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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/afghanistan-US-war-terror-really-began-1945">middleeasteye.net</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Afghanistan: US 'war on terror' really began in 1945</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Joseph Massad - August 30, 2021<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>The recent <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/us-politics" target="_blank">US</a> admission of defeat in <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/tags/afghanistan" target="_blank">Afghanistan</a> has mobilised the liberal <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/17/opinions/biden-afghanistan-address-third-option-stewart/index.html" target="_blank">western press</a> to demand more <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/08/21/the-fiasco-in-afghanistan-is-a-grave-blow-to-americas-standing" target="_blank">imperial resolve</a> from President <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/16/nows-moment-biden-pivot-his-foreign-policy-stand-up-adversaries/" target="_blank">Joe Biden</a> and US policy makers and increased the western Islamophobic press coverage.</p>
<p>Absent from such considerations is the counter-revolutionary history
of the US and the wars that it launched across the globe since World War
II to assert its imperial control, costing millions of lives. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The history of US involvement in Afghanistan is also part of the
particular history of US imperial efforts to dominate Arab and
Muslim-majority countries</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the 1970s, 14 anti-colonial and anti-dictatorial revolutions in
Africa, Asia, and Latin America overthrew western and pro-western
regimes to achieve a measure of social and economic democracy that had
been suppressed with the major help of the US and European colonial
powers. This led to major wars that the US and its allies unleashed on
the new revolutionary governments. </p>
<p>In Ethiopia, revolutionary coup leaders <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45071379" target="_blank">overthrew</a>
Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 and ended Ethiopian-US military ties in
1977. The US and some of its Arab regime clients supported a <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=xxUaAAAAMAAJ&q=fred+Halliday+second+cold+war&dq=fred+Halliday+second+cold+war&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjIiMXr9s3yAhV6h_0HHYQ4CrAQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg" target="_blank">Somali invasion</a> of Ethiopia the same year, hoping to restore US control.</p>
<p>It was to help secure the new revolutionary government in Ethiopia that the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24356896" target="_blank">Soviets sent arms and Cuban troops were deployed</a>. Meanwhile, Somalia was <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-03-17-mn-35349-story.html" target="_blank">converted</a> into a US military base and was plunged in interminable wars from which it has never recovered. </p>
<p>Revolution was also hitting southern Europe at the same time as the
Portuguese overthrew their western-supported fascist Salazar regime,
which led to the triumph of the ongoing liberation struggles in
Portugal’s African colonies. Revolutionaries liberated Angola,
Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and Sao Tome.</p>
<p>The fall of the Portuguese regime and the liberation of its African
settler-colonies, especially Mozambique and Angola, would also weaken
the neighbouring white supremacist English settler-colony of Rhodesia,
leading to the revolutionary guerrillas' triumph in 1980 and the <a href="https://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3310&context=luc_diss" target="_blank">establishment of Zimbabwe</a>. </p>
<h3>US propaganda</h3>
<p>As these revolutions also gave a push to the liberation struggle
against white-supremacist rule in Namibia, occupied and colonised by
apartheid South Africa, the US, South Africa, and Zaire’s western-backed
president, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1993/08/zaire-an-african-horror-story/305496/" target="_blank">Mobutu Sese Seko</a>, launched
military interventions in Angola to destroy its revolution and
liberation struggle and safeguard Namibia and South Africa for white
supremacy.</p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/afghanistan-taliban-surge-us-pentagon-lies-exposed" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/000_9LC3K8.jpg?itok=7XR89iJD" alt="" width="400" height="250"></a></p><p>How the Taliban surge exposed Pentagon's lies</p>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/afghanistan-taliban-surge-us-pentagon-lies-exposed" target="_blank">Read More »</a>
</p></div>
<p>This led to the arrival of Cuban troops to defend the Angolan
revolution while the Soviets and the German Democratic Republic provided
training for the anti-colonial freedom fighters resisting the US-backed
South African <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/umkhonto-we-sizwe-structure-training-and-force-levels-1984-1994-tsepe-motumi-african" target="_blank">apartheid</a>.</p>
<p>Soon, the South Africans with US help sponsored the counter-revolution <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/722294" target="_blank">in Mozambique </a>to also destroy that revolution. </p>
<p>In Indochina, despite the genocidal scale of its killing machine, the
US was unable to defeat revolutionary struggles, which finally won in
Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos by 1975. </p>
<p>In 1979, a massive revolution in Iran overthrew a major US-backed
dictator while a coup in neighbouring Afghanistan brought to power a new
communist government in April 1978.</p>
<p>Despite US propaganda, the <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=xxUaAAAAMAAJ&q=fred+Halliday+second+cold+war&dq=fred+Halliday+second+cold+war&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjIiMXr9s3yAhV6h_0HHYQ4CrAQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg" target="_blank">Soviets</a>
had no hand in either revolution, and the US produced no evidence that
they ever did. The US hastily sponsored a counter-revolution in Iran and
Afghanistan and subcontracted neighbouring Pakistan to help with the
latter. In Central America and the Caribbean, a liberation struggle
defeated the US-supported dictator in Nicaragua in July 1979 and the New
Jewel Movement came to power in Grenada in an armed uprising.</p>
<p>This would lead to intensified US-sponsored repression against
revolutionary struggles in neighbouring El Salvador and Guatemala, the
sponsorship of counterrevolution and invasion of Nicaragua, and the
direct US invasion of Grenada in 1983 to unseat the new government.</p>
<h3>A crusade against the Soviets </h3>
<p>As the US unleashed its military invasions and subcontracted its
allies to do the same, one particular country became the focus of its
efforts, namely Afghanistan, especially so as it bordered the USSR.
