9/11 – The Great Game and the Muslim World

After the 9/11 tragedy, there emerged widespread fear and paranoia in the United States, and the Bush administration exploited it fully to perpetuate its rule. Taking advantage of the paranoia that was essentially created by the propagandist international mass media, President Bush took the decision to invade Iraq – on the pretext that Saddam Hussain was harboring weapons of mass destruction – and Afghanistan, to brow beat the Taliban and capture or kill Osama Bin Laden and the top hierarchy of Al-Qaeda.

However, it is clear that the ‘war on terror’ was not aimed at eliminating terrorism. On the contrary, it gave a boost to the military industrial complex of the US, and is aimed at grabbing the energy resources of the Middle East, Central Asia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Dangerously, the US objectives in the region are stunningly nefarious, though stated otherwise. These unstated objectives include the encirclement and containment of power centres in the region,capturing and controlling strategic trade and energy corridors and, importantly, ‘destruction of the political model of Islam’, by defacing it as a violent philosophy. It may seem like an overstretched idea or a biased analysis of regional geopolitics, but an examination of the abridgement of the American wars in Asia after 9/11 vindicates the US intent to pursue these grand strategy objectives. Using terrorism and war on terror as frontage, the USsuccessfully established its military footprint in the strategic nerve points across Asia. The Middle East, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, along with all land and sea trade as well as the energy corridors, are all areas of interest for the US. All these foreign policy objectives are actually different phases of one larger scheme, of asserting the US control over the whole Eurasian region, (with Africa and Oceania regions acting as peripheries) in its pig-headed obsession of world domination under a new world order (read disorder).
Thus, a ‘Great Game’ has surfaced on a new plane, and the integrity and sovereignty of developing countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran is at stake. Particularly, in this new great game, Pakistan and Afghanistan are in the middle of what many analysts call the “PIPELINEISTAN WARS”.

The US presence in the region and its aggressive designs have led to anger and frustration amongst the vast majority of the people, culminating in anti-US sentiments and the assertion of the fact that the notorious US military onslaught is a war against ‘ISLAM’.

Firstly, Russia and China are the power players in the Asian region. Right now, it is nothing else but ever growing Chinese economic and military might that has frightened the Neo-Cons in the US. During Bush administration, they tried their level best to bash Chinese policies in their recommendations. Four years back, China reacted very forcefully against the moves of ExxonMobil to set a project in the South China Sea with Vietnam. US and other players like India want to curtain Chinese influence inside Asia, as China is becoming more and more active in the Indian Ocean. To keep its double digit economic growth rate in momentum, the only thing China needs more than anything else is Energy. China has taken all the necessary steps to have sufficient energy resources currently, but in the future, it will need more oil and gas. The procurement of Gawadar Port and an energy pact with Venezuela are consolidating the regional influence of China. The growing interests of the Chinese in the Arabian Gulf are irking the US; therefore, overt and covert operations are being launched to limit Chinese access to the Arabian Sea. This access is very critical for China, as it will not only enable it to fulfill its energy needs, but will also provide it with a strategic military footprint in the Arabian Sea and Gulf, and this has caused complete detestation on the part of the US towards China.