Imperialism Bares its Claws, Yet Again

The joint attack of Israel and America on Iran has been very devastating. Like most wars, it is brutal to the core. The pretext of the war has been that the Ayatollah Khamenei regime has been brutal, is against women’s rights and is preparing nuclear weapons. Iran, in turn, was willing to be on the negotiating table and willing to concede some of the points emerging from the talks. In the middle of talks, the Israel-US axis decided to launch the war and in the initial part of the war it inflicted severe damages on Iran.

One was the killing of Khamenei along with some of his family members and the other was the bombing of a school in which 165 young girls lost their lives. Many civilians have also been targeted by the Isreal-US axis. Also, a naval ship of Iran, which had arrived in India on India’s invitation for naval exercises, was torpedoed by a US submarine, killing a large number of sailors on board. Iran bravely retaliated and caused huge damage to the Israel-US axis.

India's role during all these happenings is a great eye-opener on its evolving foreign policy. India was non-aligned to begin with, having amicable relations with Iran. The cultural and economic exchanges between the two countries were excellent. Now, we see that Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel just before the war.

The goal of the PM’s visit was unknown to the country. He did receive the highest honour of Israel and pledged that India would be with Israel through thick and thin. The next day, next, the Israel-US axis attacked Iran.

Modi did not tweet about the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader and issued a blank statement equating the aggressor and the aggrieved country. The transition of India from neutral to embracing the US-Israel axis came out louder with the acts of commission and omission of the Indian Prime Minister.

Back to the US story. We have been watching the US since the 1950s. Its role has been that of interfering in other countries affairs for its own political and economic goals. Earlier ‘saving the world from communism’ was its major plank for unleashing wars, starting from the Vietnam war. As the French had colonised Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh’s communist army overthrew the French, a long and complicated political process led to division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel into communist North Vietnam and capitalist South Vietnam.

The US launched a horrific war against Vietnam, spending millions of dollars. It used chemical weapons -- Napalm (jellied petrol) and Agent Orange (superior strength weed killer). This was used to clear foliage in the jungle which was the natural hiding place for the Vietcong (army raised by the Vietnamese). Napalm did clear much of the undergrowth but it also stuck to humans and caused horrific injuries. Agent Orange also killed many innocent civilians’ farms, crops were lost and animals were killed.

The Vietnamese people were more for Ho Chi Minh. Vietcong, through its Gorilla tactics, emerged victorious and the US for once had to face defeat. The over five-lakh-strong US army retreated with its morale crushed by the defeat at the hands of a new and young nation. The Vietnam War showed abundantly that the US was not going to spare any effort to defeat those who were against its interests being presented as the ideology of the ‘Free World”.

This became clearer in due course as the US attacked country after country on one pretext or the other. The second major case was that of Iran. With its strategic location and vast oil reserves, Iran was of special interest to the Western powers – the US and the United Kingdom in the main.

Britain was the major power to have its presence in Iran during World War II. After the war, England continued to retain its control over Iran’s oil through the establishment of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. It was exploiting Iran’s oil for its own interests. This arrangement changed abruptly in 1951 when the Iranian parliament, led by Mohammad Mosaddegh’s nationalist and democratically elected government, voted to nationalise the country’s oil industry. 

From then, Britain started opposing the Mossadegh regime and tried to foment opposition against him. Britain took along the US and a coup was staged in Iran uprooting the democratically elected government and installing Raza Shah Pahlavi, a US stooge. Oil interests in the hands of Western powers remained safe with them.

The story of Salvador Allende’s elimination and overthrow of a democratic government in Chile is fairly similar. Allende was a Marxist, a member of the Socialist Party. He was sworn in on November 3, 1970, as the President of Chile. He decided to nationalise copper companies controlled by the US in particular. The US spent $8 million on covert actions between 1970 and the 1973 coup, according to a 1975 Senate report.

The US officials also backed economic measures to squeeze the Allende government. In a CIA-supported coup, the military dictator Pinochet came to power. He was very ruthless and wrought havoc on the democracy and potential prosperity of Chile.

The harm inflicted on West Asia was much more dangerous. After USSR’s (former Soviet Union) occupation of Afghanistan, the US supported some madarasas in Pakistan and helped train Mujahids. From this were formed the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The US funded them to the extent of $8,000 million and supplied them with 7,000 tonnes of armaments (Mahmood Mamdani’s book: Good Muslim-Bad Muslim).

After 9/11, the US got a pretext to attack Afghanistan in which 60,000 people were killed. To dominate the whole region, it came up with the pretext of ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ to attack Iraq. The soldiers were told that Iraq’s people are being oppressed by Saddam Hussian, so this war was needed. They were also told that the people would see them as “liberators” and they would be “welcomed with bouquets and chocolates”.

But something else happened and Iraq was dismantled with the rise of an Islamic State. Neither the weapons of mass destruction could be located nor were the US soldiers welcomed.

Colonialism and imperialism leave dangerous marks on the victim countries and the world as a whole. In India, the British policy of ‘divide and rule’ led to the strengthening of communal forces, the ills of which we are suffering till date.

The US media’s coining and popularising the phrase ‘Islamic terrorism’ has led to the global demonisation of Muslims. Both these phenomena, colonialism and imperialism, have been the forces at the root of major problems that the world is facing today. Hope we can promote peace by realising the impact of imperialism.     

The writer is a human rights activist, who taught at IIT Bombay. The views are personal.