le of American Supremacy The Costs of Bush’s War in Iraq
By: George Soros
Published by: Public Affairs 2004 (Perseus Books Group)
George Soros is an enigmatic sort of figure. He is a capitalist but abuses capitalism and his actions have been more of one attempting to undermine it than support it. His writing tends to promote collectivism and government to the point of socialism while he claims the opposite. He is a globalist and supports open borders. He claims to support democracy but the consequences of his actions and the organizations he supports will bring about an authoritarian state. He hates America and the West in general and supports numerous NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) that have agendas that undermine it. He lives in the United States probably because very few nations would have him and in the US he is close to what his ultimate goal is and that is to collapse the West. Once the US collapses the rest of the world can be conquered with a series of phone calls. He has been banned in his own country Hungary and it is said he has an arrest warrant out for him in Russia regardless though he is definitely not welcome in Russia as well as Hungary and Malaysia and much of the rest of the world due to what most rational thinking people view as subversive activity through his NGOs . “Soros is known as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England” because of his short sale of US$10 billion worth of pounds sterling” (Wikipedia). He is a proponent of the NWO (New World Order). He is a Jew but at 14 years old during the last years of WWII through purchased documents he posed as the Christian godson of a Nazi collaborator in Hungary. (He is actually Jewish). There are varying accounts of that period of his activities including from his own statements. (Whatever his actions were it must be taken into account he was a young teenager during an extremely brutal and destructive time and to be under the protection of someone and doing as they wanted would be a natural thing. It is hard to hold something against someone doing something you yourself might do under the same circumstances.) Whatever has been said about him stupid has never been among them. He is extremely brilliant.
The following are sentences and short excerpts from his above titled book. I am neither totally left or right and detest both major American political parties equally. I do tend to be center right but I agree with many, if not most, of the tenets in the book. Most conservatives have a less than complimentary opinion of Soros but I find this book very interesting and it only reinforces my positions even when agreeing with him. The book makes much sense while the consequences of his actions in life tend to run counter to the humanitarian ideals expressed in the book and in words and deeds. Keep in mind this was published in 2004. Events have proven him correct.
Preface:
“I consider the Bush doctrine of preemptive military action pernicious, and so do many others around the world.” Page vii
“Abroad, America is seen as abusing the dominant position it occupies; public opinion at home has been led to believe that Saddam Hussein posed a clear and present danger to our national security. Only in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion are people becoming aware that they have been misled.” Page vii
“I contend that the Bush administration has deliberately exploited September 11 in order to pursue policies that the American public would not have otherwise tolerated. …………………. It endangers the world because America is so powerful.” Page vii
“The United States enjoys a dominant position in the world today that cannot be challenged by any other state or combination of states for the foreseeable future. It can lose its dominance only as a result of its own mistakes.” Page viii
“The government of the most powerful country on earth has fallen into the hands of extremists who are guided by a crude form of social Darwinism: Life is a struggle for survival, and we must rely mainly on the use of force to survive. This is a distorted view: The survival of the fittest depends on cooperation as well as competition.” Page xi
“I see a certain parallel between the pursuit of American supremacy and the boom-bust pattern that can be observed from time to time in the stock market. The bubble is now bursting.” Page xi.
PART 1: A Critical View
CHAPTER 1: The Bush Doctrine
‘The underlying principles of this agenda can be summed up as follows: International relations are relations of power, not law; power prevails and law legitimizes what prevails. ………… The world would benefit from adopting American values because the American model has demonstrated its superiority.” Page 3
Speaking of the Bush administration he writes: “…………………the neocons form an influential group within the executive branch and their influence greatly increased after September 11. Their ideas were succinctly stated in the 1997 mission statement of the Project for the New American Century, a neoconservative think tank and advocacy group.” Page 4
“In 1998, many of the same signatories sent to President Clinton an open letter in which they argued for the invasion of Iraq. Five years later, they were in charge of the invasion, ……” Page 8
“To silence criticism and keep the nation united behind the president, the administration deliberately fostered the fear that has gripped the country.” Page 9
“Exploiting an event to further an agenda is not inherently reprehensible.” Page 9
“To be sure, the Bush doctrine is …… buried in Orwellian doublespeak. …….. I am rather sensitive to Orwellian doublespeak because I grew up with it in Hungary first under Nazi and later Communist rule.” Page 11
“The dearth of thought given to, and preparation for, the aftermath of the invasion is truly amazing, especially when so many critics have been so vocal in warning about the difficulties.” Page 12
“Violations of American standards of behavior that would have been considered objectionable in normal times came to be accepted as appropriate to the circumstances, and the president has become immune to criticism because it would be unpatriotic to criticize him……………” Page 14
“Neocons regard the American model of national success as superior to all others and what the rest of the world to benefit from it. That is the origin of the quaint idea that we can introduce democracy to a country like Iraq by military force.” Page 15 [
CHAPTER 2: The War on Terror
“Terrorists pose an enormous threat to our national will personal security, and we must protect ourselves and our country from them. The suicide bombers of September 11 found us unprepared………..” Page 17.]
