- Abstract
-
- The collapse of the former Soviet Union ended the post-WW
II bipolar dichotomy and gave way to a new mode of economic subjugation
that I choose to call the new paradigm of forced socioeconomic underdevelopment.
The factors that characterize this new era consist of the absolute power
of the United States and its instrument of legitimacy, the post-WW II institutions,
especially the United Nations. Cultural imperialism characterizes this
era and justifies disregards to the values and traditions of the underdeveloped
countries under the umbrella of democracy and human rights. This paper
addresses the new paradigm of forced socioeconomic underdevelopment and
its implications to the so-called Third World Countries, especially Muslim
countries. The short review of the situations in Afghanistan and Iraq that
are two of the victims of the new paradigm of forced socioeconomic underdevelopment
compelled me to attempt to redefine development as a phenomenon. Therefore,
my attempted redefinition is:
-
- Development is the totality of one's existence wherein
survival is not contingent upon submitting to the imperatives of US's global
hegemony.
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- Introduction
-
- From the 16th century on to the present, Western powers
have justified their hegemonic practices and the consequent underdevelopment
they imposed on the non-European nations under various frameworks. Different
reasons were given suitable in different times to justify their mode of
conduct. Whether it was the Spanish Empire's goal of Christianization,
or the Civilizing Mission of France and Britain or the post-WW II development/modernization
mission led by the US, all echoed one common theme, justification for the
subjugation of non-European world. The European colonialism coincided with
the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, all of which added
to their self-proclaimed superiority and arrogance in dealing with the
non-European world. They exhibited their arrogance and lack of consideration
to the rest of the world through various instruments of manipulation ranging,
for example, from diplomatic pressures on the Muslim lands to open their
markets for European goods to the utility of the British East India Company
to export opium to China. The diplomatic pressures were always accompanied
by threat of military force. For example, the Ottoman Sultans were under
the threat of force to grant European citizens the same rights as they
enjoyed in Europe. These various examples given here are to illustrate
as to how Western world, for the sake of their wealth accumulation, undermined
non-European peoples, their social-religious values and independence.
-
- The European Model of nation-states emerged roughly in
the 16th century and culminated to the onset of absolutist states in the
17th century. In fact, the dominant approach in the international relations,
which views the international arena as an anarchical system, emerged after
the peace of Westphalia in1648. This system of nation-states that emerged
in Europe was the result of 150 years of warfare, which also influenced
the industrialization process. Industrialization was initially stimulated
for security reasons among the competing European forces not as a drive
to modernization. However, the emerging core nations in Europe embarked
on another form of competition, which was to colonize the rest of the world
for wealth accumulation and hegemony. Consequently, by 1815, Britain emerged
as the dominant power in the Western world, and its hegemony continued
until the First World War.
-
- The non-Europeans were viewed more as commodities than
people by the European colonial powers. This fact was evident in the Congress
of Berlin 1800s. In the Congress of Berlin (1884-5), the European colonial
powers with the exception of the Dutch drew arbitrary lines on the map
of Africa to serve as borders for the emerging nation-states after the
end of colonial period (Spybey, 1992:113). Moreover, similar disregards
were evident in the case of the Middle East, when the British divided the
Kurdish nation into several pieces by incorporating them into the several
nation-states and formed states by artificial boundaries. That is why,
civil wars plagued Africa as well as the Middle East for the past half
a century. This happened because Europe treated the non-European people
as pieces of chess, devoid of humanity, identity and culture, and belief
systems.
-
- The defeat of Hitler and the subsequent emergence of
the Soviet Union as a competing world power made colonialism contradictory
to the ideal that led the alliance against Hitler, hence, politically unpopular.
The post-WW II represented a period when the center of world hegemony in
the West shifted from Europe to the USA. However, this new center of global
hegemony, the USA represented a different face of the old hegemonic powers
hidden under the cloak of a new framework and justification. This represented
a more sophisticated institutionalized arrangement to confine the less
developed countries under political and economic subjugation. The presence
of the opposite pole, the USSR, compelled the US to embark on a broad deterrent
approach. The deterrent that the US employed in the post-WW II era was
characterized by the Developmental Project. The Project in question consisted
of the Marshall Plan geared, initially, toward the reconstruction of Europe.
However, later, the Marshall Plan was extended to cover the non-European
world as well in order to counter Soviets' advances toward Western interests
in different parts of the world to contain communist expansion into the
realm of Western interests. Moreover, this project was also aimed at containing
the newly independent nations from the Soviet's sphere of influence. Especially
when the USSR represented an alternative to that of the US and concocted
the image of being the champion of the oppressed, which served well with
the former European colonies, now newly independent nation-sates. It is
worth mentioning that the USSR had its own approach of consolidating power
in its own block. Hence, the competition between the European powers for
securing colonies shifted to the competition between the United States
and the USSR for strengthening their respective blocks.
-
- The newly independent states, former colonies, were influenced
by the intellectual imperatives of the development project, which consisted
of an evolutionary philosophy articulated within the theoretical frame
of the modernization theory. The modernization theory envisaged development
as a unilinear evolutionary process that when followed will enable these
newly independent nation-states to reach the technological advances of
the industrialized European nations in time. The aim was to assure these
former colonies that they were on the same evolutionary path of development
that Europe and the USA followed and it was simply a matter of time for
them to reach the industrialized nations in technological advances.
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- The 1970s signaled the decline of the developmental/modernization
project. The reasons for its failure were multiple. First, in the 1960s,
reactionary intellectuals from what became known as the dependency school
challenged the substance of the modernization theory and its viability
as a mode of development. Hence, the unilinear character of the modernization
theory was discredited and its colonial roots were exposed. Second, by
the 1970s, the so-called Third World countries that followed the prescriptions
of the modernization theory realized that it was a mirage than a reality
to succeed by catching up with the Western industrialized countries as
postulated by the modernization theory. Such belief emerged after the so-called
Third World countries found themselves sank into heavy debts, whose interest
payments exceeded the balance owned by most of these underdeveloped countries
(Hettne, 1995:3-5).
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- The Third World debt crises coupled with the consequent
decline in their consumption of manufactured goods from the industrialized
West. The lack of consumption by the less developed nations, in part, resulted
in economic disparities in the Western world such as increased unemployment
and its consequence. The economic disparities alarmed the capitalist countries,
and sought to find an alternative paradigm to justify their world hegemony.
-
- Meanwhile, the USSR did not subscribe to the monetary
institutions; however, it, the USSR, stipulated its assistance in the development
of the less developed countries on their conformity to the Soviet ideological
imperatives; otherwise, they would use such non-conformity on the part
of the clientele states to hinder their progress. In the late 1950s and
mid-1960s, the USSR's foreign policy was aimed at supporting nationalist
leadership in the Third World, however, toward the end of the 1960s and
onset of the 1970s, their developmental assistance took a sharp ideological
turn. That is, the Soviet Union decided to stop supporting the Third World
nationalist leaders and instead, support revolutionary Marxist forces there.
Therefore, the Third World countries that relied on the Soviet development
aid were left in the open and sought alternative sources of assistance.
Case in point is Afghanistan, which relied heavily on the Soviets' development
aid, however, near the beginning of the 1970s, when the Soviet Union's
foreign aid policy changed, Afghanistan was forced to seek alternative
sources for its development projects. That, ironically, did not materialize
because the Soviet Union followed their new policy of supporting Third
World revolutionaries by sponsoring a military coup, in 1978, with the
collaboration of communist military officers in the Afghan army and air
force.
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- In the early to mid-1980s, a new paradigm emerged: globalization.
The idea of globalization is based on the neoclassical economic concept
of comparative advantage. It advocated the elimination of trade barriers
and encouraged free trade. Furthermore, another issue that globalization
advocated was the mobility of capital, which served the Western industrialized
countries well, enabling them to seek cheap labor in different parts of
the world. This ensured on the one hand, the viability of the Western industrial
complex, and on the other hand, it served, as a mechanism to deceive the
Less Developed Countries that these industries were there to provide jobs
for their unemployed and at the same time, it meant sharing technological
know-how. In reality, these industries were labor intensive; therefore,
their operations in the Western Industrialized Countries were not efficient
due to the high cost of labor. Meanwhile, the shift of the labor intensive
industries to the so-called Third World Countries was part of the phenomenon
of de-industrialization in the West, a trend toward specialized technology
and service sector.
-
- Furthermore, the post-War development of the international
institutions including the United Nations, World Bank and IMF ensured the
institutionalized control of the less developed countries. Especially,
with the dollar being the currency of international transactions, the development
of the less developed countries was held hostage to the proclivities and
moods of the United States economic influences.
