“How does the U.S. perceive its war against al-Qaeda? It sees it as a fight between the United States and everyone, everywhere in the world ...”

By Colonel Khawar Habib Butt (Retired)

December 5, 2006
Pakistan - The Nation - Original Article (English)

Is the Bush Administration still in the midst
of a post-September 11 neurotic episode?



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In the wake of the first Gulf War and its consequences, the world's sole superpower strengthened itself and become nearly invincible. There is no match for its technology; due to the brain drain it causes around the world, labor is readily available to it; the Soviet Union has been done in by its war in Afghanistan; Europe has been well-contained since the Serbians were made an example of by NATO; China still follows an isolationist policy to avoid confrontation; India has been tamed into a strategy partnership; the Muslim block in general and Pakistan in particular are well reined in ... so where is the problem? Why has the Bush Administration made so many apparently irrational decisions, such as venturing directly into Afghanistan and nearly alone into Iraq, and encouraging Israel to flex its military muscles in Lebanon? Why use the hammer when better results could be achieved by the velvet glove?

Let us examine the U.N.'s role over the past decade. The conflicts simmering with such explosive potential are in the Middle East, Kashmir, Chechnya and Iran. In all of these cases, there is a common denominator: Muslims are victimized by the blatant military might of a belligerent. The latest addition to the list, which falls outside this common thread, is North Korea.

But in all of these conflicts, at least five nuclear powers are directly involved: the U.S., Russia, India, Israel, Pakistan and the emerging Nuclear Power of North Korea. How can this unipolar world be balanced, with five nuclear weapons states having a direct stake in their regions? In addition, American interests are threatened by China. Beijing's capacity to provide global leadership is gradually increasing, it has a booming economy, and it has managed to avoid armed conflict for over three decades.

Thinking people everywhere have been racking their brains wondering why the United States, which is apparently invincible, repeatedly creates new problems for itself. This is why most surveys in Europe and Asia go against American actions in the Middle East.

Europeans and Asians generally disapprove of U.S. intervention in the Persian Gulf or Afghanistan. One American intervention created al-Qaeda, another the resilient Iraqi resistance, and the latest – conducted by its outpost Israel, has strengthened an even more determined Hezbullah. In the meanwhile, Iran and North Korea flouting American pressure without any sign of giving in. The United Nations in its capacity of resolving international disputes according to its charter has been an abyssal failure since the transformation of a bipolar world into a unipolar one.

If President Bush wants the United States to remain on top and to make this world a safe, prosperous place for future generations, he must begin to consider America's center of gravity.

For two centuries, America's center of gravity had always been its sense of security, the feeling of invincibility gained from knowing that no outside power had the capacity, the means or the will to reach U.S. soil. This sense of security was further strengthened in the later 1980s after the collapse of Soviet Union, and even plans for a "Star Wars" missile shield were shelved.

But then the "New World Order" unfolded according to Huntington's Clash of Civilizations and Osama bin Laden became a kind of phantom. Now any conflict or terrorist activity is credited to the shadowy group, and the entire world is caught up in a war between the U.S. and al-Qaeda. And where is al-Qaeda? It is nowhere and everywhere.

And how does the U.S. perceive its war against al-Qaeda? It sees it as a fight between the United States and everyone, everywhere in the world. Any regime or individual that disagrees with American notions is lumped together with al-Qaeda. How long will the U.S. continue to chase shadows - and what good has this policy done for the center of gravity of American citizens? What has it done for their sense of security? Now all Americans doubt fellow Americans, and the world is forced to listen to the daily to warnings Washington issues its citizens not to visit this country, to leave that region or avoid going out in public in some nation.

What the U.S. is doing to itself, no military power could do. Americans no longer feel safe in their isolated, far-flung, once-invincible continent, because the Bush Administration itself is eroding the sense of security of average American citizens. It needs to address this issue and remember what happened after the League of Nations collapsed - we had another world war.

'United States drives Iran's President Ahmadinejad
to follow in Kim Jong-il's footsteps.' [Ad Dustour, Jordan].


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By flouting America's foreign policy, North Korea's nuclear test has dented the concept of a unipolar world. Over 35,000 American troops in South Korea are now within artillery range of a nuclear North Korea, and over 70,000 American troops are stationed in Japan are within striking range of approaching nuclear-tipped North Korean missiles.

The Bush Administration's unjust policies have made the world in general, and United States in particular, a much more dangerous place. This is an issue that should be of great concern to American citizens well before the next U.S. elections.