Dreams of Global Hegemony and the Technology of War (page 2 of 2)
by Jerry Harris

Missiles and Space

A new generation of missiles is an essential element for the offensive capabilities of preemptive war. This is the reason that Bush declared the ABM Treaty with Russia null and void. It prevented the development of missiles and spaced based technologies that will be used in military theaters throughout the world. As argued by Rumsfeld and his cohorts conventional warfare needs to be replaced by a “new paradigm, marked by long-range precision strikes and the proliferation of missile technologies…. that will be the central element in the exercise of American power and the projection of U.S. military forces abroad.” (17)

This system would include continuous targeting information, reconnaissance from a “global constellation of satellites” and spaced-based interceptors of high-energy lasers. Here hegemonists make clear their differences with the Clinton globalists. “It is misleading to think of such a system as a ‘national’ missile defense system, for it would be a vital element in theater defense, protecting U.S. allies or expeditionary forces abroad…the Clinton Administration’s differentiation between theater and national missile defense systems is yet another legacy of the ABM Treaty, one that does not fit the current strategic circumstances…Building an effective, robust, layered, global system of missile defenses is a prerequisite for maintaining American preeminence.” (18)

The strategic drive to militarize space is best seen in the call to create a new service under the Department of Defense responsible for space warfare doctrines, organization, and training. This would replace the current U.S. Space Command with U.S. Space Forces. Its purpose would be to control the “new international commons” as “key to world power in the future…(with) the ability to deny others the use of space an essential element of military strategy. (19) But space commons are currently open to competitive commercial operations from over 1,000 companies from some 50 countries. This presents a challenge to Pentagon RMA planners who argue that commercial and security interests are interconnected because communications, imaging satellites and global positioning systems are used for military purposes. According to hegemonists “the distinction between military and commercial space systems – combatants and noncombatants – will become blurred.” (20) Therefore dominating commercial technologies becomes necessary to ensure military preeminence.

Because satellites are essential military assets the government’s commitment to space supremacy has helped consolidate control of the industry under the four big weapons manufacturers, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop-Grumman/TRW and Raytheon, and given them a boost past international competition. In fact, Peter Teets, former Lockheed CEO, is now chief procurement officer for the Air Force in charge of military space with a budget of $65 billion. The Pentagon has also revived failing space programs such as Motorola’s Iridium Satellite LLC, a phone and navigation system in bankruptcy that has received a new $252 million contract. As noted by Loring Wirbel, “The overwhelming role played by large U.S. corporations in building space systems that only the U.S. government is permitted to use represents the backbone of U.S. unilateralism in space.” (21)

One of the most dangerous high tech space weapons under development is the High-frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP) housed under the Strategic Defense Initiative popularly known as the “Star Wars” system. This is a weapon of mass destruction capable of causing floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes through the use of Extremely Low Frequency radar waves. The program is run jointly by the Air Force and Navy and based in Gokoma, Alaska. A study by the U.S. Air Force called for “U.S. aerospace forces to ‘own the weather’ by capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies to war-fighting applications (such as) disrupting enemy operations via small-scale tailoring of natural weather patterns to complete dominance of global communications and counterspace control…In the United States, weather-modification will likely become a part of national security policy.” (22)

Sci-Fi Warriors and Weapons

HAARP isn’t the only science fiction like weapon under development. The Army’s “Land Warrior” program may remind one of Robocop. Driving this vision is the use of Special Forces capable of greater independence and long range operations. These forces have been qualitatively expanded and played a key role in the invasion of Iraq. Eventually these “soldiers may operate in encapsulated, climate-controlled, powered fighting suits, laced with sensors, and boasting chameleon-like ‘active’ camouflage. ‘Skin-patch’ pharmaceuticals help regulate fears, focus concentration and enhance endurance and strength. A display mounted on a soldier’s helmet permits a comprehensive view of the battlefield – in effect to look around corners and over hills – and allows the soldier to access the entire combat information and intelligence system while filtering incoming data. Individual weapons are more lethal, and a soldier’s ability to call for highly precise and reliable indirect fires…allows each individual to have great influence over huge spaces. Under the ‘Land Warrior’ program, some Army experts envision a squad of seven soldiers able to dominate an area the size of the Gettysburg battlefield – where, in 1863, 65,000 men fought.” (23) Although these futuristic soldiers aren’t roaming the Iraq desert some of these technologies already exist and aspects of this program are at work.

Another part of this futuristic vision is “advanced forms of biological warfare that can ‘target’ specific genotypes (that) may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.” (24) The idea of using biotechnology as a weapon of racial genocide and political assassination is astounding in its amoral arrogance. Certainly the entire world would view this as a weapon of terror rather than a “politically useful tool.” Such statements expose how far removed hegemonists are from the international community, having lost all moral guidance in their dreams of power.

