L. Paul Bremmer: The Ultimate Ugly American

An Ugly American is a pejorative term for Americans traveling or living abroad who remain ignorant of local culture and judge everything by American standards. So what do you call an administrative occupier who wants to transform a foreign culture into a colonial tool of NeoCon aims and goals? The ultimate is often overused, but in this context, Bremer has demonstrated that he is prominently in the running for such a dubious title.

Americans are notorious for their lack of historic understanding. Worldly experience has taught little to the class of careerist diplomats. The lessons of Viet Nam are blocked out and consistently ignored. The theme in the "factual epilogue" of the Ugly American book, has the authors again drive home their point: that the US was being consistently outmaneuvered by communists throughout the third world. Since communism has been discredited, a new bogeyman was needed for a replacement enemy. L. Paul Bremer didn’t ride into town on a white stallion, but will leave the territory as a nefarious carpetbagger. No wonder his image appears on most wanted posters.

Refusal to see the morass that is American Middle East foreign policy is the fatal legacy of this era of unrestrained intervention. Losing in Southeast Asia was inevitable, it was a civil war. Avoiding another defeat is possible, by admitting that the occupation intensifies ingrained tribal conflicts. Nation building is a nightmare that arrogant fools dream.

The deaths in Fallujah are symptomatic of a terminal disease. Contractors alter into security guards and mutate into mercenaries. Blackwater Security Consulting is in the business of recruiting legionnaires. "We employ only the most highly motivated and professional operators, all drawn from various U.S. and international Special Operations Forces, Intelligence and Law Enforcement organizations". Paying $15,000 a month for services, seems to qualify for - Have Gun Will Travel. So why dodge the factual in pursuit of an ignoble veneer that conceals the true nature and purpose of civilian hired guns?

Do you think any of these adventurers ever read Smedley Butler?

"I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism".

Only an idiot would still claim that the coalition for conquest is protecting the homes of Americans. No WMD found, doesn’t seem to trouble the NeoCons, because that was never the purpose for pre-emptive invasion. Bremer serves masters that talk benevolence while imposing an interim constitution, written to transform Mesopotamia into a "GI friendly" Saigon, but will result in an Islamic Ho Chi Minh City. Forcing indigenous cultures to resemble a regime that abandoned their own traditions of individual rights is hardly a model that deserves export. If you have doubts as to the methods, just ask Bremer: "We'll adjust our troop levels according to the security situation in Iraq." After Fallujah he angrily summed up the policy: "These murders are a painful outrage for us in the coalition but they will not derail the march towards stability and democracy in Iraq... Their deaths will not go unpunished."

Democracy and punishment, the carrot and the stick to achieve harmony! The idea that conflicting factions establish their own sovereignty, is more frightening than the pain from the brutal consequences of permanent occupation. Retribution to avenge the murders of four private enforcement employees will be conducted by regular troops. Their pay scale, peanuts by comparison, will be set in and motivated under the same rationale that sent General Butler on his missions of liberation. "I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."

What is any different about Iraq? Kurds need not seek statehood. Baath party never register for elections. Only a Western style constitution is acceptable, and only approved candidates need apply. Everyone needs the blessings of the Ugly Americans . . .

The core failure with this ridiculous approach is based upon prevarication. Ordinary tribal nomads get the picture, but egotistical sophisticated technocrats blind themselves to the reality of the policy. There are many more Paul Bremer’s waiting in the wings for their chance to do their duty for the empire. No wonder ambassadors will need to contract with Blackwater Security for additional services. U.S. marines are on notice that the private body guards get preference.

So who’s work is being done in Iraq? The myth of coalition acceptance hung from a bridge across the Euphrates. The chant - 'Fallujah will be a cemetary for Americans' - should read the entire Middle East is the burial ground of American foreign policy. Will it take another Tet Offensive to wake up an asinine public, that believes Bremer is a model yes-man? All you hear, now that we are there, we must get it right! The only way to learn from past mistakes is not to commit them over and over again. Building a Sharon wall around Fallujah would require expanding a perimeter that not even Smedley Butler could contain.

As long as the fiction of self defense or liberation, supplants the truth that Iraq was conquered, for NeoCon objectives; the price of deception will be extracted from the dignity of misguided citizens. The betrayal of the soul of America is the toll paid for the lust of power. The face of America has a bull’s-eye that resembles all the Bremer’s that serve at the pleasure of the internationalists. Will he repent when he writes his book? Butler saw the light, but Bremer just keeps drinking from a cup that is dipped in oil and blessed as kosher. No wonder the world sees imperialism with each liberation! Ugly Americans need to reform their own practices and follow the lead of Smedley Butler.

SARTRE - April 4, 2004