I don’t understand most things in life, like why people fight and kill. Some folk say its because of diverse philosophies, unusual celebrations, dressing in a different way - this starts because different countries have laws based on religion and folk in other countries think these laws to be ignorant, too lenient or too strict.
Like in Iraq, where a ruthless Muslim tyrant ruled his nation with a steel fist, Muslim radicals took over Afghanistan, removed all rights for women and are the dictatorship responsible for attacking a free country. This attack was based on radical beliefs that rules and rulers were misguided because criminals were being treated fairly, justice was served (but not severely enough), and its citizens were free.
It seems that people like to believe their religion to be the only true one and that if they believed in another they would be damned. It is ignorant to think that there is only one religion to live by because if this was so we would be living in the world that Hitler wanted - a world without cultural differences.
Perhaps humans feel too strongly about the ‘higher being’, which we have never seen but are so willing to kill and die for. More than 150-million people died in WW1 and WW2 combined, but throughout history, millions more have died in the name of Christianity.
Are the Muslims now doing the same? Denying their women freedom, education and life itself? Surely, when Muslim leaders and clerics compare the historic wrongs man has done in the name of Jesus they should learn from Christianity’s mistakes?
Christians should be asking the world for forgiveness, instead of always trying to tell other folk how to live.
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Does the United States truly have a war of terrorism or is this the cloak with which they are shrouding petropolitics? It may be a twist of fate, but take a look at a map of the Middle East; it will show you that the ‘war on terror’ is a near blue-print following oil.
The first ‘oil’ war that I am aware of was way back in the 70’s -- the Angolan civil war; a war that country may never recover from.
Indulge me please to firstly enlighten you to the reasons behind the Angolan war:
The United States relied heavily on the Middle East for its oil, but as the Suez Canal had been closed since the Arab/Israeli Six-Day War, oil tankers had to skirt around the Cape of Good Hope to get their load to the USA. However, the air and waters around South Africa were closely monitored and controlled by the USSR. From their African bases, Soviet bombers presented a serious threat to the sea routes and without question, the Soviets would have derived invaluable advantages in orchestrating a take-over of South Africa; they would then have the mineral wealth of all of southern Africa, over and above the unending South African gold reserves. (South Africa’s former apartheid government made futile attempts at resisting the Marxist forces and eventually had to give in to the African National Congress, South Africa’s current government, who has strong alliances with communism.)
Angola’s coastal capital, Luanda, was the major obstacle standing in the way of the Soviets to South Africa, but this was soon overcome when the military branch of the Cuban/Russian back MPLA secured Luanda’s harbour. Soon Cuban advisors were delivered to guide Angolan military affairs and receive thousands of tons of Soviet equipment, via Guinea and the Congo. Urged by the Americans to assist the CIA backed FNLA and UNITA forces, South Africans found themselves reluctantly embroiled in the Angolan dilemma, providing them with active support. In Luanda, the communist regime assisted and provided bases to SWAPO, a guerrilla movement it had created to wage unconventional warfare in South West Africa (later renamed Namibia). Consequently, a covert war, not unlike the Rhodesian conflict, flared up in South West Africa, with ambushes, raids, and horse patrols being the order of the day for many years. SWAPO intensified its attacks in South West Africa and Zambia became involved. South Africa was wining the war, but now the communist forces were being substantially reinforced and the Soviets were increasing their arms deliveries.
Years later the war ended, putting a Marxist Government in place in both Angola and Namibia. A war that took the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, from both sides and a war that is still maiming and killing Angolan civilians through undiscovered landmines.
In hindsight, what the war was about is now obvious. The Soviet’s were not greedy, they were dying because of communism and in their final attempt to save themselves, they attempted to grasp onto the precious resources that assured their survival. However, the cause evaporated when the US ditched the UNITA movement, and switched sides, backing Angola's communist regime for reasons that could only be interpreted as ‘petropolitics’. In time, South Africa would see that what she attempted to prevent in Angola, the West gave the communists on a golden platter as now, several years after the end of four decades of war that almost completely destroyed the Angola's infrastructure, nothing has changed as the international community glowingly predicted it would.
Despite Angola being one of the richest countries on the continent, boasting some of the world’s largest oil reserves bringing in some 17.8 billion dollars between 1997 and 2002; notwithstanding their massive diamond wealth, 68 percent of the population survives on less than a dollar a day, one-third of all their children die before the age of five and three and a half million children under 18 are malnourished.
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The eradication of the Taliban and the war on Afghanistan was planned some months before September 11th – a date which, in effect, only hastened the war.
In May 2001 a meeting took place in Geneva involving the US State Department and certain government officials from Iran, Germany and Italy – the key issue being the ousting of the Taliban and substituting them with an open-minded government. In July 2001 it was again discussed in an Italian G-8 summit and on this occasion, included India. Soon thereafter a secret meeting was held involving officials from Germany, Russia, Pakistan and America, discussing a military strike against the Taliban.
Now that the world’s attentions are diverted to Iraq, the American government feels more comfortable in not concealing the facts and is quite open that it was all about oil in the first place. Look at the “Afghan Policy” – it is being orchestrated by those in bed with the oil giants.
In hindsight, the 9/11 terror attack on America has raised uncertainty amongst the American people of their own government and their involvement in these attacks -- as is demonstrated in Eric Hufschmid’s works as well as the video entitled “911 in Plane Sight”.
Who is next? Nigeria? Iran? Venezuela? Saudi Arabia? Iraq?
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© Cindy-Lou Dale 2005
