Into the Arms of the Neoconservative Juggernaut

In a sweeping essay that draws together the attacks on 9/11, the recent acceleration of globalization, and the bloody, historic conflicts of the past 500 years, M. Shahid Alam observes that the West is on the cusp of a new crusade, a global battle that will be fought for the glory of a "new American Century." He concludes,

We are the Christian knights in shining armor, once again slaying the dragons that had dared to breathe fire over our cities. Once again, we are battling the slovenly Arabs, the violent Muslims, the fanatic Orientals. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the world's most advanced country is mobilizing for the modern world's first civilizational war. If this war unfolds according to plans--and when the plans begin to unravel--the memory of the Crusades might pale in comparison. That was a local war fought in a tiny corner of the Islamic world. Already this new war is being fought on a broader front that includes Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq and Philippines. And it threatens to be a great deal more deadly.

...Whatever the forces that engineered September 11, this much is clear. It was seized precipitately by the quartet of forces just described ­-- the neoconservative hawks, Corporate America, the Zionists, and the Christian Coalition -- to launch their project of a new American Century, to proclaim endless wars, to seize the profits from the Arab oil fields, to shrink and downsize Islam, to make the world safe for American interests, and to create a hegemony that would last forever. Do we indeed stand at the dawn of a new American Century, whose birth threatens the world with wars, blood, grime, but also promises to deliver profits never dreamed of before?

A hundred years from now, standing in front of the grand monuments raised to commemorate this grand American century, what will Americans think of Osama bin Laden? Will they remember this malevolent genius as the midwife, facilitating the birth of the new American Century? On the other hand, if this project runs into trouble, if it produces blood and grime but no profits, who shall we blame for the human toll of this terrible catastrophe? We can of course blame Osama. Or we can blame the cold hearts, minds cowed by fear, grasping cupidity and a terrible tribalism that delivered mankind, gagged and bound, into the power of the neoconservative Juggernaut.