On Fri, 14 Sep 2001, GERALD HORNE wrote:

 

 

 Some economists have argued that what has made the fabled U.S. economy

 what it is today is easy credit:  buy now, pay later.

 

 In light of the tragic and horrendous events of 11 September, it is also

 possible to say that this kind of philosophy also sheds light on this

 terrible tragedy.

 

 For amidst the hour piled upon hour of bloviating and commentary on radio

 and t.v., one stubborn fact has gone unnoticed:  those who are being

 accused of perpetrating this crime, e.g. the Saudi, Osama bin Laden, were

 not only among the closest allies of the U.S., but--as well--were

 essential to the prior historical epoch, the Cold War, that the events of

 9-11 are destined to replace. 

 

 These "allies" were relied on heavily but that reliance has come with a

 price and the time may be nigh to pay.  The famed actor and director,

 Orson Welles, put it best when seeking to explain why organized crime

 plays such a large role in the entertainment industry (yet another subject

 that has evaded the attention of so many of our contemporary

 analysts):  "A group of [moguls] finance a group of gangsters to break

 trade unionism, to check the threat of Socialism, the 'menace' of

 Communism or the possibility of democracy.....When the gangsters succeed

 at what they are paid to do, they turn on the men who paid them....[The]

 puppet masters find their creatures taking on a terrible life of their

 own."

 

 

 For during the 1980s the U.S. participated in the largest 'covert'

 operation of its history--perhaps of all time--the destabilization of the

 left-led regime in Afghanistan, a regime bolstered by the then USSR.  As

 Dan Rather is beamed into living rooms nationally, pontificating about the

 horrors of these bombings, I wonder if he recalls when he was smuggled

 into Afghanistan to broadcast hyperbolically favorable stories about the

 same "freedom fighters" who now--miraculously--have become "terrorists"?

 

 As he sheds a tear about the thousands of lives lost in the U.S., I wonder

 if Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor under Jimmy

 Carter and a major architect of the Afghan 'covert' action, recalls his

 being photographed infamously with these 'freedom fighters' with an

 assault weapon in his grubby paws aimed at Kabul? 

 

 As is well known, the U.S. helped to recruit tens of thousands to flock to

 Afghanistan, particularly recruits from the Islamic world.  Hundreds of

 millions of  dollars were poured into this effort and it is from this seething cauldron

 of conflict that bin Laden arose, not to mention those who are now

 destabilzing Algeria and wreaking havoc in an arc of instability that

 stretches from North Africa to the South Pacific. 

 

 Sadly, one can count on one hand--perhaps one finger--those (particularly

 among African-Americans) who uttered a word of opposition to the Afghan

 'covert' action as it unfolded, though those tax dollars would have

 been better spent on hunger and homelessness.  Most were cowed by the

 reigning  anticommunism which mandated avid support or muteness in the face of

 anything that was deemed anti-Soviet.

 

 Fundamentally, the U.S. helped to stoke right-wing nationalism--including

 what is called 'Islamic fundamentalism' and 'Christian militias'--to

 undermine not only left-led regimes but even bourgeois democratic

 governments.  Recall the pivotal 1980  election that catapulted Ronald Reagan 

into the White House.  Recall what  former Columbia University Professor, Gary 

Sick, referred to as the  "October Surprise," i.e. the newly installed Islamicist 

regime in Iran  supposedly agreed with the GOP aspirant to delay the release of

 U.S. hostages in their country, so as to undermine

 the candidacy for re-election of then President Jimmy Carter.  Then the

 hostages were released as Reagan took his oath of office in January 1981,

 which helped to propel the belief that the Iranians were frightened of

 retribution from Reagan and this fear prompted this release; this

 misbelief was  expanded to include the notion that militants internationally were now

afraid  of the big, bad U.S. now that the GOP right had come to office. 

 This stoked even more chauvinism on these shores.

 

 Then the Reagan Administration and the militant right-wing clerics in

 Teheran collaborated to eviscerate jointly the left-wing Tudeh Party

 opposition in Teheran, not least because they were seen as being close to

 Moscow.

 

 Those who doubt the collaboration between right-wing nationalism

 and the U.S. should re-examine the now forgotten 'Iran-Contra' scandal, an

 elaborate scheme that involved the U.S. simultaneously sending millions to

 Iran, while  passing on tens of millions of dollars in arms to the hated "contras" in

 Nicaragua  in an attempt to destroy the Sandinista government.

 

 Hence, if George W. Bush carries through with his stated desire to wage

 war on those who helped to boost his party into power, he will find

 shortly he will have to reconfigure the GOP--not to mention some of his

 erstwhile allies.  The pundits are correct that added pressure will be

 placed on Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the seedbed of right-wing nationalism

 in the Islamic world, but this can only serve to assist those who

 Washington has pledged to strangle--leftist opposition forces in these

 unstable nations.