“……..terrorists are nonstate actors by definition, even if in many cases they are sponsored by a state. By turning the hunt for terrorists into a war, we are bound to create some innocent victims. The more innocent victims there are, the greater the resentment and the better the chances that some victims will turn perpetrators.” Page 19
“Suicide bombers using hijacked airplanes took us unawares; we cannot let that happen with nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons.” Page 27
CHAPTER 4: The Iraqi Quagmire
“In an interview in May 2003, Wolfowitz said that while several factors lay behind the administration’s policy,” for bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.” “ Page 52
“Taken on its own this would be hubris of the worst kind. But there are more realistic geopolitical considerations that can be adduced in favor of toppling Saddam. Perhaps the single most important impediment to America’s control of its own destiny is its reliance on foreign oil. Saudi Arabia has proven itself a treacherous ally: it had maintained political stability at home by supporting Islamic extremism abroad.” Page 52
“In light of the ethnic and religious divisions, the introduction of democracy can easily lead to the disintegration of the country [Iraq]. It was this consideration, reinforced by pressure from the neighboring Arab rulers, and will that stopped the first President Bush short of unseating Saddam in the first Gulf War. That was the hornet’s nest that the second President Bush stirred up when he invaded Iraq.” Page 59
CHAPTER 5: The State of the Union
“When the Bush administration claims that the budget deficit is harmless, I have to disagree. Quite apart from the burden that it imposes on future generations – the solvency of our Social Security system is already in doubt – the budget deficit is bound to affect interest rates. The impact will be felt only after the economy begins to pick up.” Page 72
PART ll: A Constructive Vision
CHAPTER 6: Improving the World Order
“The European Union may equal the United States in the size of its population in gross national product, but it is far less united and far less comfortable with globalization.”
“In military terms, the European Union does not even qualify as a power, because member states make their own decisions.” Page 78
“The prevailing world order is a great unsolved problem: how to protect the common interest in a world consisting of sovereign states that habitually put their own interests ahead of the common interest.” Page 80/81
“To be confronted with insoluble problems is the human condition. ……….. Yet a way must be found to reconcile the common interest with the principle of sovereignty. The most promising democratic ways to establish a multilateral system in which all states submit to the same rules and participate in the same arrangements. ……….. The task of leading such an effort must fall to the United States, because of its dominant position.”
“While political and security arrangements remain firmly based on the sovereignty of states, economic activities have become truly globalized.” Page 83
“The salient features of the global capitalist system is that it allows financial capital to move around freely; by contrast, the movement of people remains heavily regulated. Since capital is an essential ingredient of production, individual countries must compete to attract it; this inhibits their ability to tax and regulate it because that would induce capital to move elsewhere.” Page 83
“Financial capital can move about freely and avoid countries where it is subjected to onerous taxes or regulations. In contrast, once a fixed investment has been made, it cannot be easily moved and is thus hostage to whatever regulations the host country imposes. To be sure, multinational corporations enjoy flexibility in transfer pricing and they can exert pressure on host governments through their decisions about future investment, but their flexibility does not compare to the freedom of choice enjoyed by international financial investors.” Page 84
“Global financial markets work like a gigantic circulatory system, sucking up capital into the financial institutions and markets at the center, then pumping it out to the periphery either directly in the form of credits and portfolio investments, or indirectly through multinational corporations. As long as the circulatory system is vigorous, it overwhelms all local markets. Indeed, most local capital eventually turns international. But the system is subject to breakdowns. Financial crises affect the center and the periphery very differently.” Page 85
“Governments started to make tax and other concessions to international financial capital to entice his back on shore.” Page 88
“When the Russian default threatened the system itself, the financial authorities intervened effectively to prevent a collapse. The economy is at the center of the capitalist system – North America and Europe – barely felt a tremor, and international financial markets escaped largely unscathed.” Page 89
“Market fundamentalists recognize the benefits of global financial markets but ignore the shortcomings. They hold that financial markets tend toward equilibrium and produce the optimum allocation of resources. Even if markets are less than perfect, it is considered better to leave the allocation of resources to the markets rather than to interfere with them through national or international regulation.” Page 91
“It is dangerous, however, to place excessive reliance on the market mechanism. Markets are designed to facilitate the free exchange of goods and services among willing participants, but are not capable, on their own, of taking care of collective needs. Nor are they competent to ensure social justice. These “public goods” can only be provided by political process.” Page 91
“Globalization has severely impaired the capacity of the state to provide public goods for its citizens by interfering with the most convenient and copious source of revenues, namely, the taxation of incomes and profits while reducing or eliminating customs duties at the same time.” Page 91
