 |
|
|
Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace By Bill Berkowitz
"Understanding America's Terrorist Crisis: What Should Be Done?" was hosted by The Independent Institute, an Oakland-based libertarian think tank and Co-sponsored by Harper's Magazine, which is edited by Louis Lapham. (While at this might at first glance seem like a curious pairing of sponsors, Bush's "war on terrorism" has drawn criticism from both progressives and some libertarians.) Gore Vidal's appearance was particularly significant in that he is one of the few intellectuals who didn't hesitate to criticize the U.S. government's response to September 11 and raise questions about America's long term foreign policy adventures. Unfortunately, in person, Vidal was not nearly as stimulating as his new book of essays. Moderator Lapham tried to get Vidal's juices flowing by serving up a few softballs. Vidal responded with some clever remarks about the Bush administration and the Enron/Pentagon axis but quickly descended into what has grown to be the very tired "Bush is a dummy" critique. Sure he's not that bright, sure he often looks like a deer caught in the headlights, sure, sure, sure…but so what! Can we move on now? I agreed with Vidal (although the packed house -- which interestingly enough might have been the whitest San Francisco gathering since the Goldwater GOP convention of 1964 -- was agnostic on the point) when he suggested that TeamBush and the US Supreme Court had stolen the 2000 election. Okay, now what? After all, as much as we lament the election results, we gathered to hear Vidal talk about "What Should Be Done" now. To his credit, Lapham delivered a purposeful and stinging critique of Attorney General John Ashcroft's predilection for putting his religious beliefs ahead of the Constitution. Lapham, who has consistently spoken out against the president's "war on terrorism," has been named and targeted by William F. Bennett's newly founded Americans for Victory Over Terrorism.
Panel to the rescue During the second part of the program a panel of local scholars did their best to fulfill the hype of the press release which promised the event would "question the comforting yet largely unexamined consensus that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are incidents unconnected to long-standing U.S. policies that may well be courting a truly catastrophic sequel to the events of Sept. 11." Barton J. Bernstein, Professor of History at Stanford University, Robert Higgs, a Senior Fellow in Political Economy at the Independent Institute and editor of the organization's quarterly journal, The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy, and Thomas Gale Moore, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, delivered abbreviated yet thoughtful remarks on issues such as wasted defense spending, corporate welfare, the erosion of civil liberties, whether the "war on terrorism" could really stop acts of terror, and does US foreign policy provoke the hatred of 9/11. The Independent Institute's Higgs discussed three "Illusions and Realities." The illusions: 1) "The U.S. Defense Department protects the American people"; 2) "The Defense Department has the motivation and the capacity to effectively manage the vast resources placed at its disposal, in a way that enhances the security of the American people, in America"; and 3) "Since September 11, everything is different." (For the "realities," see http://www.independent.org ) Vidal's new book
His performance notwithstanding, check out Vidal's latest book, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated (Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books, 160 pages, $10), which I read this past weekend. Vidal, the author of twenty-two novels, five plays, more than two hundred essays and many screenplays, should be praised for taking up issues that many have shrunk from.
In the book he brings his controversial and irascible perspective to America's "perpetual war for perpetual peace" -- a description that he credits to historian Charles A. Beard. Of particular interest is his essay "September 11, 2001 (A Tuesday)" which is followed by an extensive chart, prepared by the Federation of American Scientists, listing nearly two hundred military engagements by the United States between the Berlin Airlift (1948-49) through Kosovo (1999). Prior to his Herbst Theatre appearance, Vidal told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter that the U.S. response to 9/11 was largely driven by our thirst for oil. "We need Afghanistan because it's the gateway to Central Asia, which is full of oil and natural resources," he said. "We've demonized Iran so we don't have to put a pipeline across it. One of the best ones would be across a tame Afghanistan. That's what it's all about. We are establishing our control over Central Asia." You may not be impressed by Vidal's bestowal of "heartland hero" onto Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, with whom he had a two-year correspondence, nor with his incomplete description of David Koresh and the Waco crowd. But his warning that this administration is ramrodding its permanent "war on terrorism" with no apparent second thoughts about trampling on the Constitution and stripping away civil liberties, is more than worth the ten bucks. |
Gore Vidal 
© 1997-2002 BEI