The Iraq War

Every new military technology and doctrine needs a war. The interwoven dreams of world dominance and precision RMA warfare came together in the drive to invade Iraq. Technological fascination with military weapons was seen in the first Gulf War in 1991when millions of Americans sat on their couches watching video footage of precision bombs speeding to their targets. CNN even sold tapes of Desert Storm highlights featuring bombing strikes as if they were the latest game entertainment. But only 10% of the bombs used in Gulf War were precision guided, while in Gulf War II this number rose to about 90%. The exciting promise of a bigger and better war featuring new and revolutionary military products was pushed to convince Americans that precision warfare doesn’t kill civilians. Newsweek’s special feature “The War Plan” titled its lead article “Boots, BYTES and Bombs.” Colorful pictures and glowing reports of new killing weapons promised readers that this would be the “first war of the Information Age,” while Major General Robert Scales asserted that Desert Storm was “the last of the machine-age wars.” (25)

Iraq was to be a showcase for these new IT military theories. In his opposition to Powell’s “overwhelming force” doctrine Rumsfeld reduced the number of troops for the planned invasion on at least six occasions. (26) In turn, RMA critics charged the difficulties faced by soldiers in the first weeks of action were a result of too few troops. Instead of Iraqi’s being “shocked and awed” it was the Rumsfeld team who were surprised and roundly criticized in a blizzard of leaks from the Pentagon. By the third week of the invasion Rumsfeld’s techno-war was getting better results, but the mixed success of the operation left the door open for further internal Pentagon struggles. Even as fighting tapered off the looting in major cities was blamed on the lack of sufficient U.S. troops to insure public safety.

The Bush administration insisted the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was necessary for world security and democracy in the Middle East. With no trace of Orwellian irony the Pentagon dubbed the invasion “Iraq Freedom.” But we can again turn to the Project for the New American Century to reveal the true purpose of U.S. strategy. As stated; “the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.” In fact, the need for bases throughout the region “would endure even should Saddam pass from the scene…and even should U.S.-Iranian relations improve… because of longstanding American interests in the region. (27)

In fact, both the U.S. and U.K. have “longstanding interests” in the Middle East. All the talk of bringing democracy to the region seems taken from Rudyard Kipling’s “white mans burden” and the colonial project to “civilize” the Third World. U.S./U.K relations not only rest on a common racist cultural history but are embedded in a mutual imperialist model. Thatcher and Reagan pioneered current neo-liberal economics and New York and London are the world’s largest centers for speculative finance. The U.K. and U.S. are also home to the largest private transnational oil corporations. This alliance is best exemplified by the BP/Amaco merger and such giants as ExxonMobil, Anglo-Dutch Shell and Chevron-Texaco. But among OPEC members and Middle East countries oil resources and production are owned and run by the state. When Washington speaks about democracy it means the free market, neo-liberalism and privatization of the region’s oil. As oil-industry consultant Rob Sobhani has said, “The beginning of liberal democracy (in the Gulf) can be achieved if you take the means of production out of the hands of the state.” (28)

Such concerns are one reason Fadhil Chalabi, an ex-royalist banker, is the Pentagon’s favorite Iraqi political operative. Chalabi advocates an independent oil corporation that will sell 40% of its shares on the international market. Under his plan the Iraqi government would simply regulate and tax the industry. But the invasion goes beyond oil contracts and Western equity ownership. In fact, many oil executives expressed doubts about going to war while at the same time trying to position themselves for future deals. For the industry fear of political chaos competed with their hunger for profits and access.

But hegemonists have greater strategic goals. Military occupation and political domination means unrivaled geopolitical power over other competitors who need oil resources. In the short run the U.S. can demand more political obedience from Russia and the E.U. reconfiguring globalization under unilaterial U.S. leadership, with their longer view focused on China’s rapid industrialization and growing energy needs. According to one CIA study, by 2015 three-quarters of the region’s oil will go to Asia, the greatest part to China. Neo-conservative theorist Robert Kagan links U.S. strategy, RMA and China all together writing, “concern about China was one of the driving forces behind the demand for technological modernization of the American military; it was, quietly, one of the motives behind the push for a new missile defense program; and in a broad sense it had already become an organizing principle of American strategic planning.” (29)

