The War on Terrorism

excerpted from the book

State Terrorism and the United States

From Counterinsurgency to the War on Terrorism

by Frederick H. Gareau

Clarity Press, 2004, paper

p193
AFGHANISTAN: NO END IN SIGHT

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, only to be forced out ten years later by the guerrilla tactics of the muhajidin-local fighters or volunteers from abroad who later would be labeled "Muslim extremists." Initially called "freedom fighters" by the Reagan administration, they later would be called "terrorists" by subsequent administrations. Their victory was due in large part to the massive military aid they received from Washington. Funneled through Pakistan's interservices intelligence, this aid was a large part of what has been called "the biggest single CIA covert operation in the world. 1113 The aid totaled some 2.8 billion. Washington worked together with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt in financing and transporting anti-communist fundamentalist groups in the Muslim world to take part in the anti-Soviet jihad.

It was in this way that the young Osama bin Laden came to Afghanistan. He later observed, "To counter these atheistic Russians, the Saudi Arabians chose me as their representative in Afghanistan .1114 He added that at first he set up camp where the volunteers were trained by Pakistani and American officers. The weapons were supplied by the Americans, the money by the Saudis. Bin Laden also used his own money for this project. The seventeenth child of multiple marriages that produced 52 children, he inherited a fortune which he increased many fold by shrewd investments. Eventually this process generated al Qaeda which in turn provided troops for the Taliban, both groups emerging from the anti-Soviet strife of the warlords sustained by aid from Washington. Bin Laden "learned" from the successful struggle that forced the Soviets to leave Afghanistan that the superpowers are not invincible. He thus resolved to take on the United States..

Al Qaeda was founded at a mujahideen camp in Khost, Afghanistan as a loose organization of Arab militants.',' Its purpose was to wage war beyond the borders of Afghanistan, but it became operational as an international terrorist group later in the period 1991 to 1996 when bin Laden settled down in the Sudan. After the end of the war in Afghanistan, bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia, only to be expelled from that country two years later in 1991. With his private fortune and his access to outside funding, he controlled the purse strings of al Qaeda. He has also been described as the face of the organization, the chairman of the board. Much of the leadership group consisted of members of the Islamic Jihad, which provided many professionals for the new organization. It was led by Ayman al Zawahiri, an Egyptian physician, nationalist, and revolutionary, who in effect became a CEO of al Qaeda. He was a pioneer in the systematic use of suicide bombers, and in the practice of recording their messages before they embarked on their deadly missions. He imposed a blind cell structure on the organization, whereby the members of one cell did not know the identity or the activities of the members of another cell. Al-Zawahiri had reason for this precaution. Islamic Jihad was dealt a devastating blow when Egyptian authorities obtained the entire database of the membership. In the Sudan, bin Laden pursued the jihad in general and against the United States, combining this with his successful efforts to increase his wealth. He was joined there by al-Zawahiri, after the eclipse of Islamic Jihad.

p194
Inspired by an extreme form of Islam, funded by the Saudis, and armed and trained by Pakistan, the Taliban became a military force that imposed its will on a country that had been torn apart by civil war, invasion, and anarchy. While not directly involved, Washington saw the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban as a way of containing Iran and as a step in securing an alternate land route for United States petroleum companies anxious to build a pipeline for exploiting the oil and gas reserves of central Asia. The Taliban were seen as providing security for this land route that would link the central Asian states to the international markets through Afghanistan rather than Iran.

p197
... the Taliban have undergone a resurgence in the border regions of Pakistan, especially in Quetta. It is here that many of the Taliban took refuge after their government fell. They stay in sprawling refugee settlements in Quetta or with fellow tribesmen in remote villages. The main center of support for the Taliban, Quetta is a breeding ground for opposition to the American presence in Afghanistan and to the Karzai government. Taliban leaders are active, and they are recruiting young men to fight. They gather openly with growing confidence since an alliance of Islamic parties sympathetic to their cause won the provincial election in the fall of 2002. They launch attacks from their bases in Pakistan on targets in Afghanistan. Although 400 Taliban and al Qaeda members have been arrested in Pakistan, none of the senior Taliban leaders have been apprehended. "Those familiar with the situation contend that Pakistan's army and secret service are allowing the Taliban to operate in Pakistan, and even protecting them .1126 A former senator and opposition leader in Pakistan remarked: "America should have selected to crush al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan rather than go to war in Iraq."

p198
Pakistan and Terrorism

Within 48 hours of the September 11 attacks, Secretary of State Powell telephoned General Musharraf, the president and dictator of Pakistan, asserting that he had to make a choice: either to cast his lot with the United States or have Pakistan remain an isolated, pariah state. The general, who had been put in power by a military coup in 1998, chose the former option.

