Written for The British Blacklist 11th September 2013: http://www.thebritishblacklist.com/shakara-speaks-911-twelve-years-war-rumours-war/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=shakara-speaks-911-twelve-years-war-rumours-war
I was at college when I heard about the bombing of the Twin Towers. Having left a lesson a friend of mine approached me, evidently shocked, repeating, “Someone bombed the TwinTowers”. It took me a while to realise what he was talking about and it was not until I got home, turned on the news and saw the plane flying into the building that the seriousness of the moment occurred to me.
12 years later, few would doubt that this event has shaped the world more than any other in recent history. Western nations have since been in perpetual war mode, with seemingly no end in sight. Whereas previously, nations went to war with nations, 9/11 opened the door for nations to go to war with a new abstract enemy, ‘Terrorism’.
‘The War on Terror’ was declared by President George W. Bush on the 20th September 2011. Just nine days after the Twin Tower bombings he stated:
”Our ‘war on terror’ begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.”
Intention thus made clear, European nations led by the USA and UK exercised the power of definition and designation over whom and what was a terrorist. This began with the invasion of Afghanistan in pursuit of Osama Bin Laden. The Bush government presented the Taliban (Afghan Government) with a “Hand over Bin-Laden or else” ultimatum. When the Taliban requested evidence of Bin Laden’s involvement, the US government refused and began bombing Afghanistan in October 2011.
Two years later, the War on Terror took a curious turn with the infamous invasion of Iraq. The sovereign nation was invaded under the pretext that Saddam Hussein had been developing Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMD’s). A document which has now become known as ‘The Dodgy Dossier’ was to be Britain’s primary justification for this invasion. This document was effectively thrown together from a number of unattributed sources, including the thesis of a post grad University student. Whole sections of said thesis were simply plagiarized and passed off to the British media and parliament as credible intelligence.
The chicanery was revealed by David Kelly, the UN weapons inspector who had stated that there were no WMDs in Iraq. He became the centre of a media storm after suggesting that the government intelligence had been “sexed up” in order to justify war. Kelly was to be found dead 2 days after being publicly questioned about his role in Iraq by the Hutton Inquiry. Though the official account attributes the death to suicide, there are many, such as author Norman Baker in his book “The Strange Death of David Kelly”, who question the validity of this account.
Though the WMD’s claim has been proven to be false, no one has been held accountable for perpetrating a war on false pretence. Instead the fact that the tyrant Saddam Hussein is no longer in power has become the new justification and a red herin leaving British Intelligence unaccountable.
In 2008, Barack Obama’s rise to power was popularly lauded as the beginning of a new dawn for US foreign policy. He won the Nobel Peace Prize less than a year into his first term for his pronouncements on Nuclear nonproliferation and “tolerance” across different faiths and nations. Despite the sweet sounding overtures however, Obama’s foreign policies are not significantly dissimilar from Bush. Though he opposed the War in Iraq, his promise to withdraw US troops was actually a reallocation of troops to Afghanistan to complete what Bush had neglected.
Obama has the luxury of presenting the face of reason and diplomacy even as he sends unmanned drones to bomb nations around the world. Whereas Bush spoke of the “axis of evil”, Obama spoke of “Humanitarian intervention”. His attacks against Al-Qaeda are considered successful in most quarters, the killing of Osama Bin-Laden being a main feather in his cap. Consequently, the USA are in more wars today than they were a decade ago, without half the uproar surrounding the Bush-Blair administrations.
Pakistan, Yemen, and various nations in North & East Afrika (Libya, Somalia), have been scenes of this continued war. While numbers vary, the most conservative estimates of civilian casualties in Iraq number 112, 667 people. US Military advisers report that the drone strikes increase civilian casualties by 10 times that of manned air craft bombings. In spite of this, the CIA continue to request an increase in drone activity.
While President Obama does not use the term War on Terror, the US government continues to speak of terrorists. In May this year, Assata Shakur, icon of the Black Power Movement was placed of the FBI’s Top 10 most wanted Terrorist List. In announcing her addition, agent Aaron Ford stated:
“She continues to maintain and promote her terrorist ideology. She provides anti-US government speeches, espousing the Black Liberation Army message of revolution and terrorism”.
This statement not only condemns Assata Shakur, but any Black Liberation ideology as synonymous with terrorism.
While most of the activities of these wars have been of the shores of the nations that have perpetrated them, reality was brought home to the British public in June, with the ‘Woolwich Murders’. Interestingly an attack against a British Soldier who served in the War on Terror was defined as an “act of Terror”. The face of Terrorism in the UK is now a meat clever wielding young Afikan man with bloodied hands.
Today, we are on the verge of yet another war, this time with Syria. President Bashar al-Assad stands accused of using chemical weapons against his own people. The USA having ignored Israeli attacks against Palestine earlier in the year, now feels compelled to intervene in Syria. There appears to be little proof for indicting Asaad. Russia suggests that it has proof that the weapons were used by rebel forces in Syria. These reports are accompanied by whispers of the hidden hand of US intelligence in supplying these weapons to the rebels.
Amidst the confusion, the truth will be hard to locate. What is clear however is that the War or Terror remains in full swing. The Arab Spring and the bombing of Libya in 2011, signal the focus of these coalition forces on Afrika. Nigeria, Somalia and Zimbabwe have been the subjects of interest for tyrannical governments and terrorists activities. More broadly, America is in the process of installing Afri-com, which will see the USA establish permanent military bases all over the Afrikan continent.
With today being the 12 year anniversary of 911, and still no sign of peace, coalition forces on the continent offer grim prospects for wider Afrika. This reality presents a real conflict of interest for Afrikan-Caribbean’s residing in the UK.
article for the british blacklist by @ShakaRaBKS