Amerikan response to September 11th misses the boat In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, Bush's advisers in the Pentagon suggested that he push to "end states" that harbor terrorists and Bush immediately made a speech to that effect. Now we see that that Amerikan response along with Bush's use of the word "crusade" is costing the United $tates internationally. First of all, it made little sense to the Taliban to turn over Osama bin Laden, if the Talibani state was going to be ended anyway. After all, Osama bin Laden could be counted on to fight against the United $tates when it invaded. Next when "Defense" Department head Donald Rumsfeld and others said they would attack 60 countries, some Third World countries started to wise up to Amerikan plans. No country should join a coalition that would eventually attack itself. For example, if Iran joined the coalition to attack Afghanistan and then once done with Afghanistan the same coalition proceeded to attack Iran, Iran would certainly think itself foolish. It is little wonder that early October found Donald Rumsfeld on a travel mission to the Middle East to round up support. Both Saudi Arabia and Iran had said no attacks against Muslims could be launched from their soil.(1) The Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei received the following coverage in the New York Times: "'We are not with you,' he said. 'At the same time, we are not with terrorists. America is not sincere in fighting terrorism. It has other objectives. America's hands are stained with all the crimes committed by the Zionist regime,'' he said."(1) Iran is giving military aid to the Northern Alliance fighting the Taliban, which has killed the followers of the splinter of Islam that predominates in Iran. Iran can say it was fighting the Taliban all along, while it was the United $tates giving the Taliban aid and support till a few months ago. Retired Army Gen. and Clinton drug czar Barry McCaffrey jumped into the fray to describe how the terrorists would die in graphic detail. Significantly though, he said that aid to foreign countries would have to "dramatically increase" to undercut the "environmental factors" of "extremist madness."(2) At least McCaffrey acknowledged in his own way that a country with millions of armed enemies around the world cannot hope to surgically remove those enemies and be done with all threats. Perhaps he does not understand how the bond markets and other capitalist institutions cannot really stomach what he is saying, which logically, is a task for socialism. The recent moves of the Bush administration have taken more account of the carrot suggested by McCaffrey. Now the Bush administration has said that it does not necessarily intend to remove the Taliban. It also talks about a new government there that includes the Taliban--in the usual Yankee fashion of deciding what other countries' governments are to be and then spreading rumors and psy-ops to that effect through its loyal mouthpieces such as CNN. More significantly, the Bush administration followed England and said in the open that it now recognizes a Palestinian state. As we go to press, according to CNN of October 5th, the Bush administration is calling Zionist "prime minister" Ariel Sharon's remarks on the subject "unacceptable." Sharon declared after the Bush administration finally recognized Palestine at least in the abstract that Israel would "go it alone" and see to its own security interests. Zionist Sharon wants to declare all of Palestine including Arafat terrorist, while the United $tates has "only" declared Hamas, Hezbollah, Abu Nidal and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as "terrorist" as of October 5th. Countries seeing these organizations as national liberation fighters would do well to stay out of the U.$. "coalition." Improving intelligence The New York Times is reporting that the World Trade Center clean-up and associated damages will be $105 billion.(3) Despite this sort of fact and how the stock market has gone down and the fact that entire airlines have gone out of business-- despite this, the imperialists think it's a matter of improving intelligence and tightening security to resolve their problems--partly by taking the Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge and making him head of an office of Homeland Security reporting to the president and coordinating all FBI, INS, CIA etc. operations for "security." The desire to improve intelligence information is one reason the United $tates is trying to make so many friends for its anti-bin Laden coalition. Although the United $tates may have the best intelligence--especially in certain categories-- being the best does not stop the World Trade Center from coming down. "While its global eavesdropping network may be plenty powerful--intercepting daily millions of e- mail, cell phone, satellite phone, money transfer, and other communications--much of the data go unexamined. By some estimates, just 10 percent of the information plucked out is actually analyzed. . . "Now there's new emphasis on hiring analysts, beefing up computers' 'fuzzy logic' capabilities, and expanding the agencies' linguistic firepower."(4) A little contradiction in the imperialist strategy is that it is hard to recruit language experts from countries that Secretary of "Defense" Donald Rumsfeld says are going to be attacked. Those recruits momentarily opposed to a Third World regime who go to work for U.$. intelligence end up becoming the next Osama bin Laden, who also had U.