L’U.S. Army brisée?

Il est assuré que James Carroll est un des chroniqueurs les plus talentueux de la presse libre américaine (non-américaniste), notamment avec sa chronique du Boston Globe. Fils du général qui fonda la Defense Intelligence Agency, Carroll prit le parti inverse en s’opposant à la guerre du Viet-nâm. Carroll fut un prêtre dans la religion catholique. Il a publié plusieurs livres qui comptent dans la pensée politique et morale de ce qu’il reste de l’Amérique.

Lisez la formidable interview de Carroll par Tom Engelhardt, publiée sur Antiwar.com le 12 septembre. Le titre annonce la couleur : « The Mosquito and the Hammer. » Ici, nous signalons un extrait de l’interview où Carroll décrit ce qui lui paraît être le destin des forces armées US : la guerre en Irak perdue ou tout comme, l’U.S. Army brisée avec les conséquences…

« TE: I was struck by recent statements by top American generals in Iraq about draw-downs and withdrawals, all of them clearly unauthorized by Washington. At the bottom, you have angry military families, lowering morale, and the difficulties of signing people on to the all-volunteer army; at the top, generals who didn't want to be in Iraq in the first place and don't want to be there now.

» Carroll: Well, they've been forced to preside over the destruction of the United States Army, including the civilian system of support for the Army – the National Guard and the active Reserves. This is the most important outcome of the war and, as with Vietnam, we'll be paying the price for it for a generation.

» TD: Knowing the Pentagon as you do, what kind of a price do you think that will be?

» Carroll: I would say, alas, that one of the things we're going to resume is an overweening dependence on air power and strikes from afar. It's clear, for instance, that the United States under the present administration is not going to allow Iran to get anywhere near a nuclear weapon. The only way they could try to impede that is with air power. They have no army left to exert influence. If the destruction of the United States Army is frightening, so is the immunity from the present disaster of the Navy and the Air Force, which are both far-distance striking forces. That's what they exist for and they're intact. Their Tomahawk and Cruise missiles have basically been sidelined. We have this massive high-firepower force that's sitting offshore and we're surely going to resume our use of such power from afar.

» One of the things the United States of America claims to have learned from the '90s is that we're not going to let genocidal movements like the one in Rwanda unfold. Well, we've basically destroyed the only military tool we have to respond to genocidal movements, which is a ground force. You can't use air power against a machete-wielding movement. And if you think that kind of conflict won't happen in places where poverty is overwhelming and ecological disaster is looming ever more terrifyingly, think again. What kind of response to such catastrophe will a United States without a functional army be capable of? »

Mis en ligne le 13 septembre 2005 à 07H30