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The fundamentalists in the White House
LYNN WALSH outlines the decisive influence exerted on the
Bush II presidency by extreme right-wing big business, the neo-conservative
political right and fundamentalist religious forces.
"THE PENTAGON policy staff", writes Colin Powell
in his memoirs, A Soldier’s Way (1995), was "a refuge of Reagan-era
hardliners". "They’re all right-wing nuts like you", Powell,
then head of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Richard Cheney, who was
then Secretary for Defence. That was in 1991 at the end of the Gulf war, under
Bush I, and he was referring to people like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle,
who are now running the Pentagon under Bush II and vice-president Cheney.
Back in 1991 these hawks were pushing for an aggressive US
policy: no détente with the (disintegrating) Soviet Union, a continuous arms
build-up, and a strategy of global intervention. They were going too far even
for Bush senior, whose more cautious approach to foreign policy had been moulded
in the cold-war era of ‘deterrence’ and ‘containment’ of the Soviet
Union and its satellites. A vital principle for the hawks was military support
for the Israeli state and its expansionist policy. President Bush, on the other
hand, withheld US funds from the Israel regime because of its refusal to halt
settlements in the occupied territories.
Today the ‘right-wing nuts’ are not only running the
Pentagon but also setting US imperialism’s foreign policy agenda. Cheney is
probably the most influential figure in the administration. Under Bush II, the
hawks’ programme is being implemented: a massive arms build up, a strategy of
pre-emptive military intervention, and unwavering support for Sharon and the
Israeli state. Their success in grabbing the levers of power reflects the
decisive influence exerted on the Bush II presidency by extreme right-wing big
business, the neo-conservative political right and fundamentalist religious
forces.
George W’s military-strategic policy (set out in the
National Security Strategy of the US – see Socialism Today No.69) was not just
a response to 11 September, though the wave of anger at the attacks gave Bush
the political opportunity to put it into effect. The new military doctrine was
incubated over a long period by a gang of cold-war warriors and Reagan-era
hawks. In and out of office, they have been associated with several
neo-conservative think-tanks linked to the big arms manufacturers. During the
Clinton administration, the Centre for Security Policy (CSP) and the Jewish
Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) formed the core of a shadow
defence establishment, whose leading figures are now running the White House and
Defence Department. Many of these ultra-right-wingers held top positions in the
Reagan administration, when they campaigned against détente and in favour of an
accelerated US arms programme. Before the election of Bush II, they campaigned
for ‘regime change’ in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Palestinian
Authority. They produced a series of reports and newspaper opinion pieces
vociferously advocating the assertion of US hegemony, unconstrained by
international agreements or hesitant allies. Both are committed to US support
for the Israeli right. Cheney was on JINSA’s board of advisers, and both
Richard Perle (now chair of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board) and James
Woolsey (former CIA director) are still on the board. Apart from producing
propaganda, JINSA’s main activity appears to be arranging trips to Israel for
senior retired officers who work for big arms companies supplying weaponry to
the Pentagon and Israel.
JINSA and CSP are overlapping bodies, funded by a network of
conservative foundations and public relations entities underwritten by far-right
American Zionist organisations, together with money from defence contractors
such as Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Alliant Tech
Systems, Boeing, Ball Aerospace and Technologies, and Hewlett Packard (who
supply missile-defence computer systems). (Jason Vest, The Men From JINSA and
CSP, The Nation, 2-9 September 2002)
JINSA has a budget of about $1.4 million a year, while CSP,
headed by right-wing propagandist Frank Gaffney (formerly a Perle adviser at the
Pentagon) has a budget of about $1 million. As well as defence contractor money,
Gaffney’s organisation is funded by the Olin, Bradley and various Scaife
foundations. These ‘philanthropic’ organisations link big business,
right-wing media (newspapers and radio stations), and the religious right. (John
Mellon Scaife played a major role in the campaign to impeach Clinton.) Both
JINSA and CSP also get cash from Irving Moskowitz, a Californian bingo magnate.
