Take a few minutes to read this interesting post by blogger Ken MacLeod. A self-described “ex-Trot,” MacLeod lays out the leftist case FOR war (sounds amazingly similar to the current White House line, no?), then contrasts it with (an oversimplified but generally accurate version of) the right-wing case AGAINST war. I know of no one who would agree with everything in this essay, but it’s worth a read, if only for this rendering of the road to New World Order:
So what happens after the Cold War? Well, in the former Third World there are a lot of ramshackle tyrannies whose former position as key players in the great contest has been forgotten even by themselves. The US has lost a role and not yet found an empire. Maintaining hegemony means taking down any of an embarrassingly rich array of malefactors, and (partly by this means) dissuading the emergence of any military rival among the metropolitan countries. New American Century. Full spectrum dominance. Sole superpower. You know the drill.
In this situation it is absolutely inevitable that the targets of choice should be (a) no great threat to anyone outside their borders and (b) a bloody menace to people inside them and (c) completely uninspiring to, if not downright detested by, anyone on the left in the West. Vietnam without Vietcong. It’s hardly a surprise that their overthrow should improve matters in the countries concerned, at least in the short run. Whether it’s a good thing for the world and for the long run is another matter entirely. I don’t know where all this is heading, but I have a very bad feeling about it.
(Tip o’ the hat to reader Badri for the link.)