“Contrary to the tenets of market fundamentalism, financial markets do not tend toward equilibrium; they are crisis prone………, whenever the center is threatened, the authorities take decisive action in order to protect the system. As a consequence, the devastation is confined to the periphery…………………………………. The productive assets of peripheral countries are, largely owned by foreigners.” Page 95/96
“We live in a much more interdependent world than ever before, but our political arrangements are still based on the sovereignty of states. What happens within individual countries is of concern to all other countries.” Page 98/99
CHAPTER 7: Sovereignty and Intervention
Anachronistic or not, sovereignty remains the basis of the current world order. It would be utopian to think otherwise. As we have seen, we live in a lopsided world: The economy is globalized, political power remains rooted in the sovereignty of states.” Page 101
CHAPTER 10: Historical Perspectives
“The role I envision for the United States – leading cooperative efforts at improving the prevailing world order – is idealistic but not unrealistic. Indeed, it builds on a strong tradition of idealism in American foreign-policy. The United States is exceptional among history’s great powers in its commitment to the universal principles brilliantly expressed in the declaration of independence and reaffirmed in the Atlantic charter (which was in turn reflected in the Preamble of the UN Charter).” Page 156
“The Cold War was fought over ideas as well as geopolitical interests – although once the battle was joined, the two became inseparable………… The two concepts – open society and capitalism – are not too far apart: Open society recognizes property rights and cannot ignore geopolitical realities. Nevertheless, there is a significant difference in attitudes. Which comes first: universal rights and the rule of law or the pursuit of self-interest?” Page 158
“In a closed society, there is only one concept of how society should be organized, namely, the authorized version, which is imposed by force. Within open societies, citizens are not only allowed but required to think for themselves, and there are institutional arrangements that allow people with differing interests, backgrounds, and opinions to coexist in peace.” Page 163
“When the disintegration of the Soviet Union brought the Cold War to an end, the United States lost the enemy that had allowed it to be both a superpower and the leader of the free world at the same time. The change found us unprepared. We could not decide which of our two roles we like better. We try to be both. But the conditions that had made the two roles inseparable no longer prevailed.” Page 166/167
“Terrorism and weapons of mass destruction have become threats to our national security precisely because we occupy such a dominant position. The right way to respond is by sprinkling our collective security arrangements. Our definition of collective security ought to be broad enough to include the kind of constructive, affirmative actions described earlier.” Page 173
“While collective security arrangements need to be strengthened, it would be going too far to replace national security by international security. Two considerations render this idea unrealistic. One is that the American public would never stand for it. ……… Even so, it would be dangerous to go too far in subordinating our national security interests to international institutions because of the second consideration.” Page 173
“International arrangements involve sovereign states. States are guided by their own interests;…….. It follows from the postulate of radical fallibility that no international arrangement is foolproof. There is always a possibility that one of the participants will be successful in evading its provisions, and in that case, we must be able to rely on our own capacity to defend ourselves.” Page173/174
CHAPTER 11: The Bubble of American Supremacy
“It may be surmised from the closing remarks of the last chapter that I have become rather rabid in my political views. This is a novel experience for me. I used to be rather balance between the two main parties, seeing some good and some bad in each and leaning only slightly towards the Democrats area even today, I remain rather evenhanded by finding much to criticize in the leadership of the Democratic Party. Certainly I did not used to consider it a matter of life and death which party won the elections. I do now.” Page 176
“We are caught in a quagmire in Iraq. How could that happen? The comparison with the boom bust process helps to explain it.”
“The important thing to understand about stock market bubbles is that they do not grow out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality, but reality is distorted in the participants mind I am misconception. As I explain at greater length in the appendix, there is an inherent discrepancy between what people think and the actual state of affairs. Normally the discrepancy is kept within bounds by a self-correcting process. People notice that outcomes failed to correspond to expectations and adjust their expectations accordingly. There are what I call near equilibrium conditions. There are occasions, however, when a trend that manifests itself in reality is reinforced by a bias or misconception prevailing in the market, or vice versa. A boom bust process gets underway in which the prevailing interpretation and reality itself are propelled into far from equilibrium territory.
“Eventually the gap between reality and false interpretation becomes unsustainable in the bubble bursts. . . . .” Page 177/178
This chapter is extremely interesting. I could quote the entire chapter and I suggest reading the entire book. Overall the book is short and an easy read. Keep in mind his actions seem to run contrary to his stated beliefs.