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Rice begins Mideast tour to promote US-Israeli war aims

Patrick Martin | 25.07.2006 19:05 | Lebanon War 2006 | Anti-militarism | World

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Beirut, Lebanon Monday, the first stop in a trip whose purpose is to shore up the joint US-Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah and give more time for the Israeli military to use American bombs and weapons to devastate Lebanon.

Rice visits Israel not, as media accounts suggest, to act as a moderating influence on the Zionist regime. Rather, following the logic of Bush administration foreign policy, Rice will pressure the Israelis to intensify the violence in south Lebanon so as to create the optimum conditions for joint Israeli and American pressure against the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad.

Inadvertently indicating the real rationale of US policy, Rice declared on her arrival in Lebanon that the US government sought to create a “new Middle East.” Washington has encouraged the assault on Lebanon and supplied Israel with the necessary arms and international backing because the Bush administration sees this escalation as a way of breaking out of the strategic stalemate in Iraq and weakening both Syria and Iran.

There is a strong element of recklessness and disorientation in this perspective. The contradictions in US foreign policy are evident: the Bush administration is seeking to consolidate a Shiite-dominated government in Iraq at the same time that it attempts to liquidate the Shiite-based Hezbollah in Lebanon and prepares for war with the Shiite fundamentalist rulers of Iran.

Iraq’s US-backed prime minister, Nouri Maliki, has issued repeated denunciations of the Israeli attack on Hezbollah, and important sections of the Shiite clergy have called on him to postpone this week’s planned trip to Washington to protest the rain of US bombs and missiles—delivered by Israel’s US-built warplanes—on the Shiite population of south Lebanon.

These contradictions are kept largely out of public view by the servile American media, but they are well known in official circles in Washington, and some criticism is being voiced within the foreign policy establishment. Robert Malley, a former Clinton administration Mideast expert, noted that Rice’s trip makes no sense as diplomacy, since, according to the Bush administration, there are six parties to the current conflict—Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran—and the US government refuses to talk to four of them.

Even more scathing was the assessment by former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who ridiculed Rice’s rhetoric about the birth of a new Middle East. In an interview with the German press, he warned, “That was not a very happy formulation. Labor pains sometimes end in the death of the infant. One must try to know what these labor pains are actually producing. Otherwise one is merely speculating, and playing a form of Russian Roulette with history. This could all end for the United States in a disaster in the Middle East.”

Rice’s first stop in the region was an unscheduled visit to Beirut on her way to Jerusalem. Her aim was to prop up the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, installed last year after the US-backed campaign to force Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon. Rice is seeking to organize whatever coalition of Lebanese political forces can be cobbled together to support the destruction of Hezbollah.
Two weeks into the joint US-Israeli war against the people of Lebanon, the direct military assault is clearly facing a crisis, with Israeli troops encountering unexpectedly tough resistance on the ground, and saturation bombing of south Lebanon so far failing to stop Hezbollah forces from launching rockets against towns in northern Israel.

A large force of Israeli soldiers from the Golani division fought their way into the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbail on Monday. Hezbollah fighters remained in control of the town, but the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), equipped with tanks and armored bulldozers, took control of a key hilltop. The intensity of the fighting is demonstrated in the casualty totals: four Israeli soldiers killed and 20 wounded, with only two Hezbollah fighters taken prisoner. At least one Israeli tank was in flames.

“Air power alone is proving insufficient to rout the guerrillas, who are proving tough opponents on the ground as well,” said one report by the Associated Press. The dispatch continued: “[S]mall-scale pinpoint operations to root out guerrilla positions along the border are proving far more daunting than expected, according to soldiers returning from battle. The troops complain of difficult terrain and being surprised by Hezbollah guerrillas who pop out from behind bushes firing automatic weapons or rocket-propelled grenades.”

A second Associated Press writer described the scene as follows: “The heavy guns thundered before dawn Monday, sending deadly shells crashing down into the Lebanese border town and paving the way for the advancing Israeli tanks and troops. By daybreak, bloody and bruised soldiers, shock etched deep in their faces, were streaming back over the border into Israel.... Two Israeli soldiers were killed and at least 20 were wounded Monday, the army said, as guerrillas in the town, a Hezbollah stronghold, issued a withering barrage of bullets, anti-tank missiles and mortar shells.”

