Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is part of his all-out war on democracy. Yet, deciphering today the “War on Terror” narrative reveals democracy as no more than a PR gimmick for the corporatocratic regime ruling the United States.
Introduction
It is not news that Putin is an autocrat. Animated by a nationalistic ideology, he makes no mystery of despising Western societies, considering democratic ideals a sign of moral decline. Trained in the 80s as a KGB operative, his formative years apparently converted him to the virtues of dictating to people what to think. That probably suited a weak character, prone to consider that only he can be the one in charge. Whatever the man’s psychological profile might exactly be, after Thechenia, Georgia, Syria, and, of course, political opponents in Russia, Ukrainians now suffer the devastating consequences of his authoritarian and imperial delusions.
Sergei Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russia since 2004, has nevertheless a point when arguing that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and how it unfolded disqualifies us from taking the moral high ground. Though his reasoning is morally unacceptable—if your neighbor is a murderer, this does not allow you to become one—it bears a real question for Americans: has the U.S. amended its ways since the “War on Terror” heydays? Given that the U.S. military budget keeps expanding year after year, reaching more than $780 billion in 2022, it definitely does not look like it. What is even more puzzling is that Congress seems unable, in the meantime, to make the country’s genuine needs in infrastructure, education, or access to healthcare a priority. Republicans are against it, and Democrats never genuinely fight for it.
One can only be reminded, in that light, that if Vladimir’s regime is at an extreme of brutal censorship against any form of dissent, both the United States and Russia are full-fledged oligarchies. Only their respective coating differ; one being overtly authoritarian and the other presenting itself as the wonderland of happy consumers. In reality, as with the invasion of Ukraine, the “War on Terror” was a master feat of propaganda toward the national population and an absolute disaster for the countries that fell under its wrath. As with the invasion of Ukraine, consequently, the “War on Terror” stands as a privileged case study about the real nature of political power in the United States.
Once having addressed the inner contradiction of the “War on Terror” concept from a strategic standpoint, we will have to understand how its propaganda worked nevertheless so well. Then we will examine how today’s on-going persecution of Julian Assange is particularly revealing of the lengths to which our “democracies,” and chiefly among them the U.S., are willing to go against their very principles to protect power. The reason why they do will, finally, be specifically analyzed with the help of a WWII veteran who dedicated his academic life to the question of democracy—Sheldon Wolin.
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Philippe Roussel has long been interested in studying the power structures defining our increasingly unsustainable and undemocratic world. This website serves as the primary platform where he presents his ideas and findings to an international audience.