While many news stories are being unreported by mainstream media sources, perhaps the most egregious offense being committed by the press is the lack of critical analysis concerning our presence in Iraq, and more specifically, the use of military force by the United States in pursuit of empire.

Discussions of domination of the developing world by the first world has used semantics such as globalization, the new economy, and other nebulous terms. While corporate hegemony and economic coercion are clearly allowing the expansion of American empire, there is no ultimate enforcement mechanism that allows corporations or trade agreements and, more specifically, the United States, to dominate less powerful countries.

Military force plays that role, and the importance of military power in expanding American empire is the subject of Rahul Mahajan's new book, Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond.

Mahajan's account leaves nothing to chance. The presence of the U.S. military in Iraq is the central focus of the book, but examples of use of military force by the United States in pursuit of economic interests from every continent help illustrate Mahajan's essential argument: we must remove our military from Iraq if we are genuinely concerned about a just outcome for the Iraqi people. Bush's claims: that we are helping Iraqi people and that our mission is humanitarian are ludicrous given the deleterious effects of the United States sanctions on the Iraqi people.

Mahajan cites figures showing that sanctions caused the death of 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of five between 1991 and 1998. This is one of a litany of empirical illustrations presented in Full Spectrum Dominance that elucidate the ridiculous absurdity of the Bush administration's claims that we are helping free the Iraqi people. That claim is only believable if you feel like the Iraqi people now have nothing left to lose.

The book is replete with examples of countries where an economic interest was pursued through military operations. These examples include the establishment of Pinochet's regime in Chile, the support of a military coup in Brazil, and the establishment of military bases in Turkey.

Mahajan makes a clear case that humanitarian justifications being offered by adminstration officials are hollow and farcical. Rather, he offers analysis that fully illustrates why oil is a component of empire and why the administration's stated reasons for the invasion of Iraq were falsehoods. Mahajan explains that weapons inspections were working and the Bush administration took steps that subverted the process and actually gave Saddam Hussein reason to act in non-compliance.

Perhaps most disturbing are the implications of the pre-emption doctrine developed after September 11th. No longer content to seek military solutions against countries that exhibit clear threats to U.S. interest, which Iraq did not after 9/11, the United States will now, under the doctrine, take steps to ensure that countries will never develop the capacity to become threats. Mahajan considers this to be preventative war and blatantly in violation of international law.

Not that the United States seems to care about international law, especially if it would somehow prevent our contined imperial vision. This is a point Mahajan delineates explicitly, citing numerous examples of humanitarian resolutions developed by the United Nations that the United States refused to ratify. Or perhaps you need only consider the so-called Invade the Hague act to understand how the United States is acting unilaterally in perpetual attempts to dominate the globe.

Mahajan's book is easily understood and contains essential information for understanding the necessity of ending the American military's occupation of Iraq. The book is on sale at the Internationalist, including several copies signed by the author during his visit to the bookstore in October.

Review by Charlie St. Clair