither of Britains opposition leaders can lay a glove on him. But thats Britains tragedy, as it is Americas: as our Governments spin, lie and lose their credibility, the electorate simply shrugs and looks the other way. Blairs best chance of personal survival must be that, at the eleventh hour, world protest and an improbably emboldened UN will force Bush to put his gun back in his holster unfired. But what happens when the worlds greatest cowboy rides back into town without a tyrants head to wave at the boys?

Blairs worst chance is that, with or without the UN, he will drag us into a war that, if the will to negotiate energetically had ever been there, could have been avoided; a war that has been no more democratically debated in Britain than it has in America or at the UN. By doing so, Blair will have set back our relations with Europe and the Middle East for decades to come. He will have helped to provoke unforeseeable retaliation, great domestic unrest, and regional chaos in the Middle East. Welcome to the party of the ethical foreign policy.

There is a middle way, but its a tough one: Bush dives in without UN approval and Blair stays on the bank. Goodbye to the special relationship.

I cringe when I hear my Prime Minister lend his head prefects sophistries to this colonialist adventure. His very real anxieties about terror are shared by all sane men. What he cant explain is how he reconciles a global assault on al-Qaeda with a territorial assault on Iraq. We are in this war, if it takes place, to secure the fig leaf of our special relationship, to grab our share of the oil pot, and because, after all the public hand-holding in Washington and Camp David, Blair has to show up at the altar.

But will we win, Daddy?

Of course, child. It will all be over while youre still in bed.

Why?

Because otherwise Mr Bushs voters will get terribly impatient and may decide not to vote for him.

But will people be killed, Daddy?

Nobody you know, darling. Just foreign people.

Can I watch it on television?

Only if Mr Bush says you can.

And afterwards, will everything be normal again? Nobody will do anything horrid any more?

Hush child, and go to sleep.

Last Friday a friend of mine in California drove to his local supermarket with a sticker on his car saying: Peace is also Patriotic. It was gone by the time hed finished shopping.

The author has also contributed to an openDemocracy debate on Iraq at www.openDemocracy.net

Realist

GREAT ARTICLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Witch Child

Wow. That is really a neat piece of writing.

I want world peace. I want sanity. I want our president, as unlikely as it sounds, to do the right thing; I want him to back the heck off of Iraq and focus on the real problems America is facing.

If he wants to bloody Saddam's nose, let him do it on his own time. How about we put it on pay per view? Then we can all enjoy it without fearing for the lives of our sons.

Give peace a chance.

~Witch, of the peacemongerer class
'

LB

yawn

I love the alternatives he presented. Oh wait, he didn't. It was simply your basic bash the USA type of crap that most of us here could care less about. Americans are like any group, we bash oursevles daily but take poorly to anyone that tries to do it for us.

Or maybe he's just a Bush hater. Well that is popular with quite a few people and once americans and brits are found laying dead in the sand it may become even more popular. It does'nt matter what he does now. If he backs off Le Carre and others will find something else to hate Bush for. Proably for backing off. For allowing the regime to continue.

Does he write similar articles about Blair? I'm sure he does.

troucul

When was that written? Maybe at one point 88 percent wanted the war, but I'd hesitate to say that is true now. LB, you're right, typical USA bashing. Everyone in the US knows Bush is an idiot, we don't need anyone else telling us so.

Sad thing is, the only thing Americans care about are the outward appearances. Most Americans simply care about leadership ability and bringing respect to the White House. They don't care which initiatives our President brings to the table. He can reduce standards for pollution, war on nations who simply are trying to make themselves self-sufficient, and blind people with reterich, but God forbid he become weak and have an affair.

As far as the polls he cited, I think this one is a more accurate depiction.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/14/bush.poll/index.html

Americans might be a little more ignorant and a little less book smart than Europeans, but give us some credit. We know he's not worthy of being our President, we're just not ready to tell him yet.

Crazy151drinker

What happened to the British of old who owned half the Wolrd???? You guys lost your spark......but we still love you

Texas Apostate

Here we go again. More Bush and America bashing. More "Bush is an idiot". You guys just don't get it. My god has your utopian "Watchtower Paradise on Earth" "Peace on Earth" mentality not let you see the reality of the world.

"I want world peace. I want sanity. I want our president, as unlikely as it sounds, to do the right thing; I want him to back the heck off of Iraq and focus on the real problems America is facing"

You want him to do the right thing. What is the right thing in your mind? You want him to back off Iraq. Last I checked Iraq was still funding terrorism. As long as somebody funds terrorism there will be no peace on earth. On and by the way, what are the problems America is Facing?

"war on nations who simply are trying to make themselves self-sufficient"

Which nation that is trying to make itself self-suffient are we trying to go to war with? Uh... Mexico, Turkey, Iran. I suggest you check some FACTS first before making such an assumption.

Look I wish peace on earth just like the next person, BUT AS LONG AS THERE ARE ROGUE NATIONS AND DICTATORS THAT SUPPORT TERRORISM THERE WILL BE NO PEACE. Wishing is one thing, the reality is another.

Englishman

It was written today! Here's the paper, click on Le Carre on the right of the page.

Realist

Last I checked Iraq was still funding terrorism.

quod erat demonstrandum!!!

no evidence was shown so far!

Texas Apostate

"no evidence was shown so far!".

Let me see, his government admitting that they sends checks to the families of palestinians who blow themselves up and take a few israelies with them to start. Do you really want to sit there and tell me that Saddam is not a threat to that part of the world, if not also the Anglo-Americans, if he was to get his hands on WMD?

Le Carre: United States Has Gone Mad.

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