Some strange radio-show host I’ve never heard of named Jeff Rense has apparently stolen and posted for public consumption an article that appeared recently in New Statesman, a progressive British publication that seems curiously non-progressive when it comes to unleashing its content on the Web, since you have to pay and log in to read that content.

But none of that’s important. What is important is the article, by Michael Lind: The weird men behind George W. Bush’s war. It’s great stuff on just why it is that the US is suddenly going berserk, foreign-policy wise. Lind mentions, and dismisses, explanations that focus on political economics (“it’s the oil, right?”) and the essentially warlike US nature. Neither of these explanations is correct, he says.

Both the economic-determinist theory and the clash-of-cultures theory are reassuring: they assume that the recent revolution in US foreign policy is the result of obscure but understandable forces in an orderly world. The truth is more alarming. As a result of several bizarre and unforeseeable contingencies – such as the selection rather than election of George W Bush, and 11 September – the foreign policy of the world’s only global power is being made by a small clique that is unrepresentative of either the US population or the mainstream foreign policy establishment.

Lind goes on to describe just who these people are. And boy, is it scary.

This entry was posted by jbc on Wednesday, April 16th, 2003 at 2:32 pm and is filed under george_w_bush, the_usa, war. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.