Moskowitz sends millions of dollars a year to far-right Israeli settler groups
like Ateret Cohanim and has funded the construction of new settlements in key
Arab areas around Jerusalem and on the West Bank. He also helped raise the money
for the 1996 reopening of a tunnel under the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif for
Muslims), one of the events that triggered the new Palestinian intifada.
Such funding is consistent with the neo-conservatives’
unwavering support for Israel’s right-wing regime. Reflecting JINSA’s
position that ‘there is no Israeli occupation’, Rumsfeld (at a Pentagon open
discussion on 6 August) repeatedly referred to the ‘so-called Occupied
Territories’. The Israelis, he commented, were merely ‘making some
settlements in various parts of the so-called occupied area’, which was
possible because Israel had ‘won’ all its wars with various Arab opponents.
The neo-conservatives believe that the US should smash Saddam’s regime before
attempting any Israel-Palestine settlement. Only when the balance of forces in
the Middle East is tipped decisively in favour of Israel and against Iran and
the Arab states should there be moves to establish a ‘Palestinian entity’ on
Israel’s terms.
A faction of the Republican party
IN THE AFTERMATH of 11 September, the neo-conservative right
consolidated a dominant position in the Bush administration. While pushing
through their military-strategic agenda, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz have
also exerted a decisive influence over US foreign policy, sidelining Colin
Powell and the State Department.
On the home front, Attorney General John Ashcroft at the
Justice Department launched a pre-emptive strike against democratic rights after
11 September, denying non-citizens constitutional rights, introducing military
tribunals, and ignoring court rulings against his pre-emptive legal tactics.
Chosen for Attorney General by Bush to satisfy the religious right of the
Republican Party, who now wield a key influence in Republican-dominated
constituencies, Ashcroft is a zealous Pentecostal and a consistent social
conservative. (David Corn, The Fundamental John Ashcroft, Mother Jones,
March/April 2002) Last December, the Christian magazine, World, nominated
Ashcroft as its ‘Daniel of the Year’, for withstanding ‘scorn and
harassment’, like the Old Testament hero.
The Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld leadership constitutes an extreme
right-wing faction of the Republican Party. They are not conservatives defending
the ‘conventional wisdom’ of the old Republican establishment, but ‘neo-conservatives’
who stand for a radical extension of right-wing policies on military-strategic,
economic, and social issues. This faction is closely linked to sections of big
business, particularly big oil companies, Enron-style finance corporations, the
most speculative and rapacious capitalist elements who flourished during the
1990s bubble economy.
The neo-conservatives get energetic electoral support from a
powerful coalition of the religious right, both Christian and Jewish, which has
come together in a fundamentalist, anti-Islamic front. Through the funds and
activist support at their command, in many areas they exert a enormous influence
on primary elections, which decide who will run as Republican (or Democratic)
candidates, and on the results of local, state and federal elections. When well
under half of the eligible population turn out to vote in most elections,
well-funded, well-organised forces can have a decisive effect, especially in key
‘swing states’ that determine the outcome of federal elections. Under his
‘faith based initiative’, Bush is now channelling about $25 million in
federal government grants to community groups affiliated to churches and private
institutions for ‘charity-based welfare work’. Mobilising the ‘armies of
compassion’ is undoubtedly aimed at boosting votes for republican candidates.
One of the first grants went to Operation Blessing International, a Virginia
Beach charity set up by Pat Robertson. (see ‘Faithbased Watch’ at
www.mediatransparency.org)
The rise of Christian Zionism
THERE HAS BEEN a coalescing over recent years between the
Christian right and the Jewish Zionist right into a fundamentalist, anti-Islamic
front. Leaders of the Christian right appeared to have dropped the anti-Semitism
for which many of them were notorious. Some were associated with the racist John
Birch Society and other far-right groups. Recently released tapes of White House
conversations in 1972 between the world famous reverend Billy Graham and
president Richard Nixon revealed the evangelist preacher denouncing ‘the
Jewish stranglehold’ over the US media. In his 1990 book, The Televangelist,
the reverend Patrick Robinson attacked the allegedly corrosive effect of
"the liberal Jewish population" on American public life.
