Spezialgebiet
Englisch
US Military
Operations abroad
(since 1945)
Content
Topic
List
of content
Preamble
1. The Korean War: a) Origins
The
38th parallel, backgrounds on both sides
The
Korean War: b) 1950-1953
3
phases,
The
Korean War: c) Results
2. The Cuban Missiles Crisis: a) Backgrounds
The
domino theory, West Berlin Crisis, Turkey and Greece
aided by the US
The
Cuban Missiles Crisis: b) 1962
USSR forcing middle range missiles in Cuba,
The
Cuban Missiles Crisis: c) Results
A first
communication between USSR
and US, no war
3. The Vietnam War: a) Backgrounds
History
of the country, stopping of communist spread
The
Vietnam War: b) 1954 - 1975
Guerrilla
War, cruelty of this war
The
Vietnam War: c) Results
Consequences
for the press
Laos (1970)/Cambodia (1975)
The
Persian Gulf War: a) Backgrounds
WOMDs
produced by Iraq
The
Persian Gulf War: b) 1991 -
Use
of WOMDs against Iraq,
role of the press
The
Persian Gulf War: c) Results
US
as "world police" again
6. Afghanistan: a) Backgrounds
Muslim
hatred of the US, history of
Afghanistan,
Afghanistan:
b) 2001 -
bombardment
of Afghanistan,
list of events
Afghanistan: c) My own Comment
Sources
US Military
operations abroad since 1945
Preamble
First of all I have to say that on the following pages I will not give a
detailed plan of massacres of the human race, I will not show battlefields
according to date, plans of the different sides or anything like this. What I
want to show is that there are men behind wars. They are moving little figures
around, unaware that each of their figures is worth many lives, is worth more
than heroic victory or defeat. I want to show the dead, who died without ever
having a chance of living, without ever knowing what life means except dying
for their native country's concepts in the name of different generals, aims and
doctrines. The only fact that never changed was the death of innocent people,
on both sides, and often the survival of those who were responsible for all the
misery.
1. The
Korean War
a) Origins
of the Korean War
The surrender of Japan was inevitable after the United States had dropped the first atom bomb on
Hiroshima in
August 1945. Stalin was waiting for just such an opportunity which would allow
the Soviets to enter the war against Japan
while incurring minimal losses, and so it was no surprise when the USSR declared war against Japan after the U.S. had dropped the second atom
bomb. Upon Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, Soviet military forces swept
through Manchuria and North
Korea taking over control of these former
Japanese provinces. The United
States reacted in alarm when it realized the
potential danger of having the strategic Korean peninsula controlled by
communist forces. Because of containment policy (def.: Spann p.183), which was
the post-war doctrine of the US
foreign policy, the US
had to stop the spreading of communist values and communist infiltration. The
Truman doctrine also forced it to act in Korea,
as the US
was, according to this doctrine, not going to turn away from world affairs
again, as in 1918. President Truman proposed a joint occupation of Korea by the two powers, in which the Soviets
would occupy the territory north of the 38th parallel, while the U.S. would
control the area to the south of that line.
Both of them, the Soviets as well as
the Americans, wanted to withdraw their military forces in times to come.
However, neither the USSR or
the US
wanted the peninsula to fall into the opponent's hand. The roots of division
were laid from the very onset of Korea's liberation.
Communist elements in the north had
been present during the Japanese colonial period, but with the north now under
Soviet tutelage, the leftist factions were able to seize power. The Soviets
helped to establish Kim Il Sung, a product of the Soviet military machine, as
the leading political figure in the north.
In the South, the US helped Syngman Rhee to come into political
power, whose dogma was to establish Korea's full independenence.
In 1948 South Korea held her first general
elections. Soon afterwards, the Republic
of Korea (ROK) was established in
the South and was promptly recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate
government of Korea.
During the same time the North followed with similar actions by holding its own
elections. Kim Il Sung was declared president of the new Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPKR), which was immediately recognized by the Soviet
Union and other communist countries as the legitimate government of Korea. By the
winter of 1948 the worst fears of Korean Nationalists were confirmed, as Korea became
permanently divided at the 38th parallel.
