Blowback Theory

--Be warned: this is lengthy--

Anyone here fans of the blowback theory?

For those that are unfamilar, it is the theory that Ron Paul basically brought to media attention. It is outlined in detail in Chalmers Johnson's Blowback, and in Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow. Blowback is a CIA term, used to describe unintended consequences of covert American activities overseas.

For example, the United States, coupled with Great Britain and Anglo-Saxon Oil (now known as BP), overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953. The Prime Minister, Mossodeq, had taken power over the oil fields away from the West, (nationalized it.) With its oil supply cut off, Great Britain convinced anti-communist Secretary of State John Foster Dulles that Mossodeq was a Soviet Puppet, and the orders were delivered to have him removed.

In his place, the Shah was re-installed (he was merely a figurehead king before). He established a secret police force (like the Gestapo, or Stasi) and ruled Iran with an iron fist. Blowback came in 1979 when college students, under the direction of Islamic fundamentalists, overthrew the Shah and seized the US embassy. Many Americans did not know what the US had done back in 53, so they naturally felt hatred towards Iran (see 2008), who was understandably taking revenge.

Now, the blowback theory is applied to 9/11. One camp (lets call them the Fox News Channel) states that Islamic Fascist Extremists hate America because we let women vote, Jews hold public office, and we dont pray to Allah. This hatred of our freedom and financial prosperity led the terrorists to attack us. In my opinion, this theory is largely false, and holds little, if any, historical footing.

Another camp, lets call them the truthers, believe that the United States had a hand in the attacks on 9/11. Without generalizing too much, I think it is safe to say that most truthers believe that 9/11 was an inside job, and that Bush had the building destroyed as a catalyst for war, oil-hording, and profit. Again, I find this theory to largely unproven, and many of its points are based on loose coincidences and out-of-context evidence. Also, there is little historical support.

The Blowback theory explains 9/11 in the following way: Basically, beginning around World War I, the Western world began dividing up the Middle East, giving power to puppets in exchange for access to oil. As they drew lines in the sand, religious and racial groups were divided and forced together. This created tensions. Many progressives of the area did not appreciate that the resources of their land were being taken from them by foreigners. More tensions.

As I mentioned earlier, the US overthrew the government of Mossedeq in 1953. Truthfully, much of the Middle East was on track to democracy and prosperity. These advances were seen as threats to Western interests, and actions were taken. Isreal was created in the late 1940s. Palestinians, already suffering from minor feuds amongst themselves over sectarian issues, like all people experience, were forced off of their land to make way for the new nation. Understandably, the Arab nations around Isreal did not take kindly to the West propping up a government in their back yard. Wars were started. Isreal, in defense of itself, attacked back. In many cases, US bombs were dropped from US planes by Israeli pilots on Syrian/Lebanese/Egyptian homes. Hate began to rise in the hearts of Arabs, as civilians began taking the majority of the burden of war. If I may take a line from underground rapper Immortal Technique "But you act like America wouldnt destroy two buildings, in a country that was sponsoring bombs dropped on our children."

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in the early 1980s, the United States (Charlie Wilson) gave billions of dollars to Pakistan, who was then entrusted to distributed it to freedom fighters (Mujahideen.) Some of this money went to fatcats in Pakistan, but most it went to random warlords in Afghanistan. US bought weapons and bombs were used to fight the Soviets. US money also paid for heroin fields (same as today.) The CIA trained terrorists (Osama Bin Laden) in the art of terrorism and guerilla warfare.

Also during the 1980s, the US supported Iran in exchange for the cooling of tensions from the previous decade and the release of hostages elsewhere in the Middle East. The US, through Israel, sold weapons to Iran. At the same time, the Reagan Administration (for whom Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Paul Wolfowitz worked for) gave chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein in his effort to destroy Iran. Saddam Hussein, by the way, was a dictator who was heavily trained by the man who led Adolf Hitler's secret police in the Middle East. So, the US knew he was a 'bad guy' way before dealing with him.

These Iranian weapons were used against innocent Iraqis, and vice-versa. Saddam Hussein used many of the chemical weapons to gas thousands of his own citizen in Kurdistan. Tensions mount.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait to seize their oil fields, the US quickly acted. We thought that we had the right to take the oil from our puppets, and we didnt want anyone else to. Ten years of bombings and sanctions followed, in which countless Iraqis died.

In order to keep an eye on Iran and Iraq, the US gave millions of dollars to the autocrats in Saudi Arabia, and built military bases. Many Arabs were agree with this, because much of that region is considered Muslim holyland, and foreign military presence was seen as a direct afront to peace in the region.

All of these things led to hatred of America: thoughtless seperation and juxtaposition of ethnic groups, overthrow of democracies, foreign control of oil fields, support of Israel and its bombing of innocent civilians, funding of dictators in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, etc.......etc.......etc. Osama Bin Laden, a man from a rich family with endless riches, found enough support within the Arab world to carry out attacks: many more carried out before 9/11 (one little gem that truthers leave out of the big picture) US embassies worldwide were bombed, Americans were kidnapped, flag burnings took place, protests were held, warnings were issued directly to the US government, the WTC was bombed in 1993, planes were hijacked, in places like the Philipines, where the US held influence from 1898 and had military bases, islamic terrorists found audiences. All these things were made possible by the CIA training of freedom fighters in the 1980s.

And then the big one: 9/11. Its no surprise that it would happen. As rappers Immortal Technique and KRS-One, Reverend Wright, Ron Paul, Chalmers Johnson, Stephen Kinzer, etc etc have pointed out, it is no wonder why the attacks occured. Blowback.

And we are on fast track to another attack. After 9/11, instead of a massive land invasion, the US filtered money into Pakistan to prop up the military dictator there, gave money to a few warlords in the north to carry out attacks against the Taliban (money was used to harvest poppy seeds, oops.) The US adopted a Marshall Plan of sorts, believing that if people were not so deep in poverty, they might repel the extremists themselves. The US contines to support Israel, who killed almost exclusively civilians in its war against Lebanon in 2006. We support Musharraf, we support Saudi Arabia. We bomb innocent villages in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have secret agents in Iran and Venezuela trying to destabilize their institutions.

We support the TFG in Somalia, which drops bombs on villages in Somalia and Ethiopia without warning civilians beforehand and rules by Sharia. We talk aggressively with Iran and North Korea, although our own intelligence agencies have found no proof of nuclear plans. We prop up the puppet government in Iraq. We give weapons to Sunni clerics to kill Shiite militias, and to Shiite clerics to kill Sunni militias. We ignore genocide and slavery around world, while feeding them the lie that we are a beacon for liberty and justice.

Any thoughts on this theory of blowback?