To understand global terrorism and the current global obsession with terrorism, we have to go back to the history and study how the Americans have been playing a key role in helping terrorism flourish across the world. When during the Cold War Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan,the US - which had long been calling the shots from behind, came to the forefront, and launched a massive support and training campaign for the Afghan freedom fighters. Soon, the "mujahedeen" (holy warriors) were born and became well-known across the world.
We have not forgotten how the US encouraged the Mujahedeen in their fight against the Soviet forces. President Reagan on March 21, 1983 said: “To watch the courageous Afghan freedom fighters battle modern arsenals with simple hand-held weapons is an inspiration to those who love freedom.”
When the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, a pro-Soviet party, took control of Afghanistan, Mujahedeen resistance spread. As Mujahedeen groups broke apart into different factions, the CIA tended to favour the most extreme among the Mujahedeen commanders. The US intelligence agency ensured that the most fanatical anti-Soviet groups were also the best trained and armed for the guerrilla warfare. It’s history now how the Mujahedeen were financed, armed and trained by the US during the administrations of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Pakistan's secret service, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was used as a liaison group by the US, in attempt to keep the American action as secret as possible.
Saddam Husain was the creation by the US. President Ronald Reagan initiated a strategic opening to Iraq, signing a National Security Decision Directive and selecting Donald Rumsfeld as his emissary to Hussein, whom he visited in December 1983 and March 1984. United States actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing U.S. military intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq to make sure that Iraq had the military weaponry required. In 1982, Iraq was removed from a list of State Sponsors of Terrorism to ease the transfer of dual-use technology to that country. But by then [in 1980] Saddam had already been made an honorary citizen of Detroit.
But By this time the world changed and the international financial institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank through their Structural Adjustment Programs was able to do officially and openly what in previous decades had to be done through the CIA, the Marines, or hired armed force. The domination of American entrepreneurship and its industrialised allies had reached record levels without the unpleasantness of direct military intervention.
And Saddam’s Iraq, was the only Arab state to fundamentally resist such trends, the only Arab nation to combine a sizable educated population, large oil resources, and adequate water supplies, thereby making it possible for Baghdad to maintain a truly autonomous foreign and domestic strategy. Even twelve years of cruel sanctions could not depose the government or make the establishment more willing to collaborate with Washington’s tactical and financially viable agenda. As a result, the United States felt obliged to revert to cruder forms of intrusion in Iraq.
Osama bin Laden- who was once a prominent Mujahedeen leader in Afghanistan, too benefited a lot from the hospitality extended by the Americans in the beginning of his guerrilla life.
In fact in Obama, people of all faith saw not just the historic election of a Black man in America, but the hope, the possibility, that he would be different from his presidential predecessors. We all believed, as Nelson Mandela had done in post-apartheid South Africa, Obama would use diplomacy instead of bombs, to bring peace. But he has used violence and has ended up creating much bigger chaos. The popular perception today is that even he is arrogant- very much like his predecessors and his country is a self-appointed global police, even if it is sometimes under the cover of NATO or this or that coalition.
If we just examine the Egyptian revolt as it snowballed from the beginning , it becomes clear why people feel the way they do. US government financed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak for three long decades, turned heads on his abuses of power and the people, then initially announced US help for him until it became clear that the Egyptians weren’t having it. In other words, America just cannot continue to claim they believe in democracy in America, while simultaneously condoning and aiding the opposite in other countries.
I believe it is for that reason Mr. Obama was given, extremely prematurely, a Nobel Peace Prize just a mere 9 months into his presidency. The feeling, perhaps very naively, was that he would transform America, and the world. But he disappointed us all.
In spite of Bin Laden’s murder, violence, war, and terrorism are not over, not by a long stretch. None of that will end until the US help make those things end. Their current mindset and foreign policy approach will only lead to more death of young soldiers from the US and other countries, more attacks on Americans at home and abroad. And the entire world, including us, will be perpetually distrustful, forever looking over our shoulders and living a life in fear, that fear framed by metal detectors, security cameras, and sharp glances at people who appear to be different in anyway.
Americans thinks that other nations, or terrorists, or this or that enemy, are simply picking on them because of their “freedoms.” But There are enough articles, blogs, books, and documentary films out there, if one actually cares to research American history and American foreign policy, to let one know they’ve been, on numerous occasions, as violent toward others as others have been toward them.
America should know that it can never change the world, until it changes its own way...
http://muslimmirror.com/view-points/2677-to-america-change-yourself-first-before-you-try-to-change-the-world
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