Exploiting Tragedy for Self-Interest

Within hours of the terrorist attacks in the U.S. various governments and capitalist groupings began planning how they could use the tragedy to promote their own narrow self-interest.

First and foremost among these is the U.S. government itself, which, under the banner of a "war on terrorism", has declared that countries are "either with us or against us". It is shamelessly exploiting the grief and anger of the people to pursue its geo-political agenda. Even before the nationality of the hijackers was established, U.S. officials were holding Osama bin Laden responsible and were threatening war against Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and various other countries. U.S. President George W. Bush has now declared a "crusade" on behalf of all "civilized" nations against all those who harbour terrorists and to impose American values on the world.

Bush was also quick to use the incident to get Congress to reverse its position on $43 billion in military spending it had previously rejected. There is also considerable speculation that Bush will now see no opposition in Congress to his controversial National Missile Defence project, even though it would have been totally useless in preventing the September 11 attacks.

Israel exploited the window of opportunity immediately following the September 11 events to escalate its campaign of terror and assassination against Palestinian targets, knowing full well that the U.S. would demand de-escalation of the conflict in the interest of bringing the Arab countries into its international coalition. In those few days, 12 Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured, and massive destruction of Palestinian infrastructure was carried out.

Pakistan, caught between the U.S. and its own people, agreed to allow the U.S. to use its airspace provided India and Israel were excluded from the coalition. It now appears that Pakistan was also promised financial concessions, as the U.S. announced that it is rescheduling $600 million in debt repayment. In addition, the U.S. is lifting the economic sanctions it imposed on Pakistan three years ago over the issue of Pakistani nuclear tests.

For its part, India offered the use of its territory for the staging of ground troops in return for a U.S. pledge to support its claims on Kashmir at the expense of the Pakistanis. It may very well use the inevitable political crisis in Pakistan to escalate its war to annex Kashmir.

Meanwhile, within days of the tragedy, several U.S. airlines announced massive layoffs of workers and began demanding billions of dollars in government handouts. The impression is being created that these measures are a response to the dislocations caused by the recent events, but a review of the facts reveals that this is not the case. (See Bailout of the Airline Industry) Over the next few weeks, other companies will no doubt also be attempting to exploit the sympathies of the people for the victims of the attacks to fill their coffers at taxpayers' expense.