The determination of the resistance has clearly stunned both Israeli commanders and the rank-and-file soldiers of the IDF. The Associated Press account described the use of an IDF tank as an improvised ambulance: “Having brought back his wounded comrades, a tank driver sat on the turret clutching his head between his gloved hands and crying while two crew members tried to console him.”

At a hospital in northern Israel where wounded soldiers were being taken, 21-year-old Yishai Green, lying in his bed, gave this description of the battle for Bint Jbail: “It’s a real mess and I am not allowed to talk about it.”

The Israeli military command seemed to be struggling to grasp the scale of the resistance. Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, IDF chief of operations, initially said 100-200 Hezbollah fighters were dug in at Bint Jbail. Later the overall commander of the IDF, Dan Halutz, estimated the Hezbollah force at over 500.

Despite the biggest Israeli ground offensive since the war began July 12, with Israeli troops making penetrations into Lebanese territory of up to five miles, along a 40-mile stretch of border, Hezbollah units were able to launch nearly 100 rockets, keeping up the pace of firing that they have maintained for the past two weeks.

Whatever the outcome of the current border battles—and no one can doubt that, with overwhelming firepower and control of the air, the IDF will eventually prevail in any such tactical conflict—there are clear indications that from a strategic standpoint the long-planned US-Israeli military operation is in difficulty.

The expectation that heavy bombing alone would suffice to cripple Hezbollah has clearly not been fulfilled. Substantial resistance remains, no prominent Hezbollah leaders have been killed, and the missile firings continue unabated.

The principal impact on Lebanon has been to destroy, not Hezbollah, but the bulk of the country’s civilian infrastructure, painstakingly rebuilt over the last 15 years after the widespread devastation of the civil war. According to media accounts Monday evening, some 90 percent of Lebanese paved roads and 95 percent of bridges—a vital feature in the mountainous terrain—have been rendered unusable by Israeli bombs.
One of the most flagrant attacks on infrastructure came Sunday night, with the destruction of two television towers in the Lebanese highlands, populated by the Maronite Christians who were courted by the Israelis in their previous invasions of Lebanon. While one tower was used to broadcast the Hezbollah network, the other was operated by the Maronite-based Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation. The only reason for its destruction was to take down any source of on-the-spot reporting about the devastating impact of Israel’s bombing campaign.
This reflects the belief on the part of the Olmert government in Israel that such reporting will inflame international opposition to the bombing. But a more direct concern is the impact of such reports on Israeli public opinion.

Despite the claims of virtual unanimity within the populace in support of the bombing campaign, the Israeli political establishment knows the history of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent growth of popular outrage over the mass murders committed by the IDF and its Lebanese allies in the fascistic Phalange. Then-defense minister Ariel Sharon, the organizer of the invasion, was subsequently found partially responsible for these crimes by an Israeli commission and forced to step down.

The current assault on Lebanon is already a war crime of similar dimensions. Although the American media uncritically parrots Israeli and Bush administration propaganda, portraying Hezbollah as a terrorist organization engaged in wanton attacks on civilians, while Israel targets the terrorist combatants and seeks to avoid civilian casualties, the real state of affairs can be seen in the following figures:

As of Monday there were 39 Israeli deaths, of which 22 were soldiers killed in combat and 17 were civilians. On the Lebanese side, there are at least 384 deaths, of which only 31 are Lebanese army soldiers (most blown up in their barracks by Israeli bombs) or Hezbollah guerrillas, while 353 are civilians.

In other words, 42 percent of Israeli casualties are civilians, while 91 percent of Lebanese casualties are civilians. Israel, moreover, is using US-built laser-guided bombs and other weapons that are far more precise in their targeting than the relatively primitive Katyusha rockets of Hezbollah. If these weapons are killing hundreds of Lebanese civilians, it is part of a deliberate policy.

As the scale of the death and destruction inflicted on the Lebanese people becomes apparent—and as the casualty toll among Israeli troops begins to mount as well—a sharp swing in Israeli public opinion is inevitable.

