"All warfare is based on deception" - Sun Tzu, the Art of War
As a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the US and its NATO allies are now mobilizing their military forces under the pretext of a War Against Terrorism. The US Defense Department has stated it is preparing for a "sustained military campaign," while President Bush has warned the US public to prepare for a "long and brutal war." Chretien has likewise told Canada to expect deaths.
And yet, the great numbers killed will most certainly be those in countries subjected to massive aerial bombardments by US & NATO forces, in a sick replay to the beginning of the 1990-91 Gulf War. US retaliation, we have been told, will be decisive and not limited to the specific organization responsible, but will include those countries which have harboured or in some way assisted the group. US President Bush stated "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who commit these actions and those who harbour them."
Today, Afghanistan is the primary target where, according to the US, Osama bin Laden recieves protection from the Taliban government. Nevertheless, bin Laden has denied any responsibility for the attack.
No one knows who carried out the attack, nor has any group claimed responsibility. The War Against Terrorism, therefore, seeks to strike out and destroy all resistance & oppositional forces. Along with Afghanistan, it has been suggested that this could include Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Iran, the Philippines, and North Korea.
To this can be added Colombia, where the FARC guerrillas control half the country with a rebel army of nearly 20,000 combatants. Bordering the US is Mexico, with an insurgent movement in its southern state of Chiapas (the Zapatistas). Throughout Central America, the War on Drugs has been the primary mode of US intervention. With a new War Against Terrorism, the floodgates have now been opened. US forces could be potentially sent on multiple counter-insurgency wars around the globe. In addition, there is a great potential for regional war and even a global war of mass destruction, the extent of which the world has never seen.
There is also a domestic front to this war. The internal War Against Terrorism will serve as a pretext for the imposition of a national security-police state (just as the US & NATO are now in effect imposing upon the world). On September 14, a National State of Emergency was declared in the US, an implicit state of martial law.
Already, new anti-terrorist measures are being put in place, ranging from armed SWAT teams patrolling airports to new laws permitting widespread wiretapping & surveillance, greater restrictions on immigration, and increased funding for security forces. As a result of the psychological warfare being conducted by the authorities, great numbers of the population are said to support these new repressive measures. Not since WW 2 has such popular support for war been seen, and not since Nazi Germany has a population accepted (and even embraced) such levels of repression and control, as is now being seen in the US.
Pearl Harbor & War Mobilization
Today the public is once again being prepared for war; the terror and scale of the Sept. 11 attacks is serving to unify the population behind the political and military authorities.
References to Pearl Harbour and a new "Day of Infamy" further
reinforce this mobilization, and has been used by numerous
commentators, analysts, and government officials:
Economic Fallout
The destruction of the World Trade Centre was a direct hit on the US financial system, and therefore the global economic system as a whole. The WTC was both a centre and a symbol of corporate power around the world (that's why it was called the World Trade Centre).
Economists have stated that the attacks, especially the destruction of the New York financial district, will have a negative effect on stock markets around the world, which may serve to drive the US economy into a full "recession":
"The risk of a global recession is high. Much of the world has been looking to the US to lead an economic rebound. Tuesday's assaults on the World Trade Centre buildings and the Pentagon brought US business & industry to a halt. The blow to the world's economic powerhouse came at a time the US and the rest of the world could ill afford" (CNN.com/Business, September 12, 2001).
"The WTC tragedy cancelled all forecasts about the American economy. And whatever happens next in the US, in turn, will inevitably affect the global economic outlook.
"Until yesterday, the economy's future, whether it would revive or dip into recession, rested on whether layoffs would inhibit consumer spending, whether business investment would revive, whether home construction and home prices would stay up. Now, what happens next to the American economy depends on how the public reacts to yesterday's terrorism, economists said.
"The big issue, beyond the huge initial costs of repairing damage caused by the attacks, centers on whether American consumers might stop spending until they know who is responsible for the assaults and whether they might happen again" (NY Times, September 12, 2001).
To counter the negative effects the attacks may have on consumers & investors, authorities must restore public confidence in the system as a whole. This is the basis of the urgency the US places on retaliation and appearing to destroy the source of this uncertainty. As well, it is vital that the perception of "business as usual" be maintained. As an example, Pentagon workers returned to work on Sept. 12, even while sections of the building were still on fire!
Senior economists are well aware of the great benefits arising from the potential for mass conflict. James Glassman, chief domestic economist for JP Morgan Chase, was optimistic:
"This is going to make America, and the civilized world, be defiant. People are going to see this as a threat to the civilized world, and good things are going to come out of it. That was certainly the reaction to Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, a Sunday. Stock prices fell steeply at first but recovered as the nation mobilized [for war]" (NY Times, Sept. 12/01).
Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, stated: "[Consumers] could decide the economy is already weak and they should hunker down. Or they could rally round the flag, come together, and come out of this stronger and more united" (NY Times, Sept. 12/01, emphasis added).
The US Congress' approval of a $40 billion "recovery & retaliation package" will stimulate the economy (while cutting into social security funds). Stocks in military technology and defense industries are expected to soar. The Federal Reserve has announced it is "increasing liquidity," that is, it is pumping money into the economy to ensure that cash is available to consumers so that they will continue buying.