These happenings set the stage for a
civil war. And by 1950, both North and South Korea sensed that this war
was inevitable. North Korea
had a clear advantage over the south. Not only did North
Korea possess a larger army, it also had many experienced
veterans who had fought in China's
Civil War (up to 1945). It was manufacturing its own weapons as well as
possessing many Soviet made weapons. South Korea on the other hand had
soldiers who had not even had basic training. Finally, North Korea had the support of communist China. On the
eve of war, North Korea
had a clear advantage and started the
war on June 25, 1950. There never was a declaration of war.
b) The
Korean War (1950-1953)
From the day when North Koreans
attacked South Korea
on June 25, 1950 to the day of the armistice on July 27, 1953, the events of
the Korean War revealed the mass destruction, pain and suffering Koreans had to
endure. At the end of the war, more than 3 million Koreans had died and
millions of refugees remained homeless and distraught. About 1 million Chinese
had died in this war and American casualties numbered 54.246 people.
Basically the facts of the Korean
war are very easy to summarize. The Korean War can be split up into 3 phases:
The
first phase began on June 25, 1950 and ended on the day when the United Nations
(UN) forces thrust into North Korean territory
The
second phase of the Korean war was essentially the Southern attack on and
retreat from North Korea
The
last phase of the war consisted of the "see-saw" fighting on the thirty eighth
parallel, stalemate, and negotiation talks.
On the first day of the war, more
than 70.000 North Korean troops with Russian T-34 tanks crossed the thirty
eighth parallel. It did not take long for a call to the United Nations (by the US) to take
"police action" against the "unwarranted" attack. Under the name of the "United
Nations" the United States
could send troops and forces. In the fights of the first phase Seoul was taken by the Northern forces and
retaken by the South. This phase lasted till September 30th 1950,
about 100 days. By the end of this first phase of the Korean War, 111.000 South
Koreans had died and 57.000 were missing.
In the second phase China entered
the war and supported the retreating forces of President Kim Il Sun. Again Seoul was taken by Northern forces and it was again
retaken by South Korea.
After so many military actions, no citizens could feel safe any longer. Many of
them fled their homes in search of refugee camps, safety, shelter, and food.
After these two phases the war
stopped for a short time. For two months it was localized "only" around the 38th
parallel, and neither unit had really advanced beyond the parallel. By the
summer of 1951, talks for an armistice began, but there was no success between
1951 and 1953. Fighting continued with intensified guerrilla warfare during the
armistice talks. As the negotiations continued, aerial bombing of North Korea
intensified.
By June 8, 1953 the basic agreement
regarding POW (Prisoners of War) was settled. Both sides agreed on the
principle of voluntary repatriation. And by June 17 the agreement on the final
truce-demarcation line had become finalized. The armistice was finally signed
on July 27, 1953.
c) Results
Apart from many casualties the
Korean War brought no result. The country still is still separated today, and a
reunion is, even if there are talks going on nowadays, far away. Families have
been split up along the 38th parallel, and hatred has been spread
over the country. Millions of Koreans died in a war, not between North and South Korea, but between the communist powers
and the US.
2. The
Cuban Missile Crisis (1961 - 1962)
a) Background
The Cuban Missile Crises was not
only localized to Cuba and the US directly, on a closer look it was a worldwide
crisis, starting long before 1961 and lasting much longer.
After the Second World War the
British Empire was supporting Greece
and Turkey
in economical as well as financial ways. But in 1947, during India's struggle
for independence, the Empire was not longer able to give further financial or
economic aid. As there were strong communist tendencies in these two countries,
the US
saw the democratic values in these countries in danger. At the same time the so
called "Domino theory" was put up for the first time. This theory says that the
loss of one country to Communism would lead to the whole area falling under
Communist control. Fearing a communist Europe Truman made a speech in the
Congress on July 15, 1948 in which he accepted the full US
responsibility of leadership in international affairs. Because of this reason
the US took over the
financial and economical aid of the British Empire
in these two countries. As an exchange for their help the US was allowed
to station nuclear weapons in both countries, right at the border of the
communist world. Krushchev, the Soviet leader at that time, felt, of course,
like having a trigger put on his head. As an exchange he wanted to clear the Berlin question
according to his wishes. He had a barricade built around Berlin,
which was evaded by the Berlin Airlift (1948-1949) and so Berlin remained separated into two parts.
