Ruminations on the 24th anniversary of 9/11

9 11

Tomorrow it will be 24 years since the attack on the World Trade Center in America. I am trying to write this article today on this occasion. Whereas I had written the first article about the rockets fired on Israel by the so-called Hamas on Saturday, 7 October last year, and the retaliatory action initiated by Israel and America together after that.

So what is the condition of some people in Gaza Strip today? And twelve years ago I got the first opportunity to join Aman O Caravan from Asian countries! And at that time I got the opportunity to stay in Gaza Strip for a week from 1st January to 6th January, 2011! And as soon as I saw it, I felt that it is not an independent country! On three sides Israel has built 25-30 feet high concrete walls and on top of those walls, at some distance, in watch towers, Israeli army soldiers are watching through big tumblers! It means an open prison!

And in the direction where there is no wall, Israel has placed water mines for ten kilometers from the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, which is adjacent to the Gaza Strip. So that if any person makes any kind of sea movement, he will not survive. And the western direction which is very narrow, there is a border called Rafah, which is adjacent to the Sinai desert of Egypt. And that is the only way to go out of Gaza. But Egypt may be a Muslim majority country and at one time (at the time of Abdul Gamal Nasser) it has led the fight for the liberation of Palestine. But since the time of Anwar Sadat, Egypt had made an agreement with Israel (Camp David). After his assassination, when Hosni Mubarak came to power, he too had joined hands with Israel. Therefore, movement from Gaza to the Rafah border is under very tight security arrangements. And without visa and passport, it is impossible for anyone to come and go. Only after very strict checking, he could enter Egypt via Rafah. Because we are writing this from our own experience of coming to Gaza Strip on 1st January through ‘Al Arish’, the only airport and port city in Sinai desert. It is very humiliating. I will write about it some other time. Right now I am trying to focus on the current situation of Gaza Strip.

That is why I am inspired to write again and again about my experiences of visiting Gaza Strip and Iraq. The main reason I am writing about these two war zones is that I have seen them with my own eyes. And the then US President George Bush, giving the slogan of war is peace, first attacked Afghanistan and in 2003, Iraq, Libya, the countries that stood up against the US’s bullying, in retaliation for that attack.

In this month of 2002, the US Parliament had given permission to the then President George Bush (Junior) to attack Iraq with the army. And along with that, England, Australia and Poland together said that Iraq has chemical weapons. By saying this, it is reminding us of the attack which was started on 13th March 2003. In which I am writing after seeing with my own eyes the glimpse of the conversion of Iraq, the country of the world’s oldest civilization ‘Babylon-Mesopotamia’ civilization, into ruins.

Iraqi Airlines’ jumbojet from Mumbai, which leaves at 2 am, can seat about 500 people. As soon as I boarded the flight to Baghdad, I saw that except for the four of us who were going to the Baghdad meeting, the other remaining passengers were missing someone’s hand, someone’s leg, and someone’s eyes. That means most of the Iraqi passengers were civilians who were injured in the US attack in 2003. The flight was packed with people who had come to Mumbai for treatment. The military people must be getting treated in the Iraqi military hospital or somewhere else. But seeing all these people, I was surprised and could hardly sit on my seat. Because in any other kind of travel, I had never seen a flight filled with such migrants. That is why I was in a very shocked state of mind when I came to Baghdad to see the so called war for peace that America had waged on Vietnam in the seventies when I was studying in school!

And after I sat down and the flight took off and the airhostess announced ‘unfasten your seat belt’, I started talking to our injured co-passengers. Some of them were teachers, businessmen, farmers or others. But from the Mumbai airport itself, I started seeing the horror of the Iraq war. It gradually increased after reaching Baghdad.

So after a few hours, around 8 am, after landing at Baghdad airport, the protocol officer entered the plane to receive us. And we were the first to be taken off, carrying our luggage in their hands. And on the runway of the airport, I stood near the stairs of our plane and saw that two long black General Motors cars and two armored vehicles with cannons were standing behind and in front of both the cars. They made us sit in them and started taking us. As soon as I sat inside the car, I felt as if I was sitting in the cockpit of the plane. After asking the protocol officer who was sitting on the right side of the driver on the front seat, I was told that this is a bullet proof car. It was the first experience of my life to sit in it.