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- The New World Order
-
- The legitimacy of globalization was put in question with
the proclamation of the New World Order after the first Gulf War. That
proclamation confirmed the United States' intend to use globalization as
a medium for imposing its own standardization in political, economic, social
and cultural realms on the non-European countries, especially the Muslim
World. Thus, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the establishment of
the New World Order accelerated the last tenets of the post-WW II bipolar
dichotomy and imposed upon the world the onset of yet another approach
that I call the new paradigm of forced socioeconomic underdevelopment.
It is geared to ensure the United States' global hegemony by ensuring submission
to its will by other nations, especially the Muslim world, without any
regard to the cultural and religious values of those countries.
-
- The mechanism of legitimacy of this approach consists
of the post-WW II political and economic institutions such as the United
Nations, and the IMF and the World Bank. The instruments of this approach
consist of using economic sanctions and international isolation followed
by threat of military force or outright military strikes, if the former
fails to achieve the desired outcome. These instruments are legitimized
through the mechanism of the United Nations under the umbrella of democracy,
human and women rights, which are essentially the United States' deceptive
means to ward off international criticism while imposing demands and requiring
set standards that the rest of the world has to follow. Any state, depending
on its geographical location, cultural and religious background and military
might, that chooses to "disobey" the demands of the United States
would end up suffering from US-imposed economic sanctions and international
isolation. If the two former methods fail the threat of military force
and outright invasion are used to bring them in line with US's demands.
Ironically, all three are legitimized through the instruments of the United
Nations or by members of the Security Council taking US's side against
other members. The US uses this approach blatantly against weaker nations,
however, when it comes to nation-states-- such as North Korea-- capable
of warding off US's aggression, the US leaders do not act boldly. It is
worth mentioning that the strength of a nation does not make it immune
to the imperatives of this Paradigm because the Paradigm is implemented
in a process, whose effectiveness confine and weakens the targeted state.
-
- The New World Order resembled the initial European world
hegemony, when European powers used diplomatic pressure in conjunction
with the use of military force in dealing with the non-Europeans. Incidentally,
the collapse of the former Soviet Union, which was, undoubtedly, achieved
with the blood of over 1.5 million Afghans, served a unique opportunity
to the United States to exercise power around the world in an unrestrained
manner. The boldness of the US government in behaving in such callous manner
stemmed from its technological superiority it exhibited during the first
Gulf War and from the economic anarchy the former Soviet Union found itself.
In particular, Russia needed US and Western aid to transform to market
based economy and was in no position to exhibit any rivalry.
- Subsequently, the practice of the New World Order, which
was fully operationalized with the post-Gulf War was in its infancy stage
but slowly but steadily grew, especially when its creator, the United States
exercised all aspects of this new paradigm against the former Yugoslavia.
The new paradigm uses the existing global institutions to legitimize forced
underdevelopment of the Less Developed Countries and to keep them into
the web of economic dependence. Any deviation by the Less Developed Nations
would result in their economic strangulation, political isolation and followed
by militarily force. Ironically, more than fifty years after these institutional
arrangements were created, the world is still dependent on the mechanisms
of the post-WW II institutions, and escaping them would only mean national
economic suicide. This provided the perfect mechanism for the Paradigm
of Forced Socioeconomic Underdevelopment, namely to use post-WW II institutions
as the moral stamps for any action the United States takes. Furthermore,
these institutions are also used to declare the actions of any nation that
contradicted the United States' interests, as illegal under the so-called
International Law.
-
- Consequently, what we are witnessing is what the European
colonial powers used to portray to the non-Europeans that they (the non-Europeans)
were inferior, savage and thus less- human compare to them, the Europeans.
At the time of the European world hegemony, the European powers demanded
the same rights for their citizens as they had in Europe upon traveling
to the non-European realm especially the Muslim world without realizing
the social, cultural and religious imperatives of the host countries. Otherwise,
the European powers would threaten them, the Muslim hosts, with military
force. Therefore, as long as the European missionaries, merchants and tourists
were allowed to reside in the non-European regions, especially, in Muslim
lands, with all the privileges that they were accustomed to in Europe,
the European powers would be content and would abstain from using military
force (Hodgson, 1974: 180-225). To that end, it became customary for Europeans
and their foreign protégé to be under the jurisdiction of
European legal system. Even if they were implicated in any crime, they
were not to be tried in the local courts but rather sent back to Europe.
-
- Today, in light of this new paradigm, the United States
is not only requiring the same type of privileges as its European predecessors
but also going beyond what the European powers exercised in the 19th century.
That is, the United States is exhibiting the same type of disregard toward
the political-legal, social-cultural and religious values of the rest of
the world, in particular the Muslim world. For example, when Taleban demanded
evidence in the complicity allegations of Bin Laden and wanted to try him
in Afghanistan or a third country, the US government failed to provide
any evidence, instead, demanded his extradition even though, Afghanistan
had no extradition treaty with the USA. Here, International Law only applies
to the strong not to the weak. Consequently, nonconformity with the demands
of the US results in acts that deprive the Muslims of their basic human
needs such as food and healthcare and ultimately life. Such depravity is
used to show to the Muslim world that their development and survival are
in the hands of the United States unless they choose to submit. Hence,
the conduct of the United States is the similar to in some extent to that
of the European powers of the 19th century, however, it is much larger
in scope and complexity whose ramifications to the rest of humanity proves
to be of grave consequences.
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- Maturation of the New Paradigm of Forced Underdevelopment
-
- The maturation of this Paradigm started right after the
first Gulf War when Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense, produced a
document, Defense Planning Guidance. Two of the current neoconservative
hawks who were involved in the draw-up of the document were Paul Wolfowitz
and Lewis Libby. Wolfowitz is the present Deputy Defense Secretary and
Libby is Dick Cheney's chief of staff.
-
- The significance of this document in the maturation of
this new paradigm is the intent and strategic goals it advocates for the
United States government to follow. For example, it explicitly states:
"Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival."
This is a significant statement in light of the demise of the former Soviet
Union. The goal entails to use different ways and justifications in dispersing
US global hegemony under various pretexts to the far reaches of the globe.
The positioning of the US military forces in different regions has two
intertwined goals: to prevent the emergence of any global rival, and to
secure global energy resources and raw materials. The following quotes
from the Defense Planning Guidance as it appeared on the PBS program, Frontline's
web page, fully explains the emergence of various events in this Bush administration.
-
- "We must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential
competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role."
-
- The above quote points to the intent of the new paradigm
in eliminating any country that might appear as potential rival to the
US in the future. The document in question points to the "proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles" along with
any threat to "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf
oil," as reasons for regional conflicts. Therefore, it is no surprise
that Bush called North Korea, Iran and Iraq 'axis of evil'. After all,
all three countries possessed ballistic missiles and the latter two, Iraq
and Iran, also have massive oil reserves.
-
- The maturation process of the new Paradigm of Forced
Underdevelopment received an added boost when, in 1997, Robert Kagan and
William Kristol, two neoconservatives, established the Project for the
New American Century. The goal of this project was to establish the intellectual
justifications for the new paradigm. During the Cold War, US intellectuals
used to provide the moral justifications for opposing the Soviet Union's
global hegemony. Currently, the intellectual justifications serve as the
platform for US global hegemony. It becomes evident when one looks at the
mission statement of the Project, when it poses the following question:
"Does the United States have the resolve to shape a new century favorable
to American Principles and Interests?" This statement is clearly establishes
the intent to maintain the USA as the only global superpower. This fact
became further evident when the Project for the New American Century initiated
to study 'weakness' of the US defenses--spending on defense. The result
of the study was the September 2000 report: Rebuilding America's Defenses:
Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century. It is worth mentioning
that the same neoconservatives that contributed to the Project for the
New American Century wrote a policy letter entitled Clean Break, in which
they argued the need to attack Iraq and change the regime there to secure
the state of Israel.
-
- As I mentioned in the paragraphs above, the Paradigm
of Forced Socioeconomic Underdevelopment would use ways and justifications
in launching the operationalization of this paradigm. Hence, September
the 11th was planned and carried out by sinister elements to secure global
hegemony, after all, 3000 lives are not 'much' if one views it from the
sinister worldview of the neoconservatives translating into trillions of
dollars.
- The new paradigm is different from any other in that
there is a dynamic process that works at two levels. The first level consist
of actions that are used initially to force nations into complying with
the US's demands. These include using global institutions such as the UN,
IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organization in bringing political and
economic pressure, followed with threat of military force on any country
that resist US global hegemony. The second level of the process pertains
to the latest aspect of the paradigm. These aspects consist of branding
nations as Al-Qaida sympathizers or accuse them of possessing Weapons of
Mass Destruction. Once a nation falls under this category, it becomes susceptible
to Preemptive Strikes or invasions.
-
- The concise overview of Afghanistan and Iraq should illuminate
the consequences of the new paradigm of forced socioeconomic underdevelopment
to any other country refusing to submit to the hegemony of the United States.
