You are on page 1of 9

Washingtonpost.

Newsweek Interactive, LLC

Iraq's False Promises


Author(s): Slavoj Zizek
Source: Foreign Policy, No. 140 (Jan. - Feb., 2004), pp. 42-49
Published by: Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4147518
Accessed: 29/01/2010 00:03

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=wpni.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Foreign Policy.

http://www.jstor.org
FALSE
ROMIS
Ifyou wantto understand
why
theBushadministration
invadedIraq,read
Freud's
Interpretation of Dreams, nottheNationalSecurityStrategy of
the UnitedStates.Onlythetwistedlogicof dreamscaneiplainwhytheUnited
Statesthinksthattheaggressive
pursuitof contradictory
goals-promoting
democracy,affirmingU.S. hegemony,andensuringstableenergysupplies-will
producesuccess.I By Slavoj Zizek

o illustrate
theweird
logicofdreams,of inconsistentarguments,of course, confirmspre-
SigmundFreudused to evoke a story cisely what it endeavors to deny: that you, in fact,
about a borrowed kettle: When a did borrow and break the kettle.
friendaccusesyou of returninga bor- A similarstring of inconsistenciescharacterized
rowed kettle broken, your reply is, first, that you the Bushadministration's publicjustificationsfor the
neverborrowedthe kettle;second,that you returned U.S. attackon Iraqin early2003. First,the adminis-
o,,
it unbroken;and third, that the kettle was already tration claimed that Saddam Hussein possessed
Ic brokenwhen you borrowedit. Suchan enumeration weapons of mass destruction(WMD),which posed a
0Z
m
"realand presentdanger"to his neighbors,to Israel,
,,
Slavoj Zizek is a philosopher and senior researcher at the and to all democraticWesternstates. So far,no such
U)l Institute for Social Studies in Ljubljana,Slovenia. His books, weaponshavebeenfound (aftermorethan 1,000 U.S.
z
UI) most recently Organs Without Bodies: Deleuze and Conse- specialistshavespentmonthslookingfor them).Then,
D-

--
quences (New York: Routledge, 2003), have been translat- the administrationarguedthatevenif Saddamdoesnot
ed into more than 20 languages. have any WMD,he was involvedwith al Qaedain the
JANUARY FEBRUARY 2004 43
s rtI t
~ [1~ F
8 0 5
Iraq's False Promises

September11 attacksandthereforeshouldbe punished freedomto the Vietnamese,only to see his intentions


andpreventedfromlaunchingfutureassaults.Buteven totally misfire:"I never knew a man who had better
U.S. PresidentGeorgeW. Bushhad to concedein Sep- motives for all the trouble he caused."
tember2003 that the United States"hadno evidence The suppositionunderlyingthese good intentions
that SaddamHusseinwas involvedwith Septemberthe is that underneathour skins, we are all Americans.If
11th."Finally,therewas the thirdlevelof justification, that is humanity'strue desire,then all that Americans
that even if therewas no proof of a
linkwith al Qaeda,Saddam'sruthless
dictatorshipwas a threatto its neigh-
bors and a catastrophleto its own Iffreedomis God'sgiftto humanity,
andtheUnited
people, and these facts were reason
enough to topple it. True, but why Statesseesitselfas God'schoseninstrument,
then
toppleIraqandnot otherevilregimes,
startingwith Iranand North Korea, thosewhoopposeU.S.policiesarerejectingthe
the two other members of Bush's
infamous"axis of evil"? noblestgiftofGodto humanity.
So, if thesereasonsdon'thold up
to serious scrutinyand merelyseem
to suggest that the administrationwas misguidedto need to do is to give people a chance, liberatethem
do what it did, what, then, were the real underlying fromtheirimposedconstraints,and theywill embrace
reasons for the attack?Effectively,there were three: America'sideologicaldream.No wonder the United
first,a sincereideologicalbeliefthat the destinyof the Stateshas movedfrom "containing"the enemyto pro-
United States is to bring democracy and prosperity motinga "capitalistrevolution,"as StephenSchwartz
to other nations; second, the urge to brutallyassert of the Foundationfor the Defenseof Democraciesput
and signal unconditionalU.S. hegemony;and third, it in February2003. The United Statesis now, as the
the need to control Iraqi oil reserves.
Each of the three levels works on its own and
deservesto be taken seriously;none of them, includ-
ing the spreadof democracy,should be dismissed
as a simplemanipulationandlie.Eachhasits own
contradictionsandconsequences,for good and
ill. But taken together,they are dangerously
inconsistentand incompatibleand all but
predestinethe U.S. effortin Iraqto failure.

