Terror Bites

The cyclical nature of terrorism and war is that the more war we wage, the more we radicalise those opposed to us. 

There have been some horrendous terrorist attacks over the last few decades, including:

• New York City and Washington, 11 September 2001: 2,996 dead
• Bali bombings, 12 October 2002: 202 dead
• London, 7 July 2005: 56 dead

So what is a terrorist? 

A terrorist is a person or group who uses or advocates terrorism. Ok ... so what is terrorism? According to dictionary.com, terrorism is 'the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes'. Often terrorism is used against civilians in order to spread terror or  influence Governments for political purposes.

Why the hell would someone want to kill hundreds or thousands of innocent people? Surely no purpose, political or otherwise, justifies killing innocent people?

Apparently, it does. Otherwise we wouldn't see attacks such as those listed above. 

Even the former Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, understands that killing 500,000 children for political purposes is worth it. That's what she said in an interview with 60 Minutes aired on 12 May 1996:

Lesley Stahl (regarding US sanctions in Iraq): 'We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?'
Madeleine Albright: 'I think this is a very hard choice, but the price ... we think the price is worth it'. 

You can view this scintillating justification for terrorism here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM0uvgHKZe8

I think it is time to add a view more terrorist events to the list:

• America's war in Iraq (since 2003): more than 1.4 million deaths⁽¹⁾
• America's war in Iraq (1992 - 2003): more than 1 million deaths ⁽²⁾
• Afghanistan (2001 - now): thousands, exact number is unknown ⁽³⁾
• Afghanistan (1979 - 1989): thousands - produced Al Qaeda & Taliban

Ok, these are 'wars' ... but war is terrorism and terrorism is often in response to war. Each of these wars has directly contributed to the anti-Western terrorism that we now see.

In 1979, the United States funded anti-Soviet incursions by the rebel Mujahideen in Afghanistan. These were terrorist strikes which attacked Afghan and Soviet troops and infrastructure. It was as a result of these activities that the Soviets invaded Afghanistan on 24 December 1979 ⁽⁴⁾. 

Over the next ten years the United States provided the Mujahideen with billions of dollars in weapons and terrorist training. One of the leaders trained by the USA was Osama bin Laden. Through the use of an Islamic recruiting agency known as Jemaat al-Tabligh (Tablighi Jemaat), the CIA was able to surreptitiously recruit Muslims from around the world to join the holy war, the Jihad, in Afghanistan against the infidel Soviet Union ⁽⁵⁾.

In the mid-80s, the Mujahideen commander, Ahmad Shah Massoud, warned the United States that their years of funding extremists in the name of Jihad was creating a major problem. He advised that once the Soviets were expelled from Afghanistan the extremists would go looking for their next big target: the infidel United States ⁽⁶⁾. As it turns out, Massoud was correct; by 1989 the Soviets left Afghanistan and Al Qaeda was formed by bin Laden ⁽⁷⁾ to 'defend' Islamic interests throughout the world and introduce an global Islamic Caliphate. Interestingly, Massoud was assassinated two days before 9/11 in 2001, allegedly on the orders of Osama bin Laden ⁽⁸⁾ for warning of an upcoming major terrorist attack against America.

The Jihadis used in Afghanistan had been recruited from around the world, and returned to fight in places such as Kashmir, Palestine, Phillipines, Algeria and other parts of North Africa ⁽⁹⁾. During their occupation of Afghanistan, the Soviet Union used Muslim fighters from around the world, particularly from the Balkans and Central Asia ⁽¹⁰⁾. These Jihadis also returned to their homelands with skills and anger honed in Afghanistan. The 1990s saw the brutal conflicts in the Balkans and Chechnya.

In the early 1990s, the Taliban formed from the remnants of the Afghan extremists with the support of Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence agency (ISI) and established a brutal regime which supported Al Qaeda.

