The Real Enemy is Within
by Neve Gordon
Dissident Voice
September 6, 2002
I am against the war, the (perpetual) war on terrorism as
well as the war against Iraq. I am against empire, the control of nearly 40
percent of the world's resources secured by the deployment of air, naval, and
ground forces in over 800 bases across the globe. And I am against deception;
the claim that United States foreign policy is aimed at ensuring freedom,
justice and democracy around the world, when in fact its overseas agenda is
driven by corporate greed, power and domination.
With the Bush administration determined -- rhetoric aside
-- to oust Saddam Hussein and gain control of oil resources in Iraq, in what
will most likely become an extremely bloody conquest, and the democratic party
rambling along without even a murmur of protest, it is high time that ordinary
citizens speak out clearly and stridently against Bush's insane imperialistic
aspirations.
My claim is straightforward: in the name of fighting
terrorism and spreading democracy around the globe -- which is outright propaganda
considering the embrace of Pakistan's new dictator -- the Bush administration
is undermining democratic processes and institutions within the United States.
Put differently, Bush is exploiting both grief and fear to ruin the very
essence of democratic life.
Let's look at the facts. In order to fund his wars, Bush is
insisting on a $48 billion increase to the current $335 billion military
budget, thus designating 53 percent of government spending on the military
budget, which is already over twenty-three times the combined military spending
of countries identified by the Pentagon as likely adversaries: Cuba, Iran,
Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.
Meanwhile, only 9 percent of the budget will go towards
education and social services, and 6 percent to health. All this at a time when
almost 17 percent of children in the U.S. live in poverty, 44 million people
have no health insurance, and 85 percent of public schools need repair.
Incidentally, the cost of one B-2 Bomber would be enough to repair over 1,000
aging school buildings.
The intolerance towards the plight of the poor is
accompanied by a rapid increase in the authoritarian elements of state power.
Not enough can be said on the ongoing attack on civil liberties, which began
when the USA Patriot Act anti-terror bill was passed in October of last year.
Due process has been suspended in many areas of the criminal justice system,
including the right to speedy trial, freedom from arbitrary police searches,
prohibition against indefinite incarceration and incognito detentions. Surveillance
authority has also been widely broadened, whether through wiretapping or
through the federal government's sweeping new powers to investigate electronic
communications, personal and financial records, computer hard drives and other
individual documents.
In order to justify its foreign policy goals, the
administration has been demonizing all perceived enemies and in this way has
helped awaken local xenophobic tendencies. Not surprisingly, this jingoistic
tactic has had far reaching ramifications for Arabs and Muslims inside the U.S.
as well.
Bush's Manichean worldview
alongside his attack on civil liberties and utter lack of compassion towards
the poor is done in the name of some distorted notion of patriotism. Anyone who
so much as questions the rationality of the policies is immediately shut up and
ostracized. All of which amounts to a drastic diminution of what political
philosopher Hannah Arendt called the public sphere.
Democracy is, after all, dependent on a plurality of views,
on the opportunity of people to express their opinions, debate issues, and
persuade each other. Without a decent
education, access to health, basic civil liberties and an atmosphere of
tolerance towards the other, the public sphere -- which is necessary in order
to express one's views -- shrinks.
Accordingly, I am against the war not only because it will
help Bush underwrite the most egregious acts of violence, which will only
increase hatred towards the U.S. and international terrorism, but also because
Bush's wars undercut basic democratic practices inside the U.S. One year after
the hideous terrorist attacks, U.S. democracy is under assault. The enemy,
though, is not Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein; the enemy is within.
Neve
Gordon teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University,
Israel, and can be reached at ngordon@bgumail.bgu.ac.il