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 "I
made this film because I feel a sense of responsibility as an
American. Here we are, living in a place of enormous wealth,
opportunity, beauty and privilege, where alongside those things, and to
preserve those things, our government engages in extremely dangerous
behavior. Here, if you choose, you can ignore US foreign policy.
Meanwhile, around the world, American foreign, economic and military
policy, is not something you can ignore. In fact, it is determining the
course of your life, your aspirations and your potential. So, as an
American, I have the chance to try and do something about that..."
 Michael
Burns is the producer/director of two films on American politics, Third
Party and Preventive Warriors. He’s a native of Connecticut and a
veteran of the US student anti-sweatshop movement. He's given
many talks and presentations on his films, US foreign policy, and
related issues.
Preventative Warriors is an in depth look at the Bush
Administration's blueprint for pre-emptive wars for the present
and future. Focussing on a little known strategy document called The National Security Strategy of 2002
released by the White House in September of that year, the film shows
how this paper encapsulates the current direction in US foreign policy
at it advocates a pro-active military posture bent on confronting
threats "before they have emerged." Touching on several themes in
curreny affairs, such as WMD, rogue states, terrorism and the war in
Iraq, the film uses world-class scholars and think-tank members to
drive a discussion on the issues likely to frame the legacy of the 21st
Century.
Michael Burns says: I made this film because I feel a sense of
responsibility as an American. Here we are, living in a place of
enormous wealth, opportunity, beauty and privilege, where along side
those things, and to preserve those things, our government engages in
extremely dangerous behavior. Here, if you choose, you can ignore US
foreign policy. Meanwhile, around the world, American foreign, economic
and military policy is not something you can ignore. In fact, it is
determining the course of your life, your aspirations and your
potential. So, as an American, I have the chance to try and do
something about that and try to make a small change in consciousness
here that could possibly mean something for those struggling to get
through life abroad. I, and of course your readers, along with more and
more people around the world, choose not to ignore what is going on."
- from the indymedia.com interview with the Director
www.preventivewarriors.com
info@preventivewarriors.com
In the Crosshairs of Preventive War
March 2006 Update of :
Bush Pre-emptive War National Security Strategy Targets Iran:
An Interview with Preventive Warriors director Michael Burns
Interviewer is Sara K. Wood, University of Birmingham UK
Michael,
your film on the National Security Strategy of 2002, the document that
served as the official written basis for the pre-emptive war policy of
the White House, came out in May of 2004. What’s happened since then?
Several
things have happened worth paying attention to. The first is that we
have continued to wage a war in Iraq that has turned parts of that
country into the terrorist havens George Bush told us were there before
the war but weren’t. Since the film came out, over a thousand coalition
troops have died, and, according to conservative estimates, tens of
thousands of Iraqis have been murdered, putting the country on the
brink of civil war (or actually in one according to Iraqi former Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi). Along side these awful events, none of the lies
that the war was based on have been apologized for, from Bush’s
assertion that the war’s purpose is to “uphold the integrity of the
United Nations” which he hates and acted against the wishes of, to Jack
Straw’s famous line that the “single question” in Iraq is ridding the
country of weapons of mass destruction. Really? Why are British
soldiers still fighting then? Because as we know that question has long
been settled.
Another
important thing that’s happened is that defense spending all around the
world is way up, including places like Russia and China. This tends to
happen when the world’s biggest power says that military solutions
conceived by it and it alone will settle major world problems. The
message of lawlessness is clear to the rest of the world, and they
respond the way you would expect. They’ve learned the lesson from Iraq
that guns speak louder than words.
So
these are important, albeit profoundly frightening developments that
have occurred or were underway and have continued since the documentary
came out.
What did you make of the new updated 2006 National Security Strategy (NSS) document, the first since the NSS of 2002?
In
the March 16, 2006 unveiling of the new National Security Strategy,
President Bush didn’t revise the stated policy of pre-emption, of
attacking another country first (an action better described as
preventive rather than pre-emptive, as they’re not quite
interchangeable). The new NSS says the policy "remains the same,” and
is a key component of US strategy in the "early years of a long
struggle,” presumably the endless war on terror.
