Cowboyism

Tom Engelhardt, writing in Le Monde Diplomatique:

So no one should have been surprised that when President George Bush declared his global war on terror he also swore to get Osama bin Laden in this fashion : “I want justice. And there’s an old poster out west I recall, that said, ‘Wanted, Dead or Alive.’” Of course, that “poster” came not from any real experience he had in the west, but directly from the thrilling cowboy films of his childhood. So did his John Wayne-like urge to “hunt” the terrorists down, or “smoke ’em out,” or “bring ’em on”. From that same childhood undoubtedly came the president’s repeated urge to dress up in an assortment of commander-in-chief military outfits, much in the style of a GI Joe action figure.” (Think: doll.) It’s visibly clear that the president has long found delight, actual pleasure, in his war-making role, as he did in his Top Gun, “mission accomplished” landing on that aircraft carrier back in 2003.

It’s not surprising either that a critic who spent real time up close and personal with top Bush administration figures, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, Larry Wilkerson, would accuse the president of “cowboyism”. Nor should it be strange that neocon writers close to this administration and in thrall to the same spirit should lovingly quote American military men who also believe themselves out on some western frontier. Robert Kaplan, for instance, cites one officer as saying, “The red Indian metaphor is one with which a liberal policy nomenklatura may be uncomfortable, but army and marine field officers have embraced it because it captures perfectly the combat challenge of the early 21st century.”...

...And yet the paradigm of the frontier and of the Indian wars settled deep into the American soul. So again, it should not be surprising that the now officially grown up boys who never left those movie theatres and have the power to make war on the world should still imagine themselves at the beloved movies of long ago and that the framework of the Indian wars, however suppressed and transformed, remains in some fashion deeply with us. This is the secret frontier dreamland of our rulers, with nightmarish consequences for us all.