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Ultimate US Target Is Iran
By Masud Akhtar Shaikh
masudshaikh@hotmail.com
The writer is a retired Colonel and freelance columnist
9-13-2


The people of the United States suffered large-scale human, material, and psychological losses as a result of the 11 September suicide attacks on some selected targets considered to be the symbols of US prestige. The whole civilised world expressed its sympathies with the victims of those attacks. However, while the unfortunate American public was still busy licking its wounds, the US government under the leadership of George Bush launched a cleverly planned campaign aimed at converting that heart-rending tragedy into a glorious political victory. To make that campaign successful, the Bush administration exploited the universally accepted status of the United States as the most powerful country of the world. Apart from the use (or misuse) of her own military might, it relied on moral and material support of her traditional allies. It also used pressure tactics to win over the support of countries whose very survival could be seriously threatened if they refused to fall in line with the Bush plans. Even the UN Security Council was pressurised to put its stamp of approval on those plans so as to give a semblance of legitimacy to even the most illegitimate actions that the US authorities took during the execution of their planned campaign.
 
While the Bush administration was hectically busy marshalling support for the launching of its plan, the true friends of America kept advising the US government to coolly analyse the factors that had led to desperate suicide attacks of an unprecedented nature, and then take appropriate steps to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies in future. An unbiased analysis would have revealed to the US authorities the hard fact that it was the discriminatory foreign policy of the successive US governments over a period of time that had been primarily responsible for the tragic events of 11 September. If the Bush government had been sincere in its efforts to find a solution to the problem of international terrorism, particularly to terrorist operations directed against the US interests, it would have achieved that objective simply by effecting certain modifications in the US foreign policy so as to make it fair and even-handed. That would have saved the innocent people of America from avoidable traumas of the nature of 11 September in future. However, the Bush government had its own agenda to use the events of that fateful day as a shield to pursue its grand strategy of taming some countries that had become an eyesore for American rulers due to their refusal to bow to the dictates of the sole super power of the world.
 
The grand American strategy revolves around the oil rich regions of the Middle East and Central Asia on the one hand, and China and South Asia on the other. As far as the containment of China is concerned, an understanding between the Indian government and the US policy makers seems to have been reached already. No wonder the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear-capable ICBMs by India gets the tacit US approval. The US government also conveniently sleeps over every Indian action involving the amassing of an assortment of the most modern and deadly instruments of war, thereby seriously disturbing the balance of power in the region. India's only detractor in the region was China's staunch ally, Pakistan, whom the Bush administration has successfully neutralised through the use of the notorious 11 September card. With the sole super power of the world at its back and the Pakistani thorn out of its way, India can now afford to pay its wholehearted attention to the containment of China as desired by America.
 
America has had her eyes on Afghanistan since long before the Soviet troops marched into that unfortunate country. The rise of the Taliban and their coming into power was regarded as a monstrosity by the US government because the former refused to play the US game at the expense of Afghanistan's own national interests. Come 11 September and the US government found itself armed with a convenient excuse to conquer Afghanistan, initially with the avowed aim of ridding the people of their "inhuman" rulers, then for the much-publicised reconstruction of the war-ravaged country, and now for an indefinite period. The kingpins of the Bush administration have publicly admitted that America and her allies will stay on in Afghanistan for many more years so as to make sure that the threat of the decimated Taliban returning to power is no longer there. The real US aim of staying on in Afghanistan is twofold: one, an easy access to the Central Asian Republics so as to bring these states under the US sphere of influence with an eye on their rich oil and gas resources; and two, encircling hostile Iran from the East. Additionally, US presence in Afghanistan will enable America to exert instant pressure on Pakistan whenever a future government in this country tries to break away from the American hegemony.
 
As far as the Middle East is concerned, the senior Bush had very cleverly accomplished the initial job of securing a permanent foothold in the region many years ago. Posing themselves as the protectors of the Arab interests against the evil intentions of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, the Americans managed to procure a number of vital bases for their troops in the Arabian Peninsula. These bases still hold a substantial size of an advance guard for any number of US reinforcements that may be required to launch fresh operations against Iraq. George Bush is hell bent to complete the agenda left unfinished by his father over a decade ago. And that agenda consisted of the ouster of the haughty Saddam Hussein, the induction of a pro-US puppet government in the country, and control over all the oil resources of the region. Once George Bush succeeds in his mission of attacking Iraq despite all the opposition shown by many of his country's closest allies, dislodging Saddam, inducting a puppet government in Baghdad, and occupying the required number of strategic points along the country's eastern borders with Iran, only then will it be possible for America to target its guns on Iran to gain decisive results. And that is the ultimate objective of the US foreign policy as far as this particular region is concerned.
 
It must be remembered that despite the lapse of many long years since the ouster of the US puppet that the Shah of Iran was, and in spite of the relatively softer and more liberal attitude of the ruling Iranian clergy towards America since the last few years, the US government has not forgiven Iran's guilt of hurting the American ego by first blockading the US embassy in Tehran and then keeping the embassy staff as hostages for a long time. This is the main reason why George Bush recently declared Iran to be one of the countries forming the "axis of evil" that has to be crushed. There is no denying the fact that so long as Iran remains hostile to America, the US grip on the Middle East as well as her influence in the Central Asian region will remain shaky. With the Eastern Iranian borders having already become vulnerable to a US threat from the Afghan soil, and with the growing US influence in the Central Asian Republics in the North of Iran, the fall of Iraq into the American lap is going to complete the full encirclement of Iran.
 
It would thus be quite logical to expect America going all out to attack Iraq as it attacked Afghanistan, and then waste no time in attacking Iran so as to complete its covert mission in the region. Will the Arab nations join hands to protect Iraq from the impending US onslaught? Going by the wording of the joint statement issued by the Arab foreign ministers' recent conference, one cannot arrive at an optimistic conclusion in this regard. Their warning to the United States is not worth the paper it is written on. Will the Organisation of Islamic Conference come to the aid of Iraq or Iran? That too is doubtful, if one goes by the miserable record of this easily dispensable institution. That being the case, won't it be advisable for all the Muslim countries to quietly go under the yoke of American hegemony and stop talking of the Muslim Ummah or its glorious past? Nations that cannot see beyond their own nose deserve nothing better than that.
 
 
<http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews>The News International, Pakistan
 
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2002-daily/13-09-2002/oped/o2.htm





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