[Peace-discuss] Xenophobia and the Warrior Ethos

[John Fettig]

Xenophobia and the Warrior Ethos

[Editorial appearing in the March 17, 2003 edition of America, The national
Catholic weekly magazine]

"SNEERING AND SNOBBERY," the philosopher Mary Midgeley has written, won
dominance for linguistic analysis and existentialism in 201-century
philosophy. Although an overstatement, her comment hits the mark about
philosophical fashions. It points to a desperate ploy in the war of ideas.
When reason alone does not suffice, then strike a superior attitude and deride
your adversary. It is a tactic we have seen repeatedly practiced in the last
months in the debate surrounding the Bush administration's foreign policy Even
respected commentators salt their argument with invective, sneering at the
Europeans for their lack of spunk.

    An egregious offender has been Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. His
now-notorious dismissal of France and Germany as "old Europe" for their
opposition to the U.S.4ed campaign against Iraq crystallized Europe's sense of
injury at U.S. arrogance. When aides in the German and Canadian governments
gave offense in the past to President Bush, they were forced, for their lese
majesty, to resign from office. Not so Mr. Rumsfeld.

    The administration is unrepentant. Rumsfeld's dismissal of "old" allies
France and 'Germany was high politics backed by the administration's National
Security Strategy. That document declared the U.S. intention of brooking no
military rivals. It proposed rebuffing efforts from any quarter trying to
influence U.S. policy so as to lessen American hegemony. The N.S.S. is
unilateralism at its most brazen. It is not surprising the Europeans took
offense. Time is past due for the administration to show some shame for such
studied arrogance.

    The late historian Richard Hofstadter described the mood of contemporary
American politics. "Since what is at stake," he wrote, "is always a conflict
between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise
but the will to fight things out to the finish. Since the enemy is thought of
as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated.
The demand for total triumph leads to the formulation of hopelessly
unrealistic goals, and since these goals are not even remotely attainable,
failure constantly heightens the paranoid's sense of frustration."

    Hofstadter's sketch of "the paranoid style in American politics," written
in 1964 against the background of McCarthyism and John Birch-type
conservatism, describes the temper of George NM Bush's America. At the
pinnacle of power and wealth, the United States appears so riven with fear, it
makes enemies of its friends. It is not enough to rout the Taliban, drive
Osama bin Laden to ground and threaten war against Iraq. The Bush team goes
forth seeking dragons to slay, even if they are France, our oldest ally, and
Germany, the powerhouse of Europe.
   
    The administration's strident militancy has its intellectual defenders. In
an article that appeared in June 2002 in the Hoover Institution's Policy
Review; the international affairs specialist Robert Kagan wrote, "On the all
important questions of power-the efficacy of power, the morality of power, the
desirability of power-American and European perspectives are diverging...."
Kagan summarizes," [O]n major strategic and international questions today,
Americans are from Mars and Europeans from Venus."

    Another unabashed advocate of the power ethic is Robert D. Kaplan. Lbs
Warrior Politics: why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos (Random House) recycles
the realist politics of Machiavelli and Hobbes for the 21st century In a
disorderly world with unconventional threats magnified by technological
prowess, Kaplan argues, leaders must stiffen themselves for the exercise of
power in all its subtlety. His is an ethic for the American imperium. He cites
Livy: "It is better that a wise enemy fear you than that foolish friends
praise you."

    In the 18 MONTHS since the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, the president and
his team have squandered the world's sympathy for the United States. Feelings
of identification with America have soured. Suspicion and antipathy are now
the rule. In Egypt, Said Naggar, a liberal who worked for many years to
promote U.S. ideals, told The Washington Post, "I still believe in these
values, but I don't call them American ideals anymore." In a small village in
rural Ghana, a young boy voiced his candid opinion to a Jesuit missionary
"Your President Bush, he likes to fight too much."

    It is time for Americans to oppose imperial politics and, like a civilized
nation, call to account those who delight in giving offense. It is time to
declare that a policy based on power alone is sheer folly. If permitted to
advance, realpolitik will strangle this republic of free people, just as the
pagan ethos of empire strangled republican Rome.