THE NOT-SO-QUIET AMERICAN


Americans have historically seen their
role in the world in altruisticterms. "We
just try to be good," they say, "to help
others, to bring peace and prosperity,
and look what we get in return."In fact,
movies such as John Ford'sThe Searchers
and Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver or
books like Graham Greene'sThe Quiet
American, which provide fundamental
insight into the naive benevolence of
Americans, have never been more rele-
vant than with today's global U.S. ideo-
logical offensive. As Greene said about
his Americanprotagonist,who sincerely
wants to bring democracy and Western
44 FOREIGN POLICY
defunctSovietUnion was decadesago, the subversive tion's National SecurityStrategycalls for translating
agent of a world revolution. America's"positionof unparalleledmilitarystrength
But when Bush said in his January2003 State of and great economic and political influence" into
the Union message, "The liberty we prize is not "decadesof peace, prosperity,and liberty."But neo-
America'sgift to the world, it is God'sgift to human- conservativethinkersspeakin baldertermswhat their
ity," this apparent burst of humility, in fact, con- brethrenin the White House cannot. In their recent
cealed its totalitarian opposite. Every totalitarian book, The Warover Iraq, neoconservativesWilliam
leaderclaimsthat, in himself,he is nothing at all:His Kristoland LawrenceE Kaplanwrite, "Themission
strengthis only the strength,of the people who stand begins in Baghdad,but it does not end there.... We
behindhim, whose deepeststrivingsonly he express- stand at the cusp of a new historicalera.... This is a
es. The catch is, those who oppose the leaderby def- decisivemoment.... It is so clearlyabout more than
initionnot only oppose him, but they also oppose the Iraq.It is about moreeventhan the futureof the Mid-
deepest and noblest strivings of the people. And dle East and the war on terror.It is about what sort
does the same not hold for Bush's claim? It would of role the United Statesintendsto play in the twen-
have been easierif freedomeffectivelywere to be just ty-firstcentury."One cannotbut agreewith that state-
the United States' gift to other nations; that way, ment: The U.S. attack on Iraqhas effectivelyput the
those who oppose U.S. policies would merely be future of the internationalcommunityat stake, rais-
against the policies of a single nation-state. But if ing fundamental questions about the "new world
freedom is God's gift to humanity,and the U.S. gov- order" and what rules will
ernment sees itself as the chosen instrument for regulateit.
showering this gift on all the nations of the world,
then those who oppose U.S. policies are rejectingthe
noblest gift of God to humanity.
As for the secondreason,the urgeto demonstrate
unconditionalU.S. hegemony,the Bush administra-

