Preemptive War and a World Out of Control

Disregarding the opposition of France, Germany, and Russia, as well as an unprecedented tide of global antiwar protests, the Bush administration brazenly launched its invasion of Iraq without U.N. authorization. President Bush—in a display of arrogance and self-righteousness—labeled the Iraq war "Operation Iraqi Freedom," while his Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, proclaimed that the inhabitants of Iraq could be expected to offer the invading army a jubilant welcome of fresh-cut flowers and music. But the outcome of the invasion was only the provocation of more violence and even greater chaos. Surveys of world popular opinion show that most people, including those of America's most slavish ally, England, have only contempt for America's warmongering. America, not Iraq, is perceived as the greatest threat to global security.

Thanks to the blessing and curse of fate
I've already lost track of who I am,
Am I an angel or a devil,
strong or weak,
a hero or a rogue.¹

The flames of war that have ignited across Iraq have brought to mind these lines of verse written on one of the brick walls of the Babylonian Hanging Gardens. What is most bitterly ironic is that this land, now ravaged by barbaric artillery fire, is one of the sources of ancient human civilization and the birthplace of the world's first legal classic, The Code of Hammurabi.

Lian Qingchuan, a reporter and assistant editor of 21 Shiji huanqiu baodao (Twenty-First Century Global Report) in Guangzhou, describes the consequences of the war in Iraq in his essay "The Shattered Present" ("Posui de xiandai"). He writes,

As the first precision guided cruise missiles skimmed over the waters of the Persian Gulf and smashed into their targets in the south of Baghdad, the curtain was lifted on the second Gulf War and the world—the present as we knew it—began to disintegrate. This was a war whose launch had long been suggested. So, the start of the war held no suspense, and the results of the war were not unexpected; it is the postwar story that will bring the most surprises. Before the war, this world, this present, functioned with a semblance of order; although this order carried with it a degree of uncertainty, every nation and all international actions were governed by a set of behavioral norms. That is, within the framework of the U.N., America acted as a superpower, commenting with due diligence on all aspects of international policy, while nations of the Third World, regardless of their strength, were able to use the U.N. as a medium through which to have their voices heard. But the Iraq war changed all of this.... One premeditated war changed our present entirely.²

Following the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the world lost its balance. Just before the end of the twentieth century, humanity's path forward suddenly appeared uncertain.

Many consider the twentieth century a period of tragedy. In the second half of the century, the world lived on the verge of annihilation. The United States and the Soviet Union were prepared to make use of nuclear armaments large enough to obliterate the world several times over. For many, the end of the Cold War confirmed what Francis Fukuyama predicted would be the end of history, and many dreamed of the emergence of a post–Cold War golden era. Others were less optimistic. Giovanni Arrighi, in the conclusion of his book The Long Twentieth Century, paraphrases Joseph Schumpeter:

Before humanity chokes (or basks) in the dungeon (or paradise) of a post-capitalist world empire or of a post-capitalist world market society, it may well burn up in the horrors (or glories) of the escalating violence that has accompanied the liquidation of the Cold War world order. In this case, capitalist history would also come to an end but by reverting permanently to...