Harry Targ
(a repost and update)
(COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) —"President Joe Biden said Sunday that the U.S. “shall respond” after three American troops were killed and dozens more were injured in an overnight drone strike in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border. Biden blamed Iran-backed militias for the first U.S. fatalities after months of strikes by such groups against American forces across the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war." ZEKE MILLER AND LOLITA C. BALDOR “Biden says US ‘shall respond’ after drone strike by Iran-backed group kills 3 US troops in Jordan,” January 29, 2024).
The world has come a long way from the days of Roman legions slogging across land pillaging and killing. The days of nineteenth century colonial rule -- clumsy and arrogant with foreign occupants of land lording over exploited local workers -- has changed. However, it is important to reflect on the new or more developed techniques of empire, while never forgetting that there are centuries long continuities of techniques of imperial rule.
For starters, Marc Pilisuk reports in Who Benefits From Global Violence and War: Uncovering a Destructive System that the character of war has changed over the years and centuries. Wars today are not usually between nations. Casualties of wars are overwhelmingly civilians rather than soldiers. The weapons used in wars today are more likely than in the past to temporarily or permanently damage the natural habitat as well as kill people.
Wars in recent years have been likely to be fought over natural resources. Nations and groups now are more likely to be supplied with weapons produced by a handful of corporations that specialize in the production of military supplies. These weapons are provided by a small number of nations. Finally, wars fought in modern times, the last 100 years, have caused more deaths than in any other comparable period of human history.
Pilisuk reports that since World War II 250 wars have occurred causing 50 million deaths and leaving millions homeless. (The United States participated significantly in 75 military interventions.)
Recently a number of journalistic and scholarly accounts have added to our understanding of newer techniques of empire, particularly U.S. empire.
Global presence. Pilisuk,
Chalmers Johnson (The Sorrows of Empire), David Vine (Base Nation:
How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World) and others have
estimated that the United States has over 700, perhaps 800 military
installations in more than 70 countries. Some years ago the Pentagon determined
that huge Cold War era military bases needed to be replaced with smaller,
strategically located bases for rapid mobilization to attend to “trouble-spots”
in the Global South, such as in Jordan today. While forward basing in South
Asia and in nations formerly part of the Soviet Union has received some
attention seven new U.S. bases being established in Colombia (within striking
distance of hostile Venezuela) and increased naval operations in the Caribbean
have not. In addition, there are some 6,000 domestic military bases, many that
anchor the economies of small towns.
Privatization of the U.S. military. David
Isenberg (“Private Military Contractors and U.S. Grand Strategy,” PRIO, Oslo,
2009) refers to “...the U.S. government’s huge and growing reliance on private
contractors” which “...constitutes an attempt to circumvent or evade public
skepticism about the United States’ self-appointed role as global policemen.”
While PMCs provide many services, such as combat, consulting, training armies,
and military support, their combat presence in the two major wars of the 21st
century, Afghanistan and Iraq, has generated the most, if limited, public
attention. Isenberg says that between 1950 and 1989 PMCs participated in 15
conflicts in other countries and from 1990 to 2000 another 80. PMCs were
employed in civil wars such as in Angola, Sierre Leone, and the Balkans and
PMCs are all over Africa today.
A recent Washington Post investigation compiled a data base, “Top
Secret America,” “that found 1,931 intelligence contracting firms” doing top
secret work “for 1,271 government organizations at over 10,000 sites.” TSA
indicates that 90 percent of the intelligence work is done by 110 contractors.
Defense department spokespersons and legislators claim that the United States
needs to continue allocating billions of dollars to private contractors to
maintain military performance levels that are minimally acceptable.
The X-47B unmanned combat air vehicle. Artist's
rendering from Defense Industry Daily.
Unmanned aerial vehicles. Nick Turse (The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives) describes the introduction of unmanned aerial weapons in the 1990s and their current weaponry of choice for the White House and others who prefer antiseptic and bloodless (on our side) technologies to eliminate enemies. New predator drones can be programmed to fly over distant lands and target enemies for unstoppable air strikes. Drones have been increasingly popular as weapons in fighting enemies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen.
Connecting drone strikes to assassination teams and other war-making
techniques, Shane, Mazzetti, and Worth, (“Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on
Two Continents,” The New York Times, August 16, 2010) refers to
shadow wars against terrorist targets. “In roughly a dozen countries -- from
the deserts of North Africa, to the mountains of Pakistan, to former Soviet
republics crippled by ethnic and religious strife -- the United States has
significantly increased military and intelligence operations, pursuing the
enemy using robotic drones and commando teams, paying contractors to spy and
training local operatives to chase terrorists.”
