Monday, March 28, 2011
The Pentagon's New Imperial Cartography
I was very surprised of today topic. Because Barnett's book is interesting as an attempt to suggest a post cold war strategic mentality that has far reaching implications for both the American military and the global economy. Also, he clearly a man of the people engaged in nearly single handed attempt to remake the American military so that it can fulfill the American dream of an orderly and peaceful world in which all may pursue life, liberty, and happiness. This article that who control the global economy equal as the American military makes an excuse for they want to have the power and control the world. I read first time that got falling asleep and second time that I got through the text but did not understand. After a today class, I realized that was living inside a small box. Numbers want to have a power, and if they got the power then they want to continue to carry. They can be murder people who feel need to keep the power. It is very sad.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Jinna, thank you for this honest reflection of Barnett's article. Notice how in the Barnett, as Alex has said, "standard of living" is used as a justification just like the rhetoric of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." It's interesting to see how rhetoric and a map that imagines new borders can have such a strong effect. Again, thanks for sharing and welcome to the blog!
ReplyDeletePS. Excellent title to this post!
ReplyDeleteJinna,
ReplyDeleteI agree Jinna; this model, this map of Barnett's is the new justification for US hegemony now that the Cold War excuse is no longer useful. I think this article by Barnett is really a smooth justification for endless wars, mostly on indigenous people in poorer countries who have resources (say, oil, for example) and more that the United States and other "Core" countries might want. For just one other example (of the many possible examples) of desirable things or aspects that a country "in the Gap" might have that the United States might want, is strategic positioning.
For example, being "in control" of an area like Iraq, in the Middle East, would give us the strategic positioning that might be a crucial step for the US in making sure that our "nation" with all it's corporate allies, might prevail, and continue to move toward further political/economic domination of that region, a part of the world that the United States "wants" for our own (to colonize).
The clear goal of "hawks" like Barnett, and President George Bush Jr., and others in the Pentagon-corporate sphere, the "Pentagon's New Map" is really just a total justification for "perpetual war". War is Big Money, very profitable for big business in those areas that wage and support War.
From there Barnett dreadfully simplifies the tremendously diverse global movement that has been protesting, resisting and criticizing "Globalization" for at least 12 years now or more. Remember Seattle? Seattle was one big fat multifarous protest against globalization, to name just one of the scores of cities where international protests have been waged against the "Globalization" of entities such as the IMF, World Bank, and the G8 first world developed (or read Core) nations?
Whereas it is exactly a "binary outcome" that Barnett is preaching that he wants to see here, as he promotes this new "Map", and it reminds me of Bush's assessment of the world, and this ex-presidents "Call" to go to war, the first one, on Iraq during his regime.
Remember when George Bush Jr. put out the "call" just as the US was building up to wage an attack (called a war) on Iraq, in 2003? He declared, "Your either for us or against us". Bush Jr. laid out his completely binary view (map) of the world, and notified all countries that they should get with the US corporate paradigm, or be prepared to be seen as a "rogue state" and be bombed to smithereens-and into submission.
Barnett's view is at least as "summary" as he accuses the "experts" who he says are critics of Globalization, and it is dangerously binary- for or against, just like "Core" or "Gap".
In fact it is so binary that it is really one-sided.
The wars along with total shut down and censorship of permissable protests against Globalization that are impacted by the Patriot act are the dogma and propaganda of hawks, like Bush and Barnett. The results for real people are tragic!
from dogwood, aka, E.C.