Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.

“Looking back, we may see things that we do not want to revisit just yet, controversies that we wish to leave behind. For us to learn as a nation, however, for us to hand down to future generations what they need to know, we must be clear about what happened. We were attacked by a handful of people from a relatively small organization of fanatics who had tapped into the frustrations of a sizable minority of those who shared their ethnicity and religion. Our nation was stunned and wanted to unify in response. That desire for unity kept too many voices silent when they should have been contributing to a public debate about how to react. Wretched excesses were proposed and barely opposed. We invaded a country, Iraq that had nothing to do with the attack on us, but had everything to do with the preconceived plans of a cabal in and out of our government.”

Richard A. Clark (Former US National Security Chief: “the Lessons of 9/11”: the Daily Beast, 9/7/2011)

The “War on Terrorism” and the individualistic issue - who is terrorist is not only ambiguous but continues to be controversial and terribly deceptive in proposition. Its mass media portrayal could be a matter of opinion, not established facts of human life to determine what constitutes “terrorism’?

The on going global irony involved in the “war on terrorism” enlists cruel combination of probabilities, often self-defeating purposes and inhuman tragedies as plausible definitions and explanations - liberal democracy, freedom, human rights and war for social justice. The American led “war on terrorism” exposes this bewildering and cynical framework of greed and tyranny being imposed on others. “Either you are with us or against us”, proclaimed former President Bush, the draconian slogan shortly after the September 11 attacks in the US. The alleged Al-Qaida link to 9/11 attacks and Osma bin Laden - the accused mastermind and now reported dead second or third time by the US intelligence networks, were not the stranger to the US pursuit of global political hegemony but part of the American global engagement history. Arundhati Roy said it well (the Infinite Algebra of Mercy): Bush and Osama are both extremists and unacceptable choices to the rest of the world…Osama bin Laden was created by the CIA and is wanted by FBI.

Financed by the corporate interest, the Western mass media is building vigorously the public psyche and perception to see the Muslims as the culprits waging war against the Christian West. The alleged myth that Islamic faith and Muslim culture are the breeding ground of terrorism remains a racially manufactured assumption and highly questionable theory in the real world affairs. The Project for the New American Century – PNAC, was formed in 1997 (long before the 9/11 crisis), with the participatory blessings of the American oil and gas cartel, better known as neo-conservatives including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Wolfwitz and many other leading agents of influence – official functionaries at the time in Strategic Policy Planning and the Defense portfolios within the American political echelon. All were committed to dominate the global economy and the political powerhouse for America to become unrivaled superpower in the New World Order. 9/11 provided that much-needed conflict making opportunity to the PNAC visionary goals, strategic priorities and George Bush’s continued 2nd term legal Presidency. While the US government is marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, its reasoning and lessons to be drawn have been ignored. Why did the US embarked on bogus “War on Terrorism” against Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan? None of these nations had anything to do with the events of the 9/11. Consequently, over three millions Iraqis have been killed by the US and British forces and their cultural and economic lifelines uprooted. Millions more are reported to have been displaced and their habitats destroyed and lands poisoned and polluted by dangerous weapons across Iraq and Afghanistan. Who would celebrate the 10th anniversary of those cold blooded massacres and painful anguish inflicted by the US-British aggression?

At the 10th anniversary of the 9/11, Robert Jensen, Professor University of Texas (“Imperial Delusions: Ignoring the Lessons of 9/11” Common Dreams: 9/9/2011) offered this soul searching concern:

“Today the United States is morally bankrupt and spiritually broken. The problem is not that we have strayed from our founding principles, but that we are still operating on those principles -- delusional notions about manifest destiny, American exceptionalism, the right to take more than our share of the world’s resources by whatever means necessary. As the United States grew in wealth and power, bounty for the chosen came at the cost of misery for the many……The George W. Bush administration offered a particularly intense ideological fanaticism…….We should take time on 9/11 to remember the nearly 3,000 victims who died that day, but as responsible citizens, we also should face a harsh reality: While the terrorism of fanatical individuals and groups is a serious threat, much greater damage has been done by our nation-state caught up in its own fanatical notions of imperial greatness.”

In 1984, the Union Carbide gassed more than 16, 000 people in Bhopal, India and millions more were affected to suffer for generations to come, but India did not invoke any military action against the American giant. In 1981, two to three thousands Palestinian civilians were massacred at Sabra and Chatila camps in Lebanon by Israeli General Aeriel Sharon troops. Lebanon or the Arabs collectively had neither armed forces nor courage to fight for a humanitarian cause. In 1994, four millions or so Rwandans were killed in planned ethnic violence but the world watched it from a corner, and the UN did nothing to safeguard the humanity. It was not the defense of the American values that President Bush went to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. John Chapman (“the real reasons Bush went to war”: 06.2004), the British Senior Civil Servant cites two major factors to invade Iraq: “control over oil and the preservation of the dollar as the world reserve currency.” Earlier, President Bush had included Iraq and Iran in the ‘axis of evil’ as both had changed the currency of oil trade from US dollar to euro and others. Iraq is known to have 60% of the world known oil reserves and only second to Saudi Arabia in its oil production capacity.

