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thought may be uppermost among those who recently We might expect of progressive democracies that they arranged for the redeployment of a Brigade Combat would evolve towards more and more rational foreign Team from Iraq to America. policies. But because of the dialectic just described, But the planning for martial law in America dates back —_ what we see is the exact opposite: evolution towards almost three decades, from the days when Reagan _ foolish and sometimes disastrous engagements. appointed Rumsfeld, Cheney and others to plan secretly When Britain became more democratic in the late 19th for what was misleadingly called "Continuity [i.e., century, it also initiated the Boer War—a war very suited Change] of Government". Concern about the 2008 to the private imperial needs of Cecil Rhodes, but recession cannot have been on their minds then, or onthe ___ irrelevant if not deleterious to the interests of the British minds of those who introduced the Army's Continuity of people. Operations Program on 19 January 2001. Instead, the Hitler's dreams of a Third Reich, entailing a doomed "full all-hazards threat spectrum" envisaged in that repeat of Napoleon's venture into the heart of Russia, document was clearly ancillary to the doctrine of "full- suited the needs of the German industrialists who had spectrum dominance" that had been articulated in the financed the Nazis; but, from the outset, sane heads of Joint Chiefs of Staff blueprint, Joint Vision 2020, the German military staff could foresee the coming endorsed eight months earlier on 30 May 2000. disaster. The interest of Cheney and Rumsfeld in COG For over a half-century now, beginning with Vietnam, planning, including planning for martial law, also unaccountable forces have been manoeuvring America envisaged full-spectrum dominance. This is made clear into unsustainable adventures on the Asian mainland. by their simultaneous engagement in the 1990s in the | We now know that President Kennedy did not intend public Project for the New ever to commit US combat troops American Century (PNAC). to Vietnam. But the fatal PNAC's goals were stated very For over a half-century planning to expand the Vietnam explicitly in its [September oe . War north of the 17th parallel 2000] document Rebuilding now, beginning with was authorised in the last week America's Defenses: "...to Vietnam, unaccountable of his aborted presidency, increase defense spending so as U probably without his being to establish America's military forces have been aware. When elected President, presence throughout the world . oer Jimmy Carter was determined to as an unchallengeable power. manoeuvring America into reduce the size and frequency of This would entail permanent US unsustainable adventures CIA covert operations. Yet his forces in central as well as east . . national security adviser, Asia, even after the on the Asian mainland. Zbigniew Brzezinski, initiated disappearance of Saddam manoeuvres in Afghanistan that Hussein." led to the largest CIA covert In short, PNAC's program was a blueprint for a _ operation (and in my view, one of the most deleterious) permanent overseas American empire, a project the _ of all time. authors recognised would not be easily accepted by an Our archival historians have not yet fully understood American democracy. Their call frankly acknowledged either paradox, or the forces behind them. As the that it would be difficult to gain support for their philosopher George Santayana famously observed: projected increase in defence spending to "a minimum "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to level of 3.5 to 3.8 percent of gross domestic product, repeat it." oo adding $15 billion to $20 billion to total defense spending annually". The document admitted: "...the | About the Author: process of transformation is likely to be a long one, _ Dr Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a a former professor of English at the University of new Pearl Harbor..." California, Berkeley, is a poet, writer and researcher. For over a half-century now, beginning with manoeuvring America into unsustainable adventures even About the Author: Dr Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and a former professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, is a poet, writer and researcher. His most recent book is The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War (Mary Ferrell Foundation Press, 2008, http://www.maryferrell.org/ wiki/index.php/MFF_Store). His article "The Far West Drug Meta-Group" was published in NEXUS vol. 13, nos 4-5, 2006. Dr Scott's website is http://www.peterdalescott.net. To read the complete text and endnotes of Dr Scott's article this edition, go to http://www. globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11681. Repeating the Mistakes of History? Progressive societies (in this era, usually democracies) tend to expand their presence beyond their geographic boundaries. This expanded presence calls for new institutions, usually (like the CIA) free from democratic accountability. This accretion of unaccountable power, in what I have elsewhere called "the deep state", disrupts the public state's system of checks and balances which is the underpinning of sane, deliberative policy. NEXUS ¢ 15 Vietnam, unaccountable forces have been on the Asian mainland. FEBRUARY — MARCH 2009 www.nexusmagazine.com