<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> Agree with Charles, especially when it sees the solution as appealing to Islamic rightist populism in Asia.  Been there, done that, and we got Osama. It makes two mistakes.  It reduces the war drive to a function of an internal crisis of US soverignty.  I mentioned that 9/11 implied such a crisis a week after the event.  That has been suppressed, as Neumann notices.  But he forgets that there is also a threat to US global hegemony due to an ever growing, ever deepening (apparently) global economic crisis.  This first broke out before 9/11.  It is this that produces the war drive on Iraq and beyond.  Once again, the causal sequence: 1) Broad economic crisis (+ exacerbated by 9/11 event!) produces general political paralysis in US ruling class (BTW, US R.C. opinion is NOT reflected in forums such as Davos - this misunderstands the privileged relation of US R.C.to its own global hegemony ).  This paralysis was setting in _before_ Bush staged his coup, and before 9/11. 2) Political paralysis creates vacuum opening for highly focused, ideological, determined, well organized faction(s).  Into the opening - FOR NOW - move American Likud, Haliburton & arms suppliers & Christ fundies & friends, with Am-Likud as political leader and overall organizer.  Think of the Bolsheviks in 1917 Russia (not to badmouth the Bolshies - in fact that is why this is clear to me ;-) as an analogy, except from the far right. 3) Result?  Plan of action to address US political-economic hegemony crisis becomes, by virtual default, that of Am-Likud, the M.E. portion of which they just simply Xeroxed off from Sharon.  But it is the _Am-Likud_, and not _Is-Likud_, that implements and executes the plan - from Washington, not Tel Aviv!!!!!  And they are _American_, not Israeli or Masada-complex types, and not suicidal, and are not "doing it all for Israel" - otherwise, why should they (Am-Likud) care about China, for ex.?  China's no threat to Israel, in fact Israel deals with China (as Hakki pointed out, heh, heh - take that jujitsu, Hakki!).  China is percieved as long term threat to the _US hegemony_. So, folks, it is as simple as 1, 2, 3. Or 1 + 2 = 3.  Now, if other ruling class factions get their act together, or if significant sectors of the masses enter into the vacuum/fray - both of which are already beginning to happen - then Am-Likud & Co. could be dislodged, thrown from the saddle.  But stay tuned for that.     Second is minor, about Israel.  Neumann confuses military with political power. We all know that Israel easily has the _military_ power to "cleanse" out the Palestinians.  Then why hasn't it done so already?  Israel is the #1  military power in the M.E. _because_ it is politically weak: in crude terms, there are 100 million + Arabs, but only 5 million Israelis.  But to even get to this regional military supremacy it has required for over 30 years the "American smokescreen", US political power derived from its global hegemony, to beat the Arabs down.  The present is just a continuation of this, but brought to the point where "Arik can finish the job". -Brad Charles Jannuzi wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE> Interesting piece, but it comes close to falling for some of the pitfalls of rightist populism and American firster gangsterism have waiting. More on this topic later, though; time for lunch. CJ</blockquote> -- /**********************************************************************/ Brad Mayer Technical Support Engineer, Sun One DCE Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Sun One Tools Direct: (510) 869-3466 Fax: (510) 869-3400 Email: bradley.mayer@sun.com /***********************************************************************/   </body> </html>