After coming out of the airport, we must not have travelled even ten kilometres! So we were stopped at the very first check post! And we were asked to get out of the vehicles! After making us stand outside, we were made to hold some sensor like devices in our hands, after opening the bonnet and trunk from inside the vehicle, after checking the vehicle with those sensors, a soldier of the US army, more than six feet tall, came near the vehicle holding a sniffer dog on a chain in his hand, after that dog sniffed the vehicle inside and outside, inside the trunk and bonnet, our journey started moving forward.

Hotel ‘Al Rashid’ which is 20-25 kms away from Baghdad Airport! But like the first checking, at every 10 kms distance, we had to go through this exercise and experience of doing it at three-four places! And from Baghdad Airport to Hotel ‘Al Rashid’! Surrounded on both sides of the road like Gaza with 20-25 feet high concrete walls! While passing through the so-called ‘Greenfield’ area, we did not get any glimpse of the surroundings!

I thought that America’s new President Barack Obama had announced that “American army has vacated Iraq!” Absolutely false! The presence of American army was visible as soon as we stepped out of the airport! And those concrete walls were standing! The area on both sides of them is called ‘Greenfield’! Where once Saddam Hussein’s palace-like houses existed! Now the American army had set up its camp there!

After reaching the hotel ‘Al Rashid’, after freshening up and having breakfast, I thought of going for a walk! As soon as I reached the hotel gate, the guard stopped me and said that “going out is prohibited!” And if you want to roam around, then only in the walled area of the hotel! Going out alone and on foot is prohibited due to security reasons!

After that we were taken for a meeting! Our vehicle was in the middle of armoured vehicles! So I told the protocol officer that “Even our neighbours don’t recognise us! And why is all this here? And the second important thing is that because of such arrangements, someone will think that some important person is travelling in this vehicle! And this is attention seeking for insecurity! After passing by any such ordinary vehicle, I don’t think anyone will look at us! But your arrangements like this can unnecessarily create danger for us!” He ignored it after listening!

Our meeting was organised in another hall within the Iraqi parliament. We saw that people from different countries of the world had come. And the meeting began with Jalal Talabani, who was appointed by the US army after removing Iraq’s then president Saddam Hussain, addressing the inaugural session. But the distance between the hotel and the parliament was not even five kilometres. But there was hardly any traffic on the roads of Baghdad. And whatever traffic was visible was with a convoy of armoured vehicles like ours. And the checking was even more strict than the one coming from the airport. And to the maximum, with the US army.

In the meeting, the main discussion was on the inhuman torture being given to the Palestinian citizens imprisoned in Israeli jails, and against the jail code of conduct. And at the time of our meeting, the Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israeli jails were on strike. Regarding which the representatives from all over the world expressed their concern and supported their demands. And demanded the UN to intervene.

In my opinion, despite the maximum number of resolutions being passed against Israel in the UN, and we are discussing human rights in Iraq, what condition have the US and its UNO, and its president Kofi Annan together created in Iraq? The UNO has become a slave of the US. From the creation of Israel to Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Panama, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Bosnia, Serbia in Latin America, in other words, all the wars that took place during the so-called Cold War, how many criminal acts has the US committed in all of them? But till date, I cannot remember any such role of the UN that it has ever shown the courage to take any action against the US. So, in this meeting too, it is futile to expect any concession from the UNO for the Palestinian prisoners. On the contrary, Mahatma Gandhi won his battle against the apartheid government of South Africa a hundred years ago by using the non-violent weapon of Satyagraha. Similarly, the weapon of hunger strike by the prisoners in Israeli jails would perhaps be a more effective step. And it so happened that Israel had to accept many of the demands of those prisoners.

And that is why Israel never cared about the UNO! And every time America used its veto power on Israel’s behalf! So why would Israel care about our discussion today? Although there were some Americans also among the people present in this meeting! Who were speaking against America’s support to Israel!

And that is why I say that there should be a difference between the government and the people of any country. What many people think is wrong, the government thinks is right. For example, immediately after 7 October, Narendra Modi said on his Twitter handle that we are with Israel. And in the official statement, the role that India has been playing on behalf of Palestine for the last seventy-seven years is the same.

After the meeting, our return tickets were for four days later. So the protocol officer asked, “What else do you want to see?” I asked, “Is it possible to go to Najaf and Karbala?” He said, “Be ready in the porch tomorrow morning after breakfast.” The distance between these two places from Baghdad was two hundred kilometers. The next day, after having breakfast, we were ready. And in the same way, our journey started in our vehicle amidst armored vehicles.

