CURRENT AFFAIRS
Events of September 11th and Afghan War
Most people were horrified by the dreadful terrorist attacks on the USA on September 11th 2001. We will never forget the television pictures of the poor trapped people waving and hanging from windows on the upper stories of the towers of the World Trade Center just before they collapsed, nor will we forget the brave fire-figthers and rescuers who lost their lives trying to save others. Similarly we will not forget the awful scenes we can only imagine in the airliners after they were hi-jacked and before they crashed, nor those who died in and around the Pentagon.
The USA is in many ways a great country, and New York City has always been my favorite place on Earth. It is so cosmopolitan, a melting pot of so many nationalities, religions and cultures. It is in New York more than anywhere else where you get the true spirit of America – a land where people from all over the globe keep their traditions and cultures, but are all proud to call themselves Americans. There are Italian Americans, Greek Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans – to be an American living in the USA is similar to being a world citizen, and if ever a world government and federation is established its citizens will need to enjoy the rights and privileges Americans today take for granted. The American consitution is perhaps the blueprint for the rights of citizens in all countries.
The response to the September 11th attacks was at first cautious and measured – the US did not go and bomb Kabul the very next night. At least the ordinary people got the chance to escape the cities before the bombing started. But not only is this bombing killing innocent people, it is preventing aid reaching the millions of refugees who will die of exposure and starvation as Winter sets in unless the bombing stops immediately.
What is needed post-September 11th is a new world order, not more terrorism in the form of bombing Afghanistan. All this does is create more misery, injustice, resentment and of course more terrorists in the future. Terrorists are not born that way. People don’t commit suicidal terrorist attacks because they are bored. Terrorists are made by events and conditions – wherever there is injustice and oppression there will be self-styled ‘freedom fighters’, and some of these will adopt extreme measures which we classify as terrorism.
The immediate response to September 11th should have been an approach to the United Nations General Assembly and an international police operation to apprehend those responsible and bring them before an International Criminal Court, which has yet to be set up in The Hague. Interpol should have been involved, and covert operations conducted inside many countries thruout the world to gain intelligence and track down those responsible for the terrorist attacks on September 11th.
What is needed in the long-term is a permanent world security force under the auspices of the United Nations. This security force needs to be versatile and able to conduct both overt and covert operations, utilizing links with the various national security services.
The developed countries of the world also need to look at the policies of globalization and unrestrained capitalism that has existed since the fall of the Soviet bloc. At one time, developing countries which did not wish to go down the capitalist road could get aid from the Soviet Union and the Socialist countries. Now they have to go with a begging bowl to the World Bank and IMF, privatize all their industry and saddle themselves with national debts they can never repay. The developed world is exploiting the resources of the Third World shamelessly thru globalization, and this has to stop.
We can’t go on enjoying a high standard of living in the developed countries at the expense of people in the underdeveloped world. People can’t continue wearing expensive designer clothes made in sweatshops in Asia, they can’t continue to get huge profits on investments made out of exploiting people in the Third World, and Americans in particular can’t drive around polluting the environment and enjoying the luxury of some of the cheapest fuel in the world, which increases the global warming which is already causing floods and droughts in Asia, Africa and South America.
The United Nations should be strengthened, and there should be binding treaties under its auspices to prevent exploitation of the human and other resources of the underdeveloped world. Unrestrained global capitalism, which seeks to maximize profits by charging high prices for goods and services produced with cheap labor in the Third World, cannot be allowed to continue without proper checks and restraints which insure everyone in the world gets a decent income and standard of living.
In the Middle East, the Palestinian problem must be settled once and for all. The USA has for too long supported Israel and turned a blind eye to policies which, when conducted by Iraq resulted in sanctions and bombing. An independent Palestinian state must be established as soon as possible, and nuclear weapons must be removed from the Middle East immediately.
Furthermore, nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction must be destroyed and banned worldwide. The USA, Russia, China, UK and France must take the lead in this, and other nations like India, South Africa, Israel and Pakistan must likewise be obliged to give up their nuclear capability.
Nuclear weapons and similar weapons which threaten whole populations are illegal, and the leaders of countries which possess them are terrorists. There is no other word for it – the leaders of the nuclear powers threaten millions of innocent people with nuclear annihilation, what is that if not terrorism on a scale unimaginable, which would make the attacks on the World Trade Center pale into insignificance?
Nuclear weapons have not kept the peace, and they can’t win wars because they are unusable. Just think about it – non-nuclear Vietnam and Afghanistan(!) won wars against nuclear armed USA and USSR, non-nuclear Argentina dared to re-claim The Malvinas (Falklands) from nuclear armed UK. Nuclear weapons are military useless and politically and morally unacceptable, they are dangerous status symbols and must be abolished along with all other indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction.
As long as the nuclear countries can threaten whole populations with their nuclear terrorism it is hypocritical for these self-same governments to criticize the IRA, ETA, Bin Laden and other terrorists who adopt the very same methods on a smaller scale to further their aims. If it is OK for governments to threaten civilian populations in order to further their political objectives (preservation of their freedoms and way of life) can we really be surprised when self-styled ‘freedom fighters’ adopt similar methods and target civilians when furthering their own political ambitions? Terrorism breeds terrorism, and the bombing of Afghanistan going on at the moment is breeding more terrorists every day it goes on.
It is time to call a halt to this world-wide anarchy and insanity. World institutions and treaties must be established under the auspices of the UN General Assembly to abolish nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, to establish an International Criminal Court and a UN world security force, to make illegal exploitation of the resources of the underdeveloped world. Both Israel and Palestine must be recognized as independent states, and the status of Jerusalem must be settled once and for all in a compromise which will satisfy all parties. Respect must be shown for all relgions and for human rights, these two conditions go hand-in-hand. Mineral and human resources of the undeveloped world must not be exploited by international corporations trampling over cultural and religious sensiblities and paying starvation wages to local workers.
September 11th was a tragedy waiting to happen. It is time we took stock and decided what kind of world we want in the 21st century: do we want an increasingly bitter battle between the have and the have nots, between the rich Northern hemisphere and the poor, exploited Southern hemisphere? Because that is what it really boils down to – not a battle between religions.
What is called for in the current situation is an international policing and intelligence operation to catch those responsible for the events of September 11th and bring them to justice before an International Criminal Court, and a bit of humility and reflection on the part of the West, as it is still euphamistically known, leading to a strengthening of the United Nations and human rights everywhere.
(Comments/discussion contributions can be sent to: Tony.Papard@btinternet.com)