-
- The Case of Afghanistan
-
- The retreat of the former Soviet Union in 1989 from Afghanistan,
and the subsequent demise of the Marxist regime in 1992, left the country
in the midst of bloody civil war between the same factions, which, previously,
fought the Soviet army. The result of the civil war was the destruction
of the capital city, Kabul, and the loss over fifty thousand lives. Recent
CIA documents revealed that the US knew of the eruption of civil war in
Afghanistan yet allowed it to happen because that way any preconceived
strategy to contain the so-called fundamentalists would be justified under
some "legitimate" pretext. Moreover, the Afghan Mujahideen fighters
were joined by volunteers from different countries in the Middle East because
the war in Afghanistan was a holy war against Russians and these Muslims
took it upon themselves to help their fellow Muslims in Afghanistan.
-
- The United States considered the concentration of Muslim
reactionaries in one location, as a potential threat to its interests;
after all, these very people, who fought against the Soviets, were as opposed
to the United States' hegemonic practices. At the onset of the factional
conflict, the US media did not waste any time calling the Afghan Mujahideen
terrorists, people the media used to call and glorify as freedom fighters.
However, when the United States officials were approached for help in ending
the civil war, they showed no interests. The US officials responded: "this
is your [the Afghans'] problem, solve it yourselves". This indifference
of the United States to the well being of the people of Afghanistan, the
country that became instrumental in bringing down the Soviet Empire, angered
Afghans as well as other Muslims. The United States' indifference was being
looked at as a betrayal, and Muslims saw themselves as becoming the next
enemy. The neoconservative intellectuals were formulating perspectives
echoing the need for the replacement of the former Soviet Union as the
next enemy. The neoconservatives believed that the West was in need of
hating some enemy, one that would envisage a potential threat to its way
of life. This would solidify and enhance the identity of the Western world
against the non-Western or Muslims. From the persepctive of these sinister
intellectuals, Muslims would be ideal in occupying the position, which
used to be occupied by the USSR, as the new enemies of the West.
-
- Meanwhile, in about the same time, the US had already
carried out its military operations against Iraq and devastated that country.
The Muslims were well aware of the New World Order, as articulated by President
Bush I after the end of the Gulf War. Other factors, such as the presence
of the United States military forces in Saudi Arabia emerged as an additional
factor that stimulated the hatred of the Arab volunteers as well as that
of the Afghan Mujahideen towards the United States. The presence of US
troops in Saudi Arabia, the indifference of the US toward Afghanistan and
the categorization of Muslims as the next enemy were ample reasons for
the radical Muslims to take up arms against the US.
-
- Consequently, Osama Bin Laden came to the picture. He
functioned initially as a philanthropist providing funds and supplies to
the Afghan Mujahideen and later served as the commander of the Arab volunteers
in Afghanistan. Bin Laden epitomized the anger of the Afghan Mujahideen
as well as that of the Arab volunteers, when he promulgated fetwa or religious
decree for a Jihad or holy war against the United States.
-
- The civil war in Kabul and the 80 % of Afghanistan ended
in 1996 with emergence and subsequent victory of a reactionary force called
Taleban whose goals were bringing law and order to Afghanistan as well
as working for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Taleban brought law and
order to the country but were hindered from initiating any serious reconstruction
and development in Afghanistan. The reason for this was the implementation
of the instruments of the new Paradigm, namely the imposition of economic
sanctions on Afghanistan and isolating the Taleban government of Afghanistan
internationally. The imposition of economic sanctions and political isolation
were justified through the legitimizing mechanism of this paradigm, the
United Nations, under the umbrella of international law, democracy and
human rights.
-
- The basis for the enactment of the economic sanctions
and international isolation was the demand of the United States to hand
over Osama Bin Laden for trial in the United States on charges that he
allegedly bombed the US embassies in Africa. Like its European predecessors,
the United States did not care either about the values and long established
traditions of Afghanistan. One of the provisions of the Afghan Code of
Behavior, called Pashtunwali, is, to give sanctuary to anyone, who requests
it and subsequently protect that individual with all possible means. In
addition, according to Islamic laws, handing a Muslim over to a non-Muslim
state is a sin of unimaginable proportion.
-
- Amidst all the various diplomatic pressures, the Taleban
decided to challenge the claims of the United States, and asked the US
officials to provide them with the evidence they had against Bin Laden,
so that he could be tried in an Islamic court in Afghanistan. The only
evidence the United States furnished consisted of a CNN videotape that
contained the news of the bombings in Africa as well as some loose speculations.
The evidence was forwarded to the Afghan Supreme Court for trial; the result
of the trial was too obvious, namely a court of law can not convict a man
based on television commentaries and speculations. Hence, Bin Laden was
exonerated. The United States refused to accept the verdict of the trial
and insisted that Taleban must hand over Bin Laden to the US authorities.
Even if Taleban could hand over Bin Laden to the US authorities, it would
still be difficult because everyone knew of the "justice" done
in the case of the blind cleric Shaikh Abdur Rahman.
-
- Shaikh Abdur Rahman was imprisoned on some bogus charges
by the US government after Egyptian president Mubarak came to Washington
and sought Shaikh Abur Rahman's imprisonment in the US.
- Taleban knew that Osama Bin Laden would be treated even
worse, especially when the US alleges, without any proof, his involvement
in the bombing of the United States' embassies in Africa.
-
- Furthermore, the Saudi government would be more than
willing to support his extradition to the United States to prevent Bin
Laden from inciting anti-Saudi rhetoric. Bin Laden expressed his opposition
to the Saudi Royal Family - for they allowed US military forces to stay
in Saudi Arabia. To achieve its goal, the United States continued its diplomatic
pressure tactics but they did not work; and were followed with 75 cruise
missile strikes against the alleged training camps of Bin Laden as well
as a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum. The United States alleged
that the pharmaceutical factory was producing poisonous gas. However, it
was revealed later that the factory was making antibiotics for a large
portion of the population in Africa. Consequently, the owner of the factory
filed a lawsuit against the US and won. As to the damages in Afghanistan,
there was no training camp except a village, where 33 peasants lost their
lives while they were working in their farming plots. Again, this is similar
to the 19th century European tactics of diplomatic intimidation and use
of force against the Muslim countries. Despite the missiles strikes, the
American officials shamelessly returned to the Taleban and reiterated their
previous demands to hand over Bin Laden, the Taleban, however, declined
to do so with the strongest terms possible.
-
- Another issue that was used as a justification for the
sanctions was women rights. Due to the Islamic tradition, the Taleban required
- women to wear veils and abstain from work until a stable
atmosphere was brought to Kabul. Amidst all this, the United States Secretary
of State Albright on a visit to Pakistan called the Talebans' cultural-religious
measures disgraceful and violation of human rights. It is worth mentioning
that after the fall of the Marxist regime, the former Marxist militias
kidnapped, raped and sold women, the United States did not bother to even
mention it let alone condemning it.
-
- Moreover, similar restrictions in terms of veil wearing
exist in Saudi Arabia, but since the United States has interest in the
oil
- there, the US government could never touch upon that
issue in fear
- of alienating the Saudi Royal Family. The fact is that
these are the cultural values of Afghanistan not of the US, a country,
where every two minutes a woman is raped or dishonored. Why was then the
US making such outlandish demands from Afghanistan, after all Afghanistan
was an independent and sovereign state. The answer to this question should
be obvious by now, namely everyone has to submit to the will and demands
of the United States.
-
- As to the development measures of the Taleban, a consortium
of foreign companies was formed which was supposed to work on the construction
of gas pipeline from Turkmanistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan. Afghanistan
would benefit from this project by collecting significant amount of transit
fee. In addition, other consortiums were formed to excavate copper, Iron,
gold, silver, precious stones and extract natural gas and oil. Unfortunately,
none of the projects went beyond the planning stages after the US imposed
economic sanctions and international isolation. Meanwhile, a consortium
of telecommunication firms came to Kabul, where they established their
corporate offices with the goal to build modern telecommunications such
as Internet and telephone links throughout the country and with the outside
world. Ironically, that deal was also cut short due to the US imposed international
isolation and economic sanctions, which prevented manufacturers to sell
the needed implements for the projects. Other major projects included the
reconstruction of highways and bridges; they did not materialize either.
The function of the United States' sanctions was to isolate Taleban government
from the rest of the world. Instead, economic sanctions and isolation imposed
severe hardship on the common people, many of them were receiving letters
as well as financial help from their immediate family members living abroad.
The livelihoods of common people outside major cities were not severely
affected as of those inside Kabul, where everyone relied on hospitals and
foreign NGOs. Although the sanctions regime have precluded humanitarian
aid, but that preclusion had a dilemma of its own.
