USS Iwo Jima

844-foot Navy warship visits Maine for the 4th


This list painted onto the ship's superstructure gives the post-Cold-War organizing principle for the US military.

Aside from a childhood interest in military hardware, I've never been one to go ga-ga over a warship. Yet I joined thousands of people in Portland, Maine who on Monday toured the USS Iwo Jima. Please read this flag-waving story -- ``Navy ship inspires awe'' -- for the mainstream media details.

Okay, I was rather awestruck by the size and power of this floating platform for delivery of killing machines to far-flung regions of Earth. Killing machine... that's what the ship is, along with all of the tools -- helicopters, Harrier jets, and landing craft -- that travel with it. And these are the tools of intervention, delivering death to opponents of the empire.

It has been a while since such a large warship has made a port call in Maine. I believe the purpose of sending the Iwo Jima so far north is twofold. First, there has been a massive political backlash against the Pentagon after the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) proposed closing or cutting three key Maine facilities last month. The largest of these is the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, a nuclear submarine service base at the far southern tip of Maine along the New Hampshire border. A port call just makes for wonderful PR with which to assuage the masses and blunt the effectiveness of politicians ahead of important hearings on the issue. Second, an impressive ship filled with a diversity of bright, young, skilled wonderful sailors makes a good military recruitment poster. To what degree the myriad youth I saw on board were influenced, I do not know.

The whole picture is tied together by the mythological Terror War. I am not saying that terror does not exist in the world -- it does, and some of it comes off of the Iwo Jima. Some people just do not want to accept the reality of that last point. US conduct of the Terror War has far too often meant that innocent civilians get US bombs dropped on their heads. The victims of these bombs are just as innocent and just as killed or hurt as US victims of 911. US propaganda claims that protection of civilians is undertaken through various means, like smart bombs. But time and time again, it is shown that the reality is quite different, as the actual conduct of the war means dumb bombs, flattened cities, home invasions, indiscriminate roundups, and torture in now-US-run dungeons.

I am saying that the the very real images of 911 have already evolved into a myth that supports jingoistic attitudes about war. This PR wedge is well understood by the Bush regime. Note the repeated references to 911, and to the nobility of the men and women in uniform serving the president as he is ``taking the fight to the terrorists abroad'' that infuse all of Bush's recent stay-the-course speeches on Iraq.


Bush speaks war on the 4th of July in Morgantown, WV

See how in the 4th of July message the president's speechwriter has expertly woven the 911 image with a subtle recruiting pitch:

At this hour, our men and women in uniform are defending America against the threats of the 21st century. The war we are fighting came to our shores on September the 11th, 2001. After that day, I made a pledge to the American people, we will not wait to be attacked again. (Applause.) We will bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies. (Applause.)

Our enemies in this new war are men who celebrate murder, incite suicide and thirst for absolute power. They seek to spread their ideology of tyranny and oppression across the world. They seek to turn the Middle East into a haven for terror. They seek to drive America out of the region. These terrorists will not be stopped by negotiations, or concessions, or appeals to reason. In this war, there is only one option, and that is victory.

The underpinning of US war policy is an NSC-68-like grand vision of post-911 terror threats. As I have written before, President Bush is tapped into very powerful stuff. Despite polls showing his support on Iraq has slipped in recent months, Bush still has great power to rally his loyalists and countless others in America who do not possess an analysis adequate to counteract the falsehoods and blatant manipulation that feeds their group fervor.

The American public remains vulnerable to God and country messages that reach hearts and engender feelings of limitless power. People like to feel powerful because of the fact that we can dominate and destroy Iraq while changing its government, occupying its lands, and rebuilding it in our image at our president’s will.