Ellen Ray and Bill Schaap: Historical Roots of the US "War on Terrorism"

The Pathology of a Single Superpower, NATO and Beyond: The incisive and carefully researched article originally published by Covert Action Quarterly in 1999 sheds light with tremendous foresight on the historical evolution of the US led "War on Terrorism" and the articulation of what has been described as "Global NATO". Secretary of State Madeleine Albright referred to the August 1998 missile assaults against Sudan and Afghanistan, allegedly in retaliation for the US embassy bombings in Africa two weeks earlier, as "unfortunately, the wars of the future." In one sense, she was lamenting the likelihood of various Islamic forces retaliating against American civilian targets. There is, as Albright understands, another side to these wars, more than guided missiles launched from a thousand miles away, with no danger to US troops. American military strategy calls for "the use of overwhelming force to minimize United States casualties". But it is not that simple: Former CIA Director Robert Gates was more precise: "Our people and our government must accept another reality as potential official American targets are hardened, terrorists will simply turn to non official targets, businesses, schools, tourists and so on. We can perhaps channel the threat away from the United States Government, but not away from Americans." What grand scheme, then, is in place, that may bring these "unfortunate" wars back home, against civilians? Recent US strategy, to implement the administration's self appointed role as global policeman, is now defined by its evolving military unilateralism, at home and abroad. With the end of the Cold War, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the US at last realized its objective to be the world's only superpower. Though Washington and Wall Street had always been possessed of a rapacious ambition to control the world's economy, what globalization is all about, there is now the conviction in many quarters that it is developing the military capability to do so.