'Imperial Hubris' posted by Richard Seymour

A very quick bit of post-prandial criticism, then.

Michael Sheuer is apparently an enlightening yet controversial guy, because he wrote a couple of books as 'Anonymous' - he should have kept it that way. I've just been reading his book 'Imperial Hubris' and I must say it is the most over-rated book to have been shoved in my direction to date. The title suggests an antiwar theme, and many intelligent antiwar commentators - particularly the libertarians at Antiwar.com - have taken a shine to the book, its thesis and its author. But it would be more accurate to say that the title designates precisely the contents of the book, which is very unfortunate for having been published.

The main problem with the book is that it takes as its starting point the ridiculous Clash of Civilizations thesis, developed by the extremely unpleasant Samuel P. Huntington as a riposte to Francis Fukuyama's 'End of History' bilge. Huntington's idea is incoherent - he infers a fundamental cultural sympathy between Islam and Confucianism - Iran and China, united at last. The very notion of 'civilization' as deployed by Huntington is so nebulous as to be useless. The Islamic-Confucian connection that he posits is somewhat undone by the ongoing tensions between, for instance, Vietnam and China. Japan, meanwhile, appears to be much more likely to ally with the US than with Iran or China. In the multipolar world that has ensued from the end of the Cold War, submerged tensions between the US and Europe have come out into the open. I'm being far too generous in treating Huntington's ideas seriously, of course - they're bilge, intellectual detritus emanating from one of the most obnoxious apologists for US power (and, once upon a time, apartheid) to soil a page with his thoughts.

Yet, Scheuer, a former CIA employee who considers himself a moderate conservative, organises his information along lines that suggest a 'civilisational' approach, cites Huntington's ideas approvingly, and argues for them. For instance, he appears to believe that Osama bin Laden has the support of most Muslims, saying "Islam is at war with America"; that the 'war on terrorism' is indeed a war with Islam; that 'they' have ways which 'we' must inevitably find alien; that Bin Laden is "leading and inspiring a worldwide anti-US insurgency" etc. He misinterprets polling data to support the thesis, so that opposition in Muslim countries to an attack on Afghanistan is interpreted as opposition to tackling Al Qaeda (and therefore, tacitly, support for Al Qaeda). He does not bother to mention that a host of non-Muslim countries either had substantial majorities or significant minorities against the war. Scheuer is convinced that Bin Laden is not on the extreme fringe of the Muslim world, but that his message is in fact widely popular - partly because of the importance of Islam in his message, and partly because of the charismatic figure he cuts - a rebel, an icon, a man who left the world of riches for the ascetic life of a warrior (so where did he get that Rolex from, then?). To support this, he cites a rather unconvincing array of anecdotal and academic evidence - relying to a large extent on that ignorant Orientalist, Bernard Lewis.

Scheuer is praised for at least facing up to the reality of US policies and what they are doing to the world. He does, it is true. In fact, he is unflinchingly, brutally honest about it - which is why he has been mislabelled by some as a deranged liberal who wants the US to be wiped out by swarms of plane-crashers and bombers. He repeatedly insists that bin Laden is not merely making it up when he condemns US policies in Palestine, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and elsewhere: he is deadly serious, and it is a mistake to hide behind such cant as 'they're just jealous and hate us cos we're rich n free n they're not'. He suggests that although Al Qaeda is very much interested in creating a new Caliphate in the Muslim world, it has never sought to conquer new land - it insists on 'reclaiming' land colonised by Western imperialism (Iraq, Palestine), or indeed Western culture (Turkey). That won't reassure residents of Constantinople, but he isn't trying to reassure anyone. They do see themselves as opposing injustice to Muslims, and their solution is what they regard as a defensive Jihad to retake what was lost when the British terminated the Ottoman Empire. Scheuer argues that it is the reality of what the US has done to the Muslim world that is inspiring this 'global revolt'. That is, it is US policies which cause Muslims to hate America, not "our freedoms".

But what is Scheuer's solution to this? He is an old-fashioned realpolitiker in many respects. He says he would consider revising some of these policies, to see which ones are really congruent with US interests, but that essentially "the Islamists cannot be appeased" and therefore the US must "get used to and good at killing". Far from being an 'anti-terrorist' operation, the 'war on terror' is a civilizational confrontation, and since the US is not about to depart significantly from its present way of life, "we will have to use military force in the way Americans used it on the fields of Virginia and Georgia, in France and on Pacific islands, and from skies over Tokyo and Dresden. Progress will be measured by the pace of killing and, yes, by body counts ... The piles of dead will include as many or more civilians as combatants because our enemies wear no uniforms."

Oh, but there's more: "Killing in large numbers is not enough to defeat our Muslim foes. With killing must come a Sherman-like razing of infrastructure. Roads and irrigation systems; bridges, power plants, and crops in the field; fertilizer plants and grain mills ... Land mines, moreover, will be massively reintroduced to seal borders". And US soldiers and their families had better stop whining too: "each US soldier put in harm's way goes there not just for country, but for pay and other recompense" and therefore "the nation sends you where you are needed and you die if necessary. Only the US Marines always recall this truism and go quietly and efficiently about the business of killing". Now, this is only necessary if the US is to stand by its present policies, but Scheuer doesn't shy away from this - rather he argues that there are only two choices: either the US can continue to delude itself about counter-terrorism and adhering to "canting words about international comity, civilised norms and high moral standards" or it can "act to preserve our way of life - what Mr Lincoln said is man's last best hope for self-government - by engaging in whatever martial behaviour is needed". Two choices: suicide or murder.

Even if America changes its policies, as far as Scheuer is concerned "we are not choosing between war and peace". If policies are changed, this will only reduce the expenditure of "treasure and blood" over time, but the war for now is inevitable, forced on America, liable to become more savage. And the only changes in policy that Scheuer is really interested in are those which may help US interests. He acknowledges what the US is doing to the world - but is a perfect Hobbesian in his surmisal of it, as he is about other things: "Like America or any state, Israel has a right to exist if it can defend itself or live peacefully with its neighbours".

Scheuer has grabbed attention thinks Iraq is the wrong war, while Afghanistan was the right one, a fairly commonplace view. But goodness knows where else the defense of US interests would take him, and with how much ferocity, if he had a say in matters. Despite his moderately isolationist proclivities, which advert to the casually spouted racist gibberish in the book, he is prepared for global conquest of fantastic proportions that, because it is totally unclad in doctrines about 'exporting democracy', would mantle a neocon's cheek with a blush of shame. And this man is hailed as antiwar?