- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- <http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews>The News International,
Pakistan
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- http://jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2002-daily/13-09-2002/oped/o2.htm
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