The military mobilization will also have a huge direct effect on the Israeli population. Some 18,000 military reservists have been called up—the equivalent of mobilizing 750,000 new soldiers in the United States. Nearly ten percent of the entire Israeli population, men, women and children, is enlisted in either the IDF or in its reserve forces. As the Los Angeles Times noted, such a mobilization has in the past sparked internal resistance to military actions like the punitive operations in Palestinian towns on the West Bank: “Perhaps due to the perspective that age and experience bring, reservists are likelier than their counterparts in the regular army to question whether Israeli military actions are justified by the threat the country faces.”

The Israeli government is in evident crisis over Olmert’s decision, taken without consulting the cabinet, to launch a full-scale military response to an incident—the kidnapping of two solders—that in the past would have been handled through back-channel negotiations. There is no consensus within the cabinet as to what the next step is to be if, as is universally expected, Hezbollah continues to reject demands to return the two soldiers, withdraw from the border region and dismantle its stockpile of rockets.

Already the Olmert government has shifted its position on the introduction of an international force into the border region, a sign of weakness and internal disarray. Government spokesmen who initially rejected any international force now suggest that a NATO force would be acceptable.

However, it is entirely possible that the Israeli response to its difficulties, under pressure from Rice and the Bush administration, will be to escalate its violence in Lebanon and adopt an even more provocative posture toward Syria and Iran.

-World Socialist Web Site

Patrick Martin
- Homepage: http://www.wsws.org

Additions

Israel, Iran and the US: Who Will be Blamed for Nuclear War?

25.07.2006 20:23

The war on Lebanon may well escalate to the point where the US will use nuclear weapons against Iran, in what would be the first use of nuclear weapons in war since Nagasaki. And the world may well blame the Jewish State [1], [2].

Israel's bombing campaign which is causing immense suffering, is in blatant violation of the Geneva conventions, and deserves the strongest of condemnations. It is especially important for the Jewish community today to distance itself from Israel's immoral government policies and US's support for them. Many Jews are doing this [1], [2], [3], [4], unfortunately, many are not. "Thousands of American Jews clogged the streets" in New York and elsewhere in the US [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8] in support of Israel's actions, reports the Jerusalem Post. Both Houses of the US Congress have just passed solidly backed bipartisan resolutions supporting Israel's actions in Lebanon [1], [2], to "solidify long-term backing of Jewish voters" according to the Washington Post.

The irony is, Israel's war crimes are going to be dwarfed in comparison to the crime against humanity that would take place if the US uses nuclear weapons against Iran. Israel, by its disproportionate reaction and by accusing Iran (without proof) of being behind Hezbollah's actions [1], [2], [3] , [4], will be seen as having played a key role if the conflict escalates to engulf Iran and the United States. Yet the motivation for those that want this to happen [1], [2] is not to ensure Israel's hegemony in the Middle East, rather it is to ensure US hegemony in the world.

Israel's Interests

It goes without saying that Israel would benefit from the destruction of Hezbollah. Yet it is hard to see how the indiscriminate attack against Lebanon that is taking place will achieve anything other than strengthening the already strong support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Arab world. Shmuel Rosner argues in a Haaretz OpEd that Israel is "America's deadly messenger", being used to promote Bush's "democracy agenda". It certainly appears that Israel's current actions are irrational and self-destructive. Unless their real aim is to draw Syria and Iran into the conflict, following directions from Washington. At the very least it is clear that Israel would not be doing this in the absence of a guarantee from the US that it will intervene if the conflict widens, which in any event Bush has already publicly announced. If Iran enters the conflict and shoots a single missile against Israel, the US will step in and destroy the military infrastructure of Iran by aerial bombardment. As suggested by Seymour Hersh and others [1], [2], [3], [4], this is likely to involve the US use of nuclear "bunker busters".

It has been predicted that if the US or Israel attack Iran, Iran will unleash Hezbollah who will carry out devastating attacks against Israel. "Hizbollah was also seen as a means of tying our hands on the Iranian nuclear threat," says an Israeli official. Well, we are in the dress rehersal, and we are seeing that despite all the hype, Hezbollah is a paper tiger. Green light for the Iran attack.

