The total number of victims killed at the World Trade Center in 2001 is
calculated at standing at 2,750. And once again this year US politicians
prepare to exploit the events of 9/11 to boost their own personal careers. Rudy
Giuliani will be there – again – but now he is running for president.
Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton was also reported to be planning to attend
the ceremonies in New York. She is seeking the Democratic Party presidential
nomination.
The families of those that died wish rightly to commemorate the events of
2001. Those who died were innocent working people doing a day’s work in New
York. What the official commemorations will never do is tell the truth about
how September 11 was exploited.
Bin Laden it is claimed was behind the attack. That is why US and other
troops went into Afghanistan. But Bin Laden has not been caught. On the other
hand many Afghans have been killed under the bombs of US and allied forces.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the mountains on the border between Pakistan and
Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda is reported to have regrouped its forces, and is
apparently holding regular meetings to develop its attack plans using the
latest technology, cell phones and radio networks and also continues to produce
videotapes, as if to taunt the US government. And in spite of the US army
having at its disposal the most advanced technology it seems powerless to stop
any of this.
As they fear carrying out serious ground operations in some areas of the
country, they limit themselves to bombing campaigns. All they achieve with this
is the further alienation of the local population who are now actively
participating in the resistance. Sooner or later the foreign troops will be
pushed out of Afghanistan, with no advantage accruing to the imperialist
invaders. All they will have achieved is greater instability and even more dead
soldiers.
Iraq was invaded, also using the excuse of the September 11 attack on the
Twin Towers. But Iraq had nothing to do with it. Al-Qaeda and the Baathist
regime of Saddam Hussein were mutual enemies. Saddam Hussein was no saint, but
he was not responsible for September 11. In fact, he had been an ally of the US
in the war against Iran. As the excuse wore a little thin, they had to find
another excuse, the weapons of mass destruction, which also didn’t exist.
In spite of all this they decided to invade Iraq anyway. What they were
after mainly was oil. In the process more Americans have been killed than died
on that tragic September 11, 2001. The whole operation has been a con-trick on
a grand scale. But had they managed to get their hands on the oil and at the
same time "stabilise" the Middle East, these thieves wearing nice suits and
ties may have at least been satisfied that they had pulled it off quite nicely.
Instead even from the crude point of view of Bush and the clique around him,
it has been a failure. Back in 1979, when Saddam Hussein was a "friend" nearly
four million barrels were pumped out of Iraq’s oilfields each day. The
immediate effect of the US-led invasion was to push production down to 2.6
million barrels per day. But we were told this was a temporary situation,
caused by the disruption of war and that within 18 months production would be
up to 3.5 million barrels a day. And by now, according to the predictions of
the time, production should have been up to 5 or 6 million barrels a day.
Instead, we are informed by the Special Inspector General for Iraq
Reconstruction, the US agency responsible for overseeing Iraq’s reconstruction,
that oil production in Iraq only stands at 1.95 million barrels a day and that
only 27 of the 78 known oil fields are actually producing anything.
The new "western-style, democratic government of Iraq" resting on US
bayonets, is incapable of guaranteeing the conditions for a normally
functioning economy. None of the factions in the Iraqi parliament seem capable
of reaching an agreement even on a new oil law, which Bush would like to see
passed. The conflicting clique interests are paralysing the process.
The paradox of the whole situation is that under Saddam Hussein if there was
one industry that had a good reputation it was the oil industry. The oil
ministry was seen as being staffed by efficient and qualified technocrats who
did the job well. Now that staff has been replaced in many places by less
qualified individuals appointed not so much on the basis of their skills, but
on the basis of their political affiliation, in other words nepotism!
On top of this, the constant fighting, armed attacks, combined with
generalised corruption and smuggling are making it very difficult to get the
Iraqi oil industry back on its feet. And it isn’t just a case of rival militias
fighting each other for control of the oil smuggling. There are reports that
officials and police are all involved in smuggling oil out of Iraq’s southern
port.
The Rumaila oil fields in the south are reported to be capable of producing
1.6 million barrels of oil per day but according to American oil expert Jerry
Kiser, 300,000 barrels a day are smuggled across the border into Iran. Real
power in the region is not in the hands of the local provisional council and
the police force, but is in the hands of warring militia groups. The fact that
the British forces were recently pulled out of Basra is not an indication of a
"job well done" as they claim. It is simply the confirmation of the fact that
the British troops were incapable of controlling the area.
It is openly admitted that the oil-smuggling infrastructure that already
existed under Saddam Hussein has simply continued to operate under the new
rulers, who now take their cut for turning a blind eye to what is going on.
This situation in the south is replicated in the northern oilfields around
Kirkuk. It is a generalised phenomenon.
It is an indication that the whole adventure of the Bush administration has
failed. No socialist worth his salt would be surprised at the lack of progress
in establishing "democracy" in Iraq. That is not why Bush went in. The reason
for invading Iraq was material and strategic. Iraq has the second or third
largest oil reserves in the world. Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz and co wanted to get
their hands on this. They also wanted to show the world that the US is
all-powerful and can dictate the law to any country it wishes. Instead what
they have is a huge mess.
Faced with this mess Bush sent in more troops last February, the so-called
"surge". Now the US force in Iraq stands at 162,000. But this has achieved
nothing. It has simply given the "insurgents" more US troops to shoot at. Now
the total number of US troops killed is higher than the number of people killed
in the September 11 attacks. So much for "defending the lives of Americans".
Now the pressure is piling up at home in the USA to bring back the
troops.
Sooner or later they will have to pull out. But they will do so without
having
achieved any of the objectives they gave themselves when they went in.
It is an indication of the fact that even the strongest superpower the
world has ever seen cannot hold back the huge pressures that are
building up everywhere.
You cannot rule by the sword alone. You cannot throw billions of
people into abject poverty; you cannot walk roughshod over millions of
people
and get away with it for ever.
Bush cynically exploited the events of September 11, 2001 to carry out his
own agenda. This was not in the interests of either the American people or the
peoples of the Middle East and beyond. It was supposed to be in the interests
of a small clique of super-rich, but even on this front they have failed.
One thing Bush has achieved, however, is that he has brought home to the
United States the problems of the former colonial world. US workers have been
pummelled into the ground, with longer working hours, attacks on pension and
healthcare rights. Bush tried to divert attention away from these problems by
looking for an outside "enemy". All he has achieved is to radicalise a new
generation of workers and youth in the USA, in a similar manner to what we saw
after the Vietnam War. Now the growing social problems in the USA combined with
the idea of the futility of sending thousands of young Americans to their
deaths to defend the profits of the oil barons, will be a powerful mix that
will push forward the class struggle.
