1. Introduction
In the spring-time, the dusty-terrain that surrounds the Afghan city of Jalalabad is overrun with orange flowers. The scent of their blossoms is said to fill the air and even to encourage poets from across the region to pay annual homage to them[1]. Assadullah, a 16 year old ice-cream vendor, enjoyed the spring-time. The heat made work harder, but the influx of tourists meant customers and more money in his pocket. In the winter-time, around October, the nights became cooler and the dust seemed to settle down. Assadullah worked as long as he could, then he spent the evenings near the airfield, away from the shadow of the mountains, amongst friends, or alone, enjoying the respite from the heat.
On one October evening, Assadullah sat down beside the airfield doing just that. The sky was overcast making the night darker but the air was clear. He got to his feet when he heard a rumble in the clouds above, like the cargo planes that regularly landed, but much heavier, much noisier. Before long, he heard people shouting and crying in the distance, then the rattle of gun-fire, and beneath the commotion he could hear the whirring of tiny propellers and a faint whistling sound.
Days later, whilst being treated in a Pakistani hospital, Assadullah told a journalist [2] that the last thing he heard that night “was just a roaring sound and then I opened my eyes and I was in a hospital”. Assadullah had ‘lost’ his leg and two fingers to a U.S. ballistic missile. He had unwillingly participated in Operation Enduring Freedom, a ‘precise strike’ [3] air campaign aimed at Taliban forces that were allegedly harbouring the elusive Osama Bin Laden. The War on Terror had arrived in Afghanistan.
The course for the ballistic missile had been set years earlier and half a world away, in Washington, in 1997, when a group of influential academics, politicians and corporate executives gathered together to form a ‘think-tank’ called the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). The PNAC drew together some of the sharpest neo-conservative minds in the United States including key members of the current Bush administration. This includes Richard Perle, former Chairman of the Defense Policy Board; Richard Armitage who became the Deputy Secretary of State; John Bolton who acts as Ambassador to the U.N.; Richard “Dick” Cheney who is the current vice President and former Halliburton CEO; Donald Rumsfeld, the former Secretary of Defence and Paul Wolfowitz, the former Deputy Secretary of State and current President of the World Bank. Many of the other members, such as Thomas Donnelly, whose influence will be discussed, also moved into prestigious positions within the military-industrial sector and the energy industry.
The group immediately released a white-paper in December 2000 entitled Rebuilding America’s Defences: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century. The document proposed supreme military superiority and dominance in order to maintain America’s position as the only global superpower.
The group never formally introduced themselves to the media or the public and the document was never officially released beyond predetermined, conducive groups within the Washington political circle. However, in an attempt to embrace new technologies, to appear transparent to interest groups, and, it would seem, in ignorance of the level of exposure that cyberspace would offer, the group launched a website (www.newamericancentruy.org) and made their documents available in the public-domain. What then took place will be the major site of examination in this investigation, as PNAC did not go quietly into the electronic night, but, on the contrary, fell prey to an unexpected internet phenomenon: the rise of the social network.
[1] Hatch-Dupree, N., 1977. An Historical Guide To Afghanistan.
[2] The Guardian, October 9th, 2001. ‘Taliban Says 20 Civilians Killed in Kabul’.
[3] Donald Rumsfeld: cited in The Guardian, October 9th, 2001. ‘Taliban Says 20 Civilians Killed in Kabul’.
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