-
- The UN Resolution 1267, which was imposed on November
14, 1999, suspended all Ariana international flights. The resolution in
question also barred the provision of spare parts and training by any foreign
company. All international flights were also barred from entering Afghanistan
under the UN Security Council Resolution 1333, which was imposed on January
19, 2000. Although the UN claimed that humanitarian and religious flights
were exempt from the UN Sanctions. That is where the UN's claim of humanitarian
exemption fell apart. In fact, it amounted to an insult to injury.
-
- The deputy minister of the Afghan Civil Aviation and
Tourism, Raz Alami said:
-
- "We are living in a landlocked country devastated
by war, where communications, roads and infrastructure are next to nonexistent
Our national airline is blocked, and everyone says this will not affect
the ordinary people in this country. Who really believes that?" (Integrated
Regional Information Network, IRIN, UN OCHA)
-
- In a landlocked country like Afghanistan, air-bridge
is of utmost importance in the social and economic development of the country,
especially, when other infrastructures of communications are all destroyed
or are hardly reliable. Afghanistan was already suffering from various
miseries; the sanction ban on international flights by Ariana Airline further
debilitated the minimal stability the health care desperately needed. Ariana
Airline shipped 50 percent of medicine and hospital equipment used in Kabul
hospitals, according to doctors of Indira Ghandi Hospital in Kabul. Consequently,
the jobs of most of the 1500 employees of Ariana were threatened along
with the 1700 postal carriers'. With the sanctions in place, all the links
to the outside world were cut. People could not receive financial assistance
from their relatives, and people, both, inside and outside Afghanistan
could not relay news to their respective families. This was one of the
significant social costs associated with the imposition of the UN-US sanctions.
-
- The imposition of sanction meant another more drastic
social cost on the Afghan people, namely reliance on the good will of Pakistan.
The corrupt officials of Pakistan took advantage of the miseries of the
Afghans, whether it pertained to the extension of their visas or acquisition
of permits to send goods abroad. Each of these undertakings required massive
bribes at different levels.
-
- Meanwhile, in order to secure one international flight,
Ariana Airline had to apply to the UN. The response time from the UN ranged
from two days to two months. Then, the airline had to secure permission
from every country whose airspace it flew over. This created immense frustration
among the airline officials, hospitals that needed medical supplies and
other essential goods. Deputy minister Raz Alami said in order to secure
one international flight:
-
- "It can take anywhere from two days to two monthsIn
addition to permission from the UN sanctions committee, we are required
to get permission from every country whose airspace we wish to fly over."
-
- Since the UN did not inform these countries that it had
granted
- Ariana Airline permission for international flight, this
created
- other related problems. Alam added:
- "These countries then tell us that we have to go
through diplomatic channels, but our country doesn't have diplomatic relations
with them anyway."
-
- In addition, the airplane and the airport needed constant
maintenance. The international flight that flew daily through Afghan airspace
paid $400 each which amounted to about $48,000 a day. This amount constituted
significant revenue that would be spent on the maintenance of Kabul Airport
and the aging airplanes.
-
- Many worldwide realized that sanctions would not affect
the Taleban movement but rather the poor civilians, as the following quote
articulates:
-
- "The direct effects of sanctions will surely affect
the Afghan people their insensitivity led UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
to admonish the Security Council publicly for victimizing civilians and
compromising the UN's persistent, if faltering search for peace. Their
indirect effects in Afghanistan -- the loss of life, and the loss of faith
in the world's efforts to end its war -- are fatiguing and familiar. The
assumptions that motivate the Council's reasoning are at best inaccurate
and the consequences for the broader region are likely to be self-defeating."
(Los Angeles Times, January 04, 2001)
-
- An analogy can be made between the so-called humanitarian
preclusion to the practices of Romans, who would destroy and flatten cities
and claim that they brought peace and tranquillity to the inhabitants of
the destroyed cities. Thus, all of these productive projects were hampered
and Afghanistan was forced to accept its fate of poverty and underdevelopment.
-
- The effects of US Invasion
-
- The invasion of Afghanistan is the final step in the
instruments of
- underdevelopment in the Paradigm of Forced Socioeconomic
Underdevelopment. This final step not only ensured the persistence of underdevelopment
as understood in traditional sense of the word, but also sentenced every
Afghan in the present generation along with
- many generations to come to a perpetual death. This disaster
- resulted from the usage of depleted uranium (DU) and
non-depleted uranium (NDU) munitions during the US-UK bombing of Afghanistan.
-
- The uranium disaster brought on Afghanistan by the US-UK
bombing not only is a severe form of underdevelopment but rather a silent
genocide on otherwise poor and ravaged people. The use of more than 1000
metric tons of uranium weapons in Afghanistan contaminated all aspects
of Afghan ecosystem and endangered every generation to come. The intensity
of this tragedy could only be appreciated when one looks at the half-life
of depleted uranium, namely 4.5 billion years. What this means is that
Afghans will be dying from various cancers, other deadly and chronic conditions
and will be seeing many congenital deformities in their new born for generations
to come.
-
- Unique But Tragic Social Cost
-
- On top of the human cost of this disaster, there are
both social and economic costs involved. This would include the permanent
care for many disabled people, if they survive their conditions, continuous
monitoring of the level of radiation and uranium particles in soil, water
and air. The onset of this disaster also brought another tragic social
cost and phobia. In Iraq after the first Gulf War, though only 350 tons
of DU was used, people developed many types of ailments. The congenital
deformities in newborn created marriage-phobia among young women. They
expressed fear of marrying. What normally is a joyous event has become
source of anxiety for many women especially in southern Iraq, and, now,
in Afghanistan. Areas that are hard hit by the US-UK bombing are especially
most vulnerable.
-
- Anarchy
-
- After the US invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taleban
regime, it effectively brought Afghanistan to the pre-Taleban era characterized
by lawlessness, rape, murder and opium production.
- Taleban not only put an end to infighting but also disarmed
warlords while others involved in crimes abandoned Afghanistan for Iran
or other countries in the region. Currently, the most basic of needs, the
need for self-preservation is at risk for almost all Afghans. There is
no security. Anyone traveling outside Kabul is taking a chance of being
robbed, raped, and killed. The local warlords demand outrages fees from
travelers. If one carried anything valuable along while traveling inside
Afghanistan, it amounts to a miscalculated deed since the item in question
turns the traveler into a target by highway robbers. During the Taleban
era, though characterized by extremism, security was of no concern to anyone.
Peoples' property and dignity were secured. Now, however, it is the opposite.
-
- With the emergence of Northern Alliance, emerged rape,
delinquencies of different types, looting and murder. At night, the 'police
force' invades homes in Kabul, raping women and taking their properties.
Especially, families that lack males as heads of the households are particularly
vulnerable. This includes widows and women whose husbands have gone away
to make a living. Warlords whose infighting in Kabul resulted in the death
of more than 65,000 civilians have their power restored to them, thanks
to the US and her allies. War criminals that looted valuables of Kabul
Museum, destroyed Kabul University and mass murdered intellectuals are
again in power.
-
- Reconstruction
-
- The issue of reconstruction is another myth that was
propagated by Bush's public relations campaign. Nearly two years after
the invasion of Afghanistan, there has been no reconstruction whatsoever.
Unpaved roads and destroyed bridges are not rebuilt. Poverty is rampant.
Homelessness is much more prevalent than before the US invasion because
the bombing, according to an interfaith group returning from Afghanistan,
destroyed more than 5000 homes. When those people that survived the bombing
of their homes approached the US embassy in Kabul to ask for reparation,
they were pushed away. Consequently, homelessness became more prevalent.
Especially, those people that lost their homes during the war with Russians
and those during the infighting relied on extended families to survive.
Tragically, when the US-UK bombers bombed homes of their extended families,
survivors ended up either sleeping in bombed buildings littered with unexploded
munitions or are sleeping in cemeteries.
-
- Schools, universities and hospitals sit in ruins. No
reconstruction efforts are made there. Infant mortality is worse than was
before the war. The use of uranium weapons and cluster bombs have targeted
both the unborn as well as those living. Lack of proper healthcare facilities,
medicine and sanitation has contributed to the rampant spread of diseases
and the consequent higher mortality rate among the young and the rest of
the population.
-
- The number of orphans has risen tremendously. Before
the war, there were 36,000 orphans--mostly females--inhabiting the ruins
of Kabul. Today, no official estimate exists of those poor souls. Most
of the orphans either live in cemeteries or in bombed buildings. Tragically,
a significant number of girls fell victims to criminals domestic and foreign
involved in the trade of young girls sold all over the region. The same
criminals that turned Kabul into ruins roam the streets of Kabul. The reconstruction
myth and the mantra the Bush White House used, namely the US will not walk
away from Afghanistan, became evident in the US budget for 2003. In the
budget the same Bush administration that spoke loudly of reconstruction
of Afghanistan failed to ask for any money in its 2003 budget for any project,
humanitarian or otherwise. (Michael Buchanan of the BBC: February 13, 2003)
-
- The reconstruction myth was even disputed by the brother
of the installed President Hamid Karzai, better known as mayor of Kabul.