JANURY IFEBRUARY
2004 45
Iraq's False Promises

Regarding the third reason for launching an sacrosanct advice to developing countries to open
attack,it would be simplisticto assumethat the Unit- themselves to the global market.
ed States intended to take over Iraq's oil industry Another stunningexample of U.S. double-think
lock, stock, and barrel. But in a country that, as was the two-sidedpressureit exertedon Serbiain the
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz put it, summer of 2003. U.S. officials demandedthat Ser-
"floats on a sea of oil," the installation of a U.S.- bia deliver suspected war criminalsto the Interna-
blessed governmentthat is committedto permitting tional CriminalTribunalfor the FormerYugoslavia
foreign (read:U.S.) investmentin its oil industryand in The Hague (in accordance with the logic of the
that enjoys an influentialperch at the Organization global empire,which demandstransnationaljudicial
of Petroleum Exporting Countries was surely an institutions);but they also simultaneouslypressured
important consideration for U.S. policymakers. Serbia to sign a bilateral treaty obliging it not to
Indeed,to ignorethat considerationwould have been deliver to the new International Criminal Court
a case of strategicmalpracticeon a grand scale. (also in The Hague) any U.S. citizens suspected of
war crimes or other crimes against humanity (in
accordance with the logic of the nation-state).No
AMERICA'S EMPIRE BURLESQUE wonder the Serbreactionwas one of perplexedfury.
Of these three reasons, the key factor is the second And does the same inconsistency not hold for
one: using Iraq as a pretext or exemplary case to how the United States is waging the "war on ter-
establish the parametersof the new world order,to ror"? The exemplary economic strategy of today's
assert the right of the United States to launch pre- capitalism is outsourcing-handing over the
ventivestrikesand thus to cementits statusas the sole "dirty" process of material production (but also
global policing power. The message behind the U.S. publicity,design, accounting, etc.) to anothercom-
attack was not primarilyaddressedto the Iraqipeo- pany. Production takes place in, say, Indonesia,
ple but to all of us witnessingthe war-we were the where environmental and labor standards are
true ideological and political targets. much lower than in the West, and the Western
At this point, one should ask the naive question: company that owns the logo can claim that it is not
the United States as global policeman-why not? responsible for violations by its contractors.
After all, the post-Cold-War world effectively Now, something homologous is taking place
with the interrogationof terrorsus-
pects, with torture "outsourced"to
Third World allies (those same
Theproblem withtoday'sUnited Statesis not countriescriticizedin the U.S. State
Department's annual Country
thatit is a newglobalempire, butthat,while Reports on Human Rights Prac-
tices) who can coerce confessions
pretending to beanempire, it continuestoactas without worryingabout legalprob-
lems or public protest. "We can't
a nation-state, ruthlessly
pursuing itsinterests. legalize torture; it's contrary to
American values," sniffed colum-
nist Jonathan Alter in Newsweek,
begged for some global power to fill in the void. while nonetheless concluding that "we'll have to
Ah, but there's the rub: The problem with today's think about transferringsome suspects to our less
United States is not that it is a new global empire, squeamishallies, even if that'shypocritical.Nobody
but that it is not, i.e., that, while pretending to be said this was going to be pretty."And so it goes with
an empire, it continues to act as a nation-state, FirstWorlddemocracies,which outsourcemoreand
ruthlessly pursuing its interests. Indeed, in a per- more of their dirty undersides,whether telemarket-
verse reversal of the old ecological slogan, the ing or torture, to other countries.
bumper sticker for the Bush administration'sfor- The opportunity to bring the war on terror
eign policy could well be "act globally, think local- within the scope of an internationallegal orderhas
ly." Look, for example, at the U.S. decision to been squandered. Why? To borrow the words of
impose steel tariffs,ruled illegal by the WorldTrade Muhammad Said al-Sahaf,the colorful Iraqiinfor-
Organization and certainly in violation of its own mation minister who, in one of his last press con-
46 FOREIGN POLICY
ferences during the war, reportedly denied that unknown unknowns-the ones we don't know we
Americans controlled parts of Baghdad: "[The don't know." For Rumsfeld, these "unknown
Americans] are not in control of anything-they unknowns" representthe greatestthreats facing the
don't even control themselves!" Simply put, U.S. United States.But Rumsfeldforgot to add the crucial
policymakers lack the self-awareness to recognize, fourth term:the unknown knowns, things we don't
let alone reconcile, the contradictions between and know that we know-which is preciselythe Freudi-
among their intentions and their actions. an unconscious,the "knowledgewhich doesn'tknow
In February2002, U.S. Defense SecretaryDon- itself," as the French psychoanalystJacques Lacan
ald Rumsfeld engaged in a bit of amateur philoso- used to say. In many ways, these unknown knowns,
phizing about the relationshipbetween the known the disavowed beliefs and suppositions we are not
and the unknown: "Thereare known knowns; there even aware of adheringto, may pose an even greater
are things we know we know. We also know there threat. That is indeed the case with the reasons for
are known unknowns;that is to say we know there this war. What is "unknown" (disavowed, ignored)
are some things we do not know. But there are also is not primarilythe problematicnatureof those rea-