Specifically
the new NSS elaborates by saying, "If necessary… under long-standing
principles of self defense, we [the US government] do not rule out use
of force before attacks occur, even if uncertainty remains as to the
time and place of the enemy's attack…. When the consequences of an
attack with WMD are potentially so devastating, we cannot afford to
stand idly by as grave dangers materialize."
But here we face the same logical breakdown as we did with the 2002 version of the National Security Strategy.
Pre-emption,
attacking someone before they have the opportunity to attack you, is
nothing new. It’s a long-standing and widely accepted strategy employed
by law enforcement against criminals, for example. With a pair of
extremely important qualifications. The legitimate use of it depends on
two things: the evidence of intent of the other to attack, and the
capability of the other to attack. These qualifications mean all the
world of difference. They separate legitimate self-defense measures to
repel an attack from arbitrary use of force whenever you feel like it.
Bush declares his right to use pre-emption divorced from these
qualifications, under the guise of self-defense.
Returning
to a sane use of the word pre-emption (rather than Bush’s, which is
just another way of saying might equals right), I recommend Nicholas
Berry’s look at the new 2006 NSS. Considering intent to attack and
capability to attack as moral and legal necessities to a pre-emptive
strategy, he asks: “What countries might attack the United States or
its allies? Those with capabilities – Russia and China – have
absolutely no intent. Those that might like to develop an intent –
North Korea, Syria, and Iran – have either no or insufficient
capabilities. Thus they have not developed any intention to attack.
The militarism enters the picture when Bush can declare both intent and
capability while manufacturing evidence for both. He did so with Iraq.
He is doing so with Iran. Iran in the NSS is identified as the country
likely to present the ‘single greatest future challenge to the United
States’ and ‘threatens Israel.’ The NSS warns against states that
‘produce fissile material that can be used to make nuclear weapons
under the cover of a civilian nuclear power program.’ Not mentioned is
the fact that IAEA inspectors can [find] no evidence that Iran has a
weapons program. [But] for Bush, who needs evidence?”
I
think Berry is right on the money. And he closes by noting that unlike
Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran’s formal military will not crumble, which I
think he’s right about as well.
So,
to get back to your question, when it comes to the Strategy as a whole,
the 2002 version was geared toward Iraq, and this is geared toward Iran
with very few changes or additions of substance. And again, as far as
preventive war is concerned, there is no revision and certainly no
apology for it.
Iraq
was of course the first application of the preventive war strategy.
Though the majority of Americans now say the war in Iraq is not worth
it, many seem torn about the governmental outcome because you could say
that regime change was welcomed in Iraq. What do you say to the
people, including Iraqis of course, who are glad to have gotten rid of
Saddam Hussein?
Who
wouldn’t be glad? If I were Iraqi I would be thrilled that Saddam
Hussein is behind bars and 74% of the population is. But let’s look at
some other numbers from a 2005 poll of Iraqis undertaken for the UK
Ministry of Defense that was leaked to British media:
Between 45 and 65% of Iraqis believe attacks on US and British troops are justified.
82% are strongly opposed to the presence of coalition troops.
Less than one percent of the population believes that coalition troops are responsible for any improvement in security.
67% feel less secure because of the occupation.
So
what do these numbers tell us? They tell us that people hated Saddam
but hate occupation too and that they refuse to be occupied by armies
with no legitimate presence. They tell us that coalition troops are not
welcomed and are part of the problem not the solution, if the opinion
of the Iraqi people matters at all (after all the supposed aim is to
bring them democracy and to respect their opinion, right?). These
numbers also tell us that the way US and UK government officials try to
frame the argument over and over again- that no matter what, Iraq today
is better than under Saddam- is an absurd, false choice formulation
that any child can recognize as a desperate attempt to spin a
disastrous war. When your argument is that our mass violence is less
worse than someone else’s mass violence, and that the recipients should
be thankful not resentful for our reduced level of violence, then
you’ve lost any conceivable moral authority or ground to stand on.
Comparing two crimes’ severity in order to absolve one is a sick
exercise in my opinion, and a purely academic one. They’re both crimes.