Ahmad Wali Karzai said the following in an interview to an Associated Press
reporter on April 07, 2003:
-
- "It's like I am seeing the same movie twice and
no one is trying to fix the problemWhat was promised to Afghans with the
collapse of the Taliban was a new life of hope and change. But what was
delivered? Nothing ...There have been no significant changes for people."
He does not "know what to say to people anymore."
-
- People lost their economic means of survival due to the
US-UK bombing. For example, in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan, honey
producers stopped producing honey after the bombing started. The reason
for this was that all honeybees perished due to the US-UK bombing. (Interview
with Dr. Murad Ali)
-
- The indifference of the Bush administration and its deceptive
claims of reconstruction in Afghanistan are evident from the comment of
Senator Biden, as reported by Jake Tapper of Salon.com:
-
- "Biden says that he and others on his committee
have pressed the White House for more funding for Afghanistan, only to
have these concerns brushed aside. "We were told, 'We don't need any
more in Afghanistan,'" Biden said in February [2003]."
-
- Womens' Rights
-
- The biggest misinformation campaign orchestrated by the
Bush White House was the deceitful slogan that the US is fighting to "liberate
Afghan women." Nothing could be farther from the truth than what this
slogan envisaged. In reality, there are more widows in Afghanistan today
than there were during the Taleban regime. The US-UK bombing murdered thousands
of men whose wives are now begging on cities' streets. Widows and disabled
men sit on roadsides and beg while the orphans in their laps die from hunger
and disease. The other orchestrated falsehood was that women in Afghanistan
wore burqas because Taleban forced them to do so. Today, over 95 percent
of women in Kabul still wear burqas. The 5 percent or less only exhibit
their faces with hesitation. Burqa is a traditional garment that emerged
more than one hundred years ago in Kabul and is still worn by more than
95% of women.
-
- In early October, an Afghan woman, Nurgessa, roaming
the deserted streets of Kandahar accompanied by her little boy said the
following for the 'liberation' efforts of the United States of America:
-
- "Last night, while we were sleeping the Americans
bombed our homes. When I woke up I saw Agha Gul [her husband] shattered
into pieces and my other two sons had their heads blown away, I screamed
for my little boy, Sa'may. Sa'may was unconscious. I ran while the bombs
were dropping. This morning I woke up with my little Sa'may looking for
grass. We have nothing left. I want to boil grass for Sa'may because he
is hungry. Sa'may's father and my other beautiful sons were all I had."
-
- When she was asked that the Americans claim they are
liberating Afghan women, she responded:
- "Yes, the Americans killed my dear Agha Gul and
my sweet boys, that's how they liberated me. They are heartless people."
(Miraki: Liberated from Life, April 03, 2003)
-
- Another Afghan lady cried and echoed the pains of many
widows:
-
- "I lost everyone, every man in my life represented
a bone in my body, especially, my husband Rah'matullah, was my backbone
broken forever. The Americans are more cowards than were the Russians because
they [Americans] bombed us at night when we were asleep. I want you to
remember this: I will go and get married again for only one purpose to
give birth to a boy and then I will raise that boy to adulthood to fight
against the Americans and defeat them like we did the Russians and avenge
my family." (Liberated from life)
-
- In fact, in March 2003, UN General Secretary Kofi Annan
reported the following regarding the conditions of Afghan women in post-Taleban
Afghanistan:
-
- "Despite positive developments regarding women's
rights, intimidation and violence by regional and local commanders against
women continue unabated."
-
- Afghan women in Kabul, where supposedly reconstruction
efforts are underway still die daily during labor, giving birth to newborn.
Lack of medical facilities, medicine and equipment and the indifference
of the occupying force exacerbate the fate of the Afghan women. Afghan
women are not only victims inside Afghanistan but are also victims of global
invader, the US. The Bush administration used falsehood and deception in
its public relation campaign during its invasion by envisaging as if the
entire military campaign was aimed at "liberating Afghan women".
Today, Afghan women are the biggest victims of all.
-
- During the Taleban era, opium production was outlawed.
After the demise of Taleban drug production has soared all over the country.
The biggest tragedy is that the victims of opium consumption are mostly
women and children. Drug addiction is on the rise among women. Radio Free
Europe reported on 07/21/2003:
-
- "A nongovernmental group in Afghanistan is expressing
concern over the apparent rise in drug addiction among the country's women
and children. The Kabul-based Najat Center says most of the women addicts
are former refugees who returned home from Iran and Pakistan to find few
prospects or means of support. The rise in drug addiction among children
has a different, even more troubling, source: mothers are giving them drops
of opium to help them sleep."
-
- Another report added:
-
- "Nearly one-third of opium users and pharmaceutical
drug users in Kabul are women, according to a historic report released
by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which chronicles
the first-ever assessment of the extent of drug use in the Afghan capital."
(IRIN, 08/11/2003)
-
- It is a tragedy that the US officials released Ayub Afridi
from Pakistani prison to go to eastern Afghanistan along with other drug
tycoons and instigate uprising against Taleban before the fall of Taleban.
Today, these drug tycoons have increased opium production by thousands
of tons.
-
- Tragically, the victims are women that the US so falsely
advocated. This has been the fruit of the US well orchestrated 'reconstruction
or development' thus far.
-
- Whether it was Afghanistan, Iraq or any other Muslim
or Third World country, the United States forced them all into underdevelopment.
-
- Case of Iraq
-
- Similarly, the mechanisms of the paradigm of forced socioeconomic
underdevelopment also brought disaster to the people of Iraq. Iraq was
the only Arab country in the Middle East that established a very prominent
middle class and brought prosperity to its people. The prewar prosperous
Iraq has been turned into infant graveyard since end of the first Gulf
War over a million children have died from
- malnutrition, lack of antibiotics, and uranium poisoning.
If Sadam
- was the problem, then why did the United States allow
Iraqi gunship
- helicopters to bomb the advancing Kurdish forces toward
Baghdad that could occupy Baghdad and rule Iraq? The Kurdish forces were
- initially encouraged by President Bush in several of
his public statements to continue their advance toward Baghdad. However,
when Turkey objected to the advance of Kurdish forces toward Baghdad, the
United States in turn allowed the Iraqis to use their gunship
- helicopters against the Kurds in order to prevent them
from reaching
- Baghdad. Consequently, thousands of Kurdish civilians
lost their lives.
-
- The US did not topple Saddam Hussein because Saddam served
as an instrument of justification for the United States' future interventions
in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the reason for the US sanctions was not
Saddam Hussein rather Iraq's refusal to submit to the will of the United
States; otherwise, Saddam Hussein, whom the United States calls enemy,
was strengthened and armed by the United
- States against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
In fact,
- the recent finding by the US of offensive missiles in
Iraq points to the complicity of the United States in arming Iraq. American
investigators stumbled across a cache of missiles that Saddam Hussein has
legally acquired from the United States. The June 9th,
- 2003, sub-section of Newsweek "Periscope" puts
the find in the
- following terms:
-
- "One awkward find was a cache of missiles that were
made in the United States.
- Though details of the discovery are classified, sources
in Washington say that military and intelligence agencies launched an urgent
investigation to find out how the weapons got to Iraq and whether American
firms might have violated U.N. embargoes and U.S. laws. Recently the inquiry
was abandoned when convincing evidence turned up that the missiles had
been exported legally from the United States to Iraq in the years before
the first gulf war, when American policymakers cozied up to Saddam as a
counterbalance to Iranian ayatollahs."
- (Newsweek, Mark Hosenball: June 09, 2003)
-
- The lies of the Bush administration and that of the Tony
Blair in UK have reached monumental proportion after asserting that the
Iraqi
- regime had mobile biological weapon trailers. These lies
have
- reached their climax when Collin Powell presented his
bogus evidence to the United Nations Security Council asserting that allegedly
trailers were used to manufacture biological weapons. The false
- rationale the Bush administration wanted to envisage
to the world
- was that since weapon inspectors could not find WMD,
therefore, they were produced and maintained on mobile platforms. The following
report from the UK Observer should put to rest those false allegations:
- "An official British investigation into two trailers
found in northern Iraq has concluded they are not mobile germ warfare labs,
as was claimed by Tony Blair and President George Bush, but were for the
production of hydrogen to fill artillery balloons, as the Iraqis have continued
to insist.
