“War against terrorism” is the banner behind which US imperialism is trying to establish its domination over Asia

ThumbnailIn her speech at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 23, 2017, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that “Pakistan is recognised only as the pre-eminent export factory for terror”. The foreign Minister’s statement has been accompanied by heightened war mongering by the Indian state against Pakistan.

In her speech at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 23, 2017, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that “Pakistan is recognised only as the pre-eminent export factory for terror”. (Hindu, September 26, 2017)

The foreign Minister’s statement has been accompanied by heightened war mongering by the Indian state against Pakistan. The Chief of the Indian Air Force has declared that the Indian Air Force is capable and ready to attack any targets in Pakistan, including its nuclear installations.

The Indian state has been carrying on an incessant propaganda campaign painting Pakistan as the organizer of various terrorist attacks that have taken place in India. It deliberately slanders the struggle of the Kashmiri people for their right to self-determination, as “cross border terrorism” inspired by Pakistan.

The foreign minister’s vicious attack on Pakistan comes at a time when US imperialism is ratcheting up pressure on Pakistan as part of its strategy for Afghanistan and Asia. US President Trump has declared he will not withdraw his armed forces from Afghanistan until military “victory” is achieved. He has accused Pakistan of not “doing enough” to “fight terrorists” in Afghanistan. The Indian state is extremely happy that Pakistan is being targeted by the US. The propaganda machinery of the Indian state is telling the people of our country — “See, even the Americans are now blaming Pakistan for terrorism!”

The US led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in November 2001 was carried out using air and naval bases in Pakistan. Under the jackboots of the US led occupation forces, a civilian government has been set up in Afghanistan. However, the writ of this government does not go very far. Over half of the country is under the control of the Taliban, and it is reported that the ISIS is now controlling a few provinces.

The contradiction between the US and the Pakistani people has been sharpening over these years. The US has launched many Drone attacks on Pakistan, in which thousands of innocent people have been killed. There have been widespread protests in Pakistan against this flagrant violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty. On the other hand, the government of Pakistan has pointed out that many terrorist attacks that have taken place in Pakistan have been launched from across the border in Afghanistan.

The government of Pakistan has refused to send its armed forces into Afghanistan. It has now publicly declared that there is no military solution to the Afghanistan problem. Pakistan has called for a negotiated settlement between the different political forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban and the Afghan government. It is coordinating with Russia, China and Iran towards this goal. This approach of Pakistan is coming into conflict with the US strategy for Afghanistan and Asia.

The US wants to continue to use Afghanistan as a base for training and launching terrorist groups to target all the neighboring countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Russia, China and the Central Asian Republics. It wants to destroy existing states through sectarian warfare, and set the countries of Asia against each other in order to establish its domination over the entire continent.

The spokespersons of the Pakistan government have exposed the duplicity of the US on the question of terrorism. The Foreign Minister of Pakistan has confirmed the close collaboration of US and Pakistan in setting up various jihadi groups in Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

CIA’s covert operations in Pakistan

America’s covert war in Afghanistan, using Pakistan as a launch pad, was initiated during the Carter administration prior to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.

“According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.

And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.”1

In the published memoirs of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who held the position of deputy CIA Director at the height of the Soviet Afghan war, US intelligence was directly involved from the outset, prior to the Soviet invasion, in channeling aid to the Islamic groups.

Reagan meeting mujahiddins in White House in 1885

Reagan meeting Mujahiddins in White House in 1985

 

CIA covert support to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan operated through the Pakistani ISI. The ISI played a central role in channeling support to Islamic paramilitary groups in Afghanistan and subsequently in the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union.

Acting on behalf of the CIA, the ISI was also involved in the recruitment and training of the Mujahideen. In the ten year period from 1982 to 1992, some 35,000 Muslims from 43 Islamic countries were recruited to fight in the Afghan jihad.

Guerilla training under CIA-ISI auspices included targeted assassinations and car bomb attacks.

The U.S. supplied support package had three essential components-organization and logistics, military technology, and ideological support for sustaining and encouraging the Afghan resistance…

… the most important contribution of the U.S. was to… bring in men and material from around the Arab world and beyond.

