Today's terrorism has its roots in US foreign policy. 2007 Article

 I was looking for some statistics in an old file and found this article I wrote in 2007. I am quite happy with what I wrote and the concerns included in it. It’s so important to understand the past if we want to solve the crises of the present and the impending catastrophe in the future if the working class does not take up the task history has set for us. That task is to end the present capitalist system in which production is set in motion for profit and the accumulation of capital for a tiny minority, and the building of a global federation of democratic socialist states that can work in cooperation with each other producing for social needs in harmony with the natural world, rather than at war with it. RM

 

Today's terrorism has its roots in US foreign policy

 

Richard Mellor

AFSCME Locl 444, retired

Oakland CA

02-2007

 

I rarely watch the news on the major cable or TV channels.  But as I flipped through the 80 or so channels I have trying to find something worthwhile watching, a commentator on CNN grabbed my attention.  I can’t recall the show but it appeared to be CNN’s attempt to challenge Fox’s mantle as the right wing propaganda machine’s front-runner.

 

I thought it was Fox news for a minute as the commentator was bashing the French.  It wasn’t a news show really; it was sort of childish.  I caught a few sentences where the commentator basically accused the French of being cowards because they won’t stand up to Iran.  

 

The Europeans are somewhat concerned. There is a feeling across the pond that either the US or Israel will bomb Iran; that the recent changes in congress won’t amount to anything and they’re probably right. In fact, if you listen to the opposition like Joseph Biden or Barak Obama, they never say that the invasion was an aggressive act against a country that had not threatened the US in any way; they generally attack the way it was handled, the tactics etc.

 

No serious minded person can deny that the greatest force of terror in the world for some considerable time has been the US government.  It is US foreign policy that has given great strength to the numerous forces that fall under the category of what we might call terrorism.  Terrorism is a tactic, a means to an end; it’s an absurdity to declare war on a tactic.  Marxists traditionally have opposed what we call individual terrorism because it substitutes for the conscious collective movement of the masses, the individual with the bomb or the assassin with the high-powered rifle.  It does not empower the working class but weakens it.

 

I read today that the US is planning to increase spending on funding Fatah in its struggle with Hamas.  Fatah has been an enemy of the US for years as it threatens the expansionary policies of the Zionists.  But the uncritical support politically and the billions spent annually in support of Israel has given Hamas life.  Rather than consider US/Israeli relations or the horrific existence of the Palestinian masses under the Israeli regime, US capitalism is increasing support for Fatah in the hope that at least it will equalize the balance of power between the two Palestinian groups and they can continue killing each other for a while.  After all, he American taxpayer will foot the bill.  The Palestinians elected their representatives but they weren’t the ones the US wanted.

 

In the Arab and former colonial world in general, increased association with the US government will increase support for Hamas and other more independent minded groupings even if they have fundamentalist roots and terrorist tactics.  The US government has no credibility among the masses of the former colonial world and any resistance movement that allies with it will weaken its base.

 

The US played a similar role in Iraq, helping Hussein slaughter leftists, trade unionists and other oppositionists.  The CIA generously handed Saddam the names and whereabouts of the leaders of the Iraqi Communist Party.  With the elimination of the leaders of what was once one of the most powerful political parties in Iraq, along with the pacification of the fundamentalists, Saddam’s reign was secure.

 

US foreign policy’s best success to date has been Al Queda and the Taliban.  As Michel Chossudovsky points out, “”As recently as 1999, US taxpayers paid the entire annual salary of every single Taliban government official.” (1)

 

The success of the Taliban, supported by the US and Pakistan (a dictatorship) was determined a “positive development” by Martin Miller, vice president of Unocal, the company that was hoping for a pipeline through the country to the Arabian Sea.  (2) The US was pleased with the Taliban’s victory. US State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that the US found “nothing objectionable” in the Taliban’s imposition of Islamic law.

 

Billions of US tax dollars were spent supporting the Taliban and Bin Laden in their attempt to control Afghanistan and defeat a more progressive secular regime.  The problem for US oil moguls was the regime was pro-soviet and its leader Dr. Mohammad_Najibullahin, in the Afghani communist movement.  The US labor leaders having no independent policies of their own, followed on the heals of US capitalism and refused to support the workers of Afghanistan offering Najibullahin critical support against the seventh century clerics.

 

In the quest for profits nothing is sacred.  Laura Bush’s phony concern for Afghan women didn’t apply when the Taliban visited the state of Texas for discussions with Unocal.  Laila Helms, Jesse Helms’ daughter was hired as a public relations agent for the Taliban government. (3) So much for women’s rights when dollars are to be made.

 

The European capitalist class, although in competition with its American allies, is concerned about the unilateralism that dominates its decision-making.  Europe is much more vulnerable to terrorist attacks than the US and the Europeans have suffered the effects of urban destruction on a scale not experienced in the US. outside of 911 and natural disasters like Katrina.

 

The commentator on CNN last night was undoubtedly reacting to French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy who called on Americans to broaden our horizons.   Americans need to “get interested in the world” said Sarkozy.   He went on: “Beyond the Pacific and beyond the Atlantic, there are men and women like you.  Get interested in the world and the world will learn to love you.” “The world is not just the American Empire.  There’s more to it than that.” (4)

 

Sarkozy lost most of his empire some time ago and his European partners, and by that I mean his class allies, have been forced to take a different approach with regard to imperialist plunder.  Coming from a representative of French capitalism that has a bit of an immigration problem of their own,  also weakens his credibility but his advice should be taken, not necessarily by his friends in Washington but by US workers.  We have allies in Afghanistan.  There were some four hundred factories there before the victory of the Taliban and the former regime would have undoubtedly, despite its pro-Soviet bent, strengthened the working class there as opposed to the Mullahs and their seventh century ideology. Women’s rights would also have improved significantly

 

Mohammad_Najibullah, the leader of the government the Taliban overthrew with US backing and funds, was eventually tortured and killed by them.  The Taliban cut off his testicles and hung him from a lamppost in Kabul for a couple of days to deter any other impure elements from corrupting religious ideology with secular ideas and worker’s and women’s rights.

 

This was a regime whose policies the US state department determined were “not objectionable.”

 

The policies of the US government are determined not by its workers but by its bankers and oilmen. This applies to domestic as well as foreign policy. Any thinking worker sides with strikers against the forces of the state when we are confronted with these choices during strikes.  Even when we do not act on it, the understanding of which side we are actually part of is there.  The same must apply when struggles take place outside of our borders and especially when the US government is involved which is invariably the case.  We must make decisions about global affairs based on class unity with the workers involved not with the governments involved including our own.

 

 

(1) Michel Chossudovsky: War and Globalization

(2) ibid

(3) Karen Talbot “US Energy Giant Unocal Appoints Interim Government in Kabul, Global Outlook #1 Spring 2002 P 70 (Chossudovsky War and Globalization)

(4) Financial Times 2-1-07