By Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.

British author and producer Adam Curtis (The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear: BBC documentary challenging the American version of the “War on Terrorism”), spells out the myth with clarity: “international terrorism is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services and the international media.”

“It is the policy of the United States government to provoke violent extremist groups into action. Once they are in play, their responses can then be used in whatever way the government that provoked them sees fit. And we also know that these provocations are being used, as a matter of deliberate policy, to rouse violent groups on the "Af-Pak" front to launch terrorist attacks.”  Chris Floyd “Darkness Renewed: Terror as a Tool of Empire,” 04/2009)

“We have now reached a stage where our extreme horrors of brutality and cruelty have exceeded our past records. We no longer have the rationale of moral righteousness of the earlier wars…. There were no excuses for Abu-Ghraib, but our interest in that inhuman travesty dried up and blew away. We have little concern about our violations of human rights in Guantanamo. ….the real horrors – of this war come with the primitive killer mentality developed in our youth. I've now seen a half dozen documentary films and read eyewitness accounts that reveal troops or pilots gloating over the massacres of civilians who just happened to be available targets.” Paul J. Balles (“The World Sickest Warrior State” 03/2010, ICH)

When people and nations live in darkness, they lose sense of direction. In an information age, knowledge–driven global culture of reason, ignorance is no longer a requisite to learn from the living history. The previous Empires knew their geography and limits, but the newly articulated American Empire in its infancy, is challenging the limits of the Laws of God and appears obsessed with “fear” of being replaced by the new emerging nations of Asia (China-India) and South America. Former president Bush invoked the “War on Terrorism”, as a dictum of power, not of reason and wisdom, to camouflage the prospective future with acts of barbarity and to dispel the notion of accountability in global affairs. If history is to be believed, people and nations pursuing this path of policy behavior have caused massive deaths and destructions to the mankind and indeed ended up in self-defeat and self-destruction.

The 9/11 attacks in the US and Islamic faith have nothing in common. To date, the US Government has not spelled out who were the people responsible for these acts of violence and barbarity. Politics of convenience overrides reason and facts of human life. Some hourly paid intellectuals turned guardian of approved truth, allege that Islam breeds terrorism. The Western mass media complements the theoretically convenient notion to poison the public perceptions and source of judgments against the Arabs and Muslims. The corporate controlled news media is the creative weapon of the Western powers and sadistic political warmongers. The Neo-Conservatives helped to rob the humanity of its human heritage. The perception of ‘radical Islam’ was manufactured and enhanced by the ‘fear’ of terrorism as if Arabs and Muslims were born in the eye of the storm and terrorism was an exclusive domain of the Islamic religious tenets.

“Terrorism is a political technique, not an ideology and any group willing to use violence in pursuit of its political goals may resort to it, noted Gwynne Dyer, London based prominent writer (The International Terrorist Conspiracy”: June 2006). He goes on to explain that “there are left-wing terrorists and right-wing terrorists; national terrorist and international terrorist; Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and atheist terrorists. In theory, you could have a “war against terrorism”, but it would involve trying to kill everybody who uses this technique anywhere in the world. The United States is not trying to do that, so it is not fighting a “war against terror.”  In reality, what the United States leadership is doing is fighting its own articulated war against the people and nations who had no animosity, nor did any perceive capability to threaten the US as a global power.

British author and producer Adam Curtis (The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear: BBC documentary challenging the American version of the “War on Terrorism”), spells out the myth with clarity: “international terrorism is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services and the international media.” Remember, after the 9/11 attacks, the US official statements made no mention of involvement of the government or people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran in the accused list of the 9/11 perpetrators.  In 1997, many leading architects of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), did include the name of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, PLO as selected targets to impose the American liberal democracy and throw out the authoritarian regimes. It was a strategic stunt to inject the fear into people’s mind. Paul Craig Roberts, author of the Tyranny of Good Intentions, in his recent article (“The High Price of American Gullibility”, June 2006: ICH), makes a logical assertion: Bush’s rhetoric “you are with us or against us” is perfectly planned to influence the common masses. Emotional appeals to fear and to patriotism have led close to half of the population to accept unaccountable government in the name of “the war on terrorism.” What a contradiction it is that so many American have been convinced that safety lies in their sacrifice of their civil liberties and accountable government.” Obviously, human intelligence, emotions and perceptions, superficially turned antagonistic with compelling impulse of media propaganda strategies to view Arabs and Muslims as the qualified candidates for extreme militancy.

