Terrorism is a tool of imperialism to justify state terrorism, wars of conquest and violation of national sovereignty
On 11th September, 2001, two airplanes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. Another plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. About 3000 people were killed in these terrorist attacks.
American President George Bush declared that it was a conspiracy hatched by an Islamic terrorist group called Al Qaeda, with the support of the Afghan government. This story was spread by the US propaganda machine, without any shred of evidence. It was used to justify an armed aggression leading to the occupation of Afghanistan by American and NATO troops.
The past 20 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11 have witnessed one unjust war after another, one blatantly terrorist act after another, organised and waged by US imperialism and its allies. The invasion of Afghanistan was followed by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, based on the lie concocted by the US rulers that the Government of Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
The US organised the capture and assassination of Iraq President Saddam Hussein, a terrorist act by any standard. The US invaded Libya and carried out the assassination of its leader, Muammar Gaddafi, another blatant terrorist act. For the past 10 years, Syria has been plunged into a civil war, with armed rebels being sponsored by the US and its allies, with the aim of toppling the regime headed by Bashar Assad. The US has launched hundreds of drone strikes against various countries including Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, and various countries of Africa killing thousands of innocent men, women and children.
The US state used the 9/11 terror attacks to whip up public opinion inside the US, in support of wars of conquest in numerous Muslim countries of Asia and Africa. It used these attacks to spread Islamophobia in the US and worldwide. It claimed to be spearheading a so-called “War against Islamic terrorism”. A systematic propaganda campaign has been carried out to denigrate the Arab and Muslim people as backward, anti-women, uncivilized fanatics and terrorists. US intelligence agencies periodically organized terrorist attacks and pinned the blame on “Islamists”, to lend credibility to their lying propaganda. Muslims throughout the world have been terrorized and persecuted.
The 9/11 terrorist attacks have been used by the US state to arm itself with unprecedented police powers in the name of “Homeland Security”. All political activists who question the “war against terrorism” have been the target of surveillance, arbitrary arrests and torture.
The US imperialists launched the “war against terrorism” with the aim of conquering Asia, as a prelude to conquering the world. The Arab and Muslim peoples were targeted because they have their own history and culture, economic and political systems, and refuse to accept European and American political prescriptions. Furthermore, West Asia, Central Asia and North Africa were home to enormous oil and gas reserves. The US aimed to bring this entire region under its domination.
The armed occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq served to encircle Iran from the east and from the west. It served to expand the American sphere of influence in the oil rich regions of Asia. It served to sabotage the efforts of Iraq led by Saddam Hussein to trade in Euro with the European Union and break the hegemony of the Dollar over international trade in crude oil and petroleum products. It served to sustain the American military-industrial complex and international war machine.
Tens of thousands of men, women and children have been killed as a consequence of the “war against terrorism”. A far greater number have been maimed and rendered homeless. Millions of people have been turned into refugees fleeing their homeland. Priceless assets and infrastructure of many countries have been looted or destroyed.
The most important lesson to be drawn from the experience of the past 20 years is that the “war against terrorism” led by US imperialism is an anti-social and anti-human offensive. It is a war against Muslims and against the rights of nations to self-determination. It is an attempt to replace the principles established at the end of the Second World War with a new framework, giving unlimited “right” to the USA and its allies to invade any country they please, under any concocted pretext.
There is no doubt that US imperialism has been the main beneficiary of the 9/11 terrorist strikes, which provided the pretext for launching the so-called war against Islamic terrorism. If all available facts are examined dispassionately, one is also led to the conclusion that the real conspirator, the mastermind, behind the 9/11 attack was none other than the US state.
Influential think tanks of the US state, such as the “Project for the New American Century” had put forward in 2000 that the US must breakout of multilateral frameworks such as the UN and unilaterally use its military might to establish its domination over various countries of the world. They pointed out that this process would be hastened by having a “new Pearl Harbour moment”. The bombing of Pearl Harbour by the Japanese in 1942 enabled the US state to mobilise American public opinion to join the Second World War. The US state organised the 9/11 terrorist attacks as part of its strategy to establish its domination over the whole world.
Several American engineers and other professionals have observed that the twin towers could not have completely collapsed the way they did as a result of planes crashing into upper floors. The way these buildings crumbled indicates that bombs must have been detonated at the foot of the steel columns.
Just 26 days after the terrorist strike, the US and Britain began their war of conquest in Afghanistan. Several American war veterans have pointed out that a large-scale war effort such as this one could not have been prepared and launched in just 26 days. Preparations for the war must have begun much earlier. This adds to the evidence which point the finger of suspicion on the US imperialists as the mastermind behind the 9/11 events.
It is now accepted by US intelligence agencies that they created, financed, and armed various terrorist groups like Al Qaeda with bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They armed and financed these groups as well as various warlords to fight against the Soviet occupation forces in the 1980s.
After the Soviet Union withdrew its armed forces from Afghanistan in 1988-89, the US started using the terrorist groups it had created to advance its geo-political interests in Europe and Asia. Armed terrorists, recruited and trained to fight in the name of defending Islam, were transported on CIA aircraft to Azerbaijan and Yugoslavia. They were smuggled into Chechnya and Dagestan, to sabotage Russian oil pipeline routes. There is evidence that the terrorist group called ISIS has been set up and financed by the CIA to carry out terrorist attacks in various countries, including Afghanistan and Syria.
US imperialism used the 9/11 events to create the spectre of “Islamic terrorism”, as a tool for destabilising its opponents, for trampling on democratic rights within the US and for launching wars of conquest abroad. Secretly organising terrorist attacks by one of the numerous armed groups they have sponsored, using that as justification to violate the national sovereignty of other countries, declaring various countries as “rogue states” or “terrorist states” and using this as a justification for regime change including assassination of its leader– all these have become part of the preferred method of operation of the US imperialists.
US imperialism is responsible for the present climate of violence and terror around the world. The aggressive American drive for global hegemony poses the greatest danger to democratic rights, human rights and world peace at this time. The broadest possible political unity needs to be built against US imperialism and its dangerous hegemonic drive.