A Brief History of September 11th.
The American People say “Never Forget 9/11” but they’ve forgotten why it happened in the first place.
The American people claim that they’ll “never forget” the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, but very few are aware of the events that led up to this tragic day. Directly following the attacks that day the United States government initiated a disinformation campaign designed to galvanize public opinion in favor of invading Afghanistan and Iraq. This has done nothing but ignites more conflict in the middle east, needlessly consumes the lives of thousands of American troop’s lives, and wastes trillions of dollars of taxpayer money.
The bipartisan ruling class, led by the Bush Administration at the time wanted the American public to think that Islamic extremists randomly chose to attack the United States because they “hate our freedoms”. In a speech to Congress following the attacks President Bush stated:
“Americans are asking ‘Why do they hate us?’ They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: Our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”
This line was repeated endlessly on the mainstream media to burn the idea into the minds of the American public, but conveniently next to nothing was mentioned about the fact that the group that attacked us on 9/11 had been created by the CIA as a United States proxy force to fight the Soviets in the Middle East during the Cold War. According to Garikai Chengu, a research scholar at Harvard University:
“The CIA first aligned itself with extremist Islam during the Cold War era. Back then, America saw the world in rather simple terms: on one side, the Soviet Union and third world nationalism , which America regarded as a Soviet tool; on the other side, Western nations and militant political Islam, which America considered an ally in the struggle against the Soviet Union.”
Throughout the Cold War, the United States routinely used radical Islamic proxies to prevent the Soviet Union from gaining meaningful control over the Middle East and its vast oil reserves. In some cases, the CIA even played a role in further radicalizing these proxies. For example, Operation Cyclone was a classified CIA program to arm and fund the Mujahideen in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1992. Funding for the program began at $695,000 under the Carter Administration, and it increased to a staggering $630 million per year in 1987 after Ronald Reagan expanded the program.
A notable individual who received CIA funding as a result of this program was Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani. Haqqani was a key ally of Osama Bin Laden, who also received funding from the United States as a result of Operation Cyclone. Bin Laden and Haqqani then used the status as freedom fighters and funding are given to them by the CIA to create Al Qaeda, the terrorist group who would one day fly two planes into the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 innocent people.
Newspapers in the United States routinely touted Mujahideen such as Bin Laden as freedom fighters, see here.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 the United States no longer had a reason to defend the Middle East’s oil reserves from the communists, but the American Empire required hegemony, so it couldn’t let the people of the middle east have their oil to themselves. As a result of this and despite strong opposition from the people our government once called their allies in their fight against the Soviets, the United States kept its military stationed on land that was considered holy to the people we were now invading.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union President George H.W. Bush led the country into the Persian Gulf War. Throughout the war and ever since the United States has had troops deployed in Saudi Arabia and numerous other countries in the middle east against the will of the people in those countries.
Osama Bin Laden made it clear in his own words that he didn’t attack America because of our freedoms, as George W. Bush attempted to claim following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In Bin Laden’s statement “A Declaration of Jihad against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries”, the ‘land’ being described is Saudi Arabia, and he states:
“…the greatest disaster to befall the Muslims since the death of the profit Mohammad is the occupation of Saudi Arabia which is the cornerstone of the Islamic world…”
Also, in Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ written in 2002 he stated:
“Why are we fighting and opposing you?
Because you attack us and continue to attack us”
Bin Laden clearly stated on numerous occasions both before and after 9/11 that Al Qaeda’s actions were in response to continued American aggression that is considered illegal under both international law and domestic law in the United States. There is no excuse for the tragedy that took place on September 11th, 2001, but events as important as these need to be put into perspective.
To do that I’ll quote William Odom, a United States Army lieutenant general who served as Director of the NSA under President Reagan. In a paper Odom wrote in 2005 titled “American Hegemony: How to Use It, How to Lose It” he states:
“The second most perverse policy is the so called ‘Global War on Terrorism.’ As many critics have pointed out, terrorism is not an enemy. It is a tactic. Because the United States itself has a long record of supporting terrorists and using terrorist tactics, the slogans of today’s war on terrorism merely make the United States look hypocritical to the rest of the world.”
So, if you don’t want to take it from me that what happened on 9/11 was a result of decades of terrorism waged in the middle east on the behalf of the United States in the fight against the Soviets, maybe you’ll take it from Reagan’s NSA Director.
Unfortunately, nobody with meaningful authority listened to Odom or others who agreed with him. As a result, the United States has continued and even expanded its wars in the middle east. In Afghanistan alone, 2,300 troops have died and 20,589 have been wounded in action. In Iraq, it’s been estimated that upwards of one million Iraqi’s died as a result of the United States war there according to a report by Reuters. Our Government has also spent more than $1.922 Trillion of taxpayer dollars on these wars since 2001, and with no end in sight these wars could potentially wind up costing the American public more than $6 trillion.
As these wars become increasingly less popular with the American public those in power are beginning to change their rhetoric regarding our wars in the Middle East and Africa, but regardless of the rhetoric the policy has been continuous throughout both Republican and Democratic Administrations. President Trump occasionally talks a big game about ending the wars, but in reality, he has done nothing but continue the United States reckless and illegal foreign policy. Not only has Trump dropped a record number of bombs on Afghanistan, but he has also ended an Obama era program that reported on the number of civilians killed in drone strikes and disregarded arms control treaties to sell billions of dollars of weapons to the authoritarian dictatorship in Saudi Arabia. When Barack Obama campaigned for the Presidency in 2008 he ran on a platform of ending stupid wars, but upon being elected he expanded American warfare into seven countries compared to Bush’s four.
Bush: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia
Obama: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, and Syria
Also, in 2011 under the Obama Administration, the United States was responsible for a nearly monopolistic 70% of all global weapons sales according to a report by The Nation. This nets the Pentagon about $600 billion annually, and billions more for the executives at top defense contractors who almost always have connections to the federal government by way of the revolving door between the public and private sectors. No wonder the bipartisan ruling class doesn’t want these wars to end. According to the report “Brass Parachutes: The Problem of the Pentagon Revolving Door”, in 2018 the Pentagons top 20 contractors hired at least 645 people who previously worked for the government, and 90% were hired as lobbyists.
Now back to the main point. The United States invaded two sovereign countries by accusing them of being allied with a terrorist group that was actually created by the CIA because American politicians and oligarchs were mad about the fact that our reckless and illegal foreign policy resulted in us getting attacked on 9/11 by the same terrorist group that was created by the CIA.
If you are still clinging to the notion that we were attacked on September 11th, 2001 because radical Islamic extremists just “hated our freedoms” you are living in a fantasy universe, one where the United States and other western nations throughout history haven’t been responsible for the exploitation and degradation of the developing world, it’s people, and it’s natural resources for centuries.
What's the history of the US presence in Saudi Arabia that Bin Laden cites here as the reason for attacking the US? Why would he attack New York and not the military bases in Saudi Arabia? I found this page, https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/persian-gulf-war that says the US got involved in the Persian Gulf war at the request of Arab League countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Did the US stay there because the Saudi government wanted protection from further conflicts, eg with Iran?