Truth is one and indivisible. When it comes to terrorism and Arabs or Muslims, the North American and European mass media portrayals enforces two distinct order of truth - one for the general public and one reserved for the Muslims. In all human affairs, facts are considered to reach the conclusion. End cannot be assumed to play with the facts, nor based on dogmas to explain the facts of human life. Under the guise of the Anti-Terrorist legislation, America, Britain and Canada have misused the logic of power to arrest, defame and punish people of Arabian and Islamic origin who had no linkage to the terrorism myth. The strategy dictates that selected groups should be detained and tortured indefinitely, to drain out their moral, intellectual and creative energies, making them incapable to survive socially or professionally credible citizens of the country. Consequently, the public will view them as crazy and undesirable people to be counted as numbers and digits in economic terms, but not dignified human beings.

Divergent scenarios flourish to manifest lies and deception about the real aims of the “War on Terror.” When the Western leaders play with words, it is known and often acknowledged, but when the Muslim leaders offer ignorant excuses, they are masked under willful lies and deceptions without any accountability.  Many Western scholars wonder, why leaders of the Muslim countries and the masses appear disinterested in the post 9/11 affairs when it had direct impacts on the entire Arab and Muslim world. Foremost reasons being that the Arabs and the Muslim countries in general, have no educated and responsible leadership to represent the masses and their interests. The West and its scheme of political subjugation institutionalized the neo-colonial authoritarianism. Arabs and Muslim societies are devoid of public institutions for thinking, change and policy development. There are various shadowy groups and organizations claiming to represent the Arab-Islamic interests in North America. In real world affairs, hardly anyone seems genuinely capable to deal with the issue of terrorism that directly confronts the Muslim living in North America. Many pretend to be the spokespersons of the Arabs and Muslims communities but they are aligned with the official establishments including the intelligence agencies, lacking credibility, often playing the role of informants rather than representing the Islamic concerns. There are 57 or more, so-called Muslim countries member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), not one of them has genuine Muslim leadership, nor Islam as a system of life. When the Muslim Ummah (nation), looks for intellectual security, all authoritarian leaders operate under the dictates of Western masters, namely the American and British leaders. Islam is One and so should be the believing folks, but there is no unity of thought and actions across the Muslim world, a typically neo-colonial landscape governed by ignorant and intellectually bankrupt rulers, subservient to the West. For ages, the Arabs and Muslims masses continue to pray to Almighty God for change, reformation and democratically elected governments without public demonstrations. Strangely enough, they seemed eager to hold demonstrations for the symbolic “cartoon” controversy, but not for the real world problems affecting the lives and future of the common Muslims. For sure, there is no “terrorism” in thoughts and in words of the prayers and no Arabic- Islamic vocabulary exists of “extremism” or “terrorism” to reciprocate the Western accusations and mass media propaganda campaigns.

Would the American and British political leaders learn any lessons from the war on Iraq? John Laughland (“The Mask of Altruism Disguising a Colonial War: The Guardian: Aug 2, 2004), offers a real world perspective: “Just an old fashioned colonial war – the reality of killing and escalation of violence, disguised with the hypocritical mask of altruism. If Iraq has not taught us that, then we are incapable of ever learning anything.”  Every beginning has its end. It is just that most transgressors do not know about it when they crossover the limits of the Laws of God. The Roman, Austro-Hungarian and British Empires collapsed after they violated the limits. Nazis claimed to run the world for thousands of years, but ended up in just 12 years after killing millions of human beings throughout the Western hemisphere. Fascism met resistance at its early stages. The beginning envisions the end. The USSR was defeated, the day it raided the destitute people of Afghanistan and disturbed the dead in graveyards with continuous bombing. The American and British surrendered the day international community learned about the Guatonomo Bay prisoners and photos of the Abu Ghraib Prison. An estimated 3 million civilians have been killed by the American-British bombings in Iraq since March 2003. Millions of others have been displaced/killed in the on-going wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. America runs the military dominated Pakistan and operates drone attacks on the civilians without any accountability. Reports indicate more than 3000 civilians killed in Waziristan tribal belt of Pakistan just last year. After the facts, the American and British apologists would put up the explanations that the soldiers had social and mental disorders. On the continuing daily massacres of the civilians and rapes of women in Iraq,