Advertisements, paid for from CIA funds, were placed in newspapers and newsletters around the world offering inducements and motivations to join the Jihad.2

The US also supported and financed through USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) the process of religious indoctrination.

… the United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur resistance to the Soviet occupation.

The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system’s core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books,

… the textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under an AID grant to the University of Nebraska -Omaha and its Center for Afghanistan Studies. The agency spent $ 51 million on the university’s education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994.”3

  1. Former National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, 15-21 January 1998
  2. Pervez Hoodbhoy, Afghanistan and the Genesis of the Global Jihad, Peace Research, 1 May 2005
  3. Washington Post, 23 March 2002

It is well known that the US CIA openly set up, trained, financed and armed various jihadi groups with Pakistan as a base in the 1980’s to attack the Soviet occupation troops. They were recruited from many countries. Then US President Ronald Reagan welcomed them with open arms in the White House. The just struggle of Afghan people against the Soviet occupation forces was hijacked by the US to advance its own aims. (See box on CIA’s covert operations in Pakistan)

Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, many of these groups were retrained and redeployed by the CIA, to carry out other missions. These included missions to unleash terrorist attacks in Azerbaijan, Chechnya and Dagestan. The CIA also brought armed groups into Yugoslavia to unleash fratricidal civil war in Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosova.

The US CIA set up the ISIS in collaboration with Saudi Arabia and other allies, to organize sectarian violence in West Asia and the entire Muslim world along Sunni- Shia lines, to destroy existing states, and redraw the map of West Asia. The CIA used it to spread mayhem in Syria and other countries. Today ISIS is reported to have established control over some provinces of Afghanistan. How is this possible, without the support of the US occupation forces in Afghanistan?

The reality is that it is the US which is the biggest terrorist state and the chief sponsor of terrorism on the world scale. Under the banner of “war against terrorism” the US is pursuing its strategy to establish its complete domination over Asia and the whole world.

From the podium of the UN General assembly, US President Donald Trump threatened to wipe out North Korea. Trump used the same podium to slander Iran as the principal sponsor of terrorism in West Asia, and to justify organizing for regime change in that country.

US imperialism has repeatedly used its military might to invade other countries and destroy them. Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen — the list of countries that have been destroyed by US imperialism is mounting. North Korea and Iran are on the immediate radar of US imperialism. Others will follow, unless US imperialism is stopped in its tracks by the united might of the world’s peoples, including the American people. More and more states are recognizing the danger to their very existence and to peace stemming from the US strategy.

The stand of the Indian state is driven by blind animosity towards Pakistan. It wants to exploit the contradiction between the US and Pakistan to advance its own narrow interests. It wants to ride on the US bandwagon and attack Pakistan. It is unwilling to expose and oppose the terrorist acts committed by the US against other countries and peoples. Its foreign policy is governed by the selfish interest of the Indian ruling class to become a world class power by aligning closely with US strategy in Asia. To advance their aims in Asia, the US imperialists are trying to forge a military alliance under their leadership to contain China. They want India to be a part of this alliance. The Indian state is enamored at the prospect of advancing its interests in alliance with the US. This is extremely dangerous for the Indian people and the peoples of all other countries and for peace.

The US imperialists have always played India and Pakistan against each other, fueling historic animosities and their ambitions against each other. They do not want the two neighbors to solve their problems peacefully. This is what they are doing at the present time as well.

The US imperialists, the biggest terrorists on the world scale, are declaring that they have the right to declare which country is a “rogue state”, and justify invasion and destruction of that country on that basis. They want to establish a world order on the basis of “might is right”, in which they will dominate the whole world. The “war against terrorism” is a justification for this. The US imperialists will continue to sponsor terrorist groups to achieve this aim.

The Indian people must clearly understand that terrorism is a tool of capitalist imperialist states to advance their imperialist interests. US imperialism is the principal sponsor of terrorism on the world scale today. “War against terrorism” is the banner under which US imperialism is striving to establish its domination over Asia and the whole world.

The Communist Ghadar Party of Indian condemns the constant anti Pakistan war mongering by the Indian state against Pakistan. The people must demand that the government break its strategic alliance with the US and call upon all countries in the region to do the same. They must demand that the government oppose all attacks by the US imperialists on the sovereignty of countries and peoples. This is the road to lasting peace in this region.

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