People's Democracy

TWO YEARS AFTER SEPTEMBER 11

 Parody Of The "War Against Terror"

 Prakash Karat

WHEN the second anniversary of September 11 was observed, the mood in the Bush administration was much more sombre. Ever since the US seized the opportunity presented by the terrorist attacks two years ago to declare a global war on terrorism, the US has not looked so vulnerable. It no longer appears to be the confident hegemon strutting around the world. By the first anniversary of September 11, the US had attacked and occupied Afghanistan. By the second anniversary, Iraq had been invaded and occupied. Both were part of Bush’s war-without-end against terrorism. But both these military “victories” have neither diminished the threat of terrorism nor ended the war in these countries.

BALANCE SHEET IN YEAR TWO

The balance sheet of the global war against terrorism in year two is not something which was expected by the neo-conservative warriors of the Bush administration. In Afghanistan, after ousting the Taliban regime, two years later, the same elements have regrouped and are indulging in hit and run tactics. The Hamid Karzai government’s writ does not run much beyond Kabul. There are 10,000 American soldiers still engaged in tracking down the Taliban forces in the border areas with Pakistan. The US has been compelled to invite the NATO to take charge of the 5,000 strong International Security Assistance Force which helps keep the regime in place. The spectre of Osama continues to haunt the Americans.

In Iraq, the Americans are in a quagmire. They are losing one soldier a day and there are, on an average, a dozen attacks on the US forces all over the country. The Bush administration is spending one billion dollars a week to maintain its military occupation. After the attack on the UN headquarters and the killing of a top Shia cleric by suicide bombers, even the Red Cross has shifted out its staff from Iraq. After having declared major combat over on May 1, the US is hard pressed to explain how “terror” is growing in the country. The ready answer is that foreign terrorists have infiltrated into Iraq in a big way. Apart from the absurdity of such an explanation, it is self-defeating because it is an admission that there were no terrorists under the Saddam regime, and his removal has brought the influx. The US keeps no account of the Iraqis who have died during the war and its aftermath. According to a serious estimate, it will be over 25,000. For every American solider dying daily, 20 Iraqis are dying in US military shootings at checkpoints, in raids and other attacks. An embattled and occupied people are hitting back at the colonisers. There is no need for "foreign terrorists.”

OCCUPIERS IN DIFFICULTY

Bush, who had arrogantly proclaimed in September 2002 that the United Nations would become as irrelevant as the League of Nations if it did not authorise a war on Iraq, has now been forced to eat his words. He has knocked on the doors of the UN to seek Security Council sanction for getting troops from other countries. This volte face itself indicates the difficulties the occupiers face in Iraq. But the new imperialists are loath to give up their grip on Iraq. What has been proposed to the UN is a multinational force to serve under US command. This is not acceptable to France, Germany, Russia and many other countries. The French have given a counter proposal which would hand over control to the UN and a six month timetable to instal an Iraqi government. The US has rejected this as unrealistic. The talks in Geneva between the foreign ministers of the five permanent members, on September l3, failed to come to an agreement.

The Bush coterie had hoped for quick profits to be made out of oil in Iraq. Even that is proving to be illusory. With the pipelines being regularly blown up in the north, not much oil is being pumped out. In the south too, lack of power and infrastructure is hampering export of oil. Instead of generating revenue, Bush is forced to pump in more money into Iraq. Last week, Bush has presented a proposal for 87 billion dollars for reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the earlier 79 billion dollars spent, this would mean l50 billion dollars being spent on Iraq. The war on terrorism was to be a profitable venture. Instead, it is adding to the staggering deficit in the American budget.

Bush and his cohorts should not be let off the hook with an easy reprieve. Either they must quickly work out an exit strategy from Iraq after handing over to the United Nations, or they should be left alone to be bled into the sands of Iraq. Even if they quit Iraq, they must pay the costs for the reconstruction of this ravaged country.

