- MENU
- HOME
- SEARCH
- WORLD
- MAIN
- AFRICA
- ASIA
- BALKANS
- EUROPE
- LATIN AMERICA
- MIDDLE EAST
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Benelux
- Brazil
- Canada
- China
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea
- Mexico
- New Zealand
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Poland
- Russia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Taiwan
- Turkey
- USA
- BUSINESS
- WEALTH
- STOCKS
- TECH
- HEALTH
- LIFESTYLE
- ENTERTAINMENT
- SPORTS
- RSS
- iHaveNet.com
By William Pfaff
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Kabul at the start of June talking about withdrawal -- or non-withdrawal -- from Afghanistan, but before he went home he stopped through Singapore to talk about an enlarged American military engagement in Asia. That was a speech to an
He said that for some time American Naval and
He ended the Singapore talk by telling a questioner who doubted the permanence of quasi-proprietary U.S. oversight of the South China Sea and other Chinese foreign preoccupations in the region, including the Taiwan relationship and the North Korean problem, that he would wager 100 dollars that the influence of the United States in Asia would be stronger five years from now than it is today.
Now 100 dollars is not a great deal of money, especially to Mr. Gates, who is accustomed to spending trillions of dollars in military expenditures connected with the global U.S base system, as well as running three simultaneously ongoing wars, or less-than-ended wars, or prospective wars, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.
Perhaps that bet should not be taken too seriously; Gates is well paid and can afford to lose. Yet he could win. Five years are a short period in the life of an empire, and the United States is now a militarized and militarist empire of benevolent intention in the minds of the people who have been running it under both Democrats and Republicans since the end of the Cold War. Before that it was a fortress nation focused on a big single threat and a few auxiliary troublemakers. Now it goes in for civilization wars, globally utopian ideologies and altruistic dominion.
The permanence of this undertaking depends upon the American people, who have shown that they can suddenly change their majority minds. This was an isolated and isolationist society from early after its founding. Despite minor episodes of aggression in Mexico and the splendid little war with Spain, the latter seen in Washington, as well as in Iowa and Oregon, as an exercise in political clarification of the incomprehensible Caribbean, and of naval coaling stations and Christian missionaries in the western Pacific, the American nation took until 1917 to really want to go to war again. Woodrow Wilson held the presidency in 1916 on the slogan that "He Kept Us Out of War," but he and the people immediately afterwards decided that getting into the war would actually be rather glamorous.
The Second World War left the public determined to bring the troops home in a heedless rush, reversed just as quickly when Russia posed a menace. Vietnam ended in a shameless precipitation and lies, the conscripts who had fought there getting punished by their elders for having done so. Creation of an all-volunteer army afterwards guaranteed that such sunshine patriots and parasitic careerists as Richard Cheney would never again be personally inconvenienced by a national priority.
Now America's perpetual wars can be conducted by profitable corporations mostly behind the public's back, while members of
This is not impossible. The secretary of defense's Singapore press conference last week was alive with questions of a single tenor: Will you protect us if China threatens us? That is why Secretary Gates and the service chiefs make so much of "access" and scenarios of "area denial." They are thinking of going to war against China. What would those Asian reporters in Singapore think of that? What would an awakened American public think of it? General Douglas MacArthur, a man of greater experience than Mr. Gates, advised against it, but then again Mr. Gates is about to leave the government.
Available at Amazon.com:
Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America's Wars in the Muslim World
Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East (The Contemporary Middle East)
The End of History and the Last Man
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?
Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource
Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water
Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization
At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes
Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century
Dining With al-Qaeda: Three Decades Exploring the Many Worlds of the Middle East
Uprising: Will Emerging Markets Shape or Shake the World Economy
Copyright ©, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
WORLD | AFRICA | ASIA | EUROPE | LATIN AMERICA | MIDDLE EAST | UNITED STATES | ECONOMICS | EDUCATION | ENVIRONMENT | FOREIGN POLICY | POLITICS
World - Outgoing Robert Gates Outlines Future US Presence in Asia | Global Viewpoint