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Islamic Terrorism: Our Ally For 38 Years
Islamic terrorists are wonderful instruments for proxy wars – they cost very little but fight fearlessly. They are a global resource that can be brought into any local conflict. They are also expendable – we use them when convenient and kill them when inconvenient. . If this shocks the conscience of people, it just means they haven’t been paying keen attention. Consider the following examples:
. What goes through a reader’s mind when they see an article titled “Accepting Al Qaeda” 11 that is published by Council on Foreign Relations – the think tank behind US foreign policy? Or when Hillary Clinton’s chief foreign policy advisor wrote to her, “Al Qaeda is on our side”? 12 . I can give many more such examples, but let’s hop on the time machine for a moment. Afghanistan, 1979 – 1989. We used the Mujahideen to defeat the Soviet Union. Was that not a good thing? Remember how the media and Hollywood glorified those Afghan fighters in the 1980’s? The Afghan rebels even got to visit the White House.  . In the 1980’s, more than 35,000 so-called Arab Afghans came from all over the world to fight the Russians 13; and we wouldn’t have been able to motivate them to do so without appealing to the concept of Islam, Caliphate or jihad. “Fight for Allah” is far more effective than “Fight for Country X.” Fighters motivated by religion are also extremely useful in the battlefield since they are not afraid of death. This mindset is essential for the use of suicide bombers without whom many battles and wars would not have been won. . We also learned from Saudi Arabia that indoctrination is essential to create good soldiers. So the CIA came up with clever textbooks for Afghan kids that introduced them to concepts of jihad, weapons and hatred for Russians. 14   . That’s when Al Qaeda was formed. And it was perfect timing. . You see, Halliburton had just discovered huge oil reserves near the Caspian Sea, but the countries around that region were all pro-Russia even after the fall of the USSR. 16 . Without the knowledge of the American public, the Mujahideen were very active all throughout the 1990’s in Bosnia, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Dagestan, Chechnya etc. 17 These fighters were used for three major purposes:
. Chechnya was a partial success. They were struggling for independence from Russia and thus gladly welcomed the Mujahideen who also had plenty of Saudi money and US weapons. Within a short time, the non-violent and mystical Sufism of Chechnya was taken over by Saudi Wahhabism. . Al Qaeda started blowing up Russian pipelines. Russia invaded Chechnya in 1994, lost the war, and withdrew. It was fun to watch the news those days. But then Putin became the Prime Minister three years later, waged a ruthless war against the jihadists, won decisively and installed his own strongman in Chechnya 18. Even Sufism has seen a major revival lately and Chechens have now started rejecting Wahhabism and jihadism. 19  . Away from the heart of Eurasia, Islamic extremism and terrorism play major roles in Africa, Middle East and Asia to catalyze geopolitical transformations. . |
In Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia, we depend on Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda and Salafists (those who follow extreme, fundamentalist Sunni Islam).
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In Libya, we leveraged the Al Qaeda affiliate called Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) 20. We released its leader (Belhadj) from the CIA prison, dressed him up in a nice suit, arranged a photo-op with John McCain, and he became the freedom fighter who fought Gaddafi, the brutal dictator!
In Syria, tens of thousands of Al Qaeda fighters were flown in from all over the world to topple Assad 21. If it were not for Putin’s evil interventions, we would now have a Qatar pipeline through Syria, and Israel would be drilling oil in Golan Heights 22. A tragic situation indeed.
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In Africa, Nigeria is a strategic country with 170 million people and a land rich in oil and natural resources. That’s where Boko Haram – African ISIS – comes into play. It has been extremely successful in every way. Also, thanks to Boko Haram, half of Nigeria is under Sharia Law, which is a great tool to control people.
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In Asia, we need to prevail upon Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Without them, we lose much of Asia to China. Sharia Law and Salafism are gaining momentum in Indonesia, which is a positive sign. 23
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Philippines’ crazy leader, Duterte, has been too friendly with Russia and China 24. He will lose his popularity and get replaced if the ISIS affiliate – Abu Sayyaf – causes enough problems. If he fights back against ISIS, we will cry “human rights” and “Islamophobia” at the UN and impose sanctions.
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Thailand has also been foolishly moving into the Russia-China sphere of influence 25. Well, this peaceful, Buddhist country has been facing Sunni/Salafist extremism in the south. Thai leaders must realize that the entire tourism industry is very vulnerable – a few bombings and attacks by jihadists can have serious effects.
Finally, let’s look at Europe. There has been a lot of problems with mass immigration – terrorism, crimes etc. However, every crisis is an opportunity. Some call it the Problem-Reaction-Solution.
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Terrorism is the problem. Fear is the reaction. Government is the solution.
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Terrorism and crime give us the chance to militarize the police in EU, create an “NSA” for entire Europe, and even an EU army. The financial burden caused by refugees also allows us to impose austerity and cut wasteful welfare spending. Mass immigration will also result in a more homogeneous European society. Twenty years from now, there won’t be much difference between France and Germany. This means much easier management of EU.
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Moving forward, the biggest economic challenge for us will be China. However, it has an Achilles heel – the western province of Xinjiang that is predominantly made up of Muslims. With help from Turkey, we have already created in Xinjiang an Islamist movement that is calling for secession 26. China’s One Belt One Road is very dependent on freight trains safely traveling through that region on their way to Europe. Our future Mujahideen in Xinjiang will come in handy if China starts to misbehave.
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Chris Kanthan is a computer geek by profession, he is a writer and an author from San Francisco, trying to raise awareness about politics, world affairs, food and health through non-partisan blog posts, often with a twist of satire. He loves traveling and has been to 35 countries around the world. He is also the author of “Deconstructing Monsanto.”https://worldaffairs.blog