Ultimately, war itself is a form of economic growth, expansion, and restructuring. As a result of both World Wars 1 & 2, in fact, the US emerged stronger and expanded its global rule even further in the aftermaths of both conflicts.
Good Against Evil: A New Crusade
Today's war is being presented as one between "civilization" - meaning the Western Industrial nations (the G-8 and NATO) - and the "barbaric" and backwards Islamic nations.
Deeply rooted cultural & religious concepts attached to this history are being used to spread panic and as a means of ideological mobilization and control over the population of the G-8 (and especially the US). In a sense, the US is mobilizing the Western christian nations for a new crusade, a "Holy War" against the Islamic nations.
In his address to the nation on the evening of Sept. 11, President Bush ended by quoting Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil." Shortly after the attacks, he stated: "This will be a monumental struggle between good and evil, but good will prevail." He has himself compared it to a crusade!
Ariel Sharon, PM of Israel, stated: "terrorism is an international struggle of the free world against the forces of darkness."
With the concept of a moral struggle between good and evil, firmly based in religious as well as political ideology (i.e., a struggle between freedom and democracy and its opposites of tyranny and totalitarianism, represented once again by the Islamic nations and to a lesser extent Communist China and North Korea), the framework for a popular war is being constructed.
The success of this ideology perpetrated by the G-8 rulers reveals a profound ignorance of history among the population, which leads to a vulnerability to even the crudest forms of propaganda.
When Terrorists Go To War Against Terrorism
That the US is leading the War Against Terrorism is the greatest hypocrisy; that multitudes have embraced Amerika as the world's most innocent victim reveals a profoundly ignorant & racist world view. For over 100 years, the US has invaded foreign lands and waged wars of genocide to retain control of the world's markets and resources. Through its foreign policies and economic control, the US has funded & supported terror & corrupt fascist-military regimes around the world, in Central/South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
The creation of the US itself was an act of genocide against the Indigenous peoples, who today remain the most impoverished of all the oppressed peoples now living within its borders. Among these populations are some 40 million Afrikan peoples, descendants of slavery, the historical basis of the US economic empire. Along with millions of Latinos, these black & brown peoples comprise a vast underclass in Amerika who are a majority of the 2 million people now in US prisons.
The list of US atrocities and invasions is without end, from the Vietnam War to the invasion of Panama in 1989, to the virtual destruction of Iraq in 1991 (the First Gulf War). So far, the US has been the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons against another nation, not once but twice (Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
Many so-called terrorist states, including Iraq & Afghanistan, were supported by the US prior to war. Even Osama bin Laden was a former recipient of US funding as a CIA asset during the anti-Soviet resistance in Afghanistan. When the ruling Taliban government took control, it also received US aid in exchange for shutting down the training camps of the Islamic resistance movement (which the US feared would turn against the interests of the West in a "boomerang" effect).
This tells us something about the nature of the war we are now entering. Far from being a "war against terrorism," this will be a War of Terror. It has already begun with the first wave of psychological war-terrorism we have been subjected to since 9-11, and its first victims appear to be the peoples of the Middle-East. And then... ?
We have the Power
While we are told that all of society supports the War Against Terrorism, we know this is not true. Right now, the full scale of what's going down has yet to sink in. In Canada, there is a great potential to mobilize large sectors against this war based on its inhumanity, its arbitrary nature, and its role in extending US domination. The consequences of this war, including the new model of the National Security state, hardly bode well for social movements active on any number of fronts, from environmentalists, to workers, to Indigenous peoples, to those involved in anti-globalization resistance.
Our objective must be to stop this war. We must undermine the stated reasons for this war, and unravel the ideology upon which they are based. People need to see the negative social impacts this war will have on peoples and nations around the world. Social movements must stand firm in the face of the National Security state, and not allow themselves to be intimidated. The racist backlash against Arab nationals, Muslims, and people of colour must be stemmed. Provisions must be made to receive draft dodgers, just as occurred during the Vietnam War, when some estimate that as many as 50-100,000 US citizens relocated to Canada, thereby reducing the combat effectiveness of the US. Industrial production, especially trade unionists, must be targeted for actions that stop the war machine.
All the lessons of the anti-globalization movement must be utilized, including mass direct action against specific targets and layers of information & communication. As shown in the last few years, mobilizations are best undertaken by as broad and diverse a movement as possible. We must seek to involve all sectors in anti-war resistance.
Combined, we as a society have the power to stop all war mobilization. We are the workers that keep the system going, we are the citizens & consumers that maintain it through our daily participation & involvement.
From these understandings of our collective power, we can not only stop war, we can transform the social & economic order from which militarism and wars of mass destruction arise. For at the root of this War of Terror there lies an economic system known as capitalism, which follows the self-destructive logic of expand or die. Yet, despite its monolithic appearance, it is only an idea which we are forced to accept as blind reality. More than at any other time in history, now is the time to open our eyes.
This is a 9-1-1 Emergency: the ALARM's are going off and it's time to wake up!