The current state of affairs in the Middle East means that the expensