Culture of Terrorism in USA
Dr. S. M. Rahman
“Terrorism”, says Mahathir Bin Mohamad of Malaysia, “was not invented by the Muslims”. He elaborates: “The first Hijacking of air craft was by an American. But the Muslims learned this quickly enough as they did other terrorist acts. Soon terrorism the invention of non-Muslims became synonymous with Islam and the Muslims. But their acts have availed them of nothing except the increased hatred of the enemies, who retaliate with equal ferocity”. The recent Manhattan and Washington tragedy is probably going to unleash revenge at a scale much higher than ‘equal’, when Afghanistan would be targeted as scapegoat. The apprehensions conjure up a dreadfully threatening scenario.
The moral imperatives of the super terrorism which USA has encountered not only necessitates total condemnation by the world community, but also taking retributive measures against the perpetrators of the colossal crime. Not only individuals involved, but also the net-working of heinous acts is to be unearthed, so that the menace is nibbed in the bud. Terrorism through an evolutionary process has become the greatest threat to the security of all nations, irrespective of how loaded a country is with conventional and non-conventional weapons. If terrorists groups, get hold of loose nukes or miniature versions of weapons of mass destruction, it would spell disaster beyond calculation. In the Fall 2000 issue of Strategic Review, John Train contends that there was consensus among counter terrorist personnel, “that even more likely than a World Trade Centre type of bombing from a foreign source are further Oklahoma City like bombings launched by Americans from inside our own country. These would not constitute a strategic threat to the nation, of course: just a very big headache”. The prediction was a wishful understatement. The 11 September massacre impact has taken the whole nation in a state stupor and intense shock with concomitant feelings of insecurity and paranoid like apprehensions. But where John Train is right, is that it is rising militancy in America which is promoting terrorism. “The likely origin of such domestic attacks is the militia movement. There are already hundreds of these private armies, some claming thousands of members. Michigan alone has dozens. Many of them are organized along US army lines and practice field exercises with weapons and uniforms”.
If one took into account a large number of US citizens who were found guilty of blowing up state buildings, trying to use plague bacteria, poisoning municipal water supplies, murdering federal judges and several such grave crimes, one tends to believe what a scholar in the American Dissident Voices – a radio talk show – proclaimed: “I suspect Americans will begin engaging in terrorism on a scale the world has never known – there is nothing the government can do to stop it”. The free society of America in a way facilitates the process of socialization of various cults of violence. Novels are written with such exactitude that makes terrorism a cook-book like recipe. For instance, the above mentioned author reveals that Timothy McVeigh, who blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City got the idea from the Turner Diaries – the Main Kampf of militia movement. The similarities in the book and crime are striking. In the novel a truck containing somewhat less than 5000 pounds fertilizer explosive detonates shortly after a 9:00 am, before a federal building, killing over seven hundred victims. The Oklahoma City bomb contained 4400 lbs fertilizer explosive and was detonated shortly after 9: 00 am in front of a federal building. It killed or wounded just under 700 people. One has seriously to ponder, whose crime is greater, the culture which teaches modalities of crime or terrorist who only implements ideas?
There exists a mind set of Christian fundamentalists or fanatics, who believe “that their bombings will trigger a conflict leading to a different America with the federal government and its laws and its taxes rolled back, the New World Order bugaboos suppressed and white Christians back in the saddle – reversion to the world of 1850”. In every society there exists a category of people who have a self-righteous sensibility and are obsessed to fix things right, using terrorism as a weapon.
At international level US track record of violence since World War II is incredibly high, as 23 countries have been subjected to bombings – China 1945-1946, Korea 1950-53, China 1950-53, Guatemala 1954, Indonesia 1958, Cuba 1959-60, Guatemala 1960, Congo 1964, Peru 1965, Laos 1964-73, Veitnam 1961-73, Cambodia 1969-70, Guatemala 1967-69, Grenada1983, Lebanon 1984, Libya 1986, El Salvador 1980, Nicaragua 1980s, Panama 1989, Iraq 1991-1999, Sudan 1998, Afghanistan 1998, and Yugoslavia 1999. Moreover, in the Post World War II USA assisted in over 20 different coups in the various parts of the world and the CIA was responsible for half a dozen assassination of heads of states.
There is also element of naked Machiavellianism in USAs strategic thought process. Two examples my be cited:
· President Truman is reported to have said on 24 July 1941, the day Nazis invaded Russia: “If we see that Germany is winning the war, we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany and in that way let them kill as many as possible”.
· In the context of Iran – Iraq war Ramsey Clark says: “In contrast to its reaction to Iraq’s, relatively bloodless entry into Kuwait ten years later. Washington expressed no moral outrage at the 1980s Iraqis attack on Iran. The attack served US interests by weakening Iran and of course war against much larger Iran would weaken Iraq as well. Washington did not want either side to win”. Henry Kissinger said without moral pinch, “I hope they kill each other and too bad they both can’t lose”.
The plan in Afghanistan appears no different. The Northern Alliance is being promoted and encouraged to weaken Taliban. USA thus is prone to channelizing ‘anger’ and ‘revenge’ for strategic ends. The Pearl Harbour anger was directed to demonstrate the nuclear might of USA – as dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not serve any military logic. The Gulf War of 1990 was to ensure the full control of the oil wealth of Arab and the Gulf states and not to punish Iraq for invading Kuwait. The onslaughts on Afghanistan is for a similar gain – the rich reservoir of oil and gas in the Caspian Sea basin. The Dushambe Plan is contrived to atomise Afghanistan into various autonomous zones – the Great Old Game of Balkanization. How for USA and its allies could succeed in this dangerous adventure is hard to tell, but one thing can be said with relative certainty that “Afghan spirit” has unique resilience to succeed and survive.
If combating terrorism is USA’s cherished objective, Pakistan and by and large, every Muslim country will lend its helping hand. The Holy Quran very explicitly says: “Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good in joining what is right and forbidding what is wrong” (Surah-3, verse 104). It is an obligation for a Muslim to condemn act of terrorism even if the victim is non-Muslim, as the Quran strictly forbids: “Let not the hatred of others make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. (Surah-5, verse 9). Therefore, to allude terrorism to Islam is an intellectual aberration. Muslims may turn to terrorism but in that they would transgress the sacrosanct principles of ‘equity’ and ‘justice’ – the hallmark of their faith.
USA’s threat of terrorism, basically emanates from within, which must be introspectively analyzed and uprooted. Alfred Adler very rightly said: “It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them”.