"In the US, Dreaming of Iraq:
The Political Economy of the 'War on Terrorism' "
George Caffentzis
"I am not a criminal.
I am new to Cairo. I live in Baghdad." He told the story
of his dream and the buried treasure,
and he was so believable in the telling that
the night patrolman began to cry. Always,
the fragrance of truth has that effect.
-- Rumi, "In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo:
In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad"(1260-1273)
(Rumi 1996: 210)
Preface, 2002: The Political Economy of "the War on Terrorism"
I wrote the following essay in March 1998, during the last major political-military confrontation of the US government with the Baathist regime of Iraq. It might be useful to review it now when the Bush Administration is preparing for an attack on Iraq to bring about a "regime change."
In it is an analysis of the political economic thinking that is at the basis of Bush's "war on terrorism" (stage two: "The Axis of Evil"). The key argument of this doctrine is very simple:
(1) Almost any advanced technological production process can be used to create "weapons of mass destruction."
(2) Any such production process not directly controlled by a multinational corporation (MNC) headquartered in the US (or Japan or Western Europe) can be used by a government to create weapons of mass destruction.
(3) No goverment outside a list agreed upon by the US government ought to have the capacity to build weapons of mass destruction. Hence,
No government (whether democratically elected or not) outside of the agreed list whose advanced technology is not controlled by an acceptable MNC can be allowed to exist.
