This war is un-American. That's an unlikely word to use, I know: it has
an unhappy provenance, associated forever with the McCarthyite hunt for
reds under the beds, purging anyone suspected of "un-American
activities". Besides, for many outside the US, the problem with this
war is not that it's un-American - but all too American.
But that does an injustice to the US and its history. It assumes that the
Bush administration represents all America, at all times, when in fact
the opposite is true. For this administration, and this war, are not
typical of the US. On the contrary, on almost every measure, they are
exceptions to the American rule.
The US was, after all, a country founded in a rebellion against
imperialism. Born in a war against a hated colonial oppressor, in the
form of George III, it still sees itself as the instinctive friend of all
who struggle to kick out a foreign occupier - and the last nation on
earth to play the role of outside ruler.
Not for it the Greek, Roman or British path. For most of the last
century, the US steered well clear of the institutions of formal empire
(the Philipines was a lamentable exception). Responsibility was thrust
upon it after 1945 in Germany and Japan. But as a matter of deliberate
intent, America sought neither viceroys ruling over faraway lands nor a
world map coloured with the stars and stripes. Influence, yes; puppets
and proxies, yes. But formal imperial rule, never.
Until now. George Bush has cast off the restraint which held back
America's 42 previous presidents - including his father. Now he is
seeking, as an unashamed objective, to get into the empire business,
aiming to rule a post-Saddam Iraq directly through an American
governor-general, the retired soldier Jay Garner. As the Guardian
reported yesterday, Washington's plan for Baghdad consists of 23
ministries - each one to be headed by an American. This is a form of
foreign rule so direct we have not seen its like since the last days of
the British empire. It represents a break with everything America has
long believed in.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,927860,00.html
