Naomi Klein argues that
“(t)he spectre of terrorism – real and exaggerated – has become a shield of impunity, protecting governments around the world from scrutiny for their human rights abuses.” Guardian/UK
For those who are old enough to remember the Cold War, it is clear that the WoT® functions in precisely the same way, demonizing opponents with little rhyme or reason as a pretext for whatever the geopolitical aspiration of the moment was.
Klein is actually optimistic in a funny way:
“Many have argued that the War on Terror is the US government’s thinly veiled excuse for constructing a classic empire, in the model of Rome or Britain. Two years into the crusade, it’s clear this is a mistake: the Bush gang doesn’t have the stick-to-it-ness to successfully occupy one country, let alone a dozen. Bush and the gang do, however, have the hustle of good marketers, and they know how to contract out. What Bush has created in the WoT is less a ‘doctrine’ for world domination than an easy-to-assemble toolkit for any mini-empire looking to get rid of the opposition and expand its power.”
But the utility of the doctrine should not be judged by the ineptitude of its current practitioners any more than McCarthy’s downfall took the legs out from under the doctrinaire if more subtle anti-Communism that continued to dominate American foreign policy for four further decades and still seems like a gospel to the less sophisticated of the American masses. Klein’s argument in likening the WoT® to a marketing campaign resonates with my own practice of branding it as a trade name; it was clear from the outset that it was crying out for that little ®. True, our proxies of all political stripes can use the brand in the manner of a franchise to justify their own petty repressions (and Klein gives us plenty of persuasive examples), that is no more the ultimate significance of the WoT® brand than the profits of some small Mexican or Indonesian entrepreneur opening a Golden Arches franchise are the measure of corporate McDonald’s globalized reach (as Klein should know). A pandemic brand is no more than a particularly efficient tool of late-capitalism for psychic colonization and rape. The neo-con junta — inept or not, an unopposed superpower of unassailable military might unparalleled in world history — is branding an imperial reign, make no bones about it.