As soon as our caravan started to move out of Baghdad, I saw a big river on the way. I asked the protocol officer, “Which river is this?” He said, “Tigris”. I immediately asked, “My devotee friend from Nagpur has asked me to bring water from this river. Can we stop the car and get some water?” He said, “The American army has mixed poisonous chemicals in the water of all our rivers. So even putting a finger in this water is dangerous. More people have died due to drinking the poisonous water of these rivers than the number of our people who died in the war. In total, more than 10 to 15 lakh people have died. Half of them are children below the age of 15.” These figures were dropped by America on two Japanese cities, Nagasaki and Hiroshima on 6 and 9 August 1945. After the atomic bombs, the number of Japanese people killed is more than that of the Japanese. But this horror is not discussed anywhere in the world media. This includes the media of America and Europe which creates a ruckus on the issue of violation of so-called human rights.

And while going from Baghdad to Najaf-Karbala, we did not see a single building standing on either side of the road! Everything was a pile of rubble! And there were some makeshift houses made of tin! America has been practicing this for the last five hundred years to create its political influence on the world! And despite that, it keeps teaching the world the lessons of civilization, human rights and peace! What else did Joe Biden do in Israel after Netanyahu’s October 7 attack? No matter which party the President of America belongs to, he has been doing the same things! At the time of the creation of Israel, the then President Harry Truman forced the UNO to recognize the creation of Israel by putting tremendous pressure on it to vote in favor of the creation of Israel! For example, a country called Haiti was forced to vote in favor of the creation of Israel by giving it a loan of 50 lakh dollars!

But Narendra Modi, because of his training in RSS shakha since childhood, is a victim of Islamophobia! But he forgot that, besides being a RSS volunteer, he is also the Prime Minister of a multi-faceted country like India! And RSS keeps on praising Israel! But many people like us in the Indian public feel! That Israel was created against the wishes of the thousands of years old Palestinian people. Just like the British divided India and Pakistan before leaving Palestine, Israel was created on 14 May 1948 and at that time the area of Palestine was 10,000 square miles, out of which 5,700 square miles were given to Israel and 4300 square miles were given to Palestine! Whereas the total population of Palestine was 20 lakhs! And there were more than 14 lakh Arabs in it! And 6 lakh Jews, meaning the number of Jews in the total population of Palestine was one third! And despite that, the British gave the best quality land to the Jews and that too 56%! And the dispute between Israel and Palestine from the moment Palestine, which has more than 56% population, got only 44% of the land, continues till the war going on over the Gaza Strip for the last one year! And now, in seventy-six years, more than eighty percent of the land in Israel’s part has been occupied by Israel after the wars that took place from time to time in Palestine, and the actions taken in the name of so-called terrorism! Now Israel has openly declared to vacate the Gaza Strip! For seventy-six years, it has been continuously doing injustice to the people of Palestine!

Occupying Palestinian land, like a prison within walls, it needs an excuse to encroach on the land of West Bank or Gaza Strip! Which it has been taking forcefully since May 1948! Now the map of Palestine has been made as small as a mustard seed! And on the pretext of 7 October last year, they have started the massacre of all Palestinians! They are openly telling half of the 23 lakh population that “you should vacate half of Gaza!” And no civilized society in the world can support this act!

Narendra Modi, due to his habit of Gujarat “2002 model! Without thinking for a moment, said that we are with Israel! And similarly, the President of America, Joe Biden, after reaching Israel himself, has landed a fleet of five thousand naval personnel in the Mediterranean Sea! This is the same America! Which, since its birth, has started building its so-called nation by killing two crore Red Indians! And how many people has America killed in the entire world for five hundred years? But there are people like us in America who have independent thinking! And we are against this kind of barbarism! We are also saying this clearly!

Because whether it is Narendra Modi or Joe Biden or Netanyahu, all are committing this crime against humanity for their petty political ambitions! Which Hitler-Mussolini had done a hundred years ago! And twenty years ago Bush also committed a similar crime by attacking Iraq! Although the UNO has been established to stop all these crimes! But in New York, America, and because America provides a lot of money to the UNO! UNO takes its decisions under the pressure of America from the very beginning! America fought the war of Iraq with the help of UNO!

Because despite the report of the so-called chemical weapon not being found after investigation by the UN inspector, America attacked Iraq and took it under its control. And no action was taken against America by the UN. And there is a very long list of such crimes of America. If they uncover it and take action, then America’s very existence can be ended due to the punishment on America. But the same America has the audacity to talk to the world about ‘Clash of Civilization’ by hiring writers. Is this the American civilization?

