Instead of fighting terror, the 'War on Terror' has only fuelled it. It is a smokescreen for the US to maintain world domination, to keep China small and a good excuse for the military industrial complex to keep making money.
A taste of your own medicine
The War on Terror started twenty years ago after the attacks of 11 September. The Pentagon went to war against Al Qaeda and their patrons, the Taliban. Strange really, because Al Qaeda was of their own making. None other than Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State, admitted that they were fighting terrorists that they themselves had created and financed.
Afghanistan proved to be just a foretaste. The West's foreign interventions in Iraq and Syria gave birth to terrorist groups like IS and Jabhaat al-Nusra. The war against Libya led to chaos in the entire region and gave wings to numerous jihadi groups. They plundered Libya's arsenals and launched their holy wars in numerous neighbouring countries. Today, fundamentalist terrorist groups are active in 10 African countries.
In 2009, President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. A few years later, he was bombing seven countries simultaneously. So much warfare inevitably would boomerang back to the sender. From 2015, Western countries were hit by a wave of terror attacks. Or, as jihadists put it, "The West slaughters a sheep, but it doesn't want to get blood on its clothes".
And who does that benefit?
The ignominious defeat in Afghanistan may not be the end of the War on Terror. Instead of fighting terror, this 'endless war' has only fuelled it. The pyromaniacs are playing fire-fighters. Today, the Pentagon conducts anti-terror activities in 85 countries. This keeps the war industry running at full speed and the barons of the military industry reaping mega profits.
The cost in terms of resources and human lives is incredibly high. As a result of the war violence after 9/11, more than 800,000 people have been killed. Almost half of them are civilians. The number of war refugees and displaced persons as a result of the War on Terror is as high as 37 million.
Meanwhile, the price tag of the US wars after 9/11 has already reached the fabulous figure of USD 6 400 billion. That is $320 billion a year or eight times more than the UN estimates are needed for all the world's humanitarian aid.
Oil and other minerals
There were two main reasons why the US invaded Afghanistan. The first reason was oil, and more specifically the future construction of a major pipeline from the Caspian Sea through the country. Both the first Afghan president and the new US ambassador to Afghanistan after 2001 had previously worked for Unocal, a major US petroleum company that had plans for a pipeline through Afghanistan. The first foreign contract the new Afghan president signed was for the construction of a pipeline from Turkmenistan to a port in Pakistan, through Afghanistan ...
In 2010, the US military and geologists discovered that the Afghan underground contains precious minerals worth 1,000 billion dollars. These include iron, copper and gold. But even more important are the rare earths. One of the world's largest reserves of lithium may be found here. Lithium is an essential but scarce component of rechargeable batteries and other technologies that are vital in tackling the climate crisis. We now know that lithium reserves in Bolivia were one of the main reasons for the coup against Evo Morales in 2019.
Pivot to China
A second important reason is the rise of China. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the US set itself up as the undisputed leader of world politics. "Our first objective," said the Pentagon in 1992, "is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival. We must discourage potential competitors from even aspiring to a greater role on the regional or global stage."
Afghanistan is also affected. The country lies close to the New Silk Road and borders the western province of Xinjiang where the Uighurs live.
In a candid speech in 2018, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell revealed the true reasons for their presence in Afghanistan:
No Cold War
All this makes it clear that the war on terror is nothing more than a pretext. It is a smokescreen for the US to maintain its world domination and a good excuse for the military industrial complex to keep making money.
The War on Terror is a complete fiasco and an abomination. Unfortunately, Washington does not know when to stop, on the contrary. Today, it even threatens to add a new important front: a new Cold War against China.
This new Cold War could have even more dire consequences than the War on Terror. A statement from the No Cold War initiative puts it very sharply:
We note the increasingly aggressive statements and actions being taken by the US government in regard to China. These constitute a threat to world peace and are an obstacle to humanity successfully dealing with extremely serious common issues which confront it such as climate change, control of pandemics, racist discrimination and economic development.
The peace movement has a lot of work to do...