Focus: Brute Force and Military Superiority are all that Matter in US Calculations (3-3)

Modified from once upon a time? The lack of a genuine threat is no argument against spreading their version of "civilization," for their mission is grounded not only in self-defense: it is also a moral mission. Their success and their "peace" directly correlate to American virtue. Those countries and those civilizations that do not enjoy the same success and peace are without virtue. In the most extreme (and, one could argue, most consistent) version of this tale, non-Western parts of the world are less than human -- and they are subhuman by choice. They are immoral, and sometimes even evil. Since爐he US-led燱est represents the good and they represent the evil, US is surely entitled to improve them, by invasion and bombing if necessary. If they do not threaten the US-led燱est today, they might at some indeterminate time in the future. And while the US-led燱est might kill many innocent civilians in their campaign of civilization, those who survive will be infinitely better off than they would have been otherwise. Besides, how "innocent" can any of them be -- since they are members of爄nferior, less than fully human civilizations, and since they are so by choice? This story may have the virtue of simplicity and the attractiveness of notions that support a faltering sense of righteousness -- but it is also grievously, terribly wrong. It ignores the long sweep of history and complex questions of philosophy, morality and politics.
 It should be noted that, besides being wrong for countless reasons, this story contains the seeds of immense destructiveness. The destruction we have seen in the last few years may only be the prelude to infinitely greater destruction still to come. [None of this is to deny or minimize the fact that Americans have genuine enemies who must be confronted. But their current foreign policy is no longer primarily targeted at those enemies, and it has not been since they invaded Iraq. The fable told by those who defend American foreign policy is crucial to the current project of "remaking" the globe, in the name of "benevolent worldwide hegemony." Utopians of all kinds who seek to make their delusions real always have need of such destructive tales.}

The fable peddled after 9/11 addressed questions dealing with the entire world. The wake of Hurricane Katrina unmasked a corollary to this tale. This time, the storyline was contained within their own borders -- but it was no less ugly for that. In fact, the domestic fable that has taken hold in large parts of their爉edia and among many so-called "respectable" intellectuals has confirmed that ancient hatreds have never left them. Those hatreds reveal the most virulent form of racism -- and they ought to give pause to all those who champion the kind of "civilization" they contend Americans are morally justified in exporting by means of missiles, bombs and bullets.

What is most horrifying about the tenacity of these prejudices is the immense extent to which they are contradicted by the facts. But when people are ruled by fear and by the demands of a false belief in their own superiority, facts are easily dispensed with, if they are even considered in the first instance. Americans have no reason to be surprised by these recent revelations: in a culture where peddlers of racist propaganda like Charles Murray and Michelle Malkin are accorded numerous opportunities to spew their ignorance and blatant falsehoods to huge audiences, prejudice and unreasoning hatred are not merely a comparatively insignificant adjunct to the discussion: they are the staples of their diet. Americans ought to recognize the lethality of such a diet: if they do not seek to alter it and bring it into accord with the facts, it will finally kill them.