-
- Instead, a British scientist and biological weapons expert,
who has examined the trailers in Iraq, told The Observer last week: 'They
are not mobile germ warfare laboratories. You could not use them for making
biological weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly what
the Iraqis said they were - facilities for the production of hydrogen gas
to fill balloons.'
-
- The conclusion of the investigation ordered by the British
Government - and revealed by The Observer last week - is hugely embarrassing
for Blair, who had used the discovery of the alleged mobile labs as part
of his efforts to silence criticism over the failure of Britain and the
US to find any weapons of mass destruction since the invasion of Iraq."
(Peter Beaumont, Antony Barnett and Gaby Hinsliff, The Observer, June 15,
2003)
-
- And, of course, there was the lie of sixteen words, namely
that Iraq sought uranium from Niger.
-
- The combined effects of Sanctions and Gulf War II in
Iraq
-
- Sanctions
-
- The combined effects of sanction and invasion on Iraq
amounted to eradication of Iraq as a nation state. Initially, the sanctions
weakened Iraq tremendously as the following report collaborates:
-
- "According to economic studies carried out in the
late nineties, Iraq's real gross domestic product (GDP), i.e. Iraq's GDP
adjusted for inflation, fell by 75 percent during 1991-1999. The results
of these studies showed that Iraq's GDP in the late 1990's was estimated
at approximately the country's real GDP in the 1940's, before the oil boom
the process of the modernization of Iraq."
-
- Consequently, the per capita income of people decreased,
so did their calories intake:
-
- "The per capita income and the peoples' calorie
intake decreased to a level as low as that of one of the desperately poor
so called "Fourth World" states such as the Democratic Republic
of Congo, Rwanda Haiti and Somalia." (UN report, 1999)
-
- For example, according to the IMF and the UN Report of
1999, Iraq per capita income in 1984 was $3416, while in 1998 it was less
than $1036. Dennis Holiday, former UN Assistant Secretary General, expressed
his disgust with the UN (US) imposed sanctions by resigning his post after
34 years of service for the United Nations. He expressed his discontent
as follows:
-
- "We are in the process of destroying an entire society.
It is as simple and terrifying as that."
-
- The 1999 UN report described Iraq economic situation
resulting from the sanctions that the country of Iraq " has experienced
a shift from relative affluence to massive poverty". (UN Report, March
1999)
-
- According to World Health Organization,
-
- "Comparing levels of the infant mortality rate (IMR)
and the mortality of children under 5 years old during the pre war period
(1988-1989) with that during the period of the sanctions (since 1990),
it is clear that the IMR has doubled and the mortality rate for children
under 5 years old has increased six times." (WHO, March 1996)
-
- Similarly, the UN assessment panel formed under the Chairmanship
of Ambassador Celso Amorim of Brazil, reported the humanitarian situation
in its March 1999 report as follows:
-
- "In marked contrast to the prevailing situation
prior to the events of 1990-91, the infant mortality rates in Iraq today
are among the highest in the world, low infant birth weight affects at
least 23% of all births, chronic malnutrition affects every fourth child
under five years of age, only 41% of the population has regular access
to clean water, 83% of all schools need substantial repairs." (UN
document S/1999/356, 15, para 43.)
-
- According to a summary prepared by the British Medical
Journal Lancet researchers, Mohamed Ali and Iqbal Shah:
-
- "Infant mortality rose from 47 per 1000 live births
during 1984-89 to 108 per 1000 in 1994-99, and under-5 mortality rose from
56 to 131 per 1000 live births."
- (The Lancet 2000; 355: 1851-57)
-
- In 1999, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, Hans
Von Sponeck, whose predecessor Dennis Holiday, I mentioned above, resigned
over the injustice of sanctions, reported:
-
- "The oil for food program provides him with $177
per person per year - 50 cents a day - for all of the needs of each Iraqi
citizen. He said, "Now I ask you, $180 per year? That's not a per
capita income figure. This is a figure out of which everything has to be
financed, from electrical service to water and sewage, to food, to health
- the lot . . . that is obviously a totally, totally inadequate figure."
(Meeting with delegation with Physicians for Social Responsibility, www.scn.org/ccpi/UN
andUSreports.html)
-
- The social effects of sanctions had severely adverse
consequences for the younger population as the following quote from the
UN panel report illustrates:
-
- "Increase in juvenile delinquency, begging and prostitution,
anxiety about the future and lack of motivation, a rising sense of isolation
bred by absence of contact with the outside world, the development of a
parallel economy replete with profiteering and criminality, cultural and
scientific impoverishment, disruption of family life. WHO points out that
the number of mental health patients attending health facilities rose by
157% from 1990 to 1998." (UN document S/1999/356, report of the second
panel, paragraph 25, March 30, 1999)
-
- As his predecessor, Hans Von Sponeck also resigned his
post as UN Humanitarian Coordinator on March 29, 2000. He explained his
resignation decision as follows:
-
- "I can no longer be associated with a program that
prolongs suffering of the people and which has no chance to meet even basic
needs of the civilian population." (Reuters report March 29, 2000)
-
- Meanwhile, in an open letter to the Guardian, Von Sponeck
stated:
-
- "Lawlessness of one kind does not justify lawlessness
of another kind how long must the civilian population be exposed to such
punishment for something that they've never done?" (The Guardian,
January 03, 2001)
-
- Moreover, the sanctions also prevented the import of
pesticides and vaccines. Consequently, date trees started to degenerate
and disease spread in cattle. According to a report by the CBC News March
02, 1999:
-
- "The United Nations has discovered: Half of Iraq's
vital date trees have died, a total of 15 million so far. Screw worms are
burrowing into humans and animals, and spreading to Kuwait and other Gulf
states [sic]. Foot and mouth disease, lethal to livestock, is raging in
Iraq and spreading towards neighbouring [sic] countries."
-
- The same news report points to the lack of vaccination
and absence of storage facilities due to the lack of electricity:
-
- "The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization says
it doesn't have enough vaccines to stop the foot and mouth disease Even
if there were enough money for vaccines, there aren't enough places to
store them in Iraq because sanctions have also crippled electrical systems
and refrigeration units."
-
- Dennis Holiday, the former UN Humanitarian Coordinator
stated the following in his speech sponsored by Harvard Divinity School
World Conference on Religion and Peace:
-
- "There is an awful incompatibility here, which I
can't quite deal with myself. I just note that I feel extremely uncomfortable
flying the UN flag, being part of the UN system here 4,000 to 5,000 children
dying unnecessarily every month due to the impact of sanctions because
of the breakdown of water and sanitation, inadequate diet and the bad internal
health situation". (BBC, 09, 30, 1998)
-
- Gulf War II
-
- The US bombing of Iraq debilitated what remained of a
crumbling infrastructure after a decade of sanctions.
-
- The first liberating event in Baghdad and the rest of
Iraq was looting. Everything from the valuable to the dangerous has been
looted. Every facility in the country has been stripped of all that was
movable. This phase of the Paradigm of Forced Socioeconomic Underdevelopment
did precisely that, made Iraq further underdeveloped. Although Gulf War
I has contaminated the country with depleted uranium munitions and destroyed
infrastructures of all types, Gulf War II not only further contaminated
Iraq with uranium weapons, decimated social and economic infrastructures,
it destroyed a lot more. In fact, Gulf War II destroyed the intellectual
and historical heritage of Iraq as well as rich manuscripts of early Islamic
civilizations. The anarchy of post-invasion has created such lasting cultural
and historical disasters, a true underdevelopment
- .
- Looters managed to enter every public building except
the Ministry of Oil, which was protected by US military after all the war
was fought, in part, for that reason to secure Iraqi oil. Looters managed
to steal uranium and deadly viruses from Iraqi facilities without being
barred by US forces. The Baghdad Central Public Health Laboratory lost
several strains of deadly viruses. ABC News Brian
- Ross reported that:
-
- "Scientists at Baghdad's Central Public Health Laboratory
are worried that an unknown number of viruses have been stolen. Scientists
say looters took refrigerators full of the deadly viruses last Friday,
but they're not sure what's actually missing."
-
- The lab director Mounier Kuba was furious when said:
-
- "The Americans shouldn't just protect Ministry of
Oil, they should protect all the general public health services" (Brian
Ross, ABC News: April 17, 2003)
-
- Looters and US bombing destroyed cultural icons and manuscripts
thousands of years old. Baghdad library had some of the golden literature
treasure of early Muslim Civilizations, tragically, some of the most valuable
manuscripts burned to ashes. Obviously, the US-UK could care less about
historical Islamic arts and manuscripts, after all, they are fighting 'clash
of civilizations'.
-
- Today, Iraqi infrastructures are destroyed, electricity
and clean water are no where to be found. Looting, killing and rape are
rampant throughout Iraq. Despite the scorching heat, residents throughout
Iraq lock their windows in fear of looters and murderers entering their
residents. Amidst insecurity, homelessness, and despair, the US and her
allies were busy selling the first shipments of crude oil to US-UK companies.