And at present, the entire Gaza Strip and West Bank areas have been walled off! Israel has full control! And with such strong surveillance by Mossad and the Israeli army! How could such an act have gone unnoticed by Mossad or the Israeli army? Or could it be that they did all this to give political life to the current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and to intervene in the remaining Palestine?

Like the hanging of Saddam Hussein in the name of chemical weapons in Iraq and the attack on Iraq! Which has completely turned Iraq into ruins! And more than 10 to 15 lakh people have died! More than half of them, the maximum number of children below 15 years of age! Which is three times the number of people killed after the atom bombs dropped by America on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945! And the most serious thing is that the American army mixed poisonous chemicals in the two largest rivers of Iraq, Euphrates and Tigris! After drinking that water and due to sanctions, more children have died due to lack of medicines and food! This is the civilization of America!

The book covers two decades of proxy wars, from the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s to UN sanctions leading up to the invasion of Iraq, and informs the shifts in US foreign policy toward the region.

The Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979 changed the American foreign policy for more than seventy years, the theory of Islam as an anti-communist and anti-nationalist force. The Iranian Islamic Revolution changed America’s concept by forming an Islamic-nationalist government in Iran. And then America turned towards Iraq to stop the influence of the Iranian revolution. Then America had no problem with Saddam Hussein being a dictator. And during that war, America gave Iraq one of the most destructive weapons to use. In this war, more than 50 lakh people of both the countries were killed. And the population of both the countries is 10 crores. (Iran – 7 crores, Iraq – 3 crores)

America’s relations with Iraq can be seen in three phases. In the first phase (1980), America openly supported Iraq to go to war with Iran. Or America itself wrote the script of this war. Because it was very unhappy with the coup done by Ayatollah Khomeini. Because the revolution in Iran happened only to remove its puppet, Reza Shah Pahlavi. And first of all, the Iranian Revolutionary Army captured the American Embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979, and after capturing 70 American citizens, they were kept captive for 444 days. The President of America at that time was Jimmy Carter. And after that, America started a war against Iran with the help of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. Which continued for 8 years. This was the longest battle during the so-called Cold War. In which lakhs of people from both sides died. And the loss of resources and other things is also a different matter.

But here such a plan was also made that the war could not reach any conclusion. That is why the war continued for more than eight years. And the death toll of only the soldiers of both the countries is more than two million. I have seen more than a dozen martyr memorials in Iran in December 2010, during ‘Aman o Caravan’. And I could not resist myself at the martyr memorial of the last city, Diyarbakir. And I said in my tribute speech that “I am praying to the great Almighty Allah. O Allah, when I visit this country again, I should not see any more martyr memorials.” Because in the cemetery of every martyr memorial, on the graves of one to one and a quarter lakh young men of Iran’s army of the age of twenty to thirty years, their name, age and where and when were they killed are clearly written. So the total number of youth in the eleven monuments is more than 1.5 million! And almost the same number of Iraqis. The total population of both the countries is 10 crore (Iran 7 crore, Iraq 3 crore!) and including civilians, more than 5 million people have died! What loss did America suffer in this?

I had the opportunity to stay in the Gaza Strip for a week in 2010-11 and in 2012 to attend a meeting on the issue of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails in Iraq. I also had the opportunity to visit Baghdad in Iraq and I was inspired to write about what I saw with my own eyes in both places because I am trying to tell my own experience after seeing some people trapped in misunderstanding.

Even before I went to Gaza Strip, I had read and heard a lot about the terrorists in Palestine. And because of this, I was trying to enter the hospitals, schools and university buildings and observe them carefully. Are there any centres of terrorism operating under the guise of hospitals or schools?

On the contrary, from hospitals to schools and residential houses and universities, parts of all the buildings are broken due to bomb or mortar attacks! Or there are big holes in the walls, and the bedroom of some building is swaying! Then somewhere I have seen a kitchen, and more than half of the buildings in the university courtyard are broken due to bomb or mortar attacks! At that time 10-15 lakh people used to live in Gaza Strip! Now it is almost double, 20-25 lakh!

The total area of Gaza Strip is 139 square miles, which is surrounded by 25-30 feet high concrete walls from two sides by Israel in the northeast, and the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the Rafah border of Egypt in the east. The total size of Gaza Strip is double the size of America’s capital Washington DC and has a population three times that of Washington DC. This means that Gaza Strip is counted among the most densely populated areas of the world.