Too Much Vision Thing


Excerptsfrom U.S. President powerof the military-so that dom does not flourish, it will
George W. Bush'sspeech on governmentsrespond to the remain a place of stagnation,
freedomin IraqandtheMiddle will of the people,and not the resentment,and violence ready
Eastat the 20th anniversary
of will of an elite.Successfulsoci- for export. And with the spread
the National Endowmentfor eties protectfreedomwith the of weapons that can bring cat-
Democracyon Nov. 6, 2003. consistentand impartialrule astrophic harm to our country
of law, instead of selectively and to our friends, it would be
hesacrifices of Ameri- applying the law to punish recklessto acceptthe statusquo.
cans have not always politicalopponents.... Therefore, the United
been recognized or [Securing democracy in States has adopted a new pol-
appreciated,yet they have been Iraq]is a massiveand difficult icy, a forward strategy of free-
worthwhile.... undertaking-it is worth our dom in the Middle East. This
As changes come to the effort, it is worth our sacri- strategy requiresthe same per-
Middle Eastern region, those fice, because we know the sistence and energy and ideal-
with power should ask them- stakes. The failure of Iraqi ism we have shown before.
selves:Will they be remembered democracy would embolden And it will yield the same
for resistingreform,or for lead- terroristsaround the world, results. As in Europe, as in
ing it? In Iran, the demand for and increase dangers to the Asia, as in every region of the
democracyis strongand broad, Americanpeople, and extin- world, the advance of freedom
as we saw last month when guish the hopes of millionsin leads to peace.
thousandsgatheredto welcome the region. Iraqi democracy The advance of freedom is
home Shirin Ebadi, the winner will succeed-and thatsuccess the calling of our time. It is the
of the Nobel Peace Prize. The will sendforththe news, from calling of our country... And
regime in Teheran must heed Damascus to Teheran-that we believe that freedom-the
the democraticdemands of the freedomcan be the future of freedom we prize-is not for
Iranian people, or lose its last every nation. The establish- us alone. It is the right and the
claim to legitimacy.... mentof a freeIraqat the heart capacity of all mankind.
There are, however, essen- of the Middle East will be a Working for the spread of
tial principlescommon to every watershedevent in the global freedom can be hard. Yet,
successful society, in every cul- democraticrevolution.... Americahas accomplishedhard
ture. Successful societies limit ...As long as the Middle tasks before. Our nation is
the power of the state and the Eastremainsa placewherefree- strong; we're strong of heart.

