WAR AGAINST TERROR OR WAR TO GOVERN THE WORLD?

[Col. Writ. 2/6/02] Copyright 2002 Mumia Abu-Jamal



It is helpful sometimes, in times of great and confusing events,

to consider simple things, which can shed light on things that

are far more complex.



The events of 9/11, and in turn the resultant aerial bombardment

of Afghanistan by American military, is now the opening act of

what promises to be a global military campaign that threatens to

be waged in Iraq, perhaps Iran, Somalia, and even the far

Phillipines.



We are told that this war will be waged for years, perhaps for

decades, in far-flung areas of the earth. It is, in Bush

Administration terms, a 'war against terrorism,' a 'war against

evil,' and a 'clash of civilizations'. (Of course, the royal "we"

are the perfect good; "they" are the eternal evil).



One wonders, when is a 'terrorist,' not a terrorist?



The late Pakistani scholar, Eqbal Ahmad, points to how

history and circumstance can change characterizations:



Until the 1930s and 1940s, the Jewish underground

in Palestine was described as "terrorist." Then

something happened: around 1942, as news of the

Holocaust was spreading, a certain liberal sympathy

with the Jewish people began to emerge in the

Western world. By 1944, the terrorists of Palestine,

who were Zionists, suddenly began being described

as "freedom fighters." If you look in history books

you can find at least two Israeli prime ministers,

including Menachem Begin, appearing in "Wanted"

posters saying, TERRORISTS, REWARD [this

much]. The highest reward I have seen offered

was 100,000 British pounds for the head of Menachem

Begin, the terrorist (Yitzhak Shamir is the other).

[Eqbal Ahmad, Terrorism: Theirs & Ours, Seven

Stories, 2001), p. 11]



The terrorism of yesterday has become the nationalism of

today.



The interests and objectives of the US, and its Western

partners, have less to do with terrorism, than with making the

world quiescent and calm in the face of a neo-colonialist,

corporate capitalism.



What is at stake is not democracy, for if this was so why does

the West support regimes, like the Saudis or the Emirates, that

don't even have a pretense of a democratic form of government?

What is at stake is western control over resources, like oil, or

natural gas.



What is at stake is hegemony, or the continued dominance

over the emerging world by the industrial, corporate West, under

the flag of globalism.



What is globalized is the use of force to suppress local,

national and regional movements seeking liberation or autonomy.

What is globalized is the media machinery of the wealthy elites

to justify an inequitable status quo. What is globalized is terror,

on a world scale, to protect the system.



Copyright '02 MAJ

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Text (c) copyright 2001 by Mumia Abu-Jamal. All rights

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Mumia Abu-Jamal is the author of three books: 'Live

from Death Row', 'Death Blossoms', and 'All Things

Censored'.

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