Assassinations. The United States has initiated campaigns to identify and assassinate presumed enemies. CIA operatives and private contractors join teams of army specialists under the Joint Special Operations Command (13,000 assassination commandos around the world) to kill foreigners alleged to be affiliated with terrorist groups. These targets can include U.S. citizens living abroad who have been deemed to be terrorist collaborators. In the Western Hemisphere, the United States, through Latin American military personnel trained at the School of the Americas, has long supported assassination programs that now seem to be “globalized,” that is administered everywhere.
Fred Branfman (Alternet, August 24, 2010) starkly describes the
assassination policy: “The truth that many Americans find hard to take is that
mass U.S. assassination on a scale unequaled in world history lies at the heart
of America’s military strategy in the Muslim world, a policy both illegal and
never seriously debated by Congress or the American people.”
Missionary humanitarian interventions. While most techniques of empire involve the direct use of violence, public and private organizations expand the presence of empire through so-called “humanitarian assistance.” While the work of the missionary has often followed the flag, never has such activism impacted so heavily on global politics as today.
For example, The New York Times (July 6, 2010) reported that Christian evangelical groups have transferred substantial amounts of funds to Jewish settlements in occupied territories of the West Bank. Furthermore, fundraising for settlements that stand in the way of the creation of a Palestinian state receive tax exemptions. The newspaper reports on “...at least 40 American groups that have collected more than $200 million in tax-deductible gifts for Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the last decade.”
The newspaper correctly points out that so-called “humanitarian” and tax deductible donations to entities in other countries tied to U.S. foreign policy are not new. But, the article suggests that donations to the settler movement are special “because of the centrality of the settlement issue in the current talks and the fact that Washington has consistently refused to allow Israel to spend American government aid in the settlements. Tax breaks for the donations remain largely unchallenged, and unexamined by the American government.”
Cognitive War.
A recent document prepared by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) suggested that “in cognitive warfare, the human mind
becomes the battlefield. The aim is to change not
only what people think, but how they think and act. Waged
successfully, it shapes and influences individual and group beliefs and
behaviors to favor an aggressor's tactical or strategic objectives.”
This NATO document, of course, is addressing the world
of international relations but the concept of “cognitive warfare” seems to
parallel efforts “to change not only what people think, but how they think and
act.” This project animates the efforts of media conglomerates-print,
electronic, social media platforms. Changing how people think and act has its
historic roots in campaigns to convince citizens to support wars, consume
cigarettes, forget climate disasters, and to find flaws in populations because
of class, race, gender, sexual preference, and/or religion. Creating
images of enemies is central to launching wars. The processes of
“branding” are similar in all realms of human experience.
What is new about imperial policies
While the general character of imperial policies remains the same, whether the
empire is Rome, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain, or the United States,
changes in technology, the state system, ideology, and tactical thinking have
had their effects.
First, imperial rule has become truly global. From bases in far-off places to
unmanned drones flying over literally millions of targets everywhere, empires
operate with no constraints based on geography.
Second, the military has become big business. Private corporations assume a
greater share of Department of Defense budgets. Private companies now clean up
and cook for the troops, train foreign soldiers, assassinate assumed terrorist
enemies, and fight small wars with almost no visibility to publics.
Third, the United States is moving toward fighting wars without soldiers on the
ground. Enemies can be identified by computer and military technologists can
then push the right buttons to kill the unfortunate targets. Killing has become
antiseptic. Killers can say goodbye to the kids in the morning, drive to work,
push some buttons, drive home and spend the evening with the family. Meanwhile
thousands of miles away there are mourners crying over those just assassinated.
Fourth, empires, at least the U.S. empire, can kill with impunity. Targets
labeled terrorist can be eliminated by unmanned space weapons, specially
trained assassination teams, or average foot soldiers.
Fifth, concentrated media control, artificial intelligence, the systematic
lying of governments, censorship in education institutions, and the reification
of war and violence in popular culture transform the consciousness and value
systems of people, both victimizers and victims about the legitimacy of war.
Finally, empires can expand and change the destiny of
peoples through so-called “humanitarian assistance.” Local goals, good or bad,
are furthered by the large financial resources that special interests can bring
to other countries.
Empires have had a long and ugly history. Because of technology, economics, and
ideology new techniques of empire have been added to the old. The struggle
against all empires must continue.