Whereas the US had client states bordering the southern Soviet border,
including Turkey, a Nato member, and Iran, it was unable to change
India’s neutrality.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The story begins with the Truman administration who first showed
interest in “Islam” and began searching for a Muslim leader to spearhead
a crusade against the Soviets</p>
</blockquote>
<p>China had become an enemy of the Soviets years earlier. All that
remained was Afghanistan, which remained neutral during the Cold War.
But when idealist Afghan communists staged a coup and rushed into
ill-considered and hasty reforms in a country suffering from massive
poverty, illiteracy, and oppression, the US was quick to take in
disgruntled Afghans who opposed the reforms and subcontracted its local
clients to unseat the regime. </p>
<p>This led the Afghan government to invite Soviet military forces in December 1979 to safeguard the revolutionary regime.</p>
<p>The history of US involvement in Afghanistan is also part of the
particular history of US imperial efforts to dominate Arab and
Muslim-majority countries. The story begins with the Truman
administration who first <a href="https://books.google.com.lb/books?id=f1I_U4UjLjkC&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">showed interest in "Islam"</a> and began searching for a Muslim leader to spearhead a crusade against the Soviets.</p>
<h3>Islam: A natural barrier</h3>
<p>Truman’s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40107707" target="_blank">Psychological Strategy Board</a> adopted a programme in February 1953, soon after Eisenhower took office. The <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=f1I_U4UjLjkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ian+Johnson,+A+Mosque+in+Munich&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Ian%20Johnson%2C%20A%20Mosque%20in%20Munich&f=false" target="_blank">programme</a> affirmed
that "contrary to received wisdom in the West…Islam was not a natural
barrier to communism. Many reformers who took power in these countries
put economics before religion; that weakened the role of faith and made
the region vulnerable to communism." </p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/afghanistan-us-taliban-victory-end-western-empire" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/000_9L93W9.jpg?itok=YnvGwARS" alt="" width="400" height="250"></a></p><p>Will Taliban victory mark the beginning of the end of the western empire?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/afghanistan-us-taliban-victory-end-western-empire" target="_blank">Read More »</a>
</p></div>
<p>Edward P Lilly, chief psychological warfare strategist for Eisenhower, drew up a memorandum <a href="https://books.google.com.lb/books?id=Iga6BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA77&dq=Edward+P.+Lilly,+chief+psychological+warfare+strategist+for+Eisenhower,+drew+up+a+memorandum+titled:+%22The+Religious+Factor%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0xZ3s0tjyAhXRTsAKHUF-BEYQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=Edward%20P.%20Lilly%2C%20chief%20psychological%20warfare%20strategist%20for%20Eisenhower%2C%20drew%20up%20a%20memorandum%20titled%3A%20%22The%20Religious%20Factor%22&f=false" target="_blank">titled: "The Religious Factor"</a> in
1953. It called on the US to use religion more explicitly in its fight
against the Soviet Union and recognised that using Islam as a vehicle to
reach the tens of millions of Soviet Muslims would be to US advantage.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=f1I_U4UjLjkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ian+Johnson,+A+Mosque+in+Munich&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Ian%20Johnson%2C%20A%20Mosque%20in%20Munich&f=false" target="_blank">memorandum</a>
reached the National Security Council in 1954. In the same spirit, the
state department hosted in September 1953 a major delegation of
"distinguished Muslim scholars" for a <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=Ld1AxwEACAAJ&dq=Colloquium+on+Islamic+Culture+in+Its+Relation+to+the+Contemporary+World,+September+1953&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y" target="_blank">colloquium</a> on "Islamic culture" held at Princeton University, and invited the delegates to the White House. </p>
<p>In 1954, the CIA dispatched spy agitators to Mecca during the Muslim
pilgrimage to foment anti-Soviet sentiments among Soviet pilgrims. The
CIA agents were Soviet Muslim <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=f1I_U4UjLjkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ian+Johnson,+A+Mosque+in+Munich&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Ian%20Johnson%2C%20A%20Mosque%20in%20Munich&f=false" target="_blank">collaborators</a>
with the Nazis who had previously worked with the Nazi regime to
mobilise Soviet Muslims against their government during World War II.</p>
<p>The US inherited and utilised a whole Nazi team of spies and their
handlers who used to work for the Reich Ministry of the Occupied Eastern
