by Lee Sustar

Invoking the “war on terror” in connection with Iraq hasn’t helped Bush reverse his fall in the opinion polls. Yet the White House has managed to preserve the foreign policy consensus among Republicans and Democrats around aggressive -- and, when necessary, pre-emptive -- use of military force. Thus, the Democrats’ hawkish presidential aspirants like Senators Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton are following John Kerry in trying to out-do Bush as champions of “national security.” Even sections of the antiwar movement are reluctant to portray the U.S. occupation of Iraq as an element of a broader imperial drive to dominate a strategic corridor stretching from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. This creates the political space for Bush and pro-war Democrats alike to use Islamophobia to trump their critics. “Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy pursues totalitarian aims,” Bush said in his speech to the NED. “Its leaders pretend to be an aggrieved party, representing the powerless against imperial enemies. In truth, they have endless ambitions of imperial domination, and they wish to make everyone powerless except themselves.” Shamefully, some on the left still chime in with almost identical rhetoric....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Sustar1019.htm