Dawn of a new era?

Dawn of a new era?

Roshan Madawela – Research Intelligence Unit (www.riunit.com)

Many corners of the world may have faintly rejoiced at the news of a change at the House of Representatives in the US that could, in principal, reign in the currently over-militarized foreign policy thrust of the President and his posse. Others might be more cautious on the limits for change as the propensity for making a real difference has always been in the hands of the powerful few.

Democracy in action

At the time of writing, the White House had conceded that the Democrats have picked up the 15 seats needed to hold control of the House of Representatives whilst the race for the Senate was still ‘neck-and-neck’. It has been 12 years since the Democrats last held ultimate sway in Congress.

According to early analysis, the Democrat focus on voter anger toward the Iraq war has succeeded in changing the political landscape in the US. Concern on the domestic economy as well as the ‘dead-ended ness’ of the US international relations policy also seems to influenced voting behavior. Whatever played on voters minds, the final result ensures that the remaining two years of the Presidential term will less comfortable.

In some quarters, the outcome came as a surprise. Some critics of the new system that is based on ‘touch screen’ voting were forecasting that the result could be rigged as the votes had no way of being counted. It has also been brought to the public’s attention that the new registration system was actively working against African American and Hispanic minorities at voter registration, personal ID checking and vote counting stages.

According to Greg Palast of Information Clearing House, an estimated 4.5 million US voters may have been denied their democratic rights under a system that discriminated against the Democrat voters under the electrical system.

At the registration stage, mostly African Americans and Hispanics have been de-registered since 1 January 2006. Whilst many were recovering from their New Year over-indulgences, a statue was enacted that required all US states to reject voter registrations that could not be cross-checked with a State verification database. An estimated 1.9 million votes were snatched away in the process. Curiously, even former President Clinton’s daughter was told that she was not registered when she turned up to vote at her precinct this week according to BBC news.

The US Election Commission’s own data shows that 3,600,380 ballots cast in the 2004 national elections were not counted due to ‘spoilage’. Whilst all elections have a small per cent age of spoiled votes, closer inspection reveals a ‘darker side’ to the numbers. The US Civil Rights Commission estimates that the chance of having a vote spoiled for an African American is 900 per cent higher and 500 per cent higher for Hispanics than for White voters.

This years election statistics are yet to surface with regard to ‘spoilage’ details. However, many technical hitches were reported that delayed voting in dozens of precincts in Indiana and Ohio. In response, officials extended polling hours in six states due to problems with the electronic voting machines.

Despite such hurdles, Keith Ellison became the first Muslim to be elected to the Congress after winning the seat for Minnesota. He had endured personal attacks on him and his past association with Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, to emerge triumphant.

Campaigning for an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, he ran on a populist platform that included calls to rely more on renewable energy and promoted public funded health care. Meanwhile, former first lady Hilary Clinton won her re-election in New York while former Hollywood superstar Schwarzenegger retained his Governorship in California for the second and final term.

Game plan

Former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein was also scripted to be instrumental in the US political game, be it unwillingly. The timing of his sentencing has all the subtlety of a precision guided bomb slamming into a religious school for children suspected to be advocating resistance to foreign invasion as part of its curriculum.

Whilst many of Saddam Hussein’s supporters remain loyal to their leader, even most of his enemies might find difficulty in deciphering weather his past record on human rights is bleaker than that of the self appointed leaders of the ‘free world’. To date, an estimated 650,000 Iraqis have been killed along with an unknown number in Afghanistan whilst thousands more are being held illegally sans trial and under treatment and conditions that violate all human rights conventions.

It is also worth noting that the former Iraqi President was prevented from speaking about his past affiliations to a host of US leaders during his term in power all throughout his hearing. Some believe that in the event of execution the former leader will be afforded the status of a martyr in certain quarters. Nevertheless, the timing was considered more important than the long-term ramifications. As Mike Whitney notes, ‘sentencing a man to hang merely to improve one’s prospects at the ballot-box is about as desperate as it gets.

To some extent, the entire circus atmosphere of the trial and the defendant’s reaction to the verdict did perhaps backfire in the face of Republicans expecting political gains. Far from begging for mercy, the composed former President issued a statement to his people asking them to ‘pardon and not take revenge on the invading nation’s and their people….and unify in the face of sectarian strife”.

Moreover, one of the highest officially acknowledged death tolls during October for occupying US troops in Iraq, exceeding 100, would have also served to dampen the election game-plan.

Temporary aberration?

Last week, an article published in the Vanity Fair contained an interview in which Richard Perle, a Pentagon insider known as the Prince of Darkness according to Guardian sources, is quoted as saying that the Iraq intervention was a mistake. Perle was formally a stalwart supporter of the war. Also in the list of defectors, David Frum, known for the ‘axis of evil’ speech writing has reportedly said that US failure in Iraq is inevitable and the President is to blame.

However, a row broke out between the interviewees and the ‘liberal media’ with regard to such comments being published prior to the election. For the record, the damage has been done. Moreover, the cleavage between leading ‘neocon’ strategists and the President appears to be surfacing with the former blaming a lack of vigor, backsliding and bungling rather than any ideological flaws in thinking for the failures.

In a book, ‘America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order’ by Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, three overriding themes of the Neocons are identified as “a belief deriving from religious conviction that the human condition is defined as a choice between good and evil". The second is "the fundamental determinant of the relationship between states rests on military power and willingness to use it", and finally, "the Middle East and global Islam are the principal theatre for American overseas interests".

The authors conclude that the neo-conservatism is an ‘unfortunate detour’ and temporary aberration that has undermined traditional international alliance and consensus building which now belongs in the past.

The over-militarized approach that is theoretically defended by the ‘neocon’ ideology, despite millions of innocent civilians being killed in the very recent and currently unfolding times may yet prove hard to dislodge for the new players in the political arena. The interests of the globalizing super-corporations, dealing in weapons of destruction and making trillions of dollars from the conflicts in raging in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Philippines and others, has powerful influence over US and European policy makers. One hopes the new political landscape can start to turn things back around.

Copyrights Reserved (RIU 2006).