-
- Concise Evaluation
-
- Afghanistan & Iraq:
-
- For the validity of my hypothesis, namely that the emergence
of this new paradigm has brought on underdevelopment by force, as its name,
the Paradigm of Forced Socioeconomic Underdevelopment, signifies, it is
instructive to measure the US's reconstruction claims in terms of the economic
development indicators. The followings is a concise list of indicators
for economic and social development:
-
- Measures of economic development:
-
- GNP per Capita
- Population Growth
- Occupational Structure of the Labor Force
- Urbanization
- Consumption per capita
- Infrastructure
-
- Social conditions:
- Literacy rate
- Life expectancy
- Healthcare
- Caloric intake
- Infant mortality
-
- I. Afghanistan
-
- I will attempt to present a very short overview in terms
of these indicators of the conditions in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan
as is the case with Iraq, the effects of underdevelopment is measured from
the time the sanctions were imposed. The US imposed economic sanctions
on Afghanistan in 1999. The immediate effects of the sanctions emanated
from the barring Afghan national airline, Aryana from taking international
flights. Since the country is landlocked, it depends on the Air Bridge
facilitated by its national airline, Aryana. It transported medicine, hospital
supplies, emergency goods, transporting family members working abroad and
carry international mail from and to the country. These various functions
had significant social and economic values for the population. The following
essential functions used to be completed by Aryana airline on daily and
weekly basis:
-
- 1. Transporting 50% of medications for hospitals in Kabul
from India. Lack of medications meant death and despair for many living
in Kabul as well as outside Kabul. Most of people living in provinces near
Kabul would come to Kabul for medical treatment. Moreover, since Kabul
is a type of 'gravity center' or 'Modernity Island' for the rest of Afghanistan,
people want to come to Kabul to get better medical care. Hence, people
in Kabul and in other provinces failed to get proper medication and treatment
after the imposition of sanctions in 1999. In fact, after the imposition
of sanctions, people in Kabul and in other provinces had 50% less medications
and care than they did before the imposition of sanctions. This, nonetheless,
is a significant social underdevelopment and signifies the inevitable threat
to survival of people there.
-
- a. This translated into less medication for newborns,
infants, nursing mothers, disabled, chronic illnesses, injuries etc. This
also meant fewer medications for those injured in the civil war.
-
- b. NGOs relied on air transport for many lives saving
items; sanctions put an end to that. Moreover, hospitals in need of equipment
and necessary tools had to do without them and the cost was loss of lives.
-
- c. Aryana would transport Afghan guest workers from and
to the Middle East. These workers and other Afghans living abroad would
send money to relatives in mail. Since international mail relied on the
'Air Bridge'--Aryana airline--people did not receive life sustaining financial
assistance. This meant less food, clothing, less nutrition for many people--hence--less
consumption. Moreover, another social cost had to do with information about
relatives inside Afghanistan and those outside the country. Mothers would
long to hear if their sons are well and sons and daughters would worry
about mothers and fathers and siblings' conditions inside Afghanistan.
-
- 2. Economic sanctions also meant having no business transactions
with companies worldwide. Many global consortiums visited Afghanistan to
explore natural resources. Afghanistan has large deposits of iron and copper,
gold and silver, precious stones, natural gas and oil and many other natural
deposits that need to be explored and extracted. Moreover, Taleban signed
the construction contract for the gas and oil pipeline with Brides--the
Argentinean Company-- instead of UNOCAL, the American Company. If these
consortiums were allowed to start their surveys and explorations, thousands
of jobs would be created in virtually all sectors of society. This would
translate into more food, clothing and shelter for people. It would have
also resulted into the construction of schools, hospitals and higher education
facilities. The consequence of this would be:
-
- a. Longer life expectancy
- b. Consumption by people of more food and nutrients
- c. Lower infant mortality rate and better healthcare
- d. Larger GNP per capita
- e. Population growth and urbanization
- f. Building and renewing infrastructure--both physical
and others.
- g. Most importantly advancement would bring about moderation
within Taleban and open the gate for other educated Afghans to participate
in the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
-
- With the US invasion of Afghanistan, none of these possibilities
materialized. Instead, the following occurred:
-
- 1. Complete insecurity and anarchy spread throughout
the country.
- 2. People are dying from disease, malnutrition and uranium
contamination
- 3. Higher infant mortality while more mothers die during
child birth from labor related complications
- 4. Children die from unexploded cluster bombs
- 5. Any international 'reconstruction aid' that reaches
Afghanistan ends up covering the ever worsening humanitarian crisis or
goes into the pockets of warlords and those in power.
- 6. The colossal increase in opium production has contributed
to increased addiction, especially among women and children
- 7. The number of widows has increased since the US bombing
has killed thousands of men and boys.
- 8. The criminal usage of uranium weapons condemned Afghanistan
to a perpetual death--from which--hundreds lose their lives and give births
to deformed newborns.
-
- In nutshell, what one sees in Afghanistan is lack of
hope for the future. The country has served as it did during the Soviet
invasion a testing ground for various weapons. Every new weapon technology
that required testing before mass production has been tested on the poor
people of Afghanistan.
- So, what we have is complete underdevelopment. This qualitative
analysis should amply establish the forced underdevelopment as the main
trait of this paradigm.
-
- II. Iraq
-
- Similarly in Iraq, invasions and sanctions together have
contributed to the underdevelopment of Iraq. Initially, during the war
Iraqis soldiers and civilians sustained significant losses. Moreover, bombing
destroyed and damaged many water and sanitation facilities, general infrastructure--roads
and bridges--electrical generation, production facilities and more. This
brought Iraqi economy to a
- stand still and what used to be a relatively prosperous
country had
- become poor and debilitated.
-
- According to a study by Dr. Muna Al-Jubury of Baghdad
University, the damage assessment was a s follows:
-
- Gulf War I
-
- A. Bombing destroyed power generation stations, oil refineries
and oil storage depots, water installations, bridges and industrial facilities
whose toxic chemicals contaminated water supply in some areas. Water supply
system was completely destroyed during the first Gulf War. After the war,
local engineers rehabilitated some of water installations to 50 to 60 %
of pre-war status, however, that number decreased as spare parts did not
become available.
-
- B. Sanitation facilities were destroyed or damaged, resulting
into raw sewage backup and flooding of pumping stations. Other systems
that were not directly affected by bombing suffered and degenerated from
lack of electricity. The raw sewage endangered local communities and schools
and contributed to diseases.
-
- C. The destruction of fertilizer production facilities
along with lack of seeds, pesticides, spare parts for agriculture machinery
and absence of electrical power have turned Iraqi agriculture into shambles.
-
- D. Environmental degradation has surfaced within days
of bombing in Iraq. However, the long term remedial efforts to combat pollution
in the country was hampered due to the bombing:
-
- 1. Stopped construction of industrial pollution control
facilities--waste water treatment installations
-
- 2. People started using crude oil for energy purposes
instead of paraffin and gas oil
-
- 3. As mentioned above, toxic contaminated water supplies
and neighborhoods. Lack of water created health crisis for local hospitals
and destruction of industrial production facilities brought healthcare
facilities, water system, and sanitation systems to a halt due to lack
of spare parts. The interdependence of various sectors of the economy and
livelihood brought Iraqi society to its terrible conditions.
-
- E. Radiation, depleted uranium, and effects: on the eve
of January 16, 1991, Iraqi civilian nuclear facility in Tuwaitha was bombed.
If they were hit directly, a colossal disaster would have occurred. Meanwhile,
the usage of depleted uranium munitions--armor-piercing projectiles from
tanks, armored personnel carriers, A-10 warthog, helicopters brought tremendous
disaster to Iraq, especially southern Iraq.
-
- F. According to the New York Times article of January
21, 1993 by Eric Margolis, more than 50,000 children have lost their lives
as either direct result of depleted uranium dust or indirect result--radiation.
-
- Sanctions And Its Effects
-
- 1. 1.7 million Iraqis lost their lives due to the UN-US
imposed sanctions according to UNICEF report 1999. Another UNICEF report
(1996) stated that 4,500 children were dying every month due to sanctions
imposed.