The case of Pakistan is fascinating in that it entails a dictatorship that had previously supported terrorism as defined by Washington being nonetheless invited by Washington to join the war against terrorism. The support for terrorism referred to here, of course, is the support that the Musharraf regime has given to the Kashmiri rebels who believe that Kashmir should not be a part of India, not to the support that Islamabad gave to the Taliban or al Qaeda. Pakistan had been a supporter of the Taliban, and one of only three countries that established diplomatic relations with Kabul during the reign of that organization. In 1990 Washington imposed an embargo on military aid to Pakistan because of its nuclear weapons program. Economic sanctions were added after Islamabad tested nuclear weapons in 1998. The sanctions against Islamabad were lifted when Musharraf agreed that Pakistan would serve as a support and a point of entry for the war in Afghanistan. The Bush administration responded by putting together an aid package for Pakistan that is likely to total billions of dollars and that just might make that country a competitor with Colombia to become the largest beneficiary of American aid after Israel and Egypt.

p199
Uzbekistan

Another front line state in the war in Afghanistan is Uzbekistan. While Musharraf is a dictator who assumed power in 1998, President Islam A. Karimov is a dictator left over from the communist era when Uzbekistan was a part of the Soviet Union. The government in Tashkent maintains an intense security system that tortures political dissidents. It represses democratic rights including the practice of Islam. Religious activity is allowed only in government-approved mosques, holy books cannot be widely circulated, and only clerics can wear religious garb .41(Human Rights Watch has charged that at least 7,000 Muslims have been arbitrarily incarcerated in recent years. This led the late Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat from Minnesota, to declare: "To ignore Uzbek abuses could add fuel to the fire that this is not truly a war on terrorism, but a war on Islam.") Uzbekistan has become useful as a staging area in the war in Afghanistan. It has opened its airspace and an air base for use by the U.S. military. American military units, including infantrymen and Green Berets, are stationed in the country.

THE THIRD PERSIAN GULF WAR
p205
World Public Opinion and the War

It was not only churches, the ethicists, and specialists in international law that opposed the [Iraq] war, but world public opinion as well. There were demonstrations against it on the five continents of the world. Appearing on CSPAN June 6, 2003, the political activist Arundhati Roy estimated that ten million people had participated in these anti-war demonstrations. That these demonstrations indicated that world public opinion opposed the war is consistent with the findings of worldwide polls conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press before and after the war. By contrasting world public opinion on various issues as it existed before the war with this opinion after the war, the organization provided a way of judging the impact of the war on these issues. The nonpartisan organization polled 38,000 people in 44 countries in the summer and fall of 2002, followed by postwar interviews of 16,000 people in 20 countries and among the Palestinians. The Pew Center's director commented: 'The war has widened the rift between Americans and Europeans, further inflamed the Muslim world, softened support for the war on terrorism, and significantly weakened global public support for the UN and the North Atlantic alliance." Favorable views of the United States declined in nearly every one of the countries surveyed-from 60 percent to 43 percent in France, from 60 to 45 percent in Germany, and from 61 to 36 percent in Russia. On the other hand, the American view of France plunged from 79 percent favorable to 60 percent unfavorable. Seven countries still had a favorable view of the United States, but even in most of these nations this view had slipped.

Dislike for the United States spread in the Muslim world. The populations in seven of the eight Muslim countries polled felt that their countries might be threatened by the United States. They voiced the fear that Islam itself might be threatened. A large percentage of the Palestinians, Indonesians, and Jordanians expressed at least some confidence in Osama bin Laden. Those who expressed these unfavorable views toward the "United States" added that their views were directed "mostly at Bush," not at "America in general."

p211
Domestic Casualties of War: State and Local Government

The initial appropriation to pay for the cost of the war was some $80 billion, to be followed by more appropriations. This has come at a time of recession and in the midst of federal tax cuts favored by the Bush administration. Despite the fact that they result in an astronomical federal debt, these tax cuts have become the favorite weapon of the neo-conservatives in their war against the welfare state. The states, the main providers of welfare, are now in the worst financial shape since World War ll.° Financially dependant on the states, the cities and counties are in bad shape as well. State and local governments have used money set aside for rainy days, raided tobacco funds that were supposed to have provided health care for children, and taxed every possible vice. They have laid off employees, closed libraries early, withdrawn health care for the poor and mentally ill, dismissed teachers and state troopers, trimmed city police forces, and other services long taken for granted. States are scrambling to cut $100 billion from budgets that by law must be balanced. The president of the National Conference of State Legislatures said: "State governments are under siege. This is the real deal, and it's only going to get worse.

p211
The brunt of the cuts at the state level have been in Medicaid and education, their two largest areas of spending. These cuts are in accord with the ideology of the neo-conservatives who would cut holes in the welfare state. Ironically, the third largest area of state spending and cuts is for prisons, cuts not in accord with the neo-conservative emphasis on physical security. Nor are the cuts in local police forces.

State Terrorism and the United States

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