War-on-terror ideology theory derives from Cold War totalitarianism theory

Evidence

Totalitarian movements use socialism and racism by emptying them of their utilitarian content, the interests of a class or nation. The form of infallible prediction in which these concepts were presented has become more important than their content. The chief qualification of a mass leader has become unending infallibility; he can never admit an error. The assumption of infallibility, moreover, is based not so much on superior intelligence as on the correct interpretation of the essentially reliable forces in history or nature, forces which neither defeat nor ruin can prove wrong because they are bound to assert themselves in the long run. Mass leaders in power have one concern which overrules all utilitarian considerations: to make their predictions come true. The Nazis did not hesitate to use, at the end of the war, the concentrated force of their still intact organization to bring about as complete a destruction of Germany as possible, in order to make true their prediction that the German people would be ruined in case of defeat. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 816 (#expands, via linked claim)

For decades, anticommunism had been a linchpin in the evangelical worldview, justifying militarism abroad and a militant pursuit of moral purity at home. The victory of the free world was something to celebrate, but it was also disorienting. Without a common enemy, it would be more difficult to sustain militant expressions of the faith. Yet even as the Cold War came to an anticlimactic end, the crusade theory of warfare endured. A flexible guide to combat, it could be employed to justify aggression against threats both foreign and domestic. Among Christian nationalists, it could effectively sanctify any engagement where the United States resorted to force. On the home front, it could validate questionable or even ruthless tactics wielded in defense of Christian America. In heroic pursuits of a higher good, the ends would justify the means. Conservative evangelicals knew they were called to fight the Lord’s battle. It just wasn’t entirely clear what that battle would be. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 312 (#expands, via linked claim)

But modern Orientalists—or area experts, to give them their new name—have not passively sequestered themselves in language departments. On the contrary, they have profited from Gibb’s advice. Most of them today are indistinguishable from other “experts” and “advisers” in what Harold Lasswell has called the policy sciences. Thus the military–national-security possibilities of an alliance, say, between a specialist in “national character analysis” and an expert in Islamic institutions were soon recognized, for expediency’s sake if for nothing else. After all, the “West” since World War II had faced a clever totalitarian enemy who collected allies for itself among gullible Oriental (African, Asian, undeveloped) nations. What better way of outflanking that enemy than by playing to the Oriental’s illogical mind in ways only an Orientalist could devise? Thus emerged such masterful ploys as the stick-and-carrot technique, the Alliance for Progress, SEATO, and so forth, all of them based on traditional “knowledge” retooled for better manipulation of its supposed object. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 301 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The global war on terror ideology originated in Israeli religious-right domestic politics — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 445; Counterterrorism policy derives from Cold War totalitarianism theory linking ideology to violence — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 566; The crusade theory of warfare outlived the Cold War enemy it justified — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 312 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• The crusade theory of warfare outlived the Cold War enemy it justified #expands (0.95) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 312
• The War on Terror draws its ideology from Orientalism’s invented past #corroborates (0.95) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 280
• The War on Terror was ideologically framed as a civilizational clash #corroborates (0.95)
• Assimilationist discourse fuses directly with the war on terror’s logic #expands (0.95) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 382
• Cold War policy sciences retooled Orientalist stereotypes for national-security manipulation #corroborates (0.95) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 301
• Totalitarian ideology coerces through the fear of abandoning a first premise #expands (0.95)
• Totalitarian ideology values the form of infallible prediction over its content #expands (0.95) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 816
• Ideological scientificality overrides factual reality in totalitarian action #expands (0.95)
• The liberal case for the war on terror abetted later Islamophobia #complicates (0.85) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 123
• Terrorism explanations via Muslim fundamentalism erase the political roots of militancy #complicates (0.85) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 896
• Eurabia theory functions as a politically useful paranoid fantasy like cold war communism #complicates (0.85) — Matt Carr, You Are Now Entering Eurabia, 47
• War on Terror propaganda preceded and pre-framed military action #complicates (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 215
• Islamic fundamentalism is a modern product of Cold War politics #complicates (0.85)