JANUARY IFEBRUARY 2004 47


Iraq's False Promises

sons as such (say,the fact that in spreadingdemoc- the United States, they must remain undemocratic,
racy,the UnitedStatesis imposingits own versionof since it is a safe bet that democratic elections in
democracy), but, rather,the inconsistency among Saudi Arabia or Iraq would produce an Islamist,
those reasons.The United Statesis pursuinga series nationalistregimeridingon anti-Americanattitudes.
of goals (spreadingdemocracy,asserting its hege- "Sixtyyearsof Westernnationsexcusingand accom-
mony,securingoil supplies)that areultimatelyincom- modatingthe lack of freedomin the Middle East did
patible. Consider countries like Saudi Arabia and nothing to make us safe," declaredBushin Novem-
Kuwait, conservative monarchies, but economic ber 2003 [See sidebar on page 47]. But it did give
allies, deeply integrated into Western capitalism. Westerncountries relativelystable energy supplies,
Here,the UnitedStateshas a verypreciseinterest:For something that the United States is unlikelyto sac-
these nations to provide dependableoil reservesfor rifice overnighton the altar of freedom.
48 FOREIGN POLICY
Moreover, despite Bush's talk of a "forward Iraq alreadywas a secular state, the likely result of
strategy of freedom in the Middle East," we know democratic elections would be the privileging of
now what bringing democracy means: The United Islam! One unnamed senior U.S. figure even stated,
Statesand its "willing partners"ultimatelydecide if accordingto the BritishnewspaperThe Independent,
a country is ripe for democracyand what form that "the first foreignpolicy gestureof a democraticIraq
democracy should take. Witness Rumsfeld's com- would be to recognize Israel."
ment in April 2003 that Iraq should not become a Instead,what is likely to emergeas a resultof the
theocracy,but a tolerantsecularcountryin which all U.S. occupation in Iraqis preciselya fundamentalist
religionsand ethnic groups enjoyedthe same rights. Muslim anti-Americanmovement,directlylinkedto
U.S. officials have reacted with barely muted dis- such movementsin other Arabcountriesor countries
comfort to the possibility that a new Iraqiconstitu- with a Muslimpresence.It is as if, in a contemporary
tion might give Islam a privileged position. The display of the "cunning of reason," some invisible
irony here is twofold: Not only would it be nice if hand of destinyrepeatedlyensuresthat the U.S. inter-
the United States were to demand the same from vention only makes more likely the outcomes the
Israel with regard to Judaism, but while Saddam's United Statessought most to avoid. 1W

Want to Know More?

Rebecca Mead's profile of Slavoj Zizek, "The Marx Brother" (The New Yorker,May 5, 2003),
describes Zizek as a "masterof the counterintuitive observation." Three of Zizek's recent books
provide insight into his geopolitical views: Welcome to the Desert of the Real!: Five Essays on
11 September and Related Dates (New York: Verso, 2002) examines the war on terrorism;Did
Somebody Say Totalitarianism? (New York: Verso, 2001) highlights the weaknesses of liberal-
democratic ideologies; and The Puppet and the Dwarf: The PerverseCore of Christianity (Cam-
bridge: MITPress, 2003) provides a political reading of Christianity.

FrenchphilosopherAlain Badioucondemns the liberalethic of "respectfor otherness"in Ethics:


An Essay on the Understanding of Evil (New York: Verso, 2001). Karl Marx's The Eighteenth
Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (New York: International Publishing Co., 1898) analyzes the rise
of Napoleon and underscores the challenges of political representation and ideological justifica-
tion. Readers interested in Sigmund Freud's thinking on the contradictory reasoning of dreams
may turn to The Interpretation of Dreams (New York: The Macmillan company, 1913).

Visit the Web site of the White House for the full text of the Bush administration's"National
SecurityStrategyof the United States of America,"issued in September2002, as well U.S. President
George W. Bush'sspeech "PresidentBush Discusses Freedomin Iraq and the Middle East" (Wash-
ington, November 6, 2003). For a guide to the challenges facing the United States in postwar Iraq,
consult the CarnegieEndowmentSpecialReport "FromVictoryto Success:AfterwarPolicy in Iraq"
(FOREIGNPOLICY,July/August 2003). Lawrence E Kaplan and William Kristol lay out a neo-
conservativevision for the U.S. role in the world in TheWarover Iraq:Saddam'sTyrannyand Amer-
ica's Mission (San Francisco:EncounterBooks, 2003).

A trio of U.S. films offers provocative perspectiveson U.S. ideology. See Martin Scorsese'sTaxi
Driver (Columbia Pictures, 1976) for its portrait of the aggressive outburst of a disillusioned
redeemer; Phillip Noyce's The Quiet American (Miramax, 2002) for its portrayal of the cata-
strophic U.S. effort to democratize Vietnam (based on the Graham Greene novel of the same
name); and David Fincher'sFight Club (TwentiethCenturyFox, 1999) for insights on some of the
more troubling forms of resistanceto global capitalism.

))For links to relevantWeb sites, access to the FP Archive, and a comprehensiveindex of related
FOREIGN POLICYarticles,go to www.foreignpolicy.com.

JANUARY IFEBRUARY 2004 49

You might also like