European and american intellectuals at war

Abstract

"It is impossible to understand the war waged by the USA against Iraq outside the larger framework of the neo-conservative project that was formulated and came to prominence with Ronald Reaganʼs electoral victory in 1980. The men around George Bush Junior who today organise the implementation of this project have been working on it for more than 20 years. Most of them were already active in the Reagan administration, some like Donald Rumsfeld, were employed in the Ford administration even before 1976.1 This project—which is authoritarian in essence—involves a double strategy: to impose conservative values on American society through military mobilization, and to entrench American supremacy abroad through the use of unmasked and unbridled force. The fact that the arms industry profi ts hugely from neo-conservative policies should not hide the more important fact that they are driven by deep ideological convictions. Those beliefs are a mix of ultra-nationalism, extreme social conservatism, fascination for violence, religious fundamentalism and an absolute faith in the virtues of deregulated capitalism. In this ideological construct, war represents far more than just a strategic instrument. It is a model of ethics, an economic strategy, a religious calling,2 an aesthetic value. War is the metaphysical foundation of the neoconservative project, whose particular colours taint all aspects of their rhetoric and practice."