Territories (Ostministerium). Indeed, one of the same <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=f1I_U4UjLjkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ian+Johnson,+A+Mosque+in+Munich&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Ian%20Johnson%2C%20A%20Mosque%20in%20Munich&f=false" target="_blank">Nazi collaborator</a> agents
sent to Mecca by the CIA would be dispatched the following year to
Indonesia, to the Bandung Conference, to propagandise against the Soviet
Union and its alleged maltreatment of Soviet Muslims, in an attempt to
undermine Soviet standing among the non-aligned nations. </p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/000_SAPA990310294840.jpg" alt="US President General Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (1890-1969) poses for a photographer in 1951 at NATO Paris headquarters. In 1950" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="429" height="342"></p>
Future US President General Eisenhower poses for a photographer in 1951 at Nato Paris headquarters (AFP)</div>
<p>Another important mission was supporting right-wing
Indonesian Muslim religious organisations against the Indonesian
Communist Party. The right-wing Indonesian Islamists were led by a
former government minister who financed their anti-communist sabotage
operations from a Swiss bank account. The minister’s overseas contact
was the same <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=f1I_U4UjLjkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ian+Johnson,+A+Mosque+in+Munich&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Ian%20Johnson%2C%20A%20Mosque%20in%20Munich&f=false" target="_blank">CIA agent</a> sent to Bandung. </p>
<h3>The Eisenhower Doctrine</h3>
<p>In January 1957, President Eisenhower announced the Eisenhower Doctrine and <a href="http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3360" target="_blank">declared</a>
that the US would come to the aid of any country in the Middle East
threatened by communism. In private meetings with the CIA’s <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-two-frank-wisners" target="_blank">Frank Wisner</a> and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Eisenhower <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=f1I_U4UjLjkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ian+Johnson,+A+Mosque+in+Munich&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Ian%20Johnson%2C%20A%20Mosque%20in%20Munich&f=false" target="_blank">insisted</a>
that the Arabs should obtain inspiration from their religion to fight
communism and that "we should do everything possible to stress the ‘holy
war’ aspect". </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Whereas US and CIA involvement in Afghanistan goes back to the 1960s,
the Western press began after 1978 to report in most sympathetic terms
about 'fiercely anti-communist Moslem insurgents'</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Eisenhower was keen on propping up the Saudis as a counterweight to then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Eisenhower’s <a href="https://books.google.com.lb/books?id=F90tAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA425&dq=%22King+could+be+built+up,+possibly,+as+a+spiritual+leader.+Once+this+were+accomplished+we+might+begin+to+urge+his+right+to+political+leadership.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiUio6hu9jyAhULDcAKHRYdDygQ6AEwAHoECAsQAg#v=onepage&q=%22King%20could%20be%20built%20up%2C%20possibly%2C%20as%20a%20spiritual%20leader.%20Once%20this%20were%20accomplished%20we%20might%20begin%20to%20urge%20his%20right%20to%20political%20leadership.%22&f=false" target="_blank">plan</a>
was that the Saudi king "could be built up, possibly, as a spiritual
leader. Once this were accomplished we might begin to urge his right to
political leadership."</p>
<p>To that end, Saudi Crown Prince Faisal <a href="https://books.google.com.lb/books?id=Iga6BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82&dq=Crown+Prince+Faysal+organised+an+international+Islamic+conference+in+" target="_blank">organised </a>an
international Islamic conference in Mecca in 1962 to combat the
popularity of Arab nationalism, socialism, and "secularism", and
launched the World Muslim League. The conference <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=rbuZDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Willard+A.+Beling,+King+Faisal+and+the+Modernisation+of+Saudi+Arabia&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Willard%20A.%20Beling%2C%20King%20Faisal%20and%20the%20Modernisation%20of%20Saudi%20Arabia&f=false" target="_blank">declared</a>:
“Those who disavow Islam and distort its call under the guise of
nationalism are actually the most bitter enemies of the Arabs, whose
glories are entwined with the glories of Islam." </p>
<p>In response to Faisal’s attempt to replace Arab unity with Islamic unity, Nasser <a href="https://books.google.com.lb/books?id=rbuZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT149&dq=%E2%80%9CAmerican-British+conspiracy+aimed+at+dividing+the+Arab+world+and+undermining+Arab+hopes+for+unity.%E2%80%9D%C2%A0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi2kPTAvNjyAhXLa8AKHfcIAWwQ6AEwAXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CAmerican-British%20conspiracy%20aimed%20at%20dividing%20the%20Arab%20world%20and%20undermining%20Arab%20hopes%20for%20unity.%E2%80%9D%C2%A0&f=false" target="_blank">accused</a>
