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April 20 - April 27,2003 |
The case against Saddam Hussein
New York-based publisher Paul Piccone looks at the realities surrounding War on Iraq
By Janet Bellotto
Originally Published: 2003-04-06
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Telos Press Publisher Paul Piccone
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Paul Piccone is the editor of Telos Press based in New York City. Before that, he taught for many years at Washington University in St. Louis. He has dealt extensively with politics and foreign relations, especially those between Canada and the U.S. Telos was founded in 1968 in order "to provide the New Left with a coherent theoretical perspective." Since the collapse of the New Left, however, it has continued to develop critical perspectives on North America and Europe. The journals and the books it publishes seek to shed light on new geopolitical realities and today's growing cultural contradictions.
Paul spoke with Tandem and shared his insights into the realities of the War on Iraq.
What have you done in terms of publishing that relates to what is going on with this war on Iraq?
"Well, for example, we just published the English translation of a 1950 classic by Carl Schmitt, the 20th century's foremost German jurist and expert on international law, The Nomos of the Earth, which already prefigured the possible implications of the end of the Cold War. Half a century later, it appears to have been extremely prophetic. Among other things, he talks about the decline of the State and, as a consequence, the decline of national sovereignty, the changing character of war, and new modes of conflictuality - including guerrilla warfare, terrorism etc. There is a long discussion of the history and failure of the League of Nations, which pretty closely parallels what is happening now with the UN and other international organizations predicated on the international stalemate generated by post-WWII bipolarism. This state of affairs still remains unclear - or at least unacceptable - to many heads of state such as Chirac or Schroeder, not to mention ordinary people in general, who still insist on relying on obsolete and ineffective institutions for solving New World problems."
So, what is the war on Iraq really about?
"It is about settling old scores and vigorously implementing this new foreign policy agenda. Already at the end of the first Gulf War Saddam Hussein had defied the U.S. and the UN, and had been in flagrant violation of the terms of the peace agreement. The older Bush's administration should have taken decisive action at that time - especially since by then it had realized the implications of its major blunder in not taking out Saddam when it could have, and of restructuring Iraq in a way conducive to stability in the Middle East. It simply did not have the necessary political will and vision, in an international context violently opposed to financing and supporting any more wars. It was assumed that over time the problem would simply go away. It did not. Rather, it became much more serious with the growth of Al Quaida.
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