Iran's Interests

What is really unusual about the current flare-up in the Middle East is the barrage of strident denunciations against Iran, from the Bush administration, politicians from across the political spectrum [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], and the mainstream media [1], [2], [3], [4], that uniformly accuse Iran (without presenting evidence) of being behind the Hezbollah actions. This has never happened before when there was conflict in Lebanon where Hezbollah was involved, why now?

One argument is Ahmadinejad's stated animosity against Israel. However, that has been Iran's stated position since 1979.

The other argument is that Iran is trying to "divert attention" from the nuclear issue. That defies the most elementary logic. If Iran was really intent in getting nuclear weapons and destroying Israel, it would try to keep things as quiet as possible until it gets those nuclear weapons, several years into the future.

The reality is that, whether one ascribes to Iran evil or benign intentions, Iran draws no benefit whatsoever from the current turmoil in Lebanon. Neither does Syria. Consequently the rhetoric from the US and Israel suggests a deliberate attempt to draw Syria and Iran into the conflict.

US Interests

A US attack on Iran has been predicted by analysts for several years. The US policy vis-a-vis Iran is clearly directed towards confrontation rather than accommodation. There are many reasons for the US to attack Iran, including the control of energy resources, suppression of a regional power opposite to US and Israeli interests, etc. However I have argued for many months that the key reason for the US to seek a military confrontation with Iran is that it will "force" the US to cross the nuclear threshold and use low yield nuclear weapons against Iranian installations. And this is seen as essential to further US geopolitical goals.

The United States used nuclear weapons against Japan not because it had to. It did so to demonstrate to the world that it was in possession of a new weapon that packed the destructive power of thousands of bombing missions into a single one. To tell the rest of the world, beware.

Since then, it has spent over 5 trillion dollars in building up its nuclear arsenal, but nuclear weapons have become "unusable" after 60 years of non-use. America has achieved nuclear primacy but it is useless, until it shows that nuclear weapons are usable again.  

Low yield B61-11 nuclear bunker busters have already been deployed, just in case "surprising military developments" give rise to "military necessity". Once Iran is drawn into a conflict and shoots a single missile against Israel or US forces in the region, the US administration will argue that the next Iranian missile could carry chemical or biological warheads and cause untold casualties among Americans, Iraqis or Israelis. A low yield nuclear bunker buster will be touted as the most "humane" way to prevent further loss of life.

What could happen

In 1941, a vast military effort was started by the United States to create nuclear weapons, culminating in the Trinity test and subsequent bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The effort was shrouded in secrecy and any moral qualms were set aside. When it succeeded, it was argued that many American and Japanese lives had been saved by nuking Japan into surrender.

Any speculation during the period 1941-1945 that the United States had 100,000 people devoted to create a secret weapon million-fold more powerful than any known weapon would have been dismissed as the ultimate "conspiracy theory".

Similarly, much evidence indicates that a deliberate project, shrouded in secrecy, exists today that will culminate in the nuking of Iran, to "save lives". Many are privy to parts of the plan, as Seymour Hersh revealed, only a few know the plan in its entirety. Low-yield nuclear bunker busters would  be used, untested but as reliable as the untested "Little Boy" that leveled Hiroshima. Americans will buy the "military necessity" argument because it will be true: American troops in Iraq will be sitting ducks facing Iranian missiles, with or without WMD warheads.

After the US uses nuclear weapons again, it will have established the usability of its nuclear arsenal against non-nuclear countries. It will be possible to wage war "on the cheap", saving many American lives in future conflicts. "Support the troops" is the one thing all Americans, no matter how diverse their views are, agree on.

It should not be allowed to happen. The President has sole authority to order the use of nuclear weapons against Iran. We know from previous actions of this administration what Bush, Chen ey and Rumsfeld are capable of. There have been radical changes in US nuclear weapons policies and in preemption "doctrine", and the Bush announcement that the nuclear option is "on the table". In response, there needs to be a strong groundswell call to restrict the absolute presidential authority of this President to order the use of nuclear weapons against Iran. By the general public, by "antinuclear" organizations, by scientific, political and professional organizations. To push Congress into action before it is too late. Without a "nuclear option", the US will be more interested in negotiation than in confrontation with Iran.