In the early fifties the first
Intercontinental Ballistics (ICB) were invented, which led to a struggle for power.
Both of the superpowers, the US
as well as the SU, wanted to be the most powerful country on earth. In the mid
50s, when the US
had already 400 ICBs and sent up their first satellite, which was able to
detect nuclear weapons, they found out that the SU did not have more than 24
ICBs. The Soviet Union had so few because of
two reasons: first of all their ICBs were not as good as the American ones,
they often missed their targets, or didn't get there at all. On the other hand
the Soviet Union did not have the money to
afford more Intercontinental Ballistics.
But they did have very good middle
range Ballistics, but, unlike the US,
they were not near enough the border of the US to pose a real threat. Cuba was the
ideal place to station them. To aggravate the situation the US tried to invade Cuba
in the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. Castro and
his Soviet Allies were convinced that the Americans would try to take over the
island again. Since the Bay of Pigs, there was an increasing fear of a U.S. incursion
on Cuban soil.
b) The
Cuban Missile Crisis
The US
made clear that it would tolerate communist influence in Cuba, but not
more. It for sure would not accept missiles in Cuba. But on October 14th
1962 they found evidence of Soviet offensive missiles in Cuba for the
first time, no nuclear missiles, but surface to air missiles which would be
able to destroy high flying airplanes. Soon the US found out that the Soviets were
building a defence line against American spy planes. A short time after this
discovery they found a small piece of land, from which Cubans were expelled and
replaced by Soviets. In this trapezoidal area the Americans soon found nuclear
middle range weapons, which, once ready to fire, would be able to reach every
big city in the US.
Khrushchev's plan was to establish a balance between the missiles in Turkey and Greece
and the Missiles in Cuba.
Kennedy soon found out that these missiles in Cuba could not only be used to
change the balance of power, but also to settle the Berlin Crisis once and for all.
He knew, if he used force against Cuba,
as his military advisors were telling him, the Soviets would attack Berlin, and roll over half of Europe.
At the top of the crisis an American
U2 spy plan was shot down by Soviet anti air missiles. It has never been
settled if that happened on permission of Moscow,
but what is clear is that there was the imminent danger of a Third World War
and everyone at that time was sure that once a nuclear struggle had started,
there wouldn't be anyone who could stop it.
Soon after the discovery of the US about the
missiles, it brought it forward into the UN to find a solution. But for the
Soviet inner circle these discussions were not more than a message from the US that it knew
about the missiles. The United American Nations signed an embargo for Cuba right
afterwards, which included a barrier for all ships heading for the island.
After this period Krushchev and Kennedy started to exchange messages directly.
For me this is the basic difference between this crisis and every other crisis.
It showed that both leaders were trusting each other that sooner or later they
would find a solution for the problem. On October 27, 1962 all 25 Soviet
missiles in Cuba
were operational.
For Khrushchev it would have been a
solution to make sure that the US
would never invade Cuba,
for Kennedy it was indispensable that the nuclear weapons, both strategic and
tactical were removed. It was not easy for Kennedy to prevent an invasion
without losing his face or being impeached. In the end the Russians retreated.
Khrushchev did something very risky, but not wanting war, he only wanted the
world to give the Soviets the respect they demanded, he wanted his native
country to be honoured as the superpower it was, not only on the basis of its
military strength, but because of its extraordinary achievements. Russia withdrew its missiles afterwards, and as
an exchange 6 months later, so it would not be seen in connection, the US withdrew its missiles in Turkey and Greece. The Americans were allowed
to count the missiles which left Cuba to make sure that all of them
were removed.
c) Results
The Cuban Missile Crisis helped the
world to see that the Soviet Union did not
want war, and that the two superpowers could talk to each other if they wanted
to. This had not been an ordinary communication, but a new form of talks. In
the end it had been possible to stabilize a quite dangerous situation
peacefully without starting a new war.
3. The
Vietnam War (1954 - 1975)
a) Roots
Vietnam had been under foreign rule for
much of its history, first of all under the Chinese. In 1860, France began its domination of the area and had,
by the late 19th century, implemented its colonization in a number
of regions around the Gulf
of Tonkin. During WWII,
the Japanese government took control of much of the area and set up a puppet
regime that was eventually forced out by the Vietnamese at the end of that war
in 1945.
