4 - 10 October 2001
Issue No.554
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 4 - 10 October 2001 Issue No.554 |
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Open-ended war
When America announced the creation of a "New World Order" in the wake of the international coalition's successful eviction of Iraqi forces from Kuwait and the end of the Gulf War, no one could have predicted that the very foundations of this new order would crumble a decade on, leaving the world in the throes of a "New World Anarchy" instead. This anarchy has not only undermined the status of the only great world power, it has also plunged the international economy into stagnation and decline, placing the fate of commercial, cultural and political globalisation at risk, and igniting afresh a clash of civilisations that everyone believed was well on its way to extinction.
Because history does not repeat itself identically, the world is now confronting the possibility of a world war of a new kind. This time, the battle will be led by America at the head of a new international coalition whose targets, methods and range America alone specifies, and whose primary purpose is to confront an enemy that threatens America's interest both outside and within its borders.
In the Gulf War coalition, the danger was restricted to a specific foe, embodied by Saddam Hussein, and a specific area -- Iraq and the Gulf -- which lies far from the frontiers of the American giant, even if it enjoys direct control of strategic oil reserves in a vital and sensitive part of the world. In the new coalition, on the other hand, war is being waged on a faceless, mute foe whose presence, according to American estimates, spreads through some 60 countries. Indeed, this foe resembles a gargantuan cobweb that exceeds, in magnitude and complexity, the Internet itself; a cobweb through which the constant flux of information, arms, money, ideas and volunteers to implement plans and suicide missions does not cease. America has identified only Bin Laden's organisation, Al-Qa'ida, as the symbol and embodiment of this vast network of relations, directing its attention to the Taliban, Bin Laden's protectors, and to a hilly, desolate, rough and poor land whose inhabitants are resolute warriors.
The difficulty and danger of this war -- the terrors to which it could give rise -- are that the enemy is a shadow that has managed to strike an unprecedented blow, attacking the nerve centre of the American giant, which has awakened to the bitter truth about military and technological progress, economic power and unlimited wealth. None of these advantages, the enemy has told America, constitutes a guarantee of safety in the face of shapeless and invisible forces afloat in a cloud of isolation, hatred and injustice. These forces, like a plague of locusts, are fast multiplying under the weight of biased, unjust and exploitati ve world policies.
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