How does the oil cartel greed for excessive profit is terrorizing the humanity? The American and British oil cartels paid standard $18-20 a barrel years ago and now selling the same at the gas pump at $80-90 a barrel to the consumers while the Iraq war is going-on and after hurricane Katrina hit the American gulf coast states. The oil companies paid 7-10 cent a liter after the processing, but the consumer are forced to pay $1.30 to $1.50. a liter at gas station. Would they admit being the economic extremists and market exploiters? But they are resourceful to fight for their cause even if it means the whole world should be put to flame.

The Arabs and Iran collectively produce and supply approximately 60-70 % oil consumption of the Western industrialized world - ready-made recipe for business influence and friendship. To balance the trade, they invest heavily in the Western economy and buy all foods and military hardware. Thousands and thousands of American and British nationals work in oil, military, education and other spheres of life across the Arab and Muslim world. Tax-free salaries they draw, no body can imagine nor compare them in the Western world. America and Britain dominate the trade but wanted to squeeze the Arabs to become more obedient and forthcoming in oil supply and the use of the dollar. The American and British politicians used the 9/11 background to intimidate and force the Arab rulers to go to their knees before the Masters, both Bush and Blair, with possible extension of the then Canadian PM as a service manager on duty - as and when needed.

The ‘War on Terror’ is a self-contradictory phenomenon that represents the grand delusion of the 21st century proponent of the oil led American corporate leadership. Its sole aim is global monopoly of politics and economy by dehumanizing the rest of the living humanity. Geared towards the frenzy of World War Three, the American neocons leadership was increasingly politically isolated, militarily belligerent and morally and financially bankrupt and defeated, more so, on the day photos of Abu Ghraib prison were made known to the morally conscientious humanity. Their unilateral military engagements in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan have continued to produce disastrous human consequences for the people all over the globe. Millions of human beings have been killed and destroyed, their habitats poisoned with the aftermath of dangerous weapons and chemicals. Richard A. Clark (Former US National Security Chief- “the Lessons of 9/11”: the Daily Beast, 9/7/2011)) puts the facts into proper context:

“Looking back, we may see things that we do not want to revisit just yet, controversies that we wish to leave behind. For us to learn as a nation, however, for us to hand down to future generations what they need to know, we must be clear about what happened. We were attacked by a handful of people from a relatively small organization of fanatics who had tapped into the frustrations of a sizable minority of those who shared their ethnicity and religion. Our nation was stunned and wanted to unify in response. That desire for unity kept too many voices silent when they should have been contributing to a public debate about how to react. Wretched excesses were proposed and barely opposed. We invaded a country, Iraq that had nothing to do with the attack on us, but had everything to do with the preconceived plans of a cabal in and out of our government.”

It is reported that during the 2009-2010, the US drone attacks have killed 12,900 people in Pakistani tribal belts. The bogus war on terrorism continues unabated and its unthinkable consequences for ages to come. The alliance of the few US-British mindless rulers have turned the clock back to draconian age and are trying their best to reshape the living mankind into animalistic thinking and behaviors suitable for economic exploitation and governance. The American administration seems to have ignored the lessons of political and moral failure of the British Empire and colonialism. In a September 2005, interview with the CBC, American Congress Woman Eleanor Norton made a thought provoking observation when asked about the administration role and help to the people in New Orleans after the hurricane Katrina: “Americans are not used to being embarrassed and ashamed at the same time.” What happened in Louisiana and other gulf states after the storm, offers a glimpse of the overburdened and failing mind setting of the American leadership with no consideration for its people and their miserable plight. They prepared America on a war footing, not for a legitimate cause but to control the oil industries and maintain the dollar market value. Iraq and Afghanistan were seen as a necessary requisite to deceive the American public that Arabs and Muslims are the extremists and pose threats to American political hegemony. Whereas, today, more than 80% of the Muslim countries and rulers are maintained by the West and are under the direct political and economic control of the US and British Governments. One wonders, how could the subservient people and the rulers dare to challenge the colonial masters? Is it not the ruling America and British colonial elite actively engaged in terrorizing the Muslims all over the globe? Are they fearful of the new educated generations of Muslims and their democratic indoctrination that could undo their inherited lordship in the former colonies? After all, Muslims were considered just as ‘subjects’ of the Empire, not citizens with rights and entitlement to human ‘freedom.’ Is that not a page out of the living history? Or is it news to the former colonial bandmasters? Was the colonialism a rational choice of the liberal democracy?

