Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Issue No. 31 September 16-22, 2001 Quezon City, Philippines |
Blowback!
BY
JEFF SOMMERS Back to Bulatlat.com Alternative Reader Index In
CIA parlance missions that are "successful" create backlashes. The CIA
aptly calls this "Blowback." At
the end of WW II the US took empire from a weakened Britain and France. Among
the first casualties was East Europe, which was sacrificed on the mantle of
superpower relations. That same
deal between superpowers saw Greece put down by England and the US, with Soviet
compliance. The Soviets and the West also concluded that the people of both
their respective spheres would be put down if necessary in the interests of
"stability." Democracy on both sides of the Cold War divide was
shelved. The
US maintained order during its tenure of hegemony through use of both covert and
overt operations that helped signal the very blowback we witnessed on the 11th.
In 1953 Allen Dulles, brother of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, thought
it clever to maintain order in Iran by overthrowing its democratically elected
leader, Mohammed Mossadegh. The popular Mossadegh "erred" when he
decided Iran's oil belonged to Iran and not the multi-national corporations who
held "rights" to it. He nationalized Iran's oil. Allen Dulles sent in
the CIA with suitcases full of money (the CIA had no oversight and so could
spend liberally) to destabilize the government. They sent their agent Kim
Roosevelt to remove Mossadegh. Kim Roosevelt was the grandson of that famous
defender of the Spanish American War that brought the US no end of blowback.
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf accompanied him-no, not the General we all know
who commanded US forces in the Persian Gulf war, but his father. Schwarzkopf
trained the Shah of Iran's secret police in all sorts and manners of techniques
that brutal dictatorships employ against their citizens. This bought
"stability" and the return of oil to its "rightful" owners.
The US oil companies got 40%, the Brits 40%, the Dutch 14% and the French 6%.
Yet, in overthrowing Mossadegh a 25-year-long period of repression was launched
against dissenters in Iran with significant blowback for all parties concerned.
Most significantly this created a radical Islamic fundamentalist response that
led to the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeni. In part, yesterday's tragedy is
blowback from Washington policies executed 50 years back. During
the 1980s the US found another opportunity for CIA mischief in the Middle East.
In 1978 the Soviet Union frowned upon the more radical Marxist government that
arose on its border in Afghanistan. Given that the Soviets cynically wielded
terms like "Marxism" in thesame way the US has often done with
"democracy," the Soviets felt no compunction about overthrowing a
radical Marxist government with democratic impulses. As a superpower it sought
obedience. The Soviets installed a government in Afghanistan loyal to themselves
and would suffer blowback that in part led to the very dissolution of the USSR. Coming
off its own failed decades long attempt to install and maintain unpopular
governments in Vietnam, the US was bemused by the Soviets finding themselves in
a similar situation in Afghanistan. Among opponents of the Soviet backed regime
in Afghanistan were Islamic fundamentalists. The CIA fanned the flames of
fundamentalist fervor in order to fuel the ant-Soviet Afghani movement, the
Mujahadeen. Yet, here too there would be blowback. When the Soviet Union
collapsed the highly motivated fundamentalist force the US helped create and
train in covert operations (the stuff of terrorism) they now turned their sights
on their former benefactor. The marriage between Afghani fundamentalists and the
CIA was purely one of convenience. When no longer "convenient" these
highly-trained militants could now turn on that other source of misery in the
Middle East: the US. Again, this was blowback. This
begs the question of why the US was perceived as a source of "evil" by
Islamic extremists? We are all familiar with the reasons.
A decade of bombing and embargoes have left Iraq's electric, water, and
health infrastructure in tatters. Saddam Hussein remains in power, but millions
live in abject misery, and the United Nations' own data shows over 700,000
children having died as a consequence of these US measures against Iraq. The
Iraqi leadership has been unaffected. Hussein has punished the Kurds in the
north of Iraq with impunity and the Shiite Muslims of the south treated to
Hussein's bloody fist too. Yet, Iraq did not dissolve into separate nations.
This was the goal of US policy. This has been achieved at a terrible human cost
and is another reason for blowback against the US. The
specter of US policy toward Israel continues to haunt America. Copious amounts
of aid flows liberally to the Israeli government and spills out into Palestinian
communities in the form of state violence. But, peace between Israel and Egypt
is critical to Middle East stability. The US gets little of its oil from the
Middle East, but US oil companies are present there and more importantly oil
must flow freely and predictably for the smooth functioning of the global
economy over which the US presides. Palestinians homes are routinely bulldozed
and its people live under military occupation. When the Arabic nations try and
address this matter civilly in the United Nations, as they just tried last week
at the Durban conference, they are rebuffed bythe US. Consequently, Palestinian
children greet with delight the news of thousands of innocent people dying in
the US on the 11th. This is blowback. America will make many choices in the near future regarding how to engage the US. Let's hope it remembers that actions have consequences. Jingoistic responses can backfire. Blowback might erupt quickly, or simmer for decades. When it strikes the consequences are devastating. We are poised to escalate the violence or begin to plumb the depths of our history in ways that might reveal how we can end these cascading series of tragedies. Hopefully, reason will prevail. Back to Bulatlat.com Alternative Reader Index We want to know what you think of this article.
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