The new enemy…
It was almost 25 years ago that former Soviet Union came crumbling down like a pack of cards, this brought about the end of cold war era; the world was jubilant that a nuclear apocalypse was avoided, but on the other side a question came to the fore: who is going to be America’s next enemy?
By 1990’s when USSR had already splintered, America had come a long way walking hand in hand with terrorist organizations, CIA had painfully breastfed many of these organizations in different parts of the world to curb spread of communism… or so it thought. In 1970’s CIA along with Saudi intelligence had supported the
Egypt brotherhood [r] , which had a huge fan following throughout the Arab world; It is said that Kissinger himself played the role of an intermediary between King Faisal and Anwar Sadat, who was the secretary of world muslim congress in Egypt. In
Indonesia, CIA had supported Sarekat Islam and a countercoup against Sukarno
[1] ; the American intelligence agency’s activities in Indonesia were mainly to check PRC’s influence in the region. Soon CIA along with MI6 and ISI (subsidized by KSA) helped in increasing the footage of Jamaat-E-Islami in
Pakistan, this was accompanied by the opening of fundamentalist madrassas, the core opposition to Pakistan’s progress today.
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In the late 80’s, CIA along with the house of Sauds had come up with a sinister plot in Afghanistan; they had created a “database” of thousands of Islamic extremists, who were then trained and provided with weapons to form the formidable Al-Qaeda. Three years after the formation of
Al-Qaeda, Soviet had gone kaput and Afghani Jihad against USSR was no more needed.But the organisation,Al-Qaeda, had already come into being and it was striving to survive...
By early 90’s Al-Qaeda had dropped its roots in
Yemen which was evident by the bombing of the Movenpick Hotel; it soon started showing its presence in Somalia(’92), Istanbul (’94), Nairobi, Tanzania (’98), and the final straw was bombing of American warship
, USS Cole, at Aden in 2000. By then CIA had realized that its former protégé had turned against the system and that they had no control over it whatsoever.
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USS cole, after bomb attack.
9/11 was the end of CIA- Al Qaeda illegitimate relationship; Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and his disciple Jalaluddin Haqqani were no more CIA’s fav commanders but the 2nd & 3rd on the hitlist after Mullah Omar of Taliban. At this point its needless to say that
Osama Bin Laden was also nothing but an American pawn, turned rogue.
America’s relationship with terror groups has always been a love-hate affair; they were/ are used to further America’s interests and then dumped as soon as they lose their lustre. As much as it might deny, America has always used extremism as its weapon of foreign policy, consciously and sub-consciously.
Islamic state is the latest of US weapons which has started to backfire, presently
ISIS holds a region under siege which is as big as United Kingdom. ISIS became a menace to America when it beheaded few American journalists in Iraq. But would America own up the responsibility for creating a breeding ground in Iraq for terrorists (like ISIS) after Saddam???
If not anything, in
post-Saddam era US had consciously supported a shia-majority government in Iraq, closed down factories in the belief that free market would create jobs, whilst hundreds of sunnis lost their jobs and were dispossessed of their assets. American government had promised the world and its domestic audience to bring peace by capturing Saddam, au contraire they ended up adding fuel to the sectarian fire in the region. The sunni discontent helped in the formation of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the same group rebranded itself as ISIS and refocused in
Syria.
There’re 3 wars being fought in Syria, one is between the Assad government and the rebels, second one is between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the third one (which is a shadow war) being fought between the cold-war era enemies America and Russia. Assad is a key Russian ally, and to bring him down CIA had armed the rebels with M16 assault rifles, it must have been really embarrassing for America when the rebels started to flaunt it in front of the reporters.
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Islamic State fighters parade through Raqqa in Syria. The militant on the left holds an American-made M16 assault rifle. Photograph: Reuters
Not so long back America mulled the possibilities of an intense attack on Assad regime for using chemical weapons; lest we forget, that in
1988 America had helped Iraq during the waning days of Iraq-Iran war by sending satellite imagery of Iran’s troop’s movement to Saddam’s army, fully aware that he might attack with chemical weapons.
[r] Ironical!!!
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ISIS is not just a weapon for America to be used against Al-Assad, but is also its trump card to pressurize Iran. Despite the fact that western medias have repeatedly shown Iran as a warmonger, it is interesting to note that America since its inception in 1776 has indulged in 53 military invasions and expeditions.
Does Iran really have the potential to attack America, is it economically viable for Iran to lock horns with the behemoth of this century???
A little cogitation will tell you that the answer would always be a big fat
NO.
It is unfortunate that while America was the sole reason behind most of the wars fought around the world in last 2 decades, the blame had to be shouldered by the followers of Islam
; Islamophobia has effected the guilty and innocent followers of Islam alike.
America which is perpetually on look-out for a new enemy forgets the fact that it is its own enemy. Truth is, that the only way America can win its “War On Terror” is if it stops pumping money into creating terrorist outfits aimed at attacking other countries.
The bigger picture will show you that the Taliban, ISIS & co. ‘re nothing but the pawns of terrorism, while the real terrorists attack innocents with jets,missiles and drones.
References:
1. Fundamentalism observed: By Martin E. Marty, R. Scott Appleby
2. The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
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