The New World Order

Published April 21, 1991 in North Shore Sunday.

Welcome to the New World Order.

Does the phrase scare you or delight you?  It delights George Bush, who seems to have found his "vision thing."

To Bush, of course, the New World Order is the world according to George, where the forces of Good join against the forces of Evil, and all live happily ever after.

Others think New World Order sounds a little like Brave New World, Aldous Huxley's nightmare vision of a serene, somatose world where people lack the ability or the will to question.  But one thing about the New World Order is clear – it can't exist without American support.  And American support depends upon the following factors:

That America is the New World Order.  One of the most bizarre aspects of the war with Iraq was our reaction to the Soviet Union's efforts to avoid what everyone expected to be a long, bloody ground war.  Officially, our government rejected the Soviet peace plans firmly but politely.  But unofficial reports said our government was angered by what one unnamed official called Soviet "meddling."

Meddling?  We should have been grateful for a way to avoid more bloodshed.  What we found intolerable wasn't fighting longer than necessary, but granting the Soviets a major PR coup, which threatens US dominance of the New World Order.

Super patriotism.  Allowing a single nation to decide for the world what is Good and what is Evil requires an almost religious faith in the good intentions of that nation.  Americans have only rarely strayed from that faith.

But the American faithful sometimes have a problem accepting those who don't share the faith.  Ask the Seton Hall basketball player from Italy who didn't wear a US flag on his shirt as other players did during a recent game.  The fans hooted and booed every time he got the ball.  Eventually, he was chased out of school and all the way back to Trieste.  And ask the people who dared to protest the war and were accused of hating America, and whose cars were vandalized for sporting peace symbols.  And ask Michael Dukakis, who lost a presidential election for refusing to wave the flag as much as for refusing to lie about taxes.

A frightened opposition.  Where has all the opposition gone?  Before the war with Iraq began, Americans were pretty evenly split over the wisdom of the war.  After the mother of all victories, 91% of Americans say they supported it.  Apparently, might does make right.

Congress refused to deal with the (some say illegal) buildup of half a million troops in the Persian Gulf until days before the January 15 deadline.  By then, of course, it was too late to vote to pack up and go home.  Still, 49 senators and 179 representatives voted to postpone hostilities until negotiations and economic sanctions had a chance to work.

But when George Bush gave his victory speech to congress, that proud body was transformed into a peanut gallery of flag-waving cheerleaders, eager to show they were on the winning team.  Somehow, in free America, the voice of opposition was cowed into silence.

A frightened media.  During the war, the government played the media like a violin.  The daily military briefings turned a bloody war with maybe 100,000 Iraqi casualties into a safe, clean Nintendo game, and the media never seriously objected.

Apparently, the media is afraid of appearing unpatriotic.  But is it unpatriotic for the media to question?  Why, for example, was the economic embargo against Iraq continued after the war ended?  Should America wage economic warfare against civilians until they do our bidding (eliminate Hussein)?  And was the media being patriotic by virtually ignoring the effects of the Panama invasion?  How many people were killed when we arrested Noriega?  Would a full investigation have averted the slaughter in the Gulf?

It seems the framework for the New World Order exists.  But the New World Order is a lot like the old world order  –  the time immediately after World War II when America was clearly dominant and supremely cocky.

By preferring to put thousands of American lives at risk before giving negotiation and economic pressure a chance to work, and by crafting his overwhelming, brilliant military victory, George Bush has set the American psyche back 45 years  –  back to a time before Hussein, before Khomeini, before Vietnam, before Watergate, before Korea, and before the painful introspection of the 60s.  I wonder if we now have to go through it all over again.

Update: President George H. W. Bush gave his New World Order speech during a televised joint session of Congress on September 11, 1990.