HVK Archives: The United States strikes back
The United States strikes back - The Observer
Dina Nath Mishra
()
September 17, 1998
Title: The United States strikes back
Author: Dina Nath Mishra
Publication: The Observer
Date: September 17, 1998
Gradually, a degree of realisation about Islamic terrorism is
growing in the western mind, particularly the US administration,
specially after the blasts in US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
which killed more than 200 people. Not that the US was unaware
of the large scale killings in various parts of the world by
Islamic fundamentalist forces of numerous hues. During the Cold
War, US used fundamentalist Islamic forces against Soviet Union
in various regions, including Afghanistan. The US has also been
aware of the fact that more than 80 per cent of terrorism in the
world has roots in Islam. But to be aware and to realise are two
different things,
Blasts in US embassies made them more clear about the growing
vulnerability of countries like US to the terrorism of radical
Islamic groups. The retaliatory missile attack by the US on
terrorist training camps near Pak-Afghan border and a chemical
factory of Sudan is indicative of the changing mindset of the
West regarding the dangers posed by Islamic terrorists to
civilised nations. It also underlines the need of more effective
global anti-terrorist regime and a different order to deal with
the terrorism. Until recently, the West has been dealing with
terrorism with double standards. It has been selective about its
approach to the threat of terrorism. It may even continue to do
so in future also.
US has never appreciated the horrors created by Pak-aided
terrorism in J&K. In late '80s and early '90s, the government of
India had provided documentary evidence to the western countries
to prove the ISI hand in training and arming the mercenaries of
various nationalities and exporting them to India. GOI had also
given the exact locations of terrorist training camps of Pakistan
and Afghanistan where the ISI was engaged in the preparation of
Operation Garland-1 and 2 to annex J&K through low cost war of
terrorism. Pakistan had to change the locations of training camps
in response to the Indian campaign in the western world.
Till the Cold War years, US was engaged in fighting communism.
It required decades of effort to expose the hollowness of the so-
called scientific socialism. After the collapse and
disintegration of the Soviet Union, Islamic terrorism remains the
greatest threat to the world and humanity, including Muslims
themselves. It is more than evident in Afghanistan. The Taliban
regime resembles the medieval order.
One of the strategic thinkers of US, Samuel P Huntington, who is
considered to be quite near establishment, has explained the
threat of Islam in his book the Clash of Civilisations. While
dealing with this problem, he wrote "American leaders allege that
the Muslims involved in the quasi war are a small minority whose
use of violence is rejected by the great majority of moderate
Muslims. This may be true, but evidence to (sic) support it
(sic) is lacking. Protests against anti-Western violence have
been totally absent in Muslim countries. Muslim governments, even
the bunker governments friendly to and dependent on the West,
have been strikingly reticent when it comes to condemning
terrorist acts against the West. One the other side, European
governments and publics (sic) have largely supported and rarely
criticised actions the United States has taken against its Muslim
opponents, in striking contrast to the strenuous opposition they
often expressed to American actions against the Soviet Union and
communism during the Cold War. In civilisational conflicts,
unlike ideological ones, kin stand by their kin. The underlying
problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism.
It is Islam, a different civilisation whose people are convinced
of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the
inferiority of their power. The problem for Islam is not the CIA
or the US Department of Defence. It is the West, a different
civilisation whose people are convinced of the universality of
their culture and believe that their superior, if declining,
power imposes on them the obligation to extend that culture
throughout the world. These are the basic ingredients that fuel
conflict between Islam and the West".
In fact, Huntington theorised that the West is already in a quasi-
war with Islam. Earlier, Khomeini declared quite accurately that
"Iran is effectively at war with America," and Gaddafi regularly
proclaims holy war against the West. Muslim leaders of other
extremist groups and states have spoken in similar terms. On the
Western side, the United States has classified seven countries as
"terrorist states," five of which are Muslim (Iran, Iraq, Syria,
Libya, Sudan): Cuba and North Korea are the others. This, in
effect, identifies them as enemies, because they are attacking
the United States and its friends with the most effective weapon
at their disposal, and thus recognises the existence of a state
of war with them. US officials repeatedly refer to these states
as "outlaw", "backlash', and "rogue" states, thereby placing them
outside the civilised international order and making them
legitimate targets for multilateral or unilateral
countermeasures. The United States government charged the World
Trade Centre bombers with the intention of levying "a war of
urban terrorism against the United States" and argued that
conspirators charged with planning further bombings in Manhattan
were "soldiers" in a struggle "involving a war" against the
United States.
In the given background, after the US missile attack on
Afghanistan and Sudan, India, which is fighting a proxy war with
Pak-aided Islamic terrorists in J&K for more than a decade and
lost tens of thousands civilian and army people, rightly chose
the middle path in its reaction to US action against Islamic
terrorism. Vajpayee or MEA did not fully endorse the US stop and
avoided any criticism of US. He said that India has been
suffering from terrorism for long. The world should get rid Of
terrorism altogether. He declined to say that it was terrorism of
a state. He pleaded for international efforts against terrorism.
It may be recalled that when home minister L K Advani talked of
proactive step against terrorism in J&K, US state department
described it "foolish and irresponsible". When faced with much
less provocation in Kenya and Tanzania as compared to India, US
missile attack was more than proactive. If India adopts a similar
attitude towards the source of terrorism and training camps, US
may be as disturbed as it was at the time of Pokhran-II.
US action in Afghanistan has been beneficial to India in many
ways. Those killed in the training camps included a number of
Pakistan people. Therefore, it has confirmed the involvement of
Pakistan in exporting terrorism into India. The US target was
Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire who masterminded the blasts
in Kenya and Tanzania. It is a good symptom that the West is
waking up.
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