After WWII and until 1954, France fought
hard to regain her former territories in the region, but with a poorly
organized army and little determination among the troops, these efforts soon
collapsed. The French troops withdrew, leaving a buffer zone separating the North
and South and planned elections the purpose of which would have been a
reunification of the country. The communist regime set up its headquarters in Hanoi under the
leadership of the Nationalist and Communist leader Ho Chi Minh. Many North
Vietnamese left the country and fled south where the self-proclaimed president,
Ngo Dinh Diem had formed the Republic
of Vietnam.
Between 1955 and 1960, the North
Vietnamese (with the assistance of the southern communist Vietcong) tried to
take over the government in South
Vietnam, and in November 1963 President Diem
was overthrown and executed. The following year, supported by China and Russia the North Vietnamese began a
massive drive to conquer the whole country.
Fearing a communist takeover of the
entire region, the United
States grew more and more wary of the
progress of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietcong. Communism had become the evil menace
in the US and with the
expansion of Soviet rule into Eastern Europe, Korea and Cuba, the Americans were bent on
stopping communism from spreading any further.
b) The
Vietnam War
With the Cold War at its height, the
US leaders were worried that
an attack on North Vietnam
by the US
would create tensions with the Chinese and Russians which would, in turn, lead
to a larger conflict and possibly WW III. This created a difficult situation
for the US
and would eventually lead to many internal conflicts. The US was also faced with a number of cultural
differences between the two countries, and what was considered corrupt by the US government
was considered legitimate by South Vietnamese standards. It was difficult for
the US to portray South Vietnam
as a hard working, hard fighting democracy; corruption was widespread among
officials and the armed forces. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was
disorganized due to the low morale of its leaders and their conspicuous
interest in personal gain. Therefore the US had a great deal of difficulty in
holding the army together in South Vietnam and saw only one solution, which was
to start taking care of things
themselves.
Around 1955 the US began
supporting the south, at first in an advisory role, which slowly escalated into
full commitment.
The large-scale involvement of the US began under President Lyndon B. Johnson and
his Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution, a resolution that was proclaimed to promote the
maintenance of international peace and security in Southeast
Asia, but that only brought war and millions of dead and refugees.
Johnson had replaced John F. Kennedy who had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas
in 1963. He was torn between the various strategies the US had drawn up for Vietnam. The increasing involvement
from 1965 onwards and the escalation of troop involvement meant there were more
casualties and more problems at home. But Johnson, who held the power to stop
the war in Vietnam, but was
always concerned about his image, could not face the thought of being regarded
as the first president in US
history to lose a war. The pressure around him grew so intense that he was only
left with one option and that was not to run for a second term. Basically, he
handed the war down to Richard Nixon.
The escalation of war continued
during the first Nixon years. The top US
commander in Vietnam
was General William Westmoreland; who had to face an army of young men placed
in an environment that was totally alien to them. There was no clear frontline
to the conflict and basically, the enemy could be hiding anywhere. Life in the
jungle was painful and there were no home comforts. Drugs and other stimulants filtered
their way into the daily routine of many servicemen and morale quickly started
to decrease. For the first time, people in the US resisting the draft were given
acceptance although still not by the majority of citizens. Riots and
demonstrations against the war became common in the US, with numerous veterans taking
part in the efforts to stop the war, strengthening the issue. Finally, the US government
saw that it was in a no-win situation and began making plans to withdraw.
After great efforts by the US to withdraw, and the establishment of
cease-fire on January 27th, 1973, American soldiers began leaving Vietnam for
good. The North Vietnamese, totally ignoring the cease-fire, finally conquered South Vietnam in early 1975 and on July, 2nd,
1976, North and South
Vietnam were officially reunited as a single
communist state.
c) Results
It
had cost an estimated 2 million lives and disablement of many millions of
others. (50 000 Americans)
The
war had a deeply unsettling effect on the economy of the US.
Among
Americans there was a strong feeling of humiliation after the defeat by the
guerrilla forces of a country of "peasants".
Americans
became disillusioned and distrustful of their government after Vietnam.
