(2003-02-28) Barlow On Cheney Vision

John Perry Barlow on Dick Cheney's Grand Strategy. Historically, there have only been two methods by which nations have prevented the catastrophic conflict which seems to be their deepest habit. The more common of these has been symmetrical balance of power... The other means by which long terms of peace - or, more accurately, non-war - have been achieved is the unequivocal domination by a single ruthless power... I believe that Dick Cheney has thought all these considerations through in vastly greater detail than I¹m providing here and has reached these following conclusions: first, that it is in the best interests of humanity that the United States impose a fearful peace upon the world and, second, that the best way to begin that epoch would be to establish dominion over the Middle East through the American Protectorate of Iraq. In other words, it¹s not about oil, it¹s about power and peace. Well, alright. It is about oil, I guess, but only in the sense that the primary goal of the American Peace is to guarantee the Global Corporations reliable access to all natural resources. wherever they may lie... I actually think it¹s possible that, however counter-intuitive and risky his methods for getting it, what Dick Cheney really wants is peace.

They are trying to convince every other nation on the planet that the United States is the Mother of All Rogue State-s, run by mad thugs in possession of 15,000 nuclear warheads they are willing to use.

(Update: this ignores FourGW opponents.)