The Fear Superbomb

'Mother of all bombs', says the UK Sun, next to a picture of America's new 'fearsome superbomb', which will apparently 'help destroy Saddam Hussein's evil regime' (1).

The MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast) is a 30-foot long bomb, made up of nine-and-a-half tonnes of high explosives, which apparently unleashes a 10,000-foot mushroom cloud when it blows up. 'This is not small', said a deadpan defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday, after the US Air Force tested the bomb at Eglin Airbase in Florida (2).

The superbomb may be the world's 'most powerful non-nuclear bomb'. But it also shows the gap between America's military might and its deeper political uncertainty. US officials are trying to fill the moral vacuum exposed by the planned attack on Iraq with a very big weapon -- a case of 'when all else fails, get your bombs out'.

The US Air Force made a public spectacle of the MOAB test explosion. Where weapons testing in the past was generally shrouded in secrecy, the explosion of the superbomb in Florida was accompanied by a press release, official statements and even video footage.

One of the aims seems to be to make a virtual impact in Iraq. Apparently, US officials plan to have the video coverage of the test explosion 'beamed to Iraqi troops to terrify them into surrender' (3). The US Air Force has taken to dropping bombs in 'safe military zones' in sunny Florida in an attempt to make an impact in the enemy camp of Iraq. That's enough to make the US military's increasing reliance on unmanned drones to do their bombing in Afghanistan and elsewhere look like the height of military engagement.

Some are comparing MOAB to the atom bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, arguing that this new superbomb might put a stop to the Iraqi crisis just as the atom bombs brought an end to the Second World War. Leaving aside the fact that you can't compare the Second World War to the West's self-induced crisis in the failed state of Iraq, the contrasts between the role of MOAB today and the role played by the A-bomb nearly 60 years ago are striking.

Of course, for those on the receiving end, the choice between being MOABed or A-bombed is no choice at all. Whichever weapon of mass destruction America decides to use in its foreign ventures, the end result is devastation. That the new 'superbomb' is a 'non-nuclear weapon' but with the 'power of a small nuclear explosion' is a detail that will be lost on those who feel its heat. But the current discussion about MOAB and Iraq captures something of America's current cautiousness on the international stage.

The atom bombs were hugely devastating, laying to waste two Japanese cities and killing at least 200,000 people. But the atomic bombing of Japan was about more than reaping blind destruction, even though it did that very well. With the Second World War coming to a close, and a new world order emerging, the devastation visited on Japan was about displaying America's military, economic and political power to the world, embodying the USA's aim to assume dominance over the postwar globe.

As the Japanese Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the Atomic Bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki succinctly described it: 'The A-Bomb attacks were needed not so much against Japan - already on the brink of surrender and no longer capable of mounting an effective counter-offensive - as to establish clearly America's postwar international position and strategic supremacy in the anticipated Cold War setting.'

The new superbomb seems to be all about making a military impact, and little else - a demonstration of America's brute force and ability to instil fear. Military officials talk up the psychological and military impact that the superbomb will have. 'A primary reason to utilise this kind of weapon is psychological', says one Pentagon official. 'The intent is to paralyse and terrorise Iraqi troops, to stop them in their tracks.' (4)