Cui Bono?

In the short term, Israel certainly will benefit from the destruction of Iran's military capabilities. 

But Israel will not enjoy peace as a result, because the nuking of Iran will create enormous animosity against Israel in the Muslim world and beyond. To the extent that the world buys the US fable that the nuking of Iran was required by "military necessity" and not premeditated, Israel (and Jews worldwide) will bear a heavier than deserved brunt for having contributed to "precipitate" these events.

The US will reap enormous benefits. Flexing its nuclear muscle, it will establish its absolute hegemony in the Middle East and Central Asia and beyond, and gradually squeeze China and Russia into nuclear disarmament and complete submission.

In the end of course we will all lose. Because the nuclear genie, unleashed from its bottle in the war against Iran, will never retreat. And just like the US could develop nuclear weapons in only 4 years with completely new technology 60 years ago, many more countries and groups will be highly motivated to do it in the coming years.

Think about the current disproportionate response of Israel, applied in a conflict where the contenders have nuclear weapons. 10 to 1 retaliation, starting with a mere 600 casualties, wipes out the entire Earth's population in eight easy steps. Who will be willing to stop the escalation? The country that lost 60,000 citizens in the last hit? The one that lost 600,000? 6 million?

As the nuclear holocaust unfolds, some will remember the Lebanon conflict and subsequent Iran war and blame it  on Israel. Others will properly blame Americans, for having allowed their Executive to erase the 60-year old taboo against the use of nuclear weapons, first in doctrine and then in practice, despite having the most powerful conventional military force in the world. Others of course will blame "Muslim extremism".

And then the blaming will wither away as a three-billion-year old experiment, life on planet Earth, comes to an end.

Prof. Jorge Hirsch
- Homepage: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HOS20060725&articleId=2814


U.S. Iran Policy Irks Senior Commanders

25.07.2006 20:44

The Military vs. Militaristic Civilian Leadership

There is strong evidence that as the Bush administration is mulling over plans to bomb Iran, the simmering conflict between the high-ranking military professionals and the militaristic civilian leaders is bursting into open. The conflict, festering ever since the invasion of Iraq, has now been heightened over the administration's policy of an aerial military strike against Iran. While civilian militarists, headed by Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, are said to have drawn plans to bomb Iran, senior commanders are openly questioning the wisdom of such plans. [1]

The administration's recent statements that it is now willing to negotiate with Iran might appear as a change or modification of its plans to launch a military strike against that country. But a closer reading of those statements indicates otherwise: such pronouncements are premised on the condition that, as President Bush recently put it, "the Iranian regime fully and verifiably suspends its uranium enrichment." In light of the fact that suspension of uranium enrichment, which is nothing beyond Iran's legitimate rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is supposed to be the main point of negotiation, Iran is asked, in effect, "to concede the main point of the negotiations before they started." [2]

Military professionals question the administration's plans of a bombing campaign against Iran on a number of grounds. For one thing, they doubt that, beyond a lot of death and destruction, the projected bombing raids can accomplish much, i.e., destroy Iran's nuclear program. For another, they caution that the bombing campaign could be very costly in terms of military, economic, and geopolitical interests of the United States in the region and beyond. More importantly, however, the professionals' opposition to the administration's bombing plans stems from the fact that, points out the renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, "American and European intelligence agencies have not found specific evidence of clandestine [nuclear] activities or hidden facilities" in Iran. Hersh further writes, "A former senior intelligence official told me that people in the Pentagon were asking, 'What's the evidence? We've got a million tentacles out there, overt and covert, and these guys'-the Iranians-'have been working on this for eighteen years, and we have nothing? We're coming up with jack shit.'" [3]

So far, the jingoistic civilian leaders do not seem to have been swayed by the expert advice of their military experts. And the discord over Iran policy continues.

