The Terror of War

The trigger/excuse for this vast, blood-soaked enterprise was, of course, the suicide attack on New York’s World Trade Centre on September 9th, 2001. That morning, 19 men hijacked four aeroplanes and intentionally crashed two of them into the Twin Towers. There were no survivors on any of the flights, and the attack claimed the lives of 2,976 victims (not including the 19 hijackers).
The attackers were members of al-Qa’eda, a fundamentalist Islamic organisation with its roots in the US-funded ‘mujahideen’ movement which had fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan throughout the 1980s. Their motivation was outlined in stark and simple terms by the attack’s alleged mastermind Osama bin Laden: “Terrorism against America is a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people.”
 Taking place in the heart of Manhattan, and in related events across the most media-saturated society in the world, the Twin Towers atrocity was the most instantly newsworthy event of the decade, a shocking, seismic cataclysm which provoked anger, fury and disbelief in America and beyond. The attacks were widely and rightly condemned, all the more understandably so because they had delivered some of the most strikingly horrendous images ever encountered via mass media.
In such a climate, it was considered impolite to make any reference at all to the fact that ‘9/11’ (as it became known) was hardly a stand-alone event in world history, or even 21st-century history or to point out that the USA was itself responsible for more than its fair share of killings worldwide – and that the Western media’s apoplectic outrage at the atrocity, while justified, was selective to say the least.
 Within days, if not hours, it was clear that revenge would be swift and terrible. The USA had gotten itself a new President the previous year, George W. Bush (which isn’t to say that he legitimately won the election) whose father, George H.W., had led the original ‘Gulf War’ of 1991 (presented as an attempt to dethrone Iraqi president Saddam Hussein; in reality, an attempt to re-instate a reliable US ally in oil-rich Kuwait). Long before Bush junior entered the White House, it was evident to anyone who had read his foreign policy statements that a Bush presidency would herald a more ‘hawkish’, aggressively militarist approach to the USA’s conduct in matters of ‘national security’, and his words and actions in the aftermath of 9/11 confirmed it.
 By 2 o’clock of that afternoon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was instructing his aides to look for evidence of Iraqi involvement (none ever emerged). Plans for war were already afoot. Right-wing radio broadcasters stopped not far short of urging nuclear attack on the entire Middle East. Anyone advocating caution or due process had their patriotism called into question. President Bush’s approval ratings soared past the 90% mark, as his father’s had ten years earlier. Mosques were attacked, as were Sikhs, Hindus and people whose complexion was sufficiently swarthy to arouse suspicion. A ‘detention centre’ was set up at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to hold anyone suspected of being an ‘illegal enemy combatant’. It would become notorious as the decade progressed.
 Within less than a month, US and UK forces had invaded Afghanistan, ostensibly in an attempt to secure the extradition of Osama bin Laden, and depose the Taliban regime which was suspected to be harbouring him. NATO aerial bombing, in tandem with a ground offensive by the indigenous ‘Northern Alliance’ initially seemed to be successful. The Taliban were removed from power. However, al-Qa’eda activity did not seem to be hampered. As the decade progressed, Afghanistan degenerated into near-anarchy, with a central government which has no effective power outside the capital Kabul, record levels of illegal drug production, and constant Taliban insurgent activity. As of December 2009, the troops are still there.
 The ‘war on terror’ was to be two-pronged. In March 2003, after a lengthy PR campaign, the US and UK invaded Iraq, whose links to the 9/11 attack have since been proven to be non-existent. The stated justification was that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. The US-led invasion was strongly supported by the UK – particularly its then-Prime Minister Tony Blair – and opposed by France, Germany and others, who argued that there was no evidence that such weapons existed in Iraq, and no justification for invading the country.
 Between January and April 2003, an estimated 36 million people worldwide took part in an estimated 3,000 protests against the war. However, key figures in the Bush administration – notably Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfovitz – had spoken of invading Iraq long before 2001, and Congressional sanction was a fait accompli. United Nations approval was never forthcoming. But the US did not regard itself as bound by international law. The invasion went ahead, under the codename Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL). Due to its unfortunate acronym, this was swiftly changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
 The Iraqi government and military collapsed quickly. Iraq’s oil infrastructure was seized, and proved highly lucrative for US contractors. Baghdad was occupied and Saddam deposed. But as in Afghanistan, the aftermath was disastrous, with a huge commitment of armed forces required to keep insurgent Iraqi forces at bay. The troops are still there too.
 In the intervening years, public opposition to the War on Terror has hardened as a result of evidence of war crimes, the fact that the stated reasons for the war were clearly fabricated, the lack of UN approval, the rising body count and the growing perception that the whole enterprise has had a radicalising effect on Arabs and Muslims. Revelations of torture in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay also served as a wake-up call for many.   
 In February 2009, newly-elected US President Barack Obama announced an 18-month withdrawal plan for US forces from Iraq, a process which should be completed by the end of 2011. British troops ended their involvement in April 2009. The Afghan adventure, on the other hand, has no end in sight. One thing is certain: the repercussions will be felt for years to come.