The
Vietnam War had a profound impact on US foreign policy. It resulted in
US disillusionment about its role as the "world police" and revived the wish to
keep the country free of long term world wide commitments.
The
role of press freedom in wars was thought over again. After this war the media
were not allowed to show pictures of the front again, nor of dead US soldiers,
defeats, or US atrocities.
4) Laos (1970)
Laos is an Asian country near Vietnam. The
conflict the US had there
was soon fought out in Vietnam.
Because of this, I've not written a special chapter about Laos. Because
of the same reason I won't mention Cambodia, which was only important
during the very last phase of the Vietnam War.
5) The
Persian Gulf War (1991- )
a) Roots
The main cause of the constant
hostility between the United States
and Iraq
seems to be disagreement over the extent of need for United Nations
inspections. The US and the
UN claim that Iraq
is not living up to the terms of the agreement and is continuing to develop
WOMDs (Weapons of mass destructions). Iraq
denies this and claims that the US
is attempting to subvert its national sovereignty and humiliate the country
through continued economic sanctions. Periodically, the government of Saddam
Hussein attempts to force the UN weapons inspectors out of the country and the US and UN
respond with threats and occasional bomb and missile attacks.
Another point of discussion are the
"no fly zones" over northern and southern Iraq. Originally designed to
protect the rebellious Kurdish minority in the north and the oppressed Shiite
minority in the south, these zones are Iraqi airspace in which Iraqi aircraft
are not allowed to fly. Gulf Coalition air forces have occasionally enforced
these zones by shooting down Iraqi planes and attacking Iraqi defence missile
batteries on the ground.
In December 1998 the Iraqi
government evicted the UNSCOM inspectors, accusing them of spying for the
American CIA. This allegation seems to hold some truth. As a result of the end
of Iraqi cooperation with UNSCOM the US
and Britain unleashed
Operation Desert Fox on Iraq.
From December 16th to 20th, Allied warplanes and cruise
missiles hammered Iraqi targets. Saddam Hussein then declared that Iraq would no
longer recognize the validity of the "no fly zones" and would actively contest
the Allies for control of all Iraqi airspace. This resulted in nearly continual
combat in the skies of Iraq
as air-defence missile batteries attempted to shoot down American and British
warplanes. In response, Allied forces attacked these missile batteries and
occasionally engaged in punishing air strikes on other targets in Iraq.
Another conflict point between the US and Iraq has always been. Since its
independence in 1961 Iraq
has insisted that Kuwait is
an integral part of Iraq.
Finally in August 1990 Iraq
invaded Kuwait
b) The
Persian Gulf War
Over the years, the continued
conflict between the US and Iraq erupted
into violence several times. After the invasion of Kuwait events had been started that
in a few short months would result in several thousand Iraqi dead and millions
more casualities, a deserted land and massive ecological damage, turmoil
through the Arab world, and financial and political reverberations that would
shake the global community.
During the Gulf War, the US deliberately
conducted bombing raids aimed at the "population". The Bombing of civilian
infrastructure such as electicity, water, sanitation and other systems which
sustain life, was intended to "degrade the will of the civilian population".
One of the most significant factors
of the Gulf War was the speed with which the US-led coalition was able to
achieve air supremacy. Iraqi air defences were systematically devastated, many
of the targets being attacked again and again. Within a few days it became
clear that that Iraqi aircraft were unlikely to engage allied planes in a
battle and soon, with the speedy and comprehensive destruction of the
multilayered Iraqi anti-aircraft systems, allied aircraft were able to range
and bomb at will. What this meant in human terms is hard for distant and
comfortable observers to imagine. Tens of thousands of hapless Iraqi
conscripts, many of them from groups known to be persecuted by Saddam Hussein,
had no choice but to sit in the deserts of Iraq and Kuwait until the bombs
fell. Here they were forced to suffer napalm, cluster bombs that shred human
flesh, air fuel explosives that incinerate some and asphyxiate others, and the
carpets of "earthquake" bombs laid down by B52s - all the obscene paraphernalia
that in earlier days had killed perhaps three million people in Korea, Laos,
Cambodia and Vietnam.