They have now changed their tune. "The god of Islam is
not the same god [as that of Christianity]", proclaimed Billy Graham’s
son, the reverend Franklin Graham, who gave the blessing at Bush’s
inauguration. "It’s a different god, and I believe it is a very evil and
wicked religion". Robinson has changed too, warning that Muslims want to
"control, dominate and… destroy". Last July he was awarded the ‘State
of Israel Friendship Award’ by the Zionist Organisation of America. (Ibrahim
Warde, Which God is on Whose Side? Le Monde diplomatique [English edition],
September 2002) The reverend Jerry Vines, a past president of the Southern
Baptist Convention, the second largest US church, described the prophet Mohammed
as a "demon-possessed paedophile". Recently, Jerry Falwell, another
television evangelist, denounced the prophet as a ‘terrorist’. (Daily
Telegraph, 25 October)
The Christian right’s support for Israel has developed for
a peculiar combination of political and theological reasons. They began to warm
towards the Israeli right after 1977 when the Likud Party swept to power in
Israel under Menachim Begin. At the same time, leading ideologues of the
neo-conservative movement were making common cause with the Christian right.
Many of them, like Irving Kristol and Norman Podheretz, were renegade liberals
or social-democrats turned Ronald Reagan enthusiasts, and some were from Jewish
backgrounds. They advocating a return to ‘traditional values’, tax cuts,
pro-big business monetarist economic policies, and cuts in welfare spending.
They also adopted an aggressive stand against the ‘evil empire’ of the
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe – and of course they enthusiastically
supported the Likud regime in Israel. Significantly, Ronald Reagan made his
famous ‘Evil Empire’ speech at a meeting of the National Association of
Evangelicals.
The Bush I presidency was a disappointment to the
neo-conservative/Christian right. Bush failed to destroy Saddam’s regime, and
put economic pressure on Israel to halt new settlements in the Occupied
Territories. The Christian right, needless to say, were totally opposed to
Clinton’s sponsorship of the Israel-Palestinian peace process, and played a
prominent part in the well-funded campaign to discredit and impeach him.
All the major figures of the Christian right have joined the
new crusade to defend the Israeli state and spread Jewish settlements around
Jerusalem and in the Occupied Territories. The reverend James Hutchins,
president of Christians for Israel/US, proclaimed that this support was in order
to fulfil a ‘divine calling to assist the Jewish people in their return and
restoration of the land of Israel’. A quarter of a million US Christians have
sent over $60 million to Israel while Hutchins’ organisation has financed the
immigration of 65,000 Jews. For both the Christian and Jewish right, Islam is
the new ‘evil empire’ and Yasser Arafat is Israel’s ‘bin Laden’.
The Likud leadership has warmly welcomed the support of the
Christian right, both for its powerful political influence in Congress and its
substantial financial backing for Israel. In the 1980s Begin cultivated rising
evangelical leaders like Falwell, presenting him with an executive Learjet for
his services to Israel. In 1996 the new Likud premier, Netanyahu, set up the
Christian Advocacy Council and flew Christian leaders to Israel where they
signed a pledge that the US would ‘never, never desert Israel’. In December
2000 Sharon addressed a group of 1,500 Christian Zionists who had travelled to
Jerusalem, telling them: ‘We regard you as our best friends in the world’.
Never before have the right-wing leaders of the Israeli ruling class had such
consistent US support for their aggressive, expansionist policies as under
president Bush, Cheney and their Pentagon hawks.
