REVIEW BY ROHAN PEARCE
Full Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century
By Stan Goff
Soft Skull Press, New York 2004
243 pages, US$13.95 pb
Order from <http://www.softskull.com>
"For a brief time in 1994 I acted as the shadow de facto dictator of a portion of northeastern Haiti. With the possible exception of my first marriage, I have never been more ill-prepared for any task, nor has any endeavor so beaten me down — physically, mentally, or psychologically. When it was all over, I ended up in meetings where I would introduce myself by saying, 'Hi, I'm a drunk named Stan.'"
So begins Stan Goff's Full Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century, part memoir, part analysis of the US military in the context of Washington's post-9/11 offensive and part exposition of Goff's personal political-social philosophy.
The end product is an intriguing, if at times eclectic, volume of personal and political reflections on the "war on terror" by a professional killer for Uncle Sam turned revolutionary socialist that makes compelling reading.
The publication of Disorder is timely: The US occupation of Iraq is under challenge from a vigorous indigenous resistance movement, the Taliban-aligned Islamic fundamentalists are showing signs of revival in Afghanistan's south-east, and a US presidential election is approaching in which the two main contenders have almost zero differences on the "war on terror".
Goff is certainly qualified to attempt an assessment of the military prospects for US imperialism, having served with the US military in Vietnam, Colombia, El Salvador, Peru, Grenada, Haiti and Somalia. His firsthand experiences of imperial occupations allow him to offer valuable insights into how occupations forces' colonial mentality develops (and, conversely, the experience of "going native", when soldiers begin to identify with the occupied) and make an assessment of the weakness of the US armed forces when faced with "asymmetric warfare", such as in Iraq where the US has been unable to crush the guerrilla resistance despite its overwhelming firepower and technological superiority.
Disorder offers a military assessment of the invasion of Iraq and the failure of the Pentagon's plans to avoid a protracted ground war that, because of the risk of significant US casualties, could be politically costly for the White House.
Goff recounts: "[US defence secretary Donald] Rumsfeld's computers told him that the Iraqis would be shocked and awed into capitulation within two days. Instead we had the (suppressed in the US) spectacle of ground troops in disarray as they attempted to cross their initial lines of departure, columns being stopped by urban resistance, ambushes of logistics tails, advances halted by blinding sandstorms, and captive American youngsters on television."
Part of what makes Goff's analysis such fascinating reading is that his approach isn't just that of an anti-war activist and an anti-imperialist revolutionary, it's also that of a soldier outraged by the monumental fuck-ups made by Pentagon officialdom. There is no doubt that Goff hopes what he writes will resonate with the experiences of US soldiers currently serving in the "war on terror", helping to build a movement of resistance within the imperialist military.
Some of Goff's fire is also leveled at the anti-war movement and the left. For example, he attacks those who had been part of the anti-war movement prior to the invasion of Iraq but don't recognise Iraqis' right to resist the occupation, writing that "so-called progressives need to learn how to stand with whatever is necessary to expel the invader. People don't choose suicide bombs because the bomber is less ethical than someone in an American suburb. They choose them because it's the only weapon and method left to them in the face of an uncontestable conventional military power. This is the essence of what is now called asymmetric warfare. We cannot put an abstract morality above the people."
Goff argues that much of the left doesn't understand the importance of conducting work among the armed forces. "Every successful revolution requires either the neutralization or active participation of military people. It's really time to factor that into our thinking. It's time we thought about organizing within the military. And organizing is not helping out a handful of conscientious objectors (though that is important) or dropping into Fayetteville with antiwar petitions for GIs to sign. Organizing is getting to know them, listening to them, building relationships with them, and standing alongside them when they confront their own institution."
While many of these points are undoubtedly true, at times Goff has an unfortunate tendency to adopt a lecturing tone that may prevent people paying attention to valid points he makes.
In many ways, Disorder is a strange read, going from a plain-talking, soldiers-eye view of the military (he describes US President George Bush as the "rich coke-snortin' frat-fuck from Texas") to overly dense theoretical ruminations, in between dealing with everything from the experience of simultaneously being a soldier's father and an anti-war activist, to the second law of thermodynamics to the building of revolutionary anti-capitalist organisations. (I have never before known of a book that used both the terms "goat fuck" and "social entropy"...)
Despite my disagreements with some of Disorder — Goff's analysis of China, the dynamics of the US conflict with North Korea, his indiscriminate use of the term fascist — Goff has rendered the left and the anti-war movement a valuable service by producing a volume that can aid in understanding the vulnerability of US imperialism's military machine. As Goff notes, "If ever there were a propitious time for people around the world to rebel against the diktat of the US, it is right now".
Goff argues: "The reason it is hard for people to see any hopeful alternative to our present self-destructive course, is that we are still resisting the implication: revolution." Disorder finishes on a call for struggle: "We are all Palestinians now. When in Palestine, we do what Palestinians do. We learn the lesson of the rocks. Intifada."
From Green Left Weekly, July 21, 2004.
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