The destruction of Iraq's
electricity-generating plants, including four of the country's five
hydro-electric facilities, was little discussed and never questioned during the
war. Pentagon and the Bush Administration officials never publicly offered a
justification during the war for attacking and crippling most of Iraq's electrical
power system - a destruction which continues to have devastating consequences
for the civilian population. As a modern, electricity dependent country, Iraq relied on
electrical power for essential services such as water purification and
distribution, sewage removal and treatment, the operation of hospitals and
medical laboratories, and agricultural production. The report of a UN mission
to Iraq
in March stated that the allied bombing 'has paralysed the oil and
electricity sectors almost entirely. Power output and refineries' production is
negligible."
Soon newspaper reports stimulated
the discussion as to what might constitue a war crime. Thus the correspondent
Denis Knight (The Guardian, 5 March 1991) suggested that the deliberate
massacre of thousands of fleeing soldiers might qualify. And what of the
specific weapons used? Paul Flynn, British Member of Parliament, cites a report
that fuel air explosives were 'designed to produce nuclear-like levels of
destruction without arousing popular revulsion'; and comments (The Guardian, 21
June 1991 ) that the 'cluster bombs, daisy cutters and fuel air explosives
should not be classed as conventional weapons They are massacre weapons.'
Flynn added that the British government had willfully refused to recognise 'the
holocaust results of the Gulf War. The most recent estimate is that 100,000 to
200,000 Iraqis were killed and 300,000 to 700,000 injured, most of them Shiite
and Kurdish conscripts.'
Further reports indicated the extent
to which the war had been fought against human beings, rather than simply
against tanks and other weaponry. Thus
discussions were provoked by the revelation that the American army had
used earthmovers and ploughs mounted on tanks to bury thousands of Iraqi
soldiers alive. One attack of this sort resulted in thousands of Iraqi dead and
wounded, with not a single American fatality. Colonel Lon Maggart, commander of
the US
1st Brigade, estimated that his forces had buried about 650 Iraqi soldiers; and
Colonel Anthony Moreno, commander of the 2nd Brigade, commented: 'For all I
know, we could have killed thousands. What you saw was a bunch of buried
trenches with people's arms and things sticking out of them'. Such improvised
mass graves, to which must be added the bulldozing of thousands of Iraqi
corpses at the end of the war, are part of the post-war face of Iraq and Kuwait. And there are many other
characteristic features in the former battlefields: the massive remains of
beaten armed forces, the inevitable residue of unexploded weapons, and the
radioactive waste left in the desert by the allied forces.
It can be assumed that many of the
Iraqi casualties were caused by inaccurate bombing: the US forces,
while at first applauding the reliability of the 'smart' weapons, later came to
admit the massive number of inaccurate targetings. Thus in one US analysis,
the computer-navigated Tomahawk cruise missiles just hit their targets in about
50 per cent of the cases. The 'smart' laser-guided bombs launched from the US F-117A
Stealth attack jets hit their targets in only about 60 per cent of the missions
flown, in contrast to the 90 per cent claimed earlier. In any case, of the
88,500 tons of bombs dropped on Iraq
and Kuwait,
only 6520 tons were precision-guided, and 70 per cent 'missed their targets'.
At the end of the war, wrecked
armament, unexploded mines and other munition, radioactive debris and mass
graves littered the Iraqi and Kuwaiti deserts. It was also suspected, though
not at that time known for certain, that the American forces had drawn up plans
for the launching of chemical and nuclear attacks against Iraq. Thus
Major Johan Persson, a liaison officer at a Swedish army field hospital,
declared in interviews in Stockholm
that he had seen official guidelines about the use of nuclear and chemical
weapons in certain circumstances. Major Persson: 'There was such an order. I
saw it. I had it in my hands. It was the real thing.' When US Secretary of State James Baker met the Iraqi
foreign minister Tariq Aziz on 9 January 1991, days before the start of the
US-led bombing of Iraq,
Baker declared: 'We know that you have a vast stock of chemical weapons Our
sincere advice to you is not to even think of using them. If you do, or if we
feel that you did, then our reply will be unrestrained. I hope I am understood
well.' The authoritative commentator Mohamed Heikal noted Aziz's understanding
'that Baker was hinting at the use of nuclear weapons'.
c) Results
The consequences of the Gulf War are
still to be felt today. Since 1991 there have been air strikes on Iraq. No longer
anybody in Iraq
can feel safe. Whenever the US
fears that Saddam Hussein is going to build WOMDs, which of course should not
happen, they are attacking with the same weapons that they want to destroy.