Apocalyptic theology
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT also supports Israel for theological
reasons, based on a literal interpretation of the Bible. A key text is the Book
of Revelation, which predicts Armageddon – the final struggle between the
forces of good and the forces of evil – and the Day of Judgement. This
apocalyptic approach is particularly associated with the growing numbers of
Christian Zionists, who are particularly strong in the Southern states. (Ken
Silverstein & Michael Scherer: Born-Again Zionists, Mother Jones Sept/Oct
20002) In supporting the creation of a so-called Biblical or Eretz Israel, from
the Mediterranean to the Jordan (that is, incorporating the occupied
territories), the Christian Zionists claim they are answering God’s call in
the Old Testament.
"They work to support Israeli, ironically, because they
believe it will lead to the ultimate triumph of Christianity. For them, the
on-going crisis in the Mideast has been prophesised in the Bible".
(Silverstein & Scherer) "There will be no peace", says the
reverend Hutchins, "until the Messiah comes". According to the
fundamentalists’ mystical narrative, there will be a series of afflictions and
wars, followed by the reconstruction of the Temple on the Temple Mount (Haram
al-Sharif). The coming of the Antichrist, Christ’s antagonist, will be
followed by the second coming of the Messiah and the final battle in Jerusalem
between good and evil – Armageddon. Many Jews will be converted to
Christianity, non-believers – including Jews and Moslems – will be damned
and perish. The Messiah will lead the righteous to heaven (‘the rapture’).
From that perspective, the expansionist policies of Begin, Netanyahu and Sharon
can only speed up the fulfilment of Biblical prophecies. Any recognition of the
right of the Palestinians to their land would delay it.
However, "the Christian right’s view of Israel",
writes Gershom Gorenberg, "derives largely from a double-edged theological
position. Following the classic anti-Jewish stance it regards the Jewish people
as spiritually blind for rejecting Jesus". (‘Look who’s in bed with the
Christian right’, International Herald Tribune, 14 October 2002) The reverend
Falwell, who believes the Messiah will return within ten years, claims the
Antichrist has already arrived and he is ‘Jewish and male’. The evangelist
Chuck Missler has asserted that Auschwitz was ‘just a prelude’ to what will
happen in the approaching Armageddon. The Jewish right tends to downplay the
anti-Jewish element in the Christian Zionists’ theology. The financial and
political support outweighs any worries about the ‘Last Days’. Morton Klein,
president of the Zionist Organisation of America, says he is willing to make a
deal: if they continue to support the Israeli state, "then if Jesus comes
back in the future I will join the parade. Hey, if I was wrong, no
problem".
Bush denounces the fanaticism of al-Qa’ida and other
right-wing Islamic groups. Yet his ‘good versus evil’ rhetoric – ‘those
who are not with us are with the terrorists’ – echoes the fundamentalism of
the Christian and Jewish right. The influence of this kind of religious fantasy
and its echoes in the military-strategic policies of Bush, Wolfowitz and other
hawks is frightening. It reflects the dangerous irrationality of the right-wing
faction of the Republican party, which is linked to the greediest and most
aggressive sections of the US ruling class. But how has the ideology of the
religious right gained such an influence?
The right-wing Christian movement is organised and
manipulated by big business interests. They draw a mass following from sections
of the middle and the working class who feel perplexed and threatened by rapid
economic and social changes. Because these strata cannot understand the real
social forces at work, they grasp at mystical narratives and seek the
consolation of religion, the ‘heart of a heartless world’, as Marx said.
Religious-populist traditions play a big part in this trend. It is no accident,
moreover, that the Christian right is strongest where the labour movement is
weakest, in the South and parts of the mid-West. The weakening of the organised
working class in the US and its lack of independent political representation has
allowed the growth of the Christian right and the Bush wing of the Republican
party. Events in the next period, however, will bring a revival of working-class
struggle and leaps in consciousness that will cut across the growth of the
right-wing religious movement.
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