WEEK 11

WAR ON TERROR & TERROR OF WAR

(2001-’08)

Dr.Sreeram Sundar Chaulia

Vice Dean
Jindal School of International Affairs
O.P.Jindal Global University
Sonipat, India
Office: A-125
Email: schaulia@jgu.edu.in
Why ‘They’ Hate ‘Us’
o Huntington reincarnated on
September 11, 2001. His prediction of
a civilisational clash between ‘Islam’
and the ‘West’ seemed to have come
true

o Mainstream Western explanation

for the attacks- ‘they’ hate our liberal
freedoms and are trying to wall off
Muslims from democratic ideas (anti-
globalisation of Western values)

o Jihadi explanation- revenge for US

foreign policies in the Middle East,
i.e. promotion of dictatorships,
stealing oil wealth and unquestioning
support for Israel

o Socio-economic and political

frustrations are very high, especially
among young, educated and
powerless youth in the Arab world-
Arab Human Development Reports
oViolent Non-State Actors:
A Bogey?
o Is Al Qaeda a non-state actor or a state-
sponsored actor? Is it really a “new kind of
enemy” or another proxy warrior?

o States in Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan,

Saudi Arabia and Iran were incubators of jihad
for strategic reasons.

o Exporting Holy War became foreign policy in

the undemocratic Muslim world. Prime case is
Saudi Arabia, which bought peace at home
and let Al Qaeda go berserk outside.

o Why did American regimes during and after

the Cold War turn a blind eye to these
sponsors until it was too late? Was it an oil-for-
blind eye quid pro quo?

o 9/11 shattered the American sense of

invulnerability since 1812; The war came home
for the first time since the British invasion
nearly 190 years ago; Stage set for massive
retaliation
‘Long War’, Many Fronts
o Neoconservatives and their blueprint for global
domination and preservation of unipolarity through
permanent war using the US military; pre-existed
before the 9/11 attacks; as early as 1997 (PNAC);
Was 9/11 a godsend for the neo-cons, now in power?

o Unseating the Taliban in Afghanistan (October

2001)and deepening dictatorship in Pakistan as the
price of cooperation-Pervez Musharraf, Zia redux;
Received $12 billion in US aid after 9/11

o The fatal and illegal Iraqi diversion (unilateralism

reaches its peak); democracy promotion, the WMD
hoax and the Israel connection to neo-cons (focus on
Iran and Syria as “next” targets)

o Destruction of Iraq in the name of “freedoms” after

the fall of Saddam (March 2003)

o Privatising war and atrocities- the rise of PMFs-

Blackwater, Dyncorp et al- state no longer monopoly
wielder of violence? Marriage of neoliberalism and
neoconservatism

o Second Fronts in North Africa, Southeast Asia; New

disease of seeing al Qaeda everywhere obscured
local realities and conflicts around the world – a
throwback to the Cold War when every legitimate
movement or force was subsumed under “communist
Clash of Fundamentalisms,
not Civilisations?
o Racial and religious profiling,
securitisation of social spaces and the
assault on civil liberties at home in the
US- throwback to McCarthy era witch
hunts

o Rise of the surveillance state in the

USA and UK, followed by the entire
Western world

o “American fascists” (Chris Hedges)-

how the Christian right launched a war
on America itself

o The US military industrial complex

made trillions during GWOT in the form
of new orders for armaments,
reconstruction contracts and ancillary
services

o Why did the anti-war movement fail to

end the Bush-Cheney wars? Why was
Trans-Atlanticism in
Crisis
o Germany and France refused to
endorse the invasion of Iraq, but Italy,
Spain and eastern European members
of NATO enthusiastically joined the
coalition. Why? Multilateralism as a
cornerstone of the EU, spearheaded by
Germany and France; attempt to
position Europe as a separate pole from
the US in world affairs; fear of
disruption of Middle Eastern oil supplies
in the event of more wars in the region;
attempt to keep German and French
soldiers out of harm’s way

o Entire European public opposed

GWOT, even though some of the EU
members endorsed and aided it; Bush
was seen as the “greatest threat to
world peace” (Nelson Mandela’s
formulaton) in several opinion polls in
Europe (as well as the rest of the
world).