the new Islamic alliance of being an “American-British conspiracy aimed
at dividing the Arab world and undermining Arab hopes for unity.” </p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/000_APP2002121605070.jpg" alt="In the early 80s shows the premier groups of the Afghan anti-Soviet resistance fighters with their primitive arms in the eastern parts of the country." style="margin-right: 25px;" width="429" height="287"></p>
Groups of anti-Soviet Afghan resistance fighters in the eastern parts of the country in the 1980s (AFP)</div>
<p>The participation of right-wing Indonesian Muslim groups in the massacre of close to a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/18/indonesia-us-documents-released-1965-66-massacres" target="_blank">million communists</a> and alleged communists in 1965 Indonesia after a US-sponsored and financed coup was celebrated by an editorial in the <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=Iga6BQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Islam+in+Liberalism+massad&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiFgY3S-83yAhXRxoUKHV9ZAGwQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg#v=snippet&q=Chicago%20Tribune&f=false" target="_blank">Chicago Tribune</a>:
“We must say it’s refreshing to read of young Muslims burning down
Communist Party headquarters, for a change and shout ‘Long Live
America.’”</p>
<p>Once the counterrevolutionary Suharto consolidated his rule in
Jakarta, he reined in the Islamist groups, though some of the more
extreme among them would be maintained as an anti-communist force. They
would <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=Iga6BQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Islam+in+Liberalism+massad&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiFgY3S-83yAhXRxoUKHV9ZAGwQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg#v=snippet&q=Suharto&f=false" target="_blank">join</a> the anti-Soviet effort in Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s. </p>
<p>By the late 1970s, the US was, in partnership with the Saudis as well
as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and his successor Hosni Mubarak,
already recruiting, financing and training Islamists from Afghanistan to
Pakistan, the Arab world, Europe and the United States readying them
for the final battle against the Soviets.</p>
<p>Whereas US and CIA<a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=0NE8AAAAMAAJ&q=Washington%27s+secret+war+against+afghanistan&dq=Washington%27s+secret+war+against+afghanistan&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y" target="_blank"> involvement</a> in Afghanistan goes back to the 1960s, the <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=0NE8AAAAMAAJ&q=Washington%27s+secret+war+against+afghanistan&dq=Washington%27s+secret+war+against+afghanistan&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y" target="_blank">western press</a>
began after 1978 to report in most sympathetic terms about "fiercely
anti-communist Moslem insurgents" in Afghanistan and in training camps
in Pakistan in need of more weapons.</p>
<h3>Subcontracting allies</h3>
<p>It was this US policy, abetted by its subcontracted allies, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which led to the <a href="https://books.google.jo/books?id=J5C0R6qxjpgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=John+Cooley,+Unholy+Wars,+Afghanistan,+America,+and+International+Terrorism&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=John%20Cooley%2C%20Unholy%20Wars%2C%20Afghanistan%2C%20America%2C%20and%20International%20Terrorism&f=false" target="_blank">creation</a>
of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State group, from the ranks
of the US-created and trained right-wing Islamists who helped the Afghan
Mujahidin to take over Afghanistan in 1992.</p>
<p>The Taliban and al-Qaeda would come to fight the US once it turned on
them after the fall of the Soviets - although al-Qaeda and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/isis-weapons-arsenal-included-some-purchased-u-s-government-n829201" target="_blank">IS fighters</a> would be recruited anew for the ongoing US-sponsored wars in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-arms/arms-supplied-by-u-s-saudi-ended-up-with-islamic-state-researchers-say-idUSKBN1E82EQ" target="_blank">Iraq</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/world/middleeast/cia-syria-rebel-arm-train-trump.html" target="_blank">Syria</a>, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/02/middleeast/yemen-lost-us-arms/" target="_blank">Yemen</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/world/africa/weapons-sent-to-libyan-rebels-with-us-approval-fell-into-islamist-hands.html" target="_blank">Libya</a>. </p>
<p>Rather than revisit the counterrevolutionary terror that the US
visited on Afghanistan and the rest of the world since WWII, the western
liberal press is too busy lamenting the gradual decline of the US
empire and attacking Biden for his lacklustre imperialist leadership. </p>
<p><i>The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.</i></p>
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