Wars do not grow anything consumable but destroy human lives and habitats. Whereas the corporate interests and markets have no human social values, nor do they have moral accountability. It is increasingly action-reaction game masked and staged at the global theatre of absurdity starring Bush, Blair, Militarism, the mass media, former General Musharaf and the new creed of complacent Pakistani Generals (earning cash paper dollars) as an added attraction to ensure smooth services of trilateral businesses across the globe. Exsorbent profits looted by the oil companies are not going to be reimbursed to the public at gas stations. Would the American neocons rebuild the lost lives and human habitats in Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan? After carpet bombing of the Afghan graveyards and major Iraqi towns, could they bring to life what was deliberately destroyed under the PNAC planned “war on terrorism”? Their goal was ‘regime change’ but they alleged WMD which could not be found throughout the international search in Iraq. It was a lie, a false pretext acclaimed tactfully to deceive the mankind. Could Bush, Blair and the neocons be held responsible under the international Geneva protocols of crimes against the humanity?

Human beings have faces, bodies and souls but the modern warfare knows neither body nor face when it comes to killing. Hitler and Mussolini were the by- products of the European nationalism but after ages, the European once again failed to impart real world knowledge and experience of the Two World Wars to safeguard the future generations from the scourge of national wars and colonialism. The American administration appears active and persistent to wage traditional and innovative new wars against the newly created and targeted enemy – Islam and Muslims. They do need conflicts and wars for economic and political survival and control of the global resources. PNAC philosophy embedded in American unilaterism sees war as a positive necessity for development and domination. Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath and now continued flooding and fires in Texas and California are not taken seriously as the first installments of Godly reminders to the American leadership for causing deaths and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan. The American masses are reasonably conscientious of being dragged into the Iraq-Afghan wars, the majority disapproves and they protest and demonstrate against the bogus “war on terror.”. Cindy Sheehan and her movement offered a peaceful role model for political activism across the United States. But the controlling interest of the ‘war on terror’ rests with previous ruling lord of the politics- the instigator neocons and now continued under Obama administration, wherein the American masses appear helpless spectator, not active participants in the making and running of the liberal democracy, more of a forged democracy of the few. In 1990, Dick Cheney, the then Secretary to Senior Bush wrote: “whoever controls the flow of the Persian Gulf oil has a stranglehold not only on our economy but also on the other countries of the world as well.” The obsession of that stranglehold rested with Bush, Cheney and Blair onward to Obama– all actively have supported and facilitated the crusade against Islam and Muslims. It is the humanity that suffers, not the affluent leaders. There are serious dangers to enflame the ethnic and religious wars across the globe. Robert Fisk, the British journalist recently noted: “Before the (Iraq) war, our governments warned us of threats that did not exist, now they hide from us, the threats that do exist.”

The American led wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have made the global system of states redundant and the United Nations in particular, an impotent body – an onlooker meant just for discussions and ineffective role play in peace making or sustainable system of the working of the member states according to its mandate. The UN has failed to stop American and British encroachment in the Middle East, ethnically charged “war on terror”, the global village and the ideals of the safety and security of the world. The ideals of international peace and harmony have been dashed away by the few – be it Bush or Blair, Musharaf or Obama, none of them could be acceptable choices to the civilized humanity. They pursued self-motivated greed complementing ignorance - the driving force to manipulate the world, overwhelmed with action-reaction strategies of the past, dull, dead and irrelevant history. For their self-centered survival, they appear devoid of the reason, human spirit and intellectual foresight to face the realities of living history. Most of the humanity is acutely aware of the fallacy of the terrorism myth, for it is not Islam, Christianity or Judaism but those few who act and react to stranglehold the humanity for oil resources and monetary controls. Have the mindless warmongers ever thought of how the history will portray them - the time span in which they lived and acted, consequential impacts on the people, the outlook of culture of the so called civilized people pursuing animalistic ambitions and killings of fellow human beings? Richard Clark, former US National Security Chief (“the Lessons of 9/11’) offers a rational perspective:

“Knowing what our core values are and cleaving to them, even in times of testing, must be a lesson when we see the results of situational ethics and temporary, expedient treatment of basic rights. America should not again panic and overreact to terrorist attacks against this country…….the cost of 9/11 has been billions of dollars spent, an unneeded war, and thousands of lives lost.”

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(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including: "Muslims and the West: Quest for Change and Conflict Resolution", University Press of America; How America Lost the War in Iraq and Afghanistan and Mujahideen Won; To America and Canada with Reason, VDM Publishers, 2009; “President Obama – War is War, Not Peace”, 2009; and “Is President Obama Remaking America?” “President Obama and the US Generals in search of Navigational Change.” Comments are welcome at: kmahboob@yahoo.com).