According to Paul Craig Roberts, the neo-conservative policy claims: …evil terrorists attacked virtuous America. America is protecting itself by going to war and overthrowing regimes that sponsor or give shelter to terrorists, erecting in their place democracies loyal to America. In a rational context, the “War on Terrorism” has nothing to do with the alleged terrorists; it is a war to help Halliburton, Bectal and other corporations to capitalize their holds on the oil supplies and gas business. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld contracted Halliburton of Dick Cheney for 7 billion works to be done in Iraq before the invasion of March 2003. President Bush passed the Executive Order # 13303, giving complete immunity from criminal prosecution to the American oil companies dealing with the Iraqi oil management. Who is going to write the closing chapter of the history of the “War on Terrorism?” Is the history going to wait for the ceasation of the unilateral hostilities? Would the American-led war achieve its agenda priorities or meet the same destiny as it happened to the Roman, Nazis and the USSR Empires? Obviously, history will judge the nations by their actions, not by the claims of the leaders.

Did the US Empire achieve any of its strategic goals in transporting super war machines and the military and civilian death squads to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan? Chris Floyd (“Darkness Renewed: Terror as a Tool of Empire,” 04/2009) explains the prevalent reality in global affairs:

“The United States government is planning to use "cover and deception" and secret military operations to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people. Let's say it again: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the other members of the unelected regime in Washington plan to deliberately foment the murder of innocent people – your family, your friends, your lovers, you – in order to further their geopolitical ambitions.”

Overwhelmingly deficient with its thinking, moral and intellectual resources, America and Britain desperately need “Idea MEN” and THINKING people to avert the obvious military defeats and surrender in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are some of the critical measures that any strategic thinkers should prefer to have for change and adaptability to the future in -waiting for the lost in action US and British forces.  

Paul J. Balles (“The World Sickest Warrior State” 03/2010, ICH), offers candid observations:

“We have now reached a stage where our extreme horrors of brutality and cruelty have exceeded our past records. We no longer have the rationale of moral righteousness of the earlier wars…. There were no excuses for Abu-Ghraib, but our interest in that inhuman travesty dried up and blew away. We have little concern about our violations of human rights in Guantanamo. ….the real horrors – of this war come with the primitive killer mentality developed in our youth. I've now seen a half dozen documentary films and read eyewitness accounts that reveal troops or pilots gloating over the massacres of civilians who just happened to be available targets.”

Undoubtedly, the wars spread hatred, chaos and human degeneration as are the global institutions responsible for security, peace and conflict resolution. The UN, NATO and other security agencies are driven to failure by their own deviations of the original role-play and inaction in situation of real world challenges. They have been manipulated and misled by the contemporary superpowers as was the devastating fate of the League of Nations. When something loses its purpose and direction, it ends-up in self-defeat and piles of garbage. The US-British strategic policy makers do not have the right kind of mindset and weapons to fight against Islam and God.  Simply put, they must be either sadistic or lack rational thinking to fight against Muslims and God that no human being can imagine to have the capacity to do so - unless they believe in illusion not reality  of cartoons of superhuman being.  They appear to miss the historical conclusion that those people and nations who dare to cross-over the limits of REASON and global responsibility, do end –up in failure and self generated disasters. Both are entrapped in self-generated illusions and are fighting against their own interest and survival.  American and British policy makers appear more victims of their own failing mindset than the challenges posed by the Talibans and other handful of Mujihdeens fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. America and its allies need a Navigational Change. Karzai of Afghanistan, Maliki of Iraq and Zaradri (Pakistan) are the hired stooges and stage puppets, not the voices of the people in their nations. President Obama was elected in 2008 with reference to “Audacity of Hope” onward to a public promise: “Yes We Can.”  But the contemporary history is telling loud and clear that Obama played joke with the mankind - raised false hope of change and when he assumed the office,  he renegade his global vision and commitments to change and reform the Bush’s era wrongs and injustices to the interests of the people of the United States.  History shall judge the leaders and nations by their actions, not by their claims.

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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 the latest book:  Arabia at Crossroads - Arab People Strive for Change, Freedom and New Leadership. VDM Publishers, Germany, September 2011.  Comments are welcome: kmahboob@yahoo.com)