$. military and intelligence training. While the press is usually not so open about it, the political climate change has caused it to admit some things that did not use to be admitted by the mouthpieces: "The United States has spent billions building a listening network unparalleled in history, code-named Echelon. Its vast array of satellites and listening stations--supplemented by the so-called UKUSA alliance, which includes Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand--enables it to listen to virtually any communication on earth." In other words Big Brother is watching. Ordinarily the press would not be pointing out the truth so bluntly, but the CIA has put out the word that it needs recruits. Potential recruits have to be given some reason to believe that they are needed. Instead of concluding that the United $tates already had the biggest intelligence budget and that the World Trade Center still came down, the Christian Science Monitor reprinted in the Boston Metro concluded one article with a recruiting call for the CIA. It goes to show that major newspapers in the imperialist countries share the assumptions of the rulers. That is one reason our principal task is to "build public opinion and the independent institutions of the oppressed to seize power." Even after sorting through the information that they need, the imperialists have no guarantee that the information they have is correct. One reason for that is that more intelligent adversaries speak cryptically and use more decoys than real communication. The New York Times admits in the title of one article about Osama bin Laden's organization that it has "A Top Boss in Europe, an Unseen Cell in Gaza and Decoys Everywhere."(5) The use of modern technology by the oppressed to send false signals to the oppressor is one reason that the current system is doomed. The Washington Post, supposedly a flaming East Coast liberal Establishment paper is in fact also recruiting for Big Brother. One article on September 19th is titled, "Terrorists' Online Methods Elusive: U.S. Agencies Seek Experts' Help in Tracing Encrypted Messages." According to the Washington Post, which may itself be releasing disinformation, "For at least three years, federal agents had found evidence that bin Laden's group embedded secret missives in mundane e-mails and Web sites. But efforts to track down and decipher the messages have floundered."(6) It's possible to have more satellites, more intelligence agents and more surveillance than any one else and still lose a war. This truth has yet to sink in with the imperialists. Recruits for bin Laden The success of the World Trade Center attack attracts new recruits, so it will not be just the CIA doing more of the same. USA Today found a school in Pakistan where 3,500 people consider themselves new Osama bin Ladens. "'We are all Osama bin Ladens,' says Abdullah Shah, 35, senior teacher at Dar-ul-Alloon Sarhad, a nearby madrassa. 'Getting rid of one Osama won't solve your problems. Your trouble is just beginning.'"(7) It seems inevitable that a stunning tactical operation like the one against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are likely to embolden people around the world. The attacks showed that U.$. superiority is not flawless. Capitalism is not a system that is capable of dealing with the root causes of the creation of Osama bin Ladens, because oppression, exploitation and repression will create more terrorism. What it means to "win" For the proletariat, killing 60,000 in exchange for 6,000 is not "winning." The CIA, Transportation Dept., FBI and other "security" organs are bringing us "more of the same" in the fight against terrorism. It is the State Department undertaking the greatest efforts to be creative, but they will not be enough, because capitalism does not support the kind of foreign policy where poverty comes to an end and genuine economic aid produces humyn solidarity and improving international commerce. "Reparations" and open borders necessary for real peace are not in the capitalist vocabulary. The United $tates does not realize yet that it has already "lost" the war despite superiority in many aspects economically and militarily. We have seen 20 people bring the world capitalist economy to the brink of even greater disaster and depression and we have seen unquestionable economic damage in the hundreds of billions of dollars and still the rulers and their allies in the labor aristocracy "don't get it." The question arises, what will it take before responsible rulers realize that the jig is up? When will these rulers give up their old game and come over to the side of the proletariat? Already Senator Bob Graham of Florida as paraphrased by the Miami Herald has figured out the following: "U.S. intelligence officials believe that the other potential components of the plot could include a variety of methods such as concealed small nuclear devices, or biological and chemical weapons."(8) Perhaps a city or number of cities will have to become nuclear dust before the imperialists and their labor aristocracy allies realize that their system has lost. Notes: 1. "Iranian Leader Says Country Won't Help U.S. on Afghanistan," Associated Press in New York Times 26Sept2001. The Saudi rulers may be lying just to appease public opinion in Saudi Arabia while allowing U.$. attacks to go on. Another indication of this is in http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/04/ret.rumsfeld.visi t/index.html 2. http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/03/ret.mccaffrey.war .plan/ 3. www.nytimes.com, 4Oct2001. 4. Boston Metro 3Oct2001, p. 11. 5. By DOUGLAS FRANTZ with RAYMOND BONNER, New York Times 23Sept2001. 6. Washington Post, 19Sept2001, p. a14. 7. "Trainees eager to join 'jihad' against America," USA Today 26Sept2001. 8. "More strikes possible, officials say," BY WARREN P. STROBEL AND ALFONSO CHARDY, achardy@herald.com, Miami Herald 17Sept2001.