'The people there are dead because we wanted them dead' was the response of a Pentagon spokesperson to a journalist’s question about the 'accidental' bombing of civilians in Chowkar Karez, Afghanistan in late October 2002. In the drive to conquer Afghanistan, Ninan Koshy reports in The War on Terror, the Bush administration and the Pentagon deliberately and indiscriminately bombed enormous areas populated by civilian non-combatants. Additionally, cluster bombs contained bomblets that often fell unexploded and colored the same yellowish color as the food aid packages dropped as part of a 'humanitarian' effort were used to destroy large numbers of people. The infamous 'daisy cutters' were first used in Afghanistan with Donald Rumsfeld refusing to rule out the use of nuclear weapons. The most immediate result of the US attack on Afghanistan was not military victories or the capture of the people believed to have masterminded the September 11th attacks but massive displacement of hundreds of thousands of residents of the country and a humanitarian crisis on an immense scale. Pentagon officials responsible for selecting targets often relied on information provided by competing local warlords and hundreds of civilians who were in no way related to the atrocities on September 11th found themselves the victims of more atrocities -– this time perpetrated by the imperialist power.
Koshy’s book, though at this point two years old, is worth another read. The release and success of Michael Moore’s film Fahrenheit 9/11 has reinstated a widespread interest in understanding the initial phase of Bush’s war on terrorism, the invasion of Afghanistan. Considering that amnesia is the dominant cultural characteristic of most Americans, revisiting this tale is an important task as we drive to dump Bush in the November 2nd election. Further, millions of Americans who have come to resent the 'war president' were still in shock in those early post 9/11 days and may find this resource useful in unraveling the events of those days.
A careful reading of Koshy’s work provides a brief but detailed history of the origins of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the CIA efforts to launch terrorist attacks against Soviet targets in Afghanistan as well as within the Soviet Union itself. When this activity concluded in the withdrawal of Soviet forces, Pakistan used its connections in the region to prop up the Taliban regime in order to accomplish its regional hegemony. Initially, prospects for oil related activities generated US tolerance for the fundamentalist regime, but terrorist attacks in Africa and other places planned by al-Qaeda and fueled by the growing coziness of the Saudi government with Washington necessitated a new direction in Afghan-US relations. Koshy argues that efforts to undermine the Taliban regime well before the September 11th attacks, but like much of US foreign policy, the attacks altered the landscape of what was politically possible for the Bush administration. There are some details in the book that more current investigations have exposed more fully. For example, Koshy asserts what many politicans, media figures, and 'experts' argued: the government of the US could never have imagined terrorists would use planes as missiles. But, as we’ve learned since, the White House was fully aware of the possibility but took steps to stifle warnings related to potential terrorist activities masterminded by Osama Bin Laden. John Ashcroft told the interim FBI director not talk about Bin Laden in July 2001. An August 2001 memo highlighting Bin Laden’s 'determination' to launch attacks with planes in the US was simply ignored by the White House. Even the 9/11 Commission's recently released watered-down report exposes a Bush White House intently focused on other issues.
Ultimately the direct effect of the terrorist attacks was that 'the events of that day were utilized by the US to change the world,' as Koshy argues. What was not politically possible on September 10th for the Bush team was pushed to the top of the agenda: permanent war and military buildups, including new nuclear weapons, political repression and erosion of civil rights and liberties and a reordering of foreign policy priorities – especially, according to Koshy, in Palestine and Iraq. In the former, an abandonment of the US's historical mediating role by the Bush administration and a green light for the far-right Sharon government. In the latter country, war.
In addition to finding a copy of the book at Leftword Publishers, I urge readers to browse this web site for other classic Marxist works as well as contemporary works by fine authors as Vijay Prashad and Aijaz Ahmad.
The War on Terror: Reordering the World By Ninan Koshy New Dehli, India, Leftword Publishers, 2002.