Picking
up on Bush, and to play devil’s advocate for a second, if he’s been
such a disaster, how could the war continue to be waged, and if
confidence in him was shaky from the start, how could the US have
followed him to war in the first place?
It’s
important to keep in mind how the US built its case for war in Iraq.
Lewis Lapham at Harper’s Magazine just wrote an article in which he
counted 237 false or misleading statements, 55 by the President
himself, where he linked Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. Quotes like, in
the War on Terror “you can’t distinguish between Ai Qaeda and Saddam.”
So what was the result of this PR offensive that conflated these sworn enemies into a single evil force?
In
US opinion polls spanning 2003 to 2004, 76% of those responding said
that Saddam Hussein provides assistance to al-Qaeda, with 45% believing
that Hussein was personally involved in the attacks of September 11th.
Forty-four per cent believed that some or most of the hijackers were
Iraqis. And 25% of the US population believed that the US had publicly
released evidence linking Iraq to the planning and funding of 9/11. Of
course all of these are false. They also make my stomach turn. I can
think of nothing more disgraceful than to use what happened on 9/11 for
an unrelated political purpose, to use the anger, confusion, and
vulnerability as an opportunity to be cashed in on. It’s like spitting
on the graves of those office workers, cleaners, clerks, and business
people who died in New York and Washington.
With
these numbers it should be very clear as to how the war was allowed to
start and why it continues. Combine these numbers with a February 2006
Zogby poll that 90% of US troops currently in Iraq think the war is in
retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11 and you start to see how reality
has been supplanted by government spin and propaganda. Most importantly
you see that both US military and public support is based on the goal
of preventing another 9/11. But sadly, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11
and our actions in Iraq are making terrorist attacks more likely,
having invigorated and swelled the ranks of al-Qaeda.
So
in order to understand the war and its origins, as far as US public and
political permissibility is concerned, you have to understand the
verbal effort to tie Iraq to 9/11 and terrorism, concluding with Colin
Powell’s absurd presentation to the UN, and the whole “mushroom cloud
over New York is next” statements: all of these “first-wave” public
relations efforts. This rhetoric about spreading democracy, it’s
important to remember, only surfaced after the supposed foundational
pillars of rationale for the war collapsed one after the other. This is
the second wave.
Iran
is not Iraq, and of course has a much more robust infrastructure and
greater military capability. Despite this, the rhetoric from the Bush
Administration on stopping Iran’s pursuit of nuclear power seems to be
getting more hostile everyday. Do you see the possibility of a US
first-strike attack on Iran?
Well,
there are several things to consider. The first thing to look at, I
think, is something that’s been slightly overlooked. One reason often
put forth as evidence that the US is just posturing and won’t actually
attack Iran is that Iran’s capability of retaliation regionally is much
stronger and its role in global petro-politics too prominent. But this
type of thinking could be a mistake. Remember that before attacking
Iraq, there were no shortage of mainstream commentators from multiple
sides of the political spectrum who accurately predicted disaster in
the country and just the kind of al-Qaeda recruiting exercise it has
become. This suggests that logic should not be given too much credence
when you’re talking about the Bush Administration. They’ve proven very
willing to take massive risks with American dollars and lives in
pursuit of their incredibly ambitious aims. Dismissing the possibility
that they will attack Iran, therefore, because it doesn’t make sense
and may increase violence in the region and beyond is, I think,
unwarranted.
The
truth is that no one knows what the US will do in Iran. One of the most
astute political analysts and public intellectuals in the country,
Phyllis Bennis of the Institute of Policy Studies, put together a list
of key points to keep in mind that I think are extremely important
regarding Iran.
She writes:
-
Escalating rhetoric, continued losses in Iraq, Bush's political
problems, and an ideologically-driven pursuit of power make the
possibility of a U.S. military attack on Iran - however reckless and
however dangerous its consequences - a frighteningly real possibility.
-
Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has not
violated the Treaty. While there appear to be unresolved issues
regarding full transparency, its nuclear program, including enriching
uranium, is perfectly legal under NPT requirements for non-nuclear
weapons states.
