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the demonisation of dissent, has come part and parcel with the To consolidate and expand US hegemony, and to counter fully granting of unlimited war powers, lending the Bush administra- its Russian, Chinese and European rivals, a massive threat is tion a free hand to embark on a new, unlimited war against any required to establish domestic consensus on the unrelentingly regime that challenges US interests. interventionist character of US foreign policy in the new and The protection of a stable dictatorship within Saudi Arabia is unlimited "war on terror". also an integral part of this programme of hegemonic consolida- The bogeyman of Osama bin Laden's international terrorist net- tion and expansion. The Bush administration apparently feels that work thus plays, in the view of the Bush administration, a func- as long as the Saudi establishment continues to pour protection tional role within the matrix of US plans to increasingly subject money into Al-Qa'ida pockets, the required modicum of regional the world order to its military, political, strategic and economic stability will be maintained, thus protecting unimpeded US access influence. This explains the Bush administration's systematic fail- to Middle East oil reserves. Whether or not this policy is viable is ure to investigate known supporters of Al-Qa'ida in Saudi Arabia another matter, although it seems to have "worked" so far, which and Pakistan—and even Al-Qa'ida cells operating within the bor- probably explains why the Bush ders of the United States itself. Whether administration believes it can continue or not Al-Qa'ida members, including in this manner, at least for some time bin Laden himself, are aware of this is further? . another matter. The expansion of the Until Al-Qa'ida loses this functional Osama bin Laden's Functional A " " role within a US-dominated world Role within US Foreign Policy misnamed "war on terror order, this state of affairs is likely to Meanwhile, the scattered continued is thus specifically tailored continue. At the least, the US existence of Al-Qa'ida plays a func- . . overnment has clearly adopted this tional role within world order, at least to target regions of Strategic aay of policies on the basis 5 fa cold for the next few years. The London and economic interest to but meticulous "cost-benefit" analysis, Guardian noted this functional role . weighing up the potential gains and played by Osama bin Laden within the the United States... losses of the following possible matrix of US foreign policy objectives, policies: in a September 18, 2001 report: ¢ Taking meaningful action against "If Osama bin Laden did not exist, it Al-Qa'ida, while damaging US regional would be necessary to invent him. For interests tied to allies who support bin the past four years, his name has been invoked whenever a US Laden; President has sought to increase the defence budget or wriggle out ¢ Allowing allies to continue their support of Al-Qa'ida and of arms control treaties. He has been used to justify even refraining from action against it, in order to protect perceived US President Bush's missile defence programme, though neither he interests. nor his associates [is] known to possess anything approaching bal- The second policy appears to be the one currently adopted by listic missile technology. Now he has become the personification the Bush administration, for the reasons discussed above. It is a of evil required to launch a crusade for good: the face behind the _ policy that amounts, at the very least, to indirect complicity in the faceless terror... [H]is usefulness to western governments lies in September 11 attacks, through ongoing US protection of leading his power to terrify. When billions of pounds of military spend- allies supporting those who carried out the attacks. On this basis. ing are at stake, rogue states and terrorist warlords become assets it is evident that in the near future, on the pretext of targeting scat- precisely because they are liabilities."’ tered terrorist cells connected to Al-Qa'ida, various countries around the world that are of strategic value Slag, to the United States will fall victim to Bush's "new war" for US hegemony. a, o> | WAR on TERRORIS™ |] The expansion of the misnamed "war on terror" is thus specifically tailored to target regions of strategic and economic interest to 7 oo /oaar's PiguRE [ bue one Gea? owT. Ny OV Vv US Strategic and Economic Interests The escalating and contrived "clash of civilisations" that may result from this cyni- cal US policy, with the corresponding chaos and destruction, bears ominous implications for the future of humanity. Indeed, the new pretexts are already being conjured up. President Bush, Jr, vir- tually declared war on any country deemed by the US to be a threat, in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 29, 2002. Bush warned of "thousands of dan- gerous killers, schooled in the methods of murder, often supported by outlaw regimes", and openly threatened an attack on Iran, Iraq and North Korea in particular. Both the US government and media have made concerted efforts to allege some sort of connection between Al-Qa'ida and the 14 = NEXUS the United States... www.nexusmagazine.com AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2002