TERROR GLOBALISED

What the American people are beginning to realise is that the war on terrorism has actually widened the ambit of terror. The Bali bombing last year and the Jakarta Marriot hotel blast show how the operations of the terrorist groups have spread to new areas. The Americans have “globalised” terror. By attacking two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq, whose people had nothing to do with the September 11 suicide bombers, Muslim fundamentalists were provided the opportunity to campaign that America’s war is against the Islamic world in general. Today America is hated by a large number of people in all Muslim countries. An international opinion poll conducted last December by the Pew Global Altitudes Project showed that 80 per cent of the people in Egypt and Jordan and 60 per cent in Bangladesh and Indonesia disapproved of the US war against terrorism. The same poll in June 2003, covering 16,000 respondents around the world, found that a majority of people in seven out of the eight Muslim countries surveyed feared a military threat from the US to their country. More significantly, a majority in Indonesia, Jordan, Palestine and nearly half of those in Morocco and Pakistan expressed confidence in Osama bin Laden to "do the right thing in world affairs." Such is the outcome of America's bullying and aggression.

The sympathy for the victims of the September 11, 2001 outrage worldwide has been dissipated by the blatant aggression on Iraq. The New York Times reflected this reality with the headline “US is losing sympathy of the world” in its issue on the second anniversary of September 11. The global coalition against terrorism, which the US proclaimed it would lead, is now in tatters. For the war on Iraq it became a pathetic “coalition of the willing.” Even the Bush-Blair partnership is in bad shape. Today, a majority of Britons have said they don’t trust Blair anymore. As for Bush, he has a lower poll rating than what he had before September 11.

Sharon has been the greatest beneficiary of the war against terror. This old terrorist promptly donned the anti-terrorist armour and went off to battle the Palestinian freedom fighters now labeled terrorists. The logic of Sharonism is not very different from Bushism: Grab other people’s land, shoot down resistance and proclaim a victory over terrorism! The collapse of the American sponsored “roadmap” for peace was inevitable as Sharon and his ilk clung to a Greater Israel built over the blood and bodies of the Palestinians. Having waited for Bush to effect a regime change in the Palestinian leadership and seeing it fail, Sharon is now out to remove the “terrorist number one” Yasser Arafat. The US promptly vetoes worldwide condemnation of this move in the Security Council. Both Iraq and Palestine are the greatest exposures of the parody called “war against terror.” That is why Iraq and Palestine will continue to the focal points of resistance to the imperial masters and their agents.

SAFFRON HOPE OF PARTNERSHIP

When America unfolded plans for extending its hegemony under the guise of fighting terrorism, Vajpayee and Advani promptly announced India’s important role in this war to be fought under American auspices. Two years later, the enthusiasm is undiminished but the prospects are not so encouraging. The Hindutva brigade cannot get over the fondness displayed by America for Musharaff and the Pakistani regime. Advani has been heard muttering that we should rely on our own resources in the fight against terrorism. But hopes of becoming America’s favoured strategic partner still keeps India in tow. After being forced to abandon the chance to send troops to Iraq at America’s behest, the Vajpayee government continues to look for ways to cement its partnership. One of these is to impress America about India’s utility in the war against terrorism. That is why the Sharon visit to India was used to reaffirm the idea of a US-Israel-India axis --- something which the US government spokesman welcomed.

But just as the US is learning, to it at a bitter cost, that fighting terrorism cannot be converted into an imperialist venture; the BJP-led government is unable to comprehend that its loaded rhetoric against terrorism and the Hindutva brigade targeting of the minorities will not stop terror. Terror is spawned in a vicious cycle, as we saw in the Mumbai blasts recently, by terrorist violence sponsored by the state in Gujarat. For all the strategies drawn up to fight the spreading terrorist menace, the roots of terror remain outside the field of vision of the strategists.

Two years after September 11, US imperialism’s plan to leapfrog on the anti-terrorist plank to unbridled domination of the world has run into rough weather. While observing the second anniversary of the New York and Washington attacks, the world did not forget another anniversary, the thirtieth anniversary of the martyrdom of Salvador Allende. The US-backed military coup in Chile took place on September 11, 1973. That fascist coup also led to the killing of over 3,000 people. For most people in the world, terrorism is not just what America proclaims it to be. Iraq has helped them to realise that it has many faces.