But globalist’s strategic planning defines China as the largest 21st century market, not a strategic threat. In fact, alarms are going off about U.S. political and military unilaterialism disrupting the transnational economic system. Writing for Business Week, Jeffrey Garten, dean of the Yale School of Management, worries that tensions over U.S. arrogance will affect international trade, finance and growth. As he points out, “The global framework of trade and finance has relied on shared perceptions that the world economy should be organized according to a U.S.-style capitalism and led by Uncle Sam. This view can no longer be taken for granted against the backdrop of such widespread international resentment of U.S. foreign policy… Multilateral economic diplomacy has never been more important. (30) Another editorial warns that a “unilateral policy is economic suicide” and may result in trade and financial boycotts. As Business Week points out, “The currency markets, always a volatile arena, could punish the dollar if political rifts that threaten trade and capital flows aren’t mended quickly.” (31) Indeed, if the political disagreements between globalists and hegemonists develop into economic retaliation the whole international system will be in upheaval.

Conclusion

The drive for an imperialist empire has strong appeal to important sections of the U.S. capitalist class and poises a serious challenge to the globalist bourgeoisie. Kagan proudly defends the imperial quest stating, “The ambition to play a grand role on the world stage is deeply rooted in the American character…For those early generations of Americans, the promise of national greatness was not merely a comforting hope but an integral part of the national identity, inextricably entwined with the national ideology. The United States must become a great power, and perhaps the greatest power, they and many subsequent generations of Americans believed, because the principles and ideals upon which it was founded were unquestionably superior...” (32)

These “unquestionably superior principles” are now being exported through the barrel of a gun. A gun reengineered by RMA. Although much faith has been invested in achieving military hegemony through technological superiority such faith has proven misplaced before. The same U.S. arrogance was present in Viet-Nam, a country seen as backward, poor and weak. Often the brilliance of technological engineering blinds would-be world rulers to the more fundamental force of politics. Imperialism inevitably engenders opposition. Its clear that Washington has been surprised by the widespread opposition to war, not only from the world’s people, but from their friends and allies.

History also shows that technological advances are hard to maintain. Developed states tend to rapidly emulate and adopt military innovations while weaker nations focus on defensive measures to counter advanced technologies. In modern times the diffusion of revolutionary military doctrine and technology occurs rapidly. The German advantage in W.W. II of using lighting mobile warfare lasted only two years and the spread of nuclear weapons undercut the American monopoly in a mere four. Today the technological diffusion of IT weapons is beginning to take place, as with Boeing’s Joint Direct Attack Munition bomb. This is simply a general-purpose bomb with a Global Positioning Satellite receiver strapped to it fins for guidance. At $25,000 each it’s considered inexpensive. As John Pike director of GlobalSecurity.org, points out “I think any country with a self-respecting military in fairly short order is going to get in line to buy the genuine American article or is going to have to build their own copy.” (33)

Buying the “genuine American article” is a problem for Washington because foreign military sales are important for corporate profits and war is the best showcase for new weapons. After Desert Storm foreign sales doubled to $20 billion. Although network centric warfare is based on a monopoly over certain information technologies, globalization is spreading knowledge-intensive tools across national borders. While the U.S. guards its monopoly over key systems many commercial technologies can easily be converted for military use, and for some corporations the profits are just too big to turn away from. Evidence of this is already present as Frank Lanza, CEO of L-3 Communicatons Holdings Inc. notes, “The commercial world has permitted access by rogue nations to some very high technology. It’s made the enemy smarter.” (34) Its well known that much of Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons were supplied by the U.S. and Europe.

As studies have pointed out, unlike massive and expensive industrial technologies it is much easier and quicker to assemble very advanced software with a small team of experts. (35) A number of third world countries already have significant computer based technology including China, India and South Korea. Even relatively poor countries may develop defensive measures that concentrate on producing disruptive computer viruses with a small band of hackers. Military technologies may also be sold to third world countries by advanced powers to counter U.S. unilaterialism. And non-state terrorists using networked organizational methods combined with low-tech weapons have already proven all too successful.

Considering all the above factors the U.S. lead may be relatively short. Unilaterialism will only drive other powers to rapidly develop countermeasures creating an insecure world difficult to control. The Iraq War showed that high-tech network centric warfare has its low-tech network warfare counter. The most successful Iraqi defense was guerrilla attacks based on a network of independent nodes acting with speed and flexibility. With greater popular support (as in Viet-Nam) the guerrilla operates in an information rich environment with hundreds of interconnected routes almost impossible to totally disrupt. Many information theorists believe simple systems tend to win out against more complex systems that are subject to a greater number of glitches and problems. Perhaps the experience of 20th century “people’s war” can be remodeled to counter 21st century technology. If so, the dream of world dominance will ultimately reveal itself as a virtual fantasy, seemingly real only to fade when the machine is unplugged.

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