RETIRED Guyanese scholar in the US, Daniel Gibran, has just published in the letter pages of Kaieteur News an analysis titled, “Explaining America’s forever wars.”
It is absolutely shameful that a Guyanese living abroad had to write such an informative piece when the University of Guyana has an International Relations Department.
There is absolutely nothing from the academics in that department from which Guyanese can learn about international affairs as they probably did on reading what Professor Gibran wrote. Gibran’s stuff should have come from our International Relations folks at UG. But these people, for decades now, have not offered even a small letter in the newspapers or social media about what goes on in the world.
I find Dr. Gibran’s take on US foreign policy very interesting, but I have to disagree fundamentally with his thesis that the 9/11 bombing has a deep psychological hold on US leaders, and explains why since 9/11, the US has got engaged in forever wars.
I quote Dr. Gibran on the connection between 9/11 and the war mentality afterwards: “The post 9/11 era will likely be studied as a moment when external strategy deeply altered internal America.”
Dr. Gibran went on to ask the question and I quote him again: “…whether the US after 9/11 entered not just a military campaign against terrorism but into a permanent psychological, political institutional state of war.”
Dr. Gibran goes on to link 9/11 with the United States’ position on war.
My contestation is that 9/11 has no connection to US predilection for foreign interventions including foreign wars. I go so far to say that there is absolutely no connection. The US goes to war and has been going to war for over a century now because that is what empires do. The United States is an empire and empires see wars as a normal process.
If there wasn’t 9/11, there would have been no difference in how the US sees wars and why it goes to war. In other words, 9/11 came and went but US as an empire continues to do what empires do – fight wars.
There is a complex factor at work that differentiates the US empire with the other two powerful international war machines that history has produced – the Roman Empire and Pax-Brittanica.
This complex factor lies in the national psyche of the US which differentiates the US from Rome and Great Britain. In fact, Gibran touched on the role of the American psyche in going to war but missed the point badly.
He asks the question if something is wrong with the American psyche. This is where he was about to get it right but answered his own question wrongly.
He noted that there is nothing wrong with the American psyche which is similar to three other empires – Rome, Britain and the USSR. There is no scope in a newspaper article to elaborate on why the American psyche has nothing in common with the national psyches in Rome, Britain and the USSR. I am not inclined to lump the USSR in the same category as Rome, Pax-Britannica and Pax-Americana. So, from hereon I will not make any reference to the USSR.
The Roman Empire and the British Empire evolved differently from Pax-Americana. Both previous empires were founded on philosophical principles that guided the behaviour of global hegemony.
Rome inherited the philosophical tradition of ancient Greece and many of the Roman senators and Roman emperors were huge admirers of philosophy. In fact, one Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, wrote a profound philosophy text – “Meditations.”
The Age of Enlightenment had a huge influence on the role of the UK as it became an empire. Sadly, there is no philosophical foundation in the American empire.
One has to understand how the US evolved, how it became powerful, and how it sees power to comprehend why it embraces forever wars. There is a concept called “the American psyche” and it plays a problematic role in the civilisation of the United States.
It is this psyche one has to understand when studying forever wars of the United States. What is taking place in the US at the moment, not just in the US Government and US legislature but in the general American society is the American psyche on display. A dysfunctional psyche not reproduced in any other nation throughout history.
America’s external interventions are for the sake of power and that makes it exceptionally violent unlike Rome and Britain.
The British Empire was a commercial venture. If overseas colonies did not contribute to the economic expansion of the UK, then the UK had little interest in keeping them. The UK expanded overseas in search of markets. The US expands overseas for the sake of power. Unfortunately, space has run out.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