-
Iran does not have nuclear weapons; even if it is trying to build a
nuclear weapons program, it could not produce weapons for five to ten
years or more.
-
There is a dangerous, unmonitored and provocative nuclear arsenal in
the Middle East; it belongs to Israel, not Iran. U.S. hypocrisy
and double standards in nuclear policy, accepting Israel's
unacknowledged nuclear arsenal and rewarding India's nuclear weapons
status while threatening war against Iran and denying its own
obligations under the NPT, has undermined Washington's claimed
commitment to non-proliferation.
-
U.S. officials claim they are not considering an invasion of Iran but
"only" surgical air strikes against known nuclear facilities; they have
not explained what their military response will be when Iran
retaliates, whether against U.S. troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the
region, against U.S. oil tankers in near-by shipping lanes, or against
Israel.
-
Global suspicions remain regarding U.S. claims because of Washington's
lies leading to the invasion of Iraq, but international conditions
regarding Iran are significantly different; many governments appear
more willing to consider Iran a "threat."
I
think these observations are highly relevant as tension heats up.
Personally, I don’t feel confident to venture a guess either way on
whether the US will attack Iran. There are persuasive arguments for and
against the likelihood. While unelected political operatives in the
White House may have fantasies of leaving office by striking the
country they hate the most, the possibility of retaliation and
unforeseen consequences may prove too risky to Republicans terrified of
further domestic political fallout as we move into the 2008 election
cycle. So domestic electoral concerns may play a significant role in
what happens. Only time, and the extent of the willingness of citizens
and politicians to expose lies and argue for peace, will tell.
When
it comes to preventive attacks, often you hear people suggest that to
end the suffering of oppressed people in other countries, sometimes our
international system fails, and unilateral action is necessary. What do
you say to that?
That’s
just not how states behave if you look at the world. Just to take a few
obvious examples. Look at the number of deaths in The Republic of
Congo, 38,000 a month right now according to the BBC. And of course you
have Rwanda back in the 90s, 850,000 dead during the presidency of Bill
Clinton who ceaselessly repeats these days how much he “loves Africa.”
I highly recommend the book Shake Hands with the Devil,
Romeo Dalliare’s book on the failure of the world yet again to take
action to prevent mass killings in that country. Or take the fact that
according to the UN over 29,000 children die everyday of hunger and
preventable disease. Or look at Hurricane Katrina in the US last
summer. Looking at just these four events, ask yourself, is ending
suffering a priority for states that can do anything about it? Or is it
more the case that when other interests arise so does the rhetoric
about liberating the oppressed?
As the war continues and potential conflicts loom, where do progressive-minded reformers go from here?
I
think the shock of terrorism understandably causes populations to give
governments leeway where they wouldn’t otherwise- to respond to and
address the situation and increase security. This is what’s happened in
the US and UK obviously. But now we see that we are less safe, hatred
of Western governments is way up, and terrorism is more likely than
ever. So those who so quickly proposed militarist solutions to the
terrorist problem have proven themselves failures and their tactics
counterproductive in the one arena they were given the benefit of the
doubt in- increasing security. The part of the world’s population that
gave them benefit of the doubt in this respect is now waking up to the
reality that others suspected from the beginning: their choices are
making things worse, not better.
I
see justice-minded activists’ main job as making sure of something. We
must make sure that the betrayal and justified disgust directed at the
free-market fundamentalists and war-loving zealots presently in office
do not translate into further disengagement with the critical struggle
for political reform. Our present leaders want compliance, but if they
can’t get it, the next best thing is our tacit agreement out of
frustration, it’s for us to give up on politics because of our
realization of their incompetence and dishonesty. We can’t let this
happen. Political office has to be a centerpiece to long-term
democratic renewal. If there could be a wake up call louder than the
tragic events of our times for the need for more, not less, political
participation with the aim of urgent electoral regime change at home, I
don’t know what it could be.
Thanks very much Michael and congratulations on the continued success with the film.
More about Preventive Warriors is available at its website www.preventivewarriors.com
Michael Burns' current projects are Majority Rules and Laban: The Meaning of the EDSA Revolution.
To book a speaking engagement or interview contact him at info@michaelpburns.com.
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