The Road to 9/11 - A critical analysis

On the 11^th September 2001, two American airliners plummeted into the world trade centre towers, causing the towers to fall and over 3,000 lives to be lost. The series of events was described by Peter Dale Scott, author of ‘the road to 9/11, as being the worst case of homicide in all of America’s history. This statement cannot be argued against, there were over 3000 lives lost on the day of 9/11, which devastated families, communities and the world. However, there are many questions which can be raised as to the perpetrators of this act of terror, and what fuelled the attacks of 9/11 to take place in the first instance? Since the advent of 9/11, the world as we know it had drastically changed. The theory and practise of security both on a national and local level has arguably become tighter, we are now living in a society which favours suspicion, surveillance and monitoring of those who we believe pose a threat to our society and our way of life. These are usually presumptuous and socially ascribed. Additionally, the mechanisms in which International relations and geo-politics situate themselves has also changed. Shortly after 9/11, America declared war on Iraq and vowed to invade and hunt down Osama Bin Laden who claimed responsibility for the 9/11 atrocity, and  George Bush made clear in his new beginnings speech after 9/11 that citizens of the United States and state actors were either with America or against them, this implied that any possible argument against the invasion of Iraq would be shut down by propositions that those against the invasion were ‘terrorist supporters’. It is important to note that the groups who were ascribed as being terrorists, used to be referred to as ‘freedom fighters’ against the occupation of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. These revelations have been brought to light in Peter Scott’s book ‘the road to 9/11’, he explains the International relationship between America and the Middle East, and America’s attempt to retain it’s hegemony and to prevent the expansion of communism in the Middle East, whilst retaining its capitalist influence.

Scott P begins by exploring the financialization of the United States, where we saw the Government and billionaire conglomerates take control over the mass media, which arguably re-shaped the political compass and cultural prospects which situated itself within America’s national economy. This already identifies an issue in the structural conditions in which America has placed itself, the general public who are mere consumers to the media, would of course be fed information which would favour the Government’s agenda and core beliefs. Alongside this, the CIA (Central Intelligence agency) which was formed in 1947 under the Truman Administration by wall street lawyers and bankers, saw the model of intelligence and defensive strategy go hand in hand to suit the needs of the Government in Administration. It is worthy to note that 1947 was a time where cold war tensions between the USA and USSR were mounting, and as a result of these tensions, there was an increase of covert expansionism. America who remains a heavily capitalist state at the heart of its political and economic ideology wanted to make all efforts to ensure that communism wasn’t going to expand and grow on the world stage. Other examples of where America’s efforts to keep communism at bay can be seen from the invasion of Vietnam in 1965, this war was built on illegitimate foundations and social condition in which the American people were not consulted, these elements of hegemony and aggression is what we can see through the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Scott P brings to light the strategies America adopted to keep communist expansionism in Afghanistan at bay. The strategic efforts began by the American taxpayers unknowingly funding the stock piling of weapons and opium which would be used to create drugs In Afghanistan, this of course opened up a commodification of drugs within the region which created an economic defensive mechanism against the Soviet Union and would dismantle their power and control over the region. These recruited poppy farmers within the Afghan fields, would be funded and trained by the CIA, to fight against the tyranny of the Soviet Union, would later be referred to as fighters of the ‘Taliban’ and ‘Al-Qaeda’. The high levels of impoverishment and lack of social and political structure through years of foreign occupation, meant that those who discovered opium creating drugs which would turn over a large profit for western countries as consumers, found It a lucrative activity, and of course would jump on the opportunity funded by the CIA. These actions by the CIA and American Government, to contain the spread of communism, is collectively a result of what Scott P referred to as the ‘paranoia of bureaucracy’. Scott P also argued that this has ultimately resulted in 9/11 and would cause future 9/11 like incidents to take place in the future. The next memorable stage within the book explores America’s national spending of taxpayer’s money. The national spending plans would mean that priority spending would be of defence and military advancement as opposed to fundamental societal spending priorities such as education, welfare, industry and healthcare. It can be argued that this excessive spending on defence, which exceeded past a trillion dollars in the 1970s which saw America become a major debtor on the world stage, this debt was also fuelled by the large investments made into foreign arms to counter against a threat from the Soviet Union, a political empire which within its own walls was beginning to crumble. The excessive spending would also be a bid to retain America’s status of being a global military superpower and to also prepare for a conflict which was at this stage inevitable but could have been avoided altogether. Scott P gets to the core of the rationale as to why America was so heavily invested In the Middle East before 9/11. The allocation of oil as an essential resource for the consumer capitalist and industrial society to survive and prosper. A speech given by a senate committee on foreign relations in 1975 discuss the need for oil in American society, and that a co-operative approach must be applied to ensure the securitisation of the resource, this of course meant that America had to adopt this approach when securing oil in the Middle East, the question would remain as to who these negotiations should be held with and at what cost? This is the stage In which the reader can explore further around America’s relationship with the Middle East in a bid to secure this resource.

The next section discusses the plans co-ordinated by Brzezinski who served as America’s national security advisor in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s to utilise the Islamic forces in Afghanistan to contain the spread of communism and the Soviet Union. These Islamic forces would be trained by the CIA in both Virginia Langley and Afghanistan to fight on the ground against the Soviet forces. They were described by the CIA as ‘freedom fighters’ and America were enabling these freedom fighters from both a military and political aspect to fight against the offensive aggressors that was the Soviet Union. Decades later, the same groups would be known as ‘terrorists’ whom America and their allies need to wipe out. I argue that through American foreign policy this was a mere ploy for the Islamic forces to fight against the Soviets on America’s behalf and that the justification for America’s involvement was under the name of ‘liberation’, when as history demonstrates later on is anything but liberation. The true intentions of course as mentioned earlier was to dismantle the communist expansion and uphold the strength and status of capitalism. Exploring further of the political decisions made by Brzezinski, it was clear that he was happy to provoke Muslims in the Middle East to dismantle communism overall than letting the expansion of communism continue in the Middle East. The next stage of the book explores the diplomatic dilemmas and extreme negotiations which took place following the hostage taking of the American Diplomats in Iran which went on in 1979 and onwards.

To conclude, it has been argued throughout Scott P’s book ‘the road to 9/11’ that America’s domestic and foreign policy have led up to the catastrophic event of  9/11 from the formation of the CIA under the Truman Administration in 1947 to the training and alliance between the CIA and the mujahedeen fighters, once praised by the CIA as being ‘freedom fighters’, and now referred to as ‘aliens’, ‘terrorists’ and ‘enemies of the state’. The argument isn’t to question the validity of the statement as to the groups Al-Qaeda and the Taliban as being terrorist organisations, this in the context of the state of the modern world cannot be questioned. However, what can be questioned is the steps America took which led up to the event of 9/11 and future events both In the Top North and Global South, as illustrated throughout this blog.