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Caliifornia State University, Dominguez Hills
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Created: September 26, 2001
Latest Update: September 26, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

On Wednesday, September 26, 2001, Robert Stewart posted to the PEC List:

September 25, 2001

Dear friends,

Below are two of my articles, pertaining to recent terrorist attacks on the U.S., being published in the local Brandon Sun newspaper.

In peace,

M.V. Naidu
prema@mts.net

Roots of Terrorism Must Be Fully Investigated (Part I)

On 11 September 2001 terrorists attacked the United States causing heavy damages to life and property. President George Bush has called the attacks, a war on the United States.

The passion and anger of the Americans are understandable because the United States was never before bombed by foreigners, even though the U.S. bombed military and civilian targets in many parts of the world, and killed thousands of persons. Of course thousands of American soldiers died in all these undertakings. The present experience has ended American innocence on foreign invasions. The attack has roused American patriotism, and the retaliatory instinct.

What is terrorism?
Simply said, terrorism is the phenomenon in which a community is subjected to fear and terror through threats to human well being, and/or through symbolic destruction of life, liberty and property. The targets of these threats and/or attacks are essentially civilian population, though military targets could also be included. The aim of terrorism is to create panic, disorder and instability among the citizens so that they can in turn demand political change, or can destabilize the regime or rebel against it.

Usually terrorism can be used by minorities against the regime that is unresponsive to the minority grievances. But when government uses the same terrorism against certain minorities that are considered dangerous to the regime, it becomes "state terrorism." By its very nature, every authoritarian colonial or racist or religious state is inclined towards state terrorism in different forms.

What are the techniques of terrorism?
Anti-regime terrorists work in small groups and in great secrecy. They use and need simple or small tools that can cause certain limited amount of destruction because terrorists don't aim at conquest. Terrorists can function on low budget. The terrorists heavily depend upon intelligence and espionage sources for deciding upon targets and on determining the tools and techniques necessary. A very important qualification for terrorists is the capacity to melt into a crowd or the community.

Finally, the terrorists have to pick a target that is least expected or that will attract maximum attention. That is, surprise, drama and terror-creation are important considerations in selecting targets or victims.

The 11th September terrorist attacks did exhibit the elements of simplicity, minimum investment of men and money, surprise and shock. That 19 hijackers equipped with simple knives have successfully terrorised millions of American civilians, have challenged the mightiest of mighty states, and have frightened all the major powers on earth, is indeed a superb plan of the most successful undertaking of terrorism. The terrorists paid only one price-their lives!

What makes the terrorist?
First and foremost, the terrorist is fully prepared to die. Let there be no mistake-the terrorists are not hired assassins. They are motivated by the martyr complex; they welcome and even seek death. Why?

Normal human beings, driven by the instinct of self-preservation, do not resort to suicide. However, total alienation and hopelessness can drive individuals to a state of mind that looks at life as a living death. Such desperation and hopelessness could be the product of dehumanization caused by unending violence, political persecution, economic suffering, religious or racial oppression, ethnic cleansing or neo-colonialism.

What are the goals of terrorism?
One obvious and immediate goal of terrorism is to shock and scare the authorities and citizenry. Terrorism also seduces the opponent to overreact. Such overreaction is sure to victimize the innocent bystanders. The innocent victims naturally start identifying and empathizing with the terrorists. The anti-terrorist authority should therefore react with a great amount of patience and balancing of pros and cons.

The deep-rooted goal of terrorism could be either to avenge the sufferings of the terrorists and their communities, or to ventilate their deeply felt grievances in order to draw the attention of the world.

Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban
The United States authorities are pointing out that muslim terrorists who attacked the U.S.A. were working under the guidance of Osama Bin Laden. If this were true, are the muslim terrorists seeking revenge? For What? If they are ventilating their grievances, what grievances and whose?

The muslim terrorists in the world have different agendas. Some of them want to draw the world's attention to the plight of the Palestinians who have been suffering at the hands of Israel and who believe that the U.S. is pampering Israel. Some terrorists seek relief for the Iraqi men, women and children suffering under the U.S. bombs and harsh economic sanctions. Some muslim terrorists work for the Islamic fundamentalists of Iran that is still being penalized for the ousting of the Shah of Iran, an important protégé of the United States. Some terrorists are sympathisers of Sudan that was wrongly bombed by the U.S. to avenge terrorist attacks on the U.S. embassy in Kenya. The Egyptian terrorists are being suppressed by Mubarak's government, another protégé of the United States. Pakistani dictators, allies of the U.S., have produced muslim terrorists to destabilize the Indian state of Kashmir.

The fanatical Taliban regime of Afghanistan has been harbouring Bin Laden and training mujahedeen. Who are the Taliban?

Taliban literally means students. The Taliban, a fanatical Islamic movement, was created by Pakistan in its religious schools (madrasa). The Taliban were also given military training in Pakistan and have been equipped with American arms that were supplied to the Afghans to fight the Russians. Until recently Pakistan has been supporting the Taliban regime diplomatically, militarily, and by providing secret services, oil and food supplies, finances, etc. The Taliban are training mujahedeen and sending them to fight in various countries, from Kosovo to Kashmir. India submitted to the U.S. hard evidence on Pakistan's support to terrorism. The C.I.A. corroborated this evidence before the Congress, but the U.S. administration has refused to brand Pakistan a terrorist state, because Pakistan was a U.S. ally during the Cold War and Pakistani dictators have been good customers for American weapons. But the U.S. government has had no difficulty in labelling Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria as "sponsors of terrorism." Ironically enough, the U.S.A. and Pakistan are now confronting the very Taliban they have created and armed!

