[Media-watch] New Chomsky essay on Iraq
Kev Kiernan
kevkiernan at hotmail.com
Tue Nov 4 12:32:02 GMT 2003
ZNet Commentary
The Iraq War and Contempt for Democracy
by Noam Chomsky October 31, 2003
Establishment critics of the war on Iraq restricted their comments regarding
the attack to the administration arguments they took to be seriously
intended: disarmament, deterrence, and links to terrorism. They scarcely
made reference to liberation, democratization of the Middle East, and other
matters that would render irrelevant the weapons inspections and indeed
everything that took place at the Security Council or within governmental
domains.
The reason, perhaps, is that they recognized that lofty rhetoric is the
obligatory accompaniment of virtually any resort to force and therefore
carries no information. The rhetoric is doubly hard to take seriously in the
light of the display of contempt for democracy that accompanied it, not to
speak of the past record and current practices.
Critics are also aware that nothing has been heard from the present
incumbents -- with their alleged concern for Iraqi democracy -- to indicate
that they have any regrets for their previous support for Saddam Hussein (or
others like him, still continuing) nor have they shown any signs of
contrition for having helped him develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
when he really was a serious danger. Nor has the current leadership
explained when, or why, they abandoned their 1991 view that "the best of all
worlds" would be "an iron-fisted Iraqi junta without Saddam Hussein" that
would rule as Saddam did but not make the error of judgment in August 1990
that ruined Saddam's record.
At the time, the incumbents' British allies were in the opposition and
therefore more free than the Thatcherites to speak out against Saddam's
British-backed crimes. Their names are noteworthy by their absence from the
parliamentary record of protests against these crimes, including Tony Blair,
Jack Straw, Geoff Hoon, and other leading figures of New Labour.
In December 2002, Jack Straw, then foreign minister, released a dossier of
Saddam's crimes. It was drawn almost entirely from the period of firm US-UK
support, a fact overlooked with the usual display of moral integrity. The
timing and quality of the dossier raised many questions, but those aside,
Straw failed to provide an explanation for his very recent conversion to
skepticism about Saddam Hussein's good character and behavior.
When Straw was home secretary in 2001, an Iraqi who fled to England after
detention and torture requested asylum. Straw denied his request. The Home
Office explained that Straw "is aware that Iraq, and in particular the Iraqi
security forces, would only convict and sentence a person in the courts with
the provision of proper jurisdiction," so that "you could expect to receive
a fair trial under an independent and properly constituted judiciary."
Straw's conversion must, then, have been rather similar to President
Clinton's discovery, sometime between September 8 and 11, 1999, that
Indonesia had done some unpleasant things in East Timor in the past
twenty-five years when it enjoyed decisive support from the US and Britain.
Attitudes toward democracy were revealed with unusual clarity during the
mobilization for war in the fall of 2002, as it became necessary to deal
somehow with the overwhelming popular opposition. Within the "coalition of
the willing," the US public was at least partially controlled by the
propaganda campaign unleashed in September. In Britain, the population was
split roughly fifty-fifty on the war, but the government maintained the
stance of "junior partner" it had accepted reluctantly after World War II
and had kept to even in the face of the contemptuous dismissal of British
concerns by US leaders at moments when the country's very survival was at
stake.
Outside the two full members of the coalition, problems were more serious.
In the two major European countries, Germany and France, the official
government stands corresponded to the views of the large majority of their
populations, which unequivocally opposed the war. That led to bitter
condemnation by Washington and many commentators.
Donald Rumsfeld dismissed the offending nations as just the "Old Europe," of
no concern because of their reluctance to toe Washington's line. The "New
Europe" is symbolized by Italy, whose prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, was
visiting the White House. It was, evidently, unproblematic that public
opinion in Italy was overwhelmingly opposed to the war.
The governments of Old and New Europe were distinguished by a simple
criterion: a government joined Old Europe in its iniquity if and only if it
took the same position as the vast majority of its population and refused to
follow orders from Washington.
Recall that the self-appointed rulers of the world -- Bush, Powell, and the
rest -- had declared forthrightly that they intended to carry out their war
whether or not the United Nations (UN) or anyone else "catches up" and
"becomes relevant." Old Europe, mired in irrelevance, did not catch up.
Neither did New Europe, at least if people are part of their countries.
Poll results available from Gallup International, as well as local sources
for most of Europe, West and East, showed that support for a war carried out
"unilaterally by America and its allies" did not rise above 11 percent in
any country. Support for a war if mandated by the UN ranged from 13 percent
(Spain) to 51 percent (Netherlands).
Particularly interesting are the eight countries whose leaders declared
themselves to be the New Europe, to much acclaim for their courage and
integrity. Their declaration took the form of a statement calling on the
Security Council to ensure "full compliance with its resolutions," without
specifying the means.
Their announcement threatened "to isolate the Germans and French," the press
reported triumphantly, though the positions of New and Old Europe were in
fact scarcely different. To ensure that Germany and France would be
"isolated," they were not invited to sign the bold pronouncement of New
Europe -- apparently for fear that they would do so, it was later quietly
indicated.
The standard interpretation is that the exciting and promising New Europe
stood behind Washington, thus demonstrating that "many Europeans supported
the United States' view, even if France and Germany did not."
Who were these "many Europeans"? Checking polls, we find that in New Europe,
opposition to "the United States' view" was for the most part even higher
than in France and Germany, particularly in Italy and Spain, which were
singled out for praise for their leadership of New Europe.
Happily for Washington, former communist countries too joined New Europe.
Within them, support for the "United States' view," as defined by Powell --
namely, war by the "coalition of the willing" without UN authorization --
ranged from 4 percent (Macedonia) to 11 percent (Romania).
Support for a war even with a UN mandate was also very low. Latvia's former
foreign minister explained that we have to "salute and shout, 'Yes sir.' . .
. We have to please America no matter what the cost."
In brief, in journals that regard democracy as a significant value,
headlines would have read that Old Europe in fact included the vast majority
of Europeans, East and West, while New Europe consisted of a few leaders who
chose to line up (ambiguously) with Washington, disregarding the
overwhelming opinion of their own populations.
But actual reporting was mostly scattered and oblique, depicting opposition
to the war as a marketing problem for Washington.
Toward the liberal end of the spectrum, Richard Holbrooke stressed the "very
important point [that] if you add up the population of [the eight countries
of the original New Europe], it was larger than the population of those
countries not signing the letter." True enough, though something is omitted:
the populations were overwhelmingly opposed to the war, mostly even more so
than in those countries dismissed as Old Europe.
At the other extreme of the spectrum, the editors of the Wall Street Journal
applauded the statement of the eight original signers for "exposing as
fraudulent the conventional wisdom that France and Germany speak for all of
Europe, and that all of Europe is now anti-American."
The eight honorable New European leaders showed that "the views of the
Continent's pro-American majority weren't being heard," apart from the
editorial pages of the Journal, now vindicated. The editors blasted the
media to their "left" -- a rather substantial segment -- which "peddled as
true" the ridiculous idea that France and Germany spoke for Europe, when
they were clearly a pitiful minority, and peddled these lies "because they
served the political purposes of those, both in Europe and America, who
oppose President Bush on Iraq."
This conclusion does hold if we exclude Europeans from Europe, rejecting the
radical left doctrine that people have some kind of role in democratic
societies.
Noam Chomsky is the author, most recently, of Hegemony or Survival:
America's Quest for Global Dominance, from which this commentary is adapted.
For more information on the book, published by Metropolitan Books, see
http://www.hegemonyorsurvival.net.
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