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http://www.en.monde-diplomatique.fr/2001/10/01leader
An enemy. At last
by IGNACIO RAMONET
On 11 September aircraft were diverted from their normal flight
routines. With fanatics at their controls, they headed for the heart of
a big city, intent on destroying the symbols of a hated political
system. In the explosions that followed, buildings were shattered.
Survivors fled the wreckage. The media were on the spot
broadcasting live. I am not talking about New York in 2001 but
Santiago de Chile on 11 September 1973. With the complicity of the
United States, General Pinochet staged his coup against the socialist
government of Salvador Allende, which began with the bombardment
of the presidential palace by the air force. Dozens of people were
killed. It was the start of a regime of terror that was to continue for
15 years.
With all compassion for the innocent victims of the attacks on New
York, it has to be said that, of all countries, the US cannot be
described as innocent. It has a long history of involvement in violent,
illegal and often clandestine political actions in Latin America, Africa,
the Middle East and Asia, with accompanying personal tragedies of
death, disappearances, torture, imprisonment and exile.
The present rampant pro-Americanism of the West's politicians and media
should not blind us to a harsh but obvious truth. Throughout the world,
and particularly in the countries of the South, the most common public
reaction to the attacks in New York and Washington has been: what happened
in New York was sad, but the US deserved it.
To trace the roots of such a reaction, it is worth recalling that
throughout the cold war (1948-89) the US was involved in a crusade
against communism. Sometimes that involved mass extermination:
thousands of communists killed in Iran; 200,000 opposition leftists
killed in Guatemala; almost 1m communists killed in Indonesia.
Atrocities filled the pages of the black book of American imperialism
during those years - years that also saw the horrors of the Vietnam
war (1962-75).
This too was marketed as a battle between good and evil. But at that
time Washington seemed to think that giving support to terrorists was
not necessarily immoral. Through the CIA the US consciously
endorsed projects of murder, hijacking, sabotage and assassination:
in Cuba against the government of Fidel Castro, in Nicaragua against
the Sandinistas, and in Afghanistan against the Soviets.
In Afghanistan during the 1970s, with the support of two countries
that could hardly be called democratic (Saudi Arabia and Pakistan),
Washington encouraged the creation of Islamic detachments
recruited in the Arab-Islamic world and made up of what the press
called freedom fighters. As we now know, that was the environment
in which the CIA enlisted and trained Osama bin Laden (see article by
Selig S Harrison).
Since 1991 the US has emerged as the worlds only superpower,
effectively marginalising the United Nations. It promised to inaugurate
a more equitable new world order, and it was on that basis that the
US embarked on the war against Iraq. But it has remained
scandalously partisan towards Israel, to the detriment of the rights of
the Palestinians (1). Despite international protests it has also
maintained an unrelenting embargo against Iraq, causing the deaths
of thousands of innocent civilians while preserving the regime in
power. All this has outraged public opinion in the Arab-Islamic world
and sowed the seeds for the spread of a radical Islamic
anti-Americanism.
Osama Bin Laden is a creation of the US. Now, with all the violence of
Dr Frankenstein's creation, he has turned against his maker. In
assembling a war coalition against him, the US is prepared to rely on
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which for the past 30 years have
contributed most to the spread of radical Islamic networks around the
world, where necessary using terrorism.
The men around George W Bush are veterans of the cold war. They
may have reason to be pleased with the current events, in a sense a
godsend. At a stroke the attacks of 11 September restored what had
been missing since the collapse of the Soviet Union 10 years ago - an
enemy. At last. The enemy may be known officially as terrorism but
everyone knows that the real name is radical Islam. And we can now
expect alarming side-effects, including a modern McCarthyism
directed at the opponents of globalisation. You enjoyed
anti-communism? You're going to love anti-Islamism.
(1) See Alain Gresh, Israël, Palestine, Vérités sur un conflit, Fayard,
Paris, 2001.
Translated by Ed Emery
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 1997-2001 Le Monde diplomatique
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