And now Israel is saying to vacate half of it! This means that Gaza is already one of the most densely populated areas in the world! And now Israel’s threat to put more than 23 lakh people in the remaining half makes one wonder if this is why the so-called Hamas attacked on 7 October? Because Israel is the one who created Hamas! In the nineties, to reduce the influence of Yasser Arafat’s PLO, the Israeli agency Mossad conspired to create Hamas! Now it is being called a terrorist organization! But who is nurturing this terrorist organization from time to time?

During our stay in Gaza Strip, from 1st January to 6th January 2011, there was a Hamas government elected through elections. And ‘Ismail Haniya’ was the Prime Minister there. Who has just been killed in a terrorist attack by Mossad during the swearing in ceremony of the new President of Iran. We also got a chance to address the Parliament of Gaza. Which was like the hall of any municipality of our country. And Shyam was also invited to the official residence of Prime Minister ‘Ismail Haniya’ which was similar to the official residence of our country’s Member of Parliament in Lutyens Delhi. For dinner. And in that dinner, Ismail Haniya was meeting all the guests one by one as the host. When he came to me, I told him that as long as we keep calling the Palestine issue an Islamic issue, the Palestine issue will not get the support of the whole world. We can get the support of the whole world only by keeping it as a human rights issue like the Vietnam issue. Then he immediately hugged me according to his Arabic culture and kissed both my cheeks and forehead and said, “Exactly, this is what we are also trying to do! And I am happy that you, the President of India Palestine Solidarity Forum, are also keeping this in mind!”

During about a week, I had the opportunity to visit all the areas of Gaza Strip. And I was surprised time and again that more than half of the buildings were destroyed due to Israeli attacks. And I saw some people living in such houses. And Israel can attack with mortars or rockets from the side anytime. We are living under the shadow of death. Anything can happen at any time.

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron said that “Gaza is the world’s most open prison!” Half of Gaza’s population is under the age of eighteen! According to a report by Defence for Children International, more than a thousand children have lost their lives in Gaza in the last eighteen years! The report further states that more than half of the children are struggling with suicidal thoughts!

The death ratio is 1 Israeli vs 20 Palestinians! So Israel’s population is 93 lakhs and area is 22 thousand square kilometers! So Palestine’s total population is 49 lakhs! And area is 6 thousand square kilometers! Israel’s GDP is Rs 40 lakh crores! And Palestine’s is Rs 3700! Israel’s per capita income is Rs 44000! So Palestine’s is Rs 3700! Israeli’s life expectancy rate is 82 years! Palestinian’s is 74 years! Unemployment rate is 3 percent in Israel! So Palestine’s is 24 percent! Poverty line ratio is 03 percent in Israel! So Palestine’s is 24 percent! Total death ratio is 308 for Israelis since 2008! So Palestinians have died 6407 times! These figures have been taken from the United Nations!


The figures of people killed in the war that started after 7 October last year and what is happening to the children in Gaza? This is a crime against humanity! Because half the population in the Gaza Strip is of children below the age of eighteen! Today the Israeli army has cut off the water and electricity connection there! And hundreds of trucks transporting relief material are standing at the Rafah border! But the Israeli army is not allowing them to enter the Gaza Strip! While the world’s grandfather, US President Joe Biden and England’s Prime Minister Mr. Rishi Sunak have themselves returned from Israel after meeting Benjamin Netanyahu!

This shows how racially discriminatory the attitude of white people towards other people of the world is. This is being proved time and again! And India is trying to forcefully include itself in the race of Vishwaguru! Does Vishwaguru have to be ruthless, shameless and insensitive like America?

Dr. Suresh Khairnar is Ex. President of Rashtra Sewa Dal

Tags:

Support Countercurrents

Countercurrents is answerable only to our readers. Support honest journalism because we have no PLANET B.
Become a Patron at Patreon

Join Our Newsletter

GET COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX

Join our WhatsApp and Telegram Channels

Get CounterCurrents updates on our WhatsApp and Telegram Channels

Related Posts

The War on Terror 23 Years Later

September marked the 23rd anniversary of al-Qaeda’s 2001 attacks on the United States, which left nearly 3,000 people dead. For the two decades since then, I’ve been writing, often for TomDispatch, about…

They Trick Us And Move On

Sitting here watching, for the umpteenth time, the Jonathan  Demme directed remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Early on in the film the Denzel Washington character says to his troubled former…

Join Our Newsletter


Annual Subscription

Join Countercurrents Annual Fund Raising Campaign and help us

Latest News