 

 Israel may receive a short term boost from these events as more

 understanding may be shown in Washington for its struggle against

 Palestinians.  But in the long run many in the US will come to recognize

 that Israel's flouting of U.N. Resolutions concerning Palestine is no more

 than a breeding ground for frustration and anger--and recruits into the

 armies of militant right-wing nationalism. 

 

 China, which worked hand in glove with the US in Afghanistan, Southern

 Africa and other hotspots, is trapped in a contradiction of its own

 making.  So-called 'Islamic fundamentalism' has found something of a

 welcome in restive Western China, which has been targeted by Beijing for

 massive new investment and development; of course, this 'fundamentalism'

 was nurtured by China's anti-Soviet maneurvers in Afghanistan.  Now China

 is  tempted to continue its relations with the medievalist Taliban in

 Kabul--supposedly a new development deal was just inked with this odious

 regime--if only to keep Washington focused on anything besides China

 itself. 

 

 The U.S. ruling elite to this very day is continuing its disastrous

 romance with right-wing nationalism.  In the southeastern nation of

 Malaysia--one of the Cuba's closest friends and a prime granter of

 development aid in Southern Africa--Washington is now covertly backing the

 so-called 'Islamic Fundamentalist' forces of PAS against the progressive

 nationalism of Prime Minister Mahatir Mohammed.  In Central Asia,

 Washington's policy of detaching Tajikistan and Uzbekistan from the orbit

 of Russia--a policy that is a holdover from the Cold War--again only

 serves to assist the forces of right-wing nationalism the US is allegedly

 now at war with. 

 

 Criticism should also be accompanied by self-criticism and there's plenty

 to go around, particularly among African-Americans where we have our own

 militant right-wing nationalist forces, as the event of mid-October 1995

 exemplified.  Interestingly, these forces only began to flower in the

 mid-1950s, coincidentally when progressive figures like W.E.B. Du Bois,

 Shirley Graham Du Bois and Paul Robeson were coming under fierce

 attack in a global pattern that mimics what has occurred in Afghanistan,

 Nicaragua, Iran and elsewhere.  As we bask in the justifiable after-glow

 of our  historic participation in the Durban anti-racism conference, we should ask

 ourselves why our participation in the prior two U.N. sponsored

 anti-racism conferences was so sparse, though the question of apartheid

 and hatred of Africans was much more at center-stage then than at this

 year's  gathering.

 

  That issue set aside, it is clear that Black support for the

 Democratic Party should also be reassessed, as this party--according to

 the 14 September NEW YORK TIMES--is about to take a dive and back the

 White House's unworkable 'National Missile Defense' scheme to the tune of

 billions of dollars, though the assault of the World Trade Center shows

 this scheme is not only lacking in feasibility but is also not

 practical.  Many Blacks and many in labor too back the Democrats on the

 grounds that they are blocking the rise of the right; but as the Democrats

 vote in Congress to give Bush a virtual blank check to fight an

 ill-defined 'terrorism'  globally, it is apparent that the Democrats do 

not block the rise of the  right--they meekly enable it. 

 

 The events of 11 September involved some of the most significant

 bloodletting on these shores since the battle of Antietam during the Civil

 War.  Then, the question was whether this nation could exist

 "half-slave" and "half free".  The U.S. has encouraged fascist like

 practices globally (recall that 11 September also marks the anniversary of

 the US sponsored overthrow of the socialist Allende regime in Chile and

 its replacement by the fascist Pinochet), while seeking to maintain

 bourgeois democracy at home--with an unhealthy dose of quasi-fascist

 practices directed at "minorities".  It is now clear that this approach

 may no longer be tenable:  the pundits are correct, the page of history

 has turned but not necessarily in the way they describe.  The crackdown on

 civil liberties augured by the events of 11 September not only show once

 again how militant right-wing nationalism continues to replicate itself

 like an out-of-control computer virus but, also, the old practice with

 which some had become so comfortable--bourgeois democracy at home coupled

 with quasi-fascist practices against 'minorities' and outright fascism

 abroad--may now be untenable. 

 

 In the meantime a key task of progressives is to frontally assault the

 rising tidal wave of persecution against Arab-Americans:  this has

 become an important frontline in the struggle against this latest

 iteration of a "New World Order".  This targeting of Muslims and

 Arab-Americans  has grave implications for all those concerned with 'racial profiling.'

 Yet, no progress will be made on any front until we recognize the

 symbiotic relationship that has existed to this point between militant

 right-wing nationalism globally and the GOP.  Whether this tragedy of 11

 September was perpetrated by the 'venture capitalist' of right-wing Islam,

 bin Laden or 'Christian militias' or even the  Israelis (a recent charge by 

the Iranian clerics), it all stems from the  same source:  U.S. nurturing right-

 wing nationalism, at home and abroad.

 

 The bill has come due, the times of easy credit are drying up, it is time

 to pay.