To this day, the world is suffering from the violence and terrorism employed by the USSR, USA and their allies in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Another outcome of the the US's involvement in Afghanistan was an increase in the global drug trade. Afghanistan is part of the 'Golden Crescent', one of the largest poppy and cannabis growing areas in the world which spans Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. The US used the supply of Afghan produced drugs to assist in funding the fight against the Soviets. In the 1990s, the Taliban were in control of the drug supply and by the late 1990s, South Asian produced marijuana, opium and heroin was hitting the streets of the West in quantities never before seen. ⁽¹¹⁾ 

During this time, China was funding the Muslim Uighurs to also fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The armed and trained Uighurs returned from the Afghan Jihad, armed and trained, and turned on the Chinese government ⁽¹²⁾.

The 1980s were a critical period for the rise of global terrorism. Fuelling the situation, was the US, British and Soviet funding of regimes in Libya, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan and so on. There was the US and Soviet sponsored war between Iran and Iraq. Other nations, such as France and Germany, also provided funding and arms to despotic regimes and wars. 

Furthering the cause of Islamic terrorists is the occupation of Palestine by Israel, which has left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians dead and over a million displaced since 1948. The occupation is supported and funded by many western nations, with the greatest benefactor being the USA who provides Israel with billions of dollars a year despite Israel's violation of dozens of UN resolutions.

It is far too simplistic to blame Islam for terrorist attacks against the West. These attacks have nothing to do with Muslims hating democracy or hating our freedoms. The superpowers (USA, USSR and China) and their allies have contributed to decades of war against Islamic nations, and others throughout Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as funded terrorism and despots to their own political advantage. The human face of these atrocities are the millions asylum seekers and refugees who make their way into Western nations or who spend years in refugee camps throughout the world.

The cost to innocent lives through decades of Western political posturing is horrendous: millions dead, millions displaced. And yet Islam is labelled a terrorist religion?

Modern terrorism is blow-back from decades of Western funded atrocities across the globe.

Terror bites ... and it bites back!

References

1. 'Just Foreign Policy' - http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq based on a study published in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet. Note, that other estimates range from 100,000 to 250,000. For instance, Iraq Body Count records 114,000, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/numbers/2011/ (note, that some sources have recorded up to 250,000 deaths). Both accessed 8 June 2013.

2. Global Issues, 'Iraq - Post 1991 Persian Gulf War/Sanctions', http://www.globalissues.org/article/707/iraq-post-1991-persian-gulf-warsanctions, accessed 8 June 2013.

3. 'Afghan Civilian Casualties', The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/aug/10/afghanistan-civilian-casualties-statistics, accessed 10 June 2013.

4. John K. Cooley (2001), 'Unholy Wars - Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism', Pluto Press, Chap 1 'Carter and Brezhnev in the Valley of Decision'.

5. John K. Cooley (2001), 'Unholy Wars - Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism', Pluto Press, pp. 83-85.

6. John K. Cooley (2001), 'Unholy Wars - Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism', Pluto Press, p. 100.

7. John K. Cooley (2001), 'Unholy Wars - Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism', Pluto Press, p. 226.

8. Erin Cunningham, 'Ahmad Shah Massoud, assassinated by Al Qaeda but no friend of the US', The National http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/south-asia/ahmad-shah-massoud-assassinated-by-al-qaeda-but-no-friend-of-the-us, accessed 10 June 2013.

9. John K. Cooley (2001), 'Unholy Wars - Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism', Pluto Press, Chap. 5 'Recruiters, Trainers, Trainees and Assorted Spooks'.

10. John K. Cooley (2001), 'Unholy Wars - Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism', Pluto Press, Chap. 8 'Russia: Bitter Aftertaste and Reluctant Return'.

11. John K. Cooley (2001), 'Unholy Wars - Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism', Pluto Press, Chap. 7 'Poppy Fields, Killing Fields and Druglords'.

12. John K. Cooley (2001), 'Unholy Wars - Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism', Pluto Press, Chap. 4 'Deng Xiaoping'.