Anti-Americanism is the strong force behind Islamic terrorism. I'll discuss this in the next article.

Anti-Americanism: How to End It? (Part II)

M.V. Naidu
Chairman, Dept. of Political Science
Brandon University

(Brandon Sun, scheduled publication date Sat. 29 September 2001)

Most Americans are innately kind and friendly people. The United States is the biggest donor of foreign aid. Why then is there such intense anti-Americanism in the world?

The genuine goodwill of the American people is not always reflected by the U.S. government which is run, as pointed out by President Eisenhower, by the "industrial-military complex." This complex has its own agenda-profiteering and militarization.

Foreign aid is not free-giveaway of money or food. More than 80% of the aid is in the forms of loan, barter and investment. During the Cold War, a major proportion of foreign aid was military aid. As an economic transaction, foreign aid is beneficial to the United States.

American arms manufacturers have been sponsoring and sustaining autocratic rulers who become big clients for weapons. These rulers indulge in exploitation and repression of their citizens. Alienated masses become resentful of the rulers and the U.S. that supports them. Among such rulers were the Shah of Iran, King Faizal and later Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Pakistani generals-Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zia-ul Haq, Diem and Thieu of South Vietnam, Sukarno and Suharto of Indonesia and Latin American dictators like Batista, Noreiga and Pinochett. Support for such dictators was justified by the U.S. in the name of American "national interests," even while proclaiming that the United States is committed to human rights and democracy. Sooner or later the dictators fall as anti-Americanism rises.

Interestingly enough, all the rulers and movements that are openly anti-American today, were in the earlier days befriended and armed by the United States, e.g., Saddam Hussein, Noriega and the Taliban. The Taliban movement was created and supported by Pakistan, a close military ally of the U.S. The Islamic fanatics were equipped with American weapons to fight Soviet occupation of Afghanistan; the same fanatics are now sponsoring anti-American terrorism round the world.

Lending agencies like the World Bank, of which the U.S.A. is a major shareholder, have been imposing harsh conditions on the borrowing nations. Developing countries and Western youth have been condemning the neo-colonialism of the American corporations.

The most direct source of anti-Americanism is military intervention by the United States in many parts of the world. During the post-war decades, the U.S. waged wars in Korea, Vietnam and Persian Gulf. The United States also invaded Cambodia, Cuba, Grenada, Kenya, Laos, Libya, Panama, Sudan, and Yugoslavia. Indirect intervention by the U.S.A., took place in many places like Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Congo, Somalia, and in almost all Latin American countries. Victims of American military actions have developed deep-seated anti-Americanism.

A major source of anti-Americanism among millions of Arabs and muslims is the blind and total support that the U.S. provides for Israel against Palestinians.

The FBI and CIA investigations so far have pointed out that Osama Bin Laden and his network (Al Qaida) are the "primary suspects" for the recent terrorist attacks, though no hard and public evidence has been produced so far. President Bush wants Bin Laden "dead or alive."

President Bush wants the Taliban regime to surrender Bin Laden to the U.S. What will Bush do with Bin Laden has not been spelled out. All indications show that U.S. is preparing for an invasion of Afghanistan.

Invasion of Afghanistan raises another serious problem-what will happen in Pakistan? The Taliban movement has become Pakistan's Frankenstein.

Pakistan's fundamentalists, mobilized by Pakistani dictators for their anti-India campaigns, have already started their agitation in support of the Taliban and anti-Americanism. Let us also remember that Pakistan has some nuclear weapons; these could fall into the hands of Pakistani or Taliban mujahedeen. The mujahedeen have been threatening to use the nuclear weapons against India. A nuclear attack may (cause) India to retaliate in the same coin.

Could that lead to a global nuclear war?

Anti-American terrorists are faceless; they live and move in shadows; they work in secrecy; they are committed to martyrdom; they have many nationalities. By capturing Bin Laden will the United States be able to wipe out anti-Americanism and muslim terrorism? In their thousands the muslim terrorists are living or hiding in more than 30 countries. One, two or 10 individual terrorists can again attack American interests within and without the United States.

President Bush has already declared that the U.S. will hunt them down. But how will he punish the states that help or harbour such terrorists? Not clear. The U.S. may use secret services, economic sanctions, diplomatic boycotts and military threats to punish dozens of states that assist the terrorists. But will these measures reduce anti-Americanism? Should terrorism be fought with terroristic techniques? We may kill the terrorists, but we can't kill terrorism. Nor can counter-terrorism end terrorism. What then can be done to solve the basic problems that produce the Islamic terrorists?

1. First of all peace must be established in the Middle East by establishing and protecting the Palestinian state as a viable, stable and secure entity.

2. The economic sanctions against Iraq should be ended while disallowing Iraq weapons of mass destruction.

3. Iran should be rehabilitated into the community of nations and the U.S. should pay back all the money the Shah regime left in American banks.

4. Pakistan should be provided economic assistance, not military arms, on the condition that it will stop organizing or encouraging Islamic terrorist groups, and that it will be democratized soon.

5. Medieval kings of the Middle East, and the modern dictators everywhere should be prevailed upon to democratize their countries guaranteeing civil liberties.

6. The United States should stop exporting weapons to all dictatorships especially to the countries that are engaged in civil wars in neighbourhood wars.

7. Most of all, corporate greed and neo-colonial exploitation of the developing countries should be stopped immediately. Development assistance should be multilaterized, and focused on ending dehumanizing poverty.

Anti-terrorism demands both security against and sympathy for the desperate, both precaution against and compassion, for the alienated. Will the U.S. rise up to such wise leadership?

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed.]

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