-
- 2. According to WHO (1996), there has been a 6 fold increase
in infant mortality for children under five
-
- 3. According to UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) survey in 1995, 12% of children in Baghdad surveyed were wasted,
28% stunted, and 29% underweight
-
- 4. According to WHO between 1989-1990, 96% of the population
had access to clean drinking water; however, by 1994 that number had decreased
to 45%
-
- 5. Under the oil for food program, Iraq was allowed to
sell $5.2 billion worth oil every six months. 53% went to humanitarian
aid, the remaining 47% would be going to UN Special Commission and UN Compensation
Commission
-
- 6. 70% of seeds and spare parts for Iraqi agriculture
were imported, with the sanctions imposed no seeds, pesticides, and spare
parts were allowed to enter Iraq
-
- Thus, the Paradigm of Forced Socioeconomic Underdevelopment
accomplished what it intended to achieve namely underdevelopment. The consequences
of UN-US imposed sanctions could be summarized by the following quotes
from Jean-Yves Troy (Premiere Urgence) 01/26/2001:
-
- "In the mid-1980s, Iraq was approaching the standards
of a developed country: it had free, effective health care that was accessible
to everyone and a social welfare system for the most vulnerable. There
was an efficient telecommunications network, 24 power stations and a water
treatment and distribution system, all of which benefited the population
as a whole."
-
- It continues:
-
- "The picture today is quite different. The infrastructure
is in an advanced state of dilapidation. The social sector has disappeared.
The power supply is unpredictable. Water treatment plants and the distribution
network no longer work properly."
-
- Gulf War II
-
- It is not necessary to discuss this final phase of forced
socioeconomic underdevelopment imposed on Iraq because by now it should
be obvious:
-
- 1. Bombing destroyed whatever was left of Iraq's infrastructure
- 2. Destroyed Iraq's historical heritage--books written
1200 years ago went into smoke
- 3. Looting destroyed what was spared by the bombs and
rockets
-
- Consequently Iraqis are in much worse situation today,
than they were after the first Gulf War. That is,
- 1. Iraqis consume much less than they did before the
Gulf War II
- 2. Their calorie intake is far less
- 3. Life expectancy is lower before this war
- 4. Infant mortality rate is higher than before the Gulf
War II
- 5. The effects of uranium weapons worsened since the
US has used a lot more uranium weapons this time than the first Gulf War
-
- Revising Development as a Phenomenon
-
- Scholars in the field define development slightly different;
however, most conceptualizations are not devoid of two things, industrialization
and economic growth. As a result of such narrow view of development, a
new perspective of sustainable development emerged. Before I proceed, it
is in order to present some definitions of sustainable development:
-
- "Sustainable development meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs." (United Nations World Commission on Environment
and Development.)
-
- "Sustainability is the [emerging] doctrine that
economic growth and development must take place, and be maintained over
time, within the limits set by ecology in the broadest sense - by the interrelations
of human beings and their works, the biosphere and the physical and chemical
laws that govern it . . . . It follows that environmental protection and
economic development are complementary rather than antagonistic processes."
(William D. Ruckelshaus, "Toward a Sustainable World," Scientific
American, September 1989.)
-
- "The word sustainable has roots in the Latin subtenir,
meaning 'to hold up' or 'to support from below.' A community must be supported
from below - by its inhabitants, present and future. Certain places, through
the peculiar combination of physical, cultural, and, perhaps, spiritual
characteristics, inspire people to care for their community. These are
the places where sustainability has the best chance of taking hold."
(Muscoe Martin, "A Sustainable Community Profile," from Places,
Winter 1995.)
-
- However, neither development as conventionally known
nor sustainable
- development has a place in the current global disaster
of the new
- Paradigm of Forced Socioeconomic Underdevelopment. Therefore,
in
- light of the New Paradigm of Forced Socioeconomic Underdevelopment,
it is time to redefine development as a phenomenon.
-
- Development used to be viewed as a progress against the
benchmark of the European advancement subsequent to the industrial revolution.
During the British World Empire, the British needed to manage their empire
by investing in education as well as some industry in some of the main
regional centers. This phenomenon is not unique to the British; in fact,
the Spanish, the Portuguese and the French also invested in each main urban
metropolis in their respective colonial holdings. Therefore, local indigenous
populations were introduced to the modern miracle. In the 20th century,
the former colonial powers were the prime examples for the underdeveloped
countries to emulate.
-
- During the Cold War, development would be achieved if
any underdeveloped nation followed either of the poles in the bipolar world
hegemony. Hence, when an underdeveloped nation that followed either the
US or the USSR, it would be relatively developed in terms of industrialization,
education, healthcare etc.
-
- Today, however, it is an entirely different world, where
not only development but rather existence of peoples is held hostage by
the demands of the United States of America. Tragically, it is not development
that is affected by the Paradigm of Forced Socioeconomic Underdevelopment,
but rather survival with meager capability of subsistence. Rejection of
the US's demands, especially, if the country is a Muslim nation, results
into the nightmare of the new paradigm.
-
- Therefore, it is my firm opinion that it would be prudent
to redefine development in terms of survival, after all the function of
the New Paradigm of Forced Socioeconomic Underdevelopment is not only to
bring about underdevelopment rather also threatens nations' survival.
-
- Therefore, I define development in light of the current
global anarchy as follows:
-
- Development is the totality of one's existence wherein
survival is not contingent upon submitting to the imperatives of US's global
hegemony.
-
- Concluding Remarks
-
- Though the United States might be successful in the short-run,
it will fail in the long run. The new paradigm of forced socioeconomic
underdevelopment will only serve as a bridge to the next era of global
reorganization. The post-Soviet era facilitated this opportunity to the
United States to exercise its hegemony without restraints. However, with
the Chinese on the horizon of becoming potential military competitor to
the United States along with regional nuclear powers will debilitate and
restrain the United States in the foreseeable future. Most importantly,
the alienation of Muslims has materialized through the crimes of the United
States in Afghanistan and Iraq among other places.
-
- The anger and hatred of the young and old of the Muslim
world would continue to boil until the US stops tell the world how to live.
-
- Moreover, the hegemonic practices of this new paradigm
confirm that the various claims under different pretexts--civilization
mission, modernization etc.-- from the early 20th century to the present
tends to be nothing more than a collection of deceptions geared to submit
the less developed-non-European people. As time passes what once used to
be politically popular or correct tends to become unpopular. Hence, to
avoid the unpopularity inherent in such blatant actions, the US covers
its actions by the legitimizing mechanism of the United Nations under the
pretexts of human and women rights, democracy and International Law. Finally,
no world power remained dominant forever. No one was expecting the Soviet
Union and its block to disappear after being defeated by a small Third
World country, Afghanistan. Similarly, the United States' world hegemony
will not remain forever; in fact this paradigm is serving, as a bridge
to the next global reorganization, in which other dissimilar actors would
join forces to contain US's global hegemony. These actors could be either
Muslims, not necessarily nation-states, or a coalition of Muslims and disenchanted
non-Muslims fed up with the crimes inherent in the Paradigm of Forced Socioeconomic
Underdevelopment. No matter what form the reaction takes globally, it is
inevitable to be the next phase of global reorganization wherein better
attempts would be made to adhere to justice for humanity.
-
-
- Sources
-
- 1. Fredric Jameson. Coeditor. The Culture of Globalization.
Duke University Press, Durham & London 1998.
- 2. Hodgson, Marshall 1974: The Venture of Islam, Vol.
III. Chicago: the University of Chicago Press.
- 3. Holton, Robert J. 1998: Globalization and the Nation-State.
New York: St. Martin's press.
- 4. Jameson, Fredric and Miyoshi, Masao edit. 1998: The
Culture of Globalization. Durham & London: Duke University Press.
- 5. Spybey, Tony 1992: Social Change, Development &
Dependency. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
- 6. Associated Press reporter on April 07, 2003
- 7. http://www.angelfire.com/rant/truthaboutpalestine/iraqisanctions.html
Compiled by Amnesty International at George Mason University
- 8. The Guardian, January 03, 2001, Hans Von Sponeck's
open letter
- 9. UNICEF (1996; 1999) Reports on Iraq
- 10. Bob Aldridge: (May/03/2003) UNDERSTANDING THE "WAR
ON TERRORISM": "PAX AMERICANA" AND PREEMPTIVE FORCE, PLRC
- 11. Mohamed Ali and Iqbal Shah: British Medical Journal
Lancet 2000; 355: 1851-57
- Ambassador Celso Amorim of Brazil: UN Assessment Panel
Report document S/1999/356, 15, para 43
- 12. World Health Organization: report of March 1996
- 13. Integrated Regional Information Network, IRIN, UN
OCHA
- 14. Los Angeles Times, January 04, 2001
- 15. Mark Hosenball: Newsweek, June 09, 2003
- 16. Michael Buchanan of the BBC: February 13, 2003
- 17. Miraki: Liberated from Life, April 03, 2003
- 18. Miraki:Silent Genocide from America
- 19. Peter Beaumont, Antony Barnett and Gaby Hinsliff,
The Observer, June 15, 2003
- 20. Reuters report March 29, 2000
- 21. UN Report, March 1999
-
- All Rights Reserved, 2003.
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