In the current discussion of why we are in Iraq at TPM, a reader noted that it's bigger than oil, "it’s about... fostering a proverbial new world order of democratic capitalism based on neoliberal principles."

This isn't a "new world" order but rather the "post-war" order, the war being WWII of course.

America's foreign policy has been built around militarily enforcing an "open door" economically worldwide. It's a zero-sum, real-world game of "Risk". Cold war, international drug war, war on terrorism, all from the same thread. Pile onto that the military-industrial-complex Eisenhower warned us about, a multi-tentacled beast that demands constant feeding. Fan the flames by manufacturing consent with our modern mass media spreading fear into the populace. That's all you need to know about why we are in Iraq today. It's really that simple, and it is certainly nothing new. Particular countries and the resources to be had are backstories.

We can focus on the moment and the worthwhile goal of getting out of Iraq now, but until we can truely begin to hold our leaders, and ourselves, accountable for this capitalistic self-interest run amok, we will find ourselves in the same situation over and over again. Despite all the "it was good for the nation" happy talk lately about Ford's pardon of Nixon, it was disasterous for America in domestic and geopolitical terms. There were no hard lessons learned, no fear instilled in the young bucks then who lead us today. I fear BushCo will skate by even more easily and the young ambitious creeps in today's administration will reap future horrors upon the US and the world when they are able to pull off the next big lie.

It has never been about democracy, or even keeping us safe. Those have just been the excuses used to guile the US public into compliance. Pinochet was our ally in the 70s and beyond. Saddam Hussein was our ally as he was committing his greatest crimes in the '80s. The current Bush administration sent $40 million to Afghanistan in early 2001 to supposedly support anti-drug efforts as the Taliban were beating women and blowing up millenia-old Buddhist statues. Two of our largest trading partners are China and Saudia Arabia. And it's not even always directly about resources. Look at Vietnam -- what did they have we wanted? Nothing. We just didn't want them to nationalize and close the door economically. Like in the game of "Risk," we often confront countries that are empty shells with the only point of taking them being to grab more of the board and "win" the game.

If it were truely about promoting democracy, we wouldn't spurn actual long-time democracies that dissent when we throw our weight around. We wouldn't buddy up so closely with authoritarian regimes. And our policies would not be so counterproductive to actually creating a more democratic and safe world.

Read Rise to Globalism if you haven't already.

peace