War begets war as the spiral expands

By Ameen Izzadeen
Ten years and one week ago, not many people believed that wars with imperialist designs would shape the international order. Definitely, a majority of the Americans had no idea about what was to come. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks which generated worldwide sympathy for the United States and a hawkish chorus to punish those behind the attack, many thought the war on Afghanistan would have a limited objective – send the army, kill or capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and bring back troops home. But it did not turn out that way. And it wasn’t to be that way either.
It was a war that saw the imperialist agenda unfolding with US troops being deployed to many corners of the globe with multiple objectives — wrest control of the world’s resources, patrol supply routes, punish those who refused to toe the line and check rivals Russia and China.
Within weeks of launching the war on October 7, 2001, Afghanistan was in the hands of the so-called coalition of the willing; within months, the US was making its military presence felt in Central Asia with bases being set up in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan; within years, the US military was in Pakistan killing both civilians and militants.
There was public endorsement for the war as the war capitalists and the corporate media kept the bogey – the Muslim terrorists – alive.
The Americans – at least a majority of them — believed their President, George W. Bush, when he, in successive addresses to the nation, built up a case for war against Iraq, saying it was part of an axis of evil, its weapons of mass destruction posed a security threat, and it had links with the 9/11 terrorists.
Ten years on, the global picture is one of US expansionism. The US not only occupies Afghanistan and Iraq, but it virtually controls the Middle East region, with the exception of Iran.
As the world attention was on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US-led military alliance NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) expanded to Eastern Europe, causing alarm bells in Russia while US military ties with Australia, New Zealand, and East and South East Asian countries made China to take countermeasures.
Libya which tries to chart an independent course for Africa with a common African currency and a monitory union is today no better than a vassal state with multinational oil giants sucking its oil wealth after strongman Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in a NATO-backed armed rebellion by a motley group of people with all sorts of agendas and ideologies.
As the Afghan war enters the 11th year, Pakistan pays a heavy price with fears of a full-scale war looming large. Its people living along the Afghan border die in regular US drone attacks. Let alone any compensation, hardly any apology follows the civilian killings which the US describes as collateral damage.
As though wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are not enough, fresh attempts are being made to further demonise Iran. The latest charge against Iran is that it has plotted to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Washington. FBI Director Robert Mueller described the plot as something which “reads like the pages of a Hollywood script”. A Freudian slip? Well, Hollywood is famous for fictions.
The charge, however, drew a sharp retort from Iran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s spokesman said, “… the US government is busy fabricating a new scenario and history has shown both the US government and the CIA have a lot of experience in fabricating these scenarios… their goal is to reach the American public. They want to take the public’s mind off the serious domestic problems they’re facing these days and scare them with fabricated problems outside the country.”
Many analysts would agree with Iran that the allegation was aimed at diverting attention from economic matters that are being raised at Wall Street protests. Yet the charge, which is potent with moves to effect a regime change, is quite serious — Iran, like bin Laden and his followers, is trying to carry out a terrorist attack on US soil. The US allegation, which is being shredded to pieces by antiwar activists, claims that two Iranian agents have tried to hire a dreaded Mexican drug cartel for terrorist acts – kill the Saudi ambassador, blast the Saudi embassy and perhaps the Israeli embassy as well. Are moves under way to bring Iran into submission by military means, like Afghanistan and Iraq have been, or by manipulating the United Nations Security Council? Whatever the method may be, Saudi Arabia, which, according to leaked US embassy cables, has urged the US to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites, is already on board.
Just as evil begets evil, war begets war. Besides the two world wars, need one recall all the conflicts the US has been involved in the past 100 years? Perhaps, no country’s history is as smeared or stained with blood as that of the US, which perhaps erroneously believe that the path to economic prosperity lies in the vulgar display of military might. True, capitalism thrives on war, but it does not mean capitalism cannot make profit in peace. If the US has not realised that its military march is only leading to its economic ruin, then we pity the Americans.
(This article first appeared in the Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka)