New Pentagon vision transforms war agenda.

• Author: Gagnon, Bruce
• Position: Thinking Politically

A transformation at the Pentagon is well underway. The US military is increasingly being converted into a global oil protection service. Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld has a "strategy guy" whose job is to teach this new way of warfare to high-level military officers from all branches of service and to top-level CIA operatives. Thomas Barnett is a professor at the Navy War College in Rhode Island. He is author of the controversial book The Pentagon's New Map that identifies a "non-integrating gap" in the world that is resisting corporate globalization. Barnett defines the gap as parts of Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Central Asia, all of which are key oil-producing regions of the world.

In what Barnett calls a "Grand March of History," he claims that the US military must be transformed in order to preemptively take control of the gap, so the US can manage the global distribution of resources, people, energy, and money. Barnett predicts that US unilateralism will lead to the "inevitability of war." Referring to Hitler in a recent presentation, Barnett reminded his military audience that the Nazi leader never asked for permission before invading other countries.

Barnett argues that the days of arms talks and international treaties are over. "There is no secret where we are going," he says as he calls for a "new ordering principle" at the Department of Defense (DoD). Barnett maintains that as jobs move out of the US, the primary export product of the nation will be "security." Global energy demand will necessitate US control of the oil producing regions. "We will be fighting in Central Africa in 20 years," Barnett predicts.

In order to implement this new military vision, Barnett maintains that the US military must move away from its often-competing mix of Air Force-Navy-Army-Marines toward two basic military services. One he names Leviathan, which he defines as the conventional military and special ops, not under the purview of the International Criminal Court.

Once a country is conquered by Leviathan, Barnett says the US will have to have a second military force that he calls Systems Administration. This force he describes as the "proconsul" of the empire, boots on the ground, the police force to control the local populations. This group, Barnett says, "will never come home."

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Barnett's plan is essentially underway today. New, fast, flexible, and efficient projection forces with "lily pad" bases are now being...