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51 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fine exposure of US state brutality, January 17, 2004
This review is from: Behind the War on Terror: Western Secret Strategy and the Struggle for Iraq (Paperback)
This fascinating book presents official sources documenting the US ruling class's strategy for world domination, centrally for controlling the oil of the Middle East. In particular, it shows how the US's rulers adopted Saddam Hussein, used him for more than 30 years, and then turned against him when he disobeyed them. Ahmed cites the American state propagandist Samuel Huntington, "Muslims ... fight non-Muslims far more often than do peoples of other civilisations." Huntington could note how many wars the US state has waged against `non-Americans' - 74 since 1945. The USA's precursor empire, Britain, claimed that in the Middle East it was fighting "to defend the area against the brand of Arab nationalism", that is, against its people! Similarly now, the occupying forces in Iraq claim to be defending the country - against its people! For nearly 30 years, Saddam Hussein was one of the CIA's men in the Middle East, an obedient dictator. The CIA helped Hussein in the 1963 and 1968 coups, giving him lists of trade unionists to be killed (5000 in 1963 alone). In 1980 Iraq attacked Iran, after the US government had given Iraq the green light to invade. There were no frantic US-British efforts at the UN to denounce Iraqi aggression! In 1982, the US government took Iraq off its list of terrorist states. Later, after Iraq had used US-supplied chemical weapons, the US government increased its licensing of dual-use technology exports to Iraq. In 1990, Thatcher and Reagan encouraged Kuwait not to negotiate with Iraq. Then the US government assured Iraq of its neutrality, while planning its attack. The US government told us that Iraq was threatening Saudi Arabia - but commercial satellite pictures showed no Iraqi troops on the border. The Pentagon's photos, which it said proved that the troops were there, remain classified. As for the sanctions against Iraq, the US government knew from the start that sanctions would `fully degrade' Iraq's water treatment facilities. In 1999, the ethical Blair government prevented the shipment of vaccines to Iraqi children. "Iraqis will pay the price while he [Saddam] remains in power" said the US Deputy National Security Adviser Robert Gates. The genocidal sanctions clearly broke the Geneva Conventions against harming civilians. Now the occupiers are opposing elections, because the wrong people would win - yet more proof that the war was never about democracy, but about oil and obedience.
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant ,Erudite , Gripping., August 12, 2004
This review is from: Behind the War on Terror: Western Secret Strategy and the Struggle for Iraq (Paperback)
Author gives an excellent account of run up of events leading up to the Anglo-American assault on Iraq.Author's arguments unassailable based on irrefutable logic.
Economic considerations prompted US UK to invade Iraq.Of late US has become vulnerable to energy shocks with domestic production unable to cope with increasing demand.This has led to occasional blackouts in places like California.Prior to Iraq war America's oil inventories fell to the lowest level since 1975 with the country on the verge of drawing oil from 'Strategic Petroluem Reserve'
Iraq under Saddam Hussein was becoming what author says a ' swing producer'.In other words he was turning oil tap on and off whenever Baghdad felt that such a policy was suiting its interests.Hussein even contemplated removing Iraqi oil from the market for extended periods of time which would have sent crude oil prices soaring.
Besides Hussein began to challenge US monoply on oil trade.We all know oil trade is transacted in dollars.Hussein switched the trade to Euros.As a result dollar's value diminished by 17 percent.Were other oil-producing countries like Nigeria, Iran Venezuela to follow suit dollar's value would erode.Hussein's measures , in short, threatned America's economic , military pre-eminence.So he was ousted replaced by pro western stooge subservient Illad Allawi.
Bush- Blair team went to absurd lengths to justify invasion of Iraq.Intelligence on Iraq's WMD capability was cooked up distorted ,exaggerated to bolster case for war .Blair even had the gumption to claim that Iraq had lethal weapons which could be activated in 45 mts and was poised to strike British bases in Cyprus.An argument that sound ridiculous because we know from inde sources between a period from 1992-98 98 percent of Iraq WMD was destroyed along with infrastructure to make those weapons. Bush-Blair team ,I feel ,deliberately mislead their people to make a case for war.
Fact goes that Iraq could be invaded easily because it did not have weapons to defend herself.Britain US saw to it Iraq was fully disarmed begore unleashing their armies.In this they were helped by UN Security council which did the dirty work of disarming Iraq.It looks from this train of events that ' right to self-defence ' belongs to few coutries in the west.This a a covert form of racism.Be that may, US UK have taught coutries like N Korea ,Syria, Iran an ugly lesson better arm yourself with nuclear weapons if you want ot deter possible future hostile action.
What US UK want unfettered, unrestrained access to oil of resource-rich Middle East.What they fear most is indigenous nationalsm. Controlling the region by force is nothing but fascism and will not sove problems plaguing the region.It will breed resentment leading to vicious form of 'blowback'a term used by prominent American academic Chalmers Johnson.This term isused to denote negative inevitable consequences stemming from American imperial policies.
Author says it is possible to make western world immune to oilshocks.This can be done by exploring alternative sources of energy and changing fuel consumption patterns of people.
Book contains intersting facts pertaining to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait,anthrax scare in US which many in the west may find hard to digest . Truth sometimes is unpalatable.
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30 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Work of Genius, November 28, 2003
This review is from: Behind the War on Terror: Western Secret Strategy and the Struggle for Iraq (Paperback)
This book carries accolades from Gore Vidal and John Pilger, but for me, even at the age of 25, Ahmed's work already surpases theirs. Nafeez Mossadeq Nafeez is quite simply the best political commentator writing today. His 'War on Freedom' took a line of thinking that I had previously dismissed as the domain of conspiracy theorists and made a solid case for it, backed by meticulous research. This level of research is again evident in 'Behind the War on Terror'. This time there is no element of speculation, it is all solid fact. The history of western intervention in Iraq from the end of the first world war to the present date is clearly documented in a highly readable and convincing manner. Ahmed's arguments simply shatter those of pro war camp, it's a shame that his voice isn't more widely heard, especially in an age where most jounalists seem to parrot official lies and offer no critical analysis at all. I am tired of hearing their pathetic arguments of 'well would you have kept him in power'. The war cannot be seen in isolation. The sanctions against Iraq that denied them clean water supplies thus causing over a million to die from preventable diseases can only be seen as Biological warfare. It is an incredible but little known fact that two heads of the UN humanitarian mission in Iraq resigned calling the sanctions genocide. The pretext for these horrific sanctions (though by no means justified) and the war was that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. As this has proven to be untrue the real reason has become more apparent. It was simple naked imperialism, a grab for oil. Both Blair and Bush have constantly conjured up a picture of Saddam as a dangerous monster, undoubtedly this is true. But it was their (and their predessors) actions that caused the deaths of over one million Iraqis beteen 1991 and 2003. This has to be termed one of the crimes of the century and the proponents of it should stand trial for crimes against humanity. The real tragedy was that it was commited under the authority of the United Nations, who broke their own charter by using this method of mass punishment. Genocide has occured before by the hands of dictators but when the worlds senior most governing body is responsible that is truly a nightmare scenario. The sanctions were clearly a method of destroying the fabric of Iraqi socity and the moral of the Iraqi people so that they would have agreed to anything if it meant they were removed, even an invasion by oil grabbing imperialist powers. Ahmed's explanation of this, the Iran/Iraq war and subsequent western interventions is quite brilliant. I look forward to his future publications and would implore everyone to read this book. I can only hope that his work receives wider media access, because the world needs it. I sincerely believe he is a great genius of our time.
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