In the name of a 'Just War' - defending the 'civilised world'
01 May 2002
Extract by Phil Scraton from "Beyond September 11 - an anthology of dissent" (Pluto Press)
On January 29, 2002 George W Bush gave his State of the Nation address. A president whose popularity bordered on the unelectable just a year earlier, whose credibility at home and abroad had seemed torn beyond repair, now enjoyed an 82 per cent rating within the US. The key to this remarkable turnabout was in his first sentence: "As we gather tonight, our nation is at war..." [footnote 1] Forget the economic recession, ignore the criticisms of US global domination and reject the growing alienation of populations throughout the Middle East and Asia, "the State of our Union has never been stronger". As Bush was constantly interrupted by waves of enthusiastic applause, 77 times in all, his triumphalism was unrestrained: "Our nation has comforted the victims ... rallied a great coalition, captured, arrested, and rid the world of thousands of terrorists, destroyed Afghanistan's terrorist training camps, saved a people from starvation, and freed a country from brutal oppression."
Thanks to the US military "we are winning the war on terror". The message of the Afghanistan intervention was "now clear to every enemy of the United States: even 7,000 miles away, across mountains and continents, on mountaintops and in caves - you will not escape the justice of this nation". Yet the "war" on terror was in its infancy as "tens of thousands of trained terrorists ... schooled in the methods of murder, often supported by outlaw regimes" remained at large. The twin objectives for the US and its allies were the elimination of terrorist training camps and the bringing of terrorists to justice alongside the prevention of regimes "who seek chemical, biological or nuclear weapons from threatening the United States and the world". While "training camps operate" and "nations harbour terrorists, freedom is at risk". And so, "our war against terror is only beginning". It represented "the civilised world" against the rest.
Bush named the states and their "terrorist allies" which "constitute an axis of evil", the regimes that "pose a grave and growing danger". The US knew "the true nature" of North Korea, Iran, Iraq and Somalia. Iraq. was "a regime that has something to hide from the civilised world". Meanwhile, the US remained operational in Bosnia, the Philippines and off the coast of Africa "acting" to "eliminate the terrorist parasites". Whatever proved "necessary to ensure our nation's security" would be done without hesitation or further provocation for "the price of indifference would be catastrophic". As has been the habit of many contemporary US senior politicians, Bush transformed collective responsibility for waging war into one of destiny and honour: "History has called America and our allies to action, and it is both our responsibility and our privilege to fight freedom's fight."
History and freedom become self-evident determinants that seemingly release the US and its allies from voluntarism and choice. Perhaps Sir Paul McCartney, with an equally uncomplicated lyric written in support of the post-September 11 military action, more succinctly caught the populist mood that projected Bush's poll ratings into the stratosphere: "This is my right/A right given by God/To live a free life/To live in freedom/Anyone who tries to take it away/Will have to answer/For this is my right/Talkin’ about freedom/Talkin' about freedom/I’ll fight for the right/To live in freedom". Concert hall or Congress hall, the audience was ecstatic; a president and a Knight of the Realm together in perfect harmony. What was remarkable, perhaps not when Thatcher's Falklands/Malvinas War is remembered, was how Bush became elevated to major league statesman and presidential hero while the US economic recession deepened and international markets recoiled from the spectacular collapse of Enron. His State of the Nation speech pressed the right buttons, making spurious yet co