The Anniversary Of The 11th September (!)
The 11th of September 2001 shook the arrogance of the U.S imperialism, the self-professed emperor of the world, to his roots and at the same time was a revelation. With his Pentagon, CIA, super-astronomical military budget, nuclear safety-net, long range guided missiles, satellite search, military bases strewn all over the world and almost all the ruling powers of the world in his coat-pocket the emperor had been smug in his palace— supremely confident that no power on earth would ever dare to touch his hair. But that was before the 11th of September 2001 . On that day not only his hair, but also his face was touched—it was burnt. The entire world saw and came to know that the omnipotent emperor had been attacked right in his bastion of power—in New York , in Washington , in the headquarters of Pentagon. The emperor was disrobed before the open gaze of the entire world. He was shocked, aghast— and terribly, terribly angry. He started to spit fire proclaiming to the world that he was hell bent to teach the 'adventurers' a lesson and wipe them out.
And he did teach 'them' and the world a lesson! Already devastated Afghanistan was turned into rubbles and in a completely ruined Afghanistan a 'democratic' government was installed over the heads of Afghan people with the 'kind' patronage and blessings of President Bush and the entire imperialist world. It is immaterial to President Bush and the U.S. imperialism whether they have been able to capture Osama Bin Laden or not, because, they have already achieved their purpose. Afghanistan have been crushed beyond recognition, a 'friendly' government has been established in Afghanistan whose members will never forget the 'benevolence' of President Bush and his military machine and will always remain eager to repay their debts to U.S imperialism at every opportunity. The danger of loosing control over the oil fields in Central Asia has been cleared. President Bush had thundered, "All who are not with us are against us." This thunder had produced the desired result. There had been a mad scramble among almost all the ruling powers of the world to crowd on the side of President Bush. And in that bargain the American President had found a reliable Jeeves in Prime Minister Blair of England . Almost the "entire" world (as represented by the ruling powers of the different countries) had vowed to fight against "terrorism" under the leadership of U.S. imperialism. And peace and tranquillity had again returned to the Mother Earth!
But it seems that U.S. imperialism and the entire imperialist world do not exactly think so. They have not been able to forget the shock of the 11th of September 2001 . Nor do they want the people of the world to forget it. Because they want to carry on with the war cry against "terrorism" so that it may remain a handy weapon with them for hoodwinking and drawing the masses to their side and at the same time crushing any protest against them in the name of "combating terrorism". Secondly, they also want to remind the masses about the threatening prospect of the terrible retribution that will follow in the case of any attack against them. So this meticulously planned arrangement had been made to commemorate the anniversary of the 11th September. Long before the date the newspaper and the electronic media of the entire world started an orchestrated campaign to remind the people of the past 11th September and of its coming anniversary. Thanks to this campaign, 9/11 has now become a universal symbol. Now almost everybody knows what is meant by 9/11, which is, by the way, the American way of denoting 11th of September. The re-run of the past year's 11th September for days after days soaked us through and through. The reports of the attack on the World Trade Centre and its demolition were again published in the newspapers in a big way. Fresh interviews of the close relatives of the people killed on the 11th of September were taken and published. The newspapers of the entire world flashed pictures of the wives and children of the fire brigade and police personnel killed on that day visiting the graves of their husbands and fathers with flowers. The entire media seemed to be very much concerned about the traumas of the common New Yorkers and their battle against it! Have the media barons ever spent a small fraction of their 'precious' time for the common New Yorkers? The electronic media repeated all these in greater details. During this period the crumbling down of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre had been shown on the T.V. screen with such regularity that we started to have bad dreams about lying under the debris of the towers.
And then the 11th of September started to take the image of a day of bad omen. The media played a major part in creating this image. We were fed with reports the air travellers all over the world canceling their bookings in the flights of 11th September. We were also told that some of the airlines, especially in America , were withdrawing all their flights of 11th September. A chilling apprehension grew and spread about 11th September. Along with this spread the rumour that a repetition of the previous year's 11th September was going to take place—the "terrorists" would be commemorating the anniversary in their own way. The rumour spread through innuendoes, through whispers and in the present situation it naturally gripped. A new superstition was born—born not on backward, feudal material basis, but conceived and given birth by imperialism— the highest stage of capitalism! Such is the irony of history. At the beginning of its long journey capitalism had fought against religion, against superstitions. Now at its highest stage it requires to create new religions, new superstitions for its survival.
As an added attraction President Bush decided to spray bombs on Iraq to commemorate this anniversary. Just when the New Yorkers are lighting candles in the churches in remembrance of those killed in 11th September of the previous year, exactly at the same time bombs are falling on the common men, women and children of Iraq . Why? Just because the common people of Iraq have not fallen at the feet of the emperor of the world, they have dared to have the 'temerity' to oppose him! This is genocide, this is terrorism of the worst kind. But who is lighting candles in remembrance of those common men, women and children killed in these bombings? No such news has come out in the media. And it is natural. But it is certain that far away from the media glare, thousands and thousands of candles have been silently lighted in the depths of their of minds by common working men and women who are being exploited and crushed by imperialism in general and U.S imperialism in particular.
In the mean time the Iraqi government have agreed to re-admit U.N. arms inspectors. But the U.S. President and his faithful Jeeves Tony Blair are not satisfied. According to newspaper reports they are sceptic of Saddam Hussien's unconditional offer. They are of the opinion that Saddam Hussien's word cannot be taken at the face value. Who has given them the judgement seat? On the 19th of September U.S President asked the U.S. Congress to endorse a possible attack against Iraq and ouster of President Saddam Hussien. He also warned the UN Security Council to deal with Iraq or Washington will. He 'magnanimously' explained—"If you want to keep peace, you've got to have the authorisation to use force." That is the way the emperor speaks! He cannot refrain from administering 'justice' if others fail to do so!
But he is constantly growling and howling and keeping his teeth barred to frighten away the adversaries. This means that he is highly apprehensive. He should be. The incident of 11 th September of the previous year was an act of blind protest against U.S imperialism. And as it was blind the protest pursued a wrong path. But it is clear from what is happening in the international arena that 11 th September 2001 has not been an isolated incident. Iraq is almost single-handedly holding its fort and has now been able to drive a wedge within the imperialists. Seattle , Geneva , Nice, Rome etc. have also supplied living proofs of this. It is undeniable that these anti-imperialist protests are still unconscious, amorphous, and leaderless, without any specific direction, infiltrated with sectarian interests and manipulators of different colours and hence dominated by bourgeois political outlook. But at the same time it is also true that the appearances of these blind, unconscious protests indicate that the wheel of history is showing a tendency to turn in the opposite direction. It is not turning in the way we would have liked nor in the speed we would have wished for. But the tendency is quite apparent and that is the most important aspect of the present international situation. The transformation of these blind, unconscious, fragmented protests against imperialism into conscious, united ones depends on various factors many of which can not be predicted beforehand nor can be created. But the possibility for effecting this transformation has been opened and now the future history will tell when this possibility will turn into reality.
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