Some observers have attributed the conflict to Rumsfeld's uneasy relationship with the military hierarchy, arguing that his cavalier attitude and unwillingness to accept responsibility are the main reasons for the ongoing friction between the military and civilian leadership. While there are clear elements of truth to this explanation, it leaves out some more fundamental reasons for the discord. There is a deeper and more general historical pattern-often shaped by the economics of war-to the recurring disagreements between the military and militaristic civilian leaders over issues of war and peace. Let me elaborate on this point.

Evidence shows that business or economic beneficiaries of war, who do not have to face direct combat and death, tend to be more jingoistic than professional military personnel who will have to face the horrors of warfare. Furthermore, military professionals tend to care more about the outcome of a war and "military honor" than civilian leaders who often represent some powerful economic interests that benefit from the business of war. Calling such business and/or ideologically-driven war mongers "civilian militarists," military historian Alfred Vagts points to a number of historical instances of how civilian militarists' eagerness to use military force for their nefarious interests often led "to an intensification of the horrors of warfare." For example, he points out how in World War II "civilians not only anticipated war more eagerly than the professionals, but played a principal part in making combat . . . more terrible than was the current military wont or habit." [4]

The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq serves as another blatant example of civilian militarists' instigation of war in pursuit of economic and geopolitical gains. A number of belatedly surfaced documents reveal that not only were the civilian militarists, representing powerful business and geopolitical interests, behind the invasion of Iraq, but that they also advocated a prolonged occupation of that country in order to avail their legal and economic "experts" the time needed to overhaul that country's economy according to a restructuring plan that they had drawn up long before the invasion. One such document, titled "Moving the Iraqi Economy from Recovery to Growth," was obtained from the State Department by the well-known investigative reporter Greg Palast. The document, also called the "Economy Plan," was part of a largely secret program called "The Iraq Strategy."

Here is how Palast describes the plan: "The Economy Plan goes boldly where no invasion plan has gone before: the complete rewrite, it says, of a conquered state's 'policies, laws and regulations.' Here's what you'll find in the Plan: a highly detailed program . . . for imposing a new regime of low taxes on big business, and quick sales of Iraq's banks and bridges-in fact, 'ALL state enterprises'-to foreign operators. . . . Beginning on page 73, the secret drafters emphasized that Iraq would have to 'privatize' (i.e., sell off) its 'oil and supporting industries.'" [5]

After a detailed account and analysis of the plan, Palast concludes, "If the Economy Plan reads like a Christmas wish-list drafted by U.S. corporate lobbyists, that's because it was. From slashing taxes to wiping away Iraq's tariffs (taxes on imports of U.S. and other foreign goods), the package carries the unmistakable fingerprints of the small, soft hands of Grover Norquist."

Grover Norquist, once registered as a lobbyist for Microsoft and American Express, is one of many corporate lobbyists who helped shape the Economy Plan for the "new" Iraq. In an interview with Palast, Norquist boasted of moving freely at the Treasury, Defense and State Departments, and in the White House, "shaping the post-conquest economic plans...."

The Economy Plan's "Annex D" laid out "a strict 360-day schedule for the free-market makeover of Iraq." But General Jay Garner, the initially-designated ruler of Iraq, had promised Iraqis they would have free and fair elections as soon as Saddam was toppled, preferably within 90 days. In the face of this conflict, civilian militarists of the Bush administration overruled General Garner: elections were postponed-as usual, on grounds that the local population and/or conditions were not yet ripe for elections. The real reason for the postponement, however, was that, as Palast points out, "It was simply inconceivable that any popularly elected government would let America write its laws and auction off the nation's crown jewel, its petroleum industry."

When Palast asked lobbyist Norquist about the postponement of the elections, he responded matter of factly: "The right to trade, property rights, these things are not to be determined by some democratic election." The troops would simply have to wait longer.

