In my latest article,
The Revenge of the Real Empire,
I argue that the British intelligence community has played a crucial
part in dethroning Prime Minister Tony Blair by sowing suspicion about
the premise for the invasion of Iraq (WMD).
As a consequence
of the Downing Street Memo Washington policies, already disrupted by
anti-war protests and the Vale Plame Affair, were thrown into further
turmoil, as the classified note indicated that both Bush and Blair
acted in bad faith for an ideological cause.
It is no secret I
consider this breach of security an act of conscience - or simply
sanity in the face of overwhelming evidence that the imperialistic
policies of pre-emptive warfare, nation building and militant
democratization were hazardous to peace and stability all over the
world.
The neo-conservative "end game" vision of stability and
growth through military campaigns compromised international law, human
rights treaties and the American constitution. It lead to torture, to
more terrorism and to infringement on civil rights, not only for
terrorists or suspects of terrorists, but also for NGO-workers,
activists and ordinary citizens.
The GWOT campaign was a disaster. In terms of strategy, when comes to economy - and with regard to human lives.
The
end of the Bush era marks the beginning of a return to pragmatic
geopolitics, recognizing a need for development and democracy, but also
tempering idealism and security interests with humanitarian concerns,
with legal principles - and with fact based policies.
Both
Project for a New American Century and Commonwealth of Nations are
based on the premise that democracy, development, human rights, good
governance, free trade are desirable methods to achieve a common goal:
global peace.
Peace is a prerequisite for any other global
effort to work, whether it is about knowledge-sharing, coordinated
responses to pandemics and natural disasters, or curbing climate change.
The
2008 election and the enormous support for Barack Obama, in America, in
Europe and in the rest of the world, was also a support for his policy
of reform.
The interest vested in stopping the
neo-conservative onslaught on decency and civil rights, however, must
not result in anti-Americanism or isolationism or disregard for the
project to spread the democratic ideals to the rest of the world, even
to China.
As the BRIC rises in the horizon it is important to
remember that only two of those countries are democratic, that the
largest and fastest growing of those economies is governed by a
one-party state, and that the aggressive rhetoric of Iran combined with
the pursuit of nuclear capabilities is spreading tensions in the region
that can quickly grow into hostilities that spread to the rest of the
world.
Someone will dominate the world scene. If it is not USA,
it will be another. We, the citizens of the world, has an interest in
securing that no matter who the new superpower will be, it is a country
that embraces democracy and human rights.