After Vietnam the Persian Gulf War was
good cure for the American self-confidence. Now again they feel mighty and
powerful, and now again they want to take over the role as the "world police"
that they have had for so long. It doesn't matter that they killed thousands of
innocent people, without even losing one single airplane - as long as they feel
alright, and if they don't, they can attack once more.
Especially in recent times this
crisis got acute again by several threats of G. W. Bush jun., which ended in a
declaration of Sadam Hussein that he would, for his country's sake, resign if
the US
attacked again.
6) Afghanistan
(2001 - )
a) Roots
Looking for the roots of terrorism
arising from Islamic countries I had to leave the field of the history of our
Western civilization.
First of all I want to say that I
condemn terrorist activity of all kind. Northern Irish terrorism is as bad as
Islamic. There is no single fanatic organisation which has the right to do
things in the way they are doing them, but looking back each of us can see that
terrorist activity does not come into being from one day to another.
On September 11th, 2001,
we all were shocked. We had never thought of an airplane, led by terrorists
being able to destroy the WTC (World
Trade Center).
But why? Terrorists are planning their strikes for years, sometimes even for
decades. We live in a good world, enjoying high economic and living standards
taking for granted that everybody else lives like we do. But in reality we have
to oppress others to ensure our high living standards, we have to force them to
supply us with the luxury we want, and if they don't want to, or don't see that
we are "only" oppressing them for their good, we attack them, humiliate them,
and appoint leaders/governments willing to be oppressed again. The catastrophe
of the Third World in all parts of the earth
is explicable in our failure to grasp the nature of Western success, which
springs neither from luck nor resources, genes nor geography. We don't see the
misery accompanying corporations, colonialism, and racism. Neither does the Third World. We tend to say that they are themselves
responsible for these fiascos. Governments in the Middle
East should, in our arrogant opinion, have the courage to say that
their countries are poor because their populations are half illiterate, beacuse
their economies are not open, and because their fundamentalists impede
scientific inquiry, and cultural exchange. Why are they unable to build up a
democratic highly educated system with high values? Because we force them no to
do so. We force them to be what they are now.
We do that in South
America, where we prevent people from planting basic food for
their survival, but coffee, tea, bananas and cacao instead, as an exchange for
the cheap supply of these goods we give them the cheapest grain, and low
standard products. We are forcing Africans to grow bananas and give them to us
for the same reason, but we also supply them with weapons and they do use them
against their brothers and sisters.
Finally the Arabs: During the Cold
War, both the US and the USSR, made them
fight each other instead of the superpowers. As the Arab countries are on the
border of the former USSR,
it was an obvious idea of the US
that a war there would be a good thing to threaten the USSR. Afghanistan itself was occupied by Russians
after a bloody coup of communist presidents in Afghanistan. Immediately afterwards
the US
started its underground work there, it supported mujahedeen with the latest
weapons available, including air to air missiles, surface to air missiles and
modern guns like the M16 machine gun. One of the great men of the mujahedeen in
the early 80s was Osama Bin Laden, and the US gave him everything he wanted.
In 1989 the Russians withdraw from Afghanistan
leaving their Islamic allies on their own. In the early nineties bitter
factional fighting killed at least 50.000 in Kabul, mostly civilians. Various warring
groups signed four peace agreements, but fighting was eventually resumed. In
September 1994 the previously unknown Taliban rebels, an army of former Islamic
seminarians, entered the scene. The Taliban soon (in 1996) drove the elected
President out of Kabul,
captured the capital and executed the former President. In May 1997 a brief
alliance between opposition forces and the Taliban collapsed violently.
In August 1998 the Taliban finally
took control of Mazar-i Sharif and massacred at least 2,000 people, most of
them civilians, after they had taken the city. In the aftermath, General Dostum
(died 2001) left Afghanistan
for exile in Turkey.