General Garner's resistance to the plan to postpone the elections was a major factor for his sudden replacement with Paul Bremmer who, having served as managing director of Kissinger Associates, better understood the corporate culture. Soon after assuming power in Saddam Hussein's old palace, Bremmer cancelled Garner's scheduled meeting of Iraq's tribal leaders that was called to plan national elections. Instead, he appointed the entire "government" himself. National elections, Bremmer pronounced, would have to wait until 2005. "The delay would, incidentally, provide," Palast notes, "time needed to lock in the laws, regulations and irreversible sales of assets in accordance with the Economy Plan. . . . Altogether, the leader of the Coalition Provisional Authority issued exactly 100 orders that remade Iraq in the image of the Economy Plan."

Palast's report is by no means an isolated or exceptional story. It is part of a historical pattern of how or why civilian militarists, often representing powerful interests of the beneficiaries of war, tend to be more belligerent than the professional military. The report also shows that, contrary to popular perceptions, the jingoistic neoconservative forces in and around the Bush administration are not simply a bunch of starry-eyed ideologues bent on "spreading U.S. values." More importantly, they represent influential economic and geopolitical interests that are camouflaged behind the façade of the neoconservatives' rhetoric and their alleged ideals of democracy.

There is clear evidence that the leading neoconservative figures have been long-time political activists who have worked through a network of war-mongering think tanks that are set up to serve either as the armaments lobby or the Israeli lobby or both. These corporate-backed militaristic think tanks include Project for the New American Century, the American Enterprise Institute, Center for Security Policy, Middle East Media Research Institute, Middle East Forum, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and National Institute for Public Policy. Major components of the Bush administration's foreign policy, including the war on Iraq, have been designed largely at the drawing boards of these think thanks, often in collaboration, directly or indirectly, with the Pentagon and the arms lobby. [6]

Even a cursory look at the records of these militaristic think tanks-their membership, their financial sources, their institutional structures, and the like-shows that they are set up to essentially serve as institutional fronts to camouflage the dubious relationship between the Pentagon, its major contractors, and the Israeli lobby, on the one hand, and the war-mongering neoconservative politicians, on the other. More critically, this unsavory relationship also shows that powerful interests that benefit from war are also essentially the same powers that can-and indeed do-make war. Additionally, it explains why civilian militarists are so eager to foment war and international tensions.

By the same token, the incestuous relationship between war beneficiaries and war makers goes some way to explain the increasing tensions between the military and civilian militarists in and around the Bush administration, especially in the context of the administration's plans to bomb Iran. When contemplating war plans, military commanders make some critically important decisions that seem to be of no or very little significance to civilian leaders. Not only the military will have to face direct combat, death, and destruction, but perhaps more importantly, the commanders will have to think very carefully about the outcome of the war and the chances of victory, that is, the of honor and pride of the military.

By contrast, the primary concern and the measure of success for civilian militarists lie in the mere act or continuation of war, as this would ensure increased military spending and higher dividends for military industries and war-induced businesses. In other words, the standard of success for corporate beneficiaries of war, which operate from behind the façade of neoconservative forces in and around the Bush administration, is based more on business profitability than on the conventional military success on the battle field. This is a clear indication of the fact that, for example, while from a military point of view the war on Iraq has been a fiasco, from the standpoint of the powerful beneficiaries of the Pentagon budget it has been a boon and a huge success. This explains, perhaps more than anything ales, the ongoing tensions between the military and militaristic civilian leaders, or chicken hawks.

References:

1. Seymour M. Hersh, "The military's problem with the President's Iran policy," The New Yorker (July 10, 2006):  http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060710fa_fact
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Alfred Vagts, A History of Militarism: Civilian and Military (London: Hollis & Carter, 1959), P. 463.
5. Greg Palast, "Adventure Capitalism," TomPaine.com (October 26, 2004):  http://www.tompaine.com/articles/adventure_capitalism.php
6. William Hartung and Michelle Ciarrocca, "The Military-Industrial-Think Tank Complex," International Monitor January-February 2003):  http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2003/03jan-feb/jan-feb03corp2.html#name

 http://www.cbpa.drake.edu/hossein-zadeh

Ismael Hossein-zadeh is a professor of economics at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa. He is the author of the newly published book, "The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism."

His Web page is,  http://www.cbpa.drake.edu/hossein-zadeh

Ismael Hossein-zadeh
- Homepage: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HOS20060725&articleId=2814