Were
We Too Hijacked On 9/11?
Dr.
Pervez Hoodbhoy
Al-Qaida had to be bombed, to let the Taliban be was not an option.
When fanatics, inspired by Osama bin Laden, flew airliners packed
with people into two of America’s tallest buildings, it was
unreasonable to expect otherwise.
So,
yes, I agree with Anthony Barnett that a “focused military
response was essential”. And yes, I disagree with many of
my students and compatriots – with the same vehemence as I
did the day after 9/11 – who still see the WTC attack as just
retribution against the US for having aided Israel, the dispossessor
and tormentor of Palestinians.
But
have we – meaning Barnett and me and the many millions who
were appalled by the mass murder of innocents – been taken
for a ride? Was our unequivocal condemnation, and the horror we
felt, cynically capitalized upon to create a New Imperial Order?
As the drums of war start a frenzied beat, and America’s mighty
armadas move to crush Iraq, it is time to step back into history
for a moment and reflect.
Flush
from its Cold War victory, the mighty US military machine had diligently
searched for new enemies. At best, success had been partial. Condoleezza
Rice's Foreign Affairs article from 2000 begins with this declaration:
“The United States has found it exceedingly difficult to define
its ‘national interest’ in the absence of Soviet power.”
Her frustration was understandable. Imagine yourself at the Pentagon
with thousands of bombers, fighters, missiles, and ships at your
command. You also have 12 aircraft carrier groups, each a floating
garrison city built for dealing massive death and destruction in
any part of the globe. Surrounded by cruisers, submarines, and supply
ships, they are indestructible by the forces of all countries of
the world put together. But, apart from taking potshots at Iraqi
targets, there was little for the carrier groups to do. These super-juggernauts
had a clear mission – to safeguard the Empire and its lines
of supply. But extended inaction had made their frightful power
fade from the world’s consciousness.
When
bin Laden’s maniacs assaulted the symbols of American power,
they gave to the Empire what it had secretly yearned for –
an end to the era of undeclared imperialism. For the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz
team the burning towers provided a transformative moment, a chance
to fundamentally change American doctrine. It was time to discard
the velvet glove; America’s iron fist would now be law. International
treaties and courts had no more utility – all agreements could
be discarded unless they specifically promoted US interests. The
Pentagon, which hit a 48 billion dollar jackpot, would ensure that
now Imperial America could go it alone. No longer, as the leaked
Nuclear Posture Review made apparent, would the US necessarily desist
from using nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear adversary. Indeed,
several US newspapers had run editorials saying that using nuclear
weapons against Muslim countries would be justified if terrorists
killed so much as one more American.
Most
Americans would like to believe that their renewed militarism is
no more than “injured innocence”, a natural response
of any victim of terror. They implicitly repudiate the notion that
America is, or even desires, being different from other countries
of the world. “Empire” bears a negative connotation
in their lexicon. Liberal intellectuals like Van Wishard of the
Coudert Institute are more forthcoming – “we are perceived,
at a minimum, as an empire of influence”, he says. Nevertheless,
he maintains: “That said, in my view no great nation has used
its power as generously and with as little intention of territorial
gain as has America.”
Alas,
the only ones capable of making this considerable leap of faith
are Americans. Middle Eastern oil – and now the promise of
securing Central Asia’s oil – has long driven US policies.
The most murderous of dictators – Suharto of Indonesia, Raza
Shah Pahlavi of Iran, Pinochet of Chile, Marcos of Philipines, Zia-ul-Haq
of Pakistan, and many more – have been the firmest of US allies.
The lack of scruple and the pursuit of power by the United States
combined fatally with this tide in the Muslim world in 1979, when
the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. With Zia ul-Haq as America's
foremost ally, the CIA openly recruited Islamic holy warriors from
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Algeria. Radical Islam went into
overdrive as its superpower ally and mentor funneled support to
the mujahiddin; Ronald Reagan feted them on the White House lawn.
Voila: bin Laden and his ilk.
Generosity?
Yes, the US was generous to Europe and Japan after WWII. But US
foreign aid to developing countries – except Israel and Egypt
– has been essentially a pittance over the last 3 decades
or more. Europe, on the contrary, with a much smaller combined GNP
provides far more assistance to developing countries. This mean
spiritedness is nowhere more apparent than in Afghanistan, a country
twice devastated by US interventions over 2 decades, which is now
being told by George Bush that if it wants to rebuild highways then
it must do so by taking loans. Earlier promises of a Marshal Plan
for Afghanistan have all but disappeared.
Americans
will have to accept that their triumphalism and disdain for international
law are creating enemies everywhere, not just among Muslims. Therefore
they must become less arrogant and more like other peoples of this
world. American people must resist the temptation to define the
world in terms of their own narrow interests – a better world
is worth it even if they have to pay a little more for gas in their
SUVs.
America’s
nemesis, bin Laden, is in all probability dead. But Al Qaida’s
greatest strength is patience, a belief in the eternal and the rewards
of paradise. So they are grimly content to wait in the shadows,
to gain in death what could never be achieved in life. Al-Qaida’s
militants and their likes are happiest with primitives like George
W. Bush – he speaks their language of good versus evil, and
force as the weapon of choice. They will surely gain if the US unleashes
carnage upon Iraq, a country with no plausible link to Al-Qaida,
because it will eventually bring to them a flood of recruits.
Despicable
as bin Laden and his henchmen are, they do not have the power to
flatten cities. September 11 was horrendous but it was only one
snapshot of history, and history is an infinite gallery of crimes
committed by the human race against itself. A global, democratic,
secular, humanistic identity must soon replace the twin evils of
imperial domination and religion. Else we perish.
The
writer teaches physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. This
comment was invited by the editors of www.openDemocracy.net