Shortly after taking control of Mazar-i Sharif, the Taliban also took control
of the town of Bamian
(there they destroyed two big Buddah statues), in the Hazara (Afghan
tribe)-dominated central highlands. Some time after this the former Northern
Alliance (opposition of the Taliban) enlisted the support of factions from
outside their ethnic constituencies, including the Council of the East, a
Pashtun group and renamed themselves the United Islamic Front for the Salvation
of Afghanistan, or short United Front. In August 1998, the United States launched air strikes against bin
Laden's reputed training camps near the Pakistan border. Bin Laden had been
believed to be responsible for terrorist activity for a long time. The strikes
came in the wake of the terrorist bombings of the U.S.
embassies in Nairobi
and Dar es-Salaam. In October 1999 the U.N. imposed sanctions on the Taliban to
make them turn over Bin Laden, banning Taliban-controlled aircraft from takeoff
and landing and freezing the Taliban's assets abroad. The Taliban's failure to
hand over Bin Laden led to an expansion of the sanctions on the regime on
December 19, 2000, including an arms embargo on the Taliban, a ban on travel
outside Afghanistan by Taliban officials of deputy ministerial rank, and the
closing of Taliban offices abroad.
Through out 2000 and 2001, fighting
continued in the northeast between Massoud's (general of the Northern Allies)
forces and the Taliban, with the Taliban taking control of Taloqan in September
2000, and driving the United Front further east. The town of Baiman changed hands several times between
January and June 2001 ; during their last retreat from the area, Taliban troops
burned down the town and many other villages in the district. United Front
forces resumed guerrilla operations against the Taliban in mid-2001.
b) The
Afghanistan
War
On September 11th two
airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. It didn't last long for the Towers
to collapse and bury 3000 people under their masses. 3000 innocent people! In a
first reaction US President George W. Bush called for a War against terrorism.
It didn't take long and the US was invading Afghanistan, hunting Osama Bin
Laden, who was said to have organized and financed the destruction of the WTC.
Immense military and economic power was taken into Afghanistan, to prevent further
terrorist activities. In its hatred of the terrorists who blasted the WTC into
ruins, the US tried to bomb Afghanistan
back into ancient times. The Americans didn't care whom they killed, as long as
they killed Muslims. They shot first and asked afterwards.
Many Afghans starved in the cold
winter, or froze to death. Only small amounts of aid supplies were delivered to
them, instead, the money was spent on new weapons.
Sceptical and humane voices have
gone largely unheard in the present crisis as "America" prepares itself for a
long war to be fought somewhere out there, along with allies who feel committed
to assist the US on very uncertain grounds and for vague ends. The Taliban
fighters, who have been caught till now, have been flown to Cuba. They have
not been accepted as POWs and so the US is even allowed to use torture
against them, without violating human rights.
And war will even increase. Attacks
on third countries have already been planned, including Iran, Iraq
and even Russia and China. Right on
March 10th, 2002 plans got known in which attacks with tactical
nuclear weapons on eight countries are described.
c) Comment
We need to step back from the
imaginary threshold that separates people from each other and re-examine the
labels, reconsider the limited resources available, decide to share our fates
with other cultures, despite all the bellicose cries and creeds.
'Islam' and 'the West' are simply
inadequate as banners to follow them blindly. Some will run behind them, but
for future generations commiting themselves to prolonged war and suffering
without so much as a critical pause, without looking at all the past years of
injustice and oppression, without the attempt to reach common emancipation and
mutual enlightenment seems far more willful than necessary. Education for
consideration, tolerance and equality will take patience, but will be more
worthwhile than still higher levels of large-scale violence and suffering.
Sources
Books
R. Garson, C.J. Bailey, The
uncertain power - A political history of the US since 1929,
George C. Herring , America's
longest War
G. Kirchner & Dieter Stang, America's Vietnam
Experience
Ekkerhard Spann, Abiturwissen
Internet
https://militaryhistory.about.com/library/blvietnambattles.htm
https://militaryhistory.about.com/library/blvietnambattles.htm
https://www.aclu.org/safeandfree/index.html
https://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6617/wars6.html
https://americanhistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vietnampix.com%2Fintro2.htm
https://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/
Additional
materials
Spezialgebiet: Daniela Fahrner - The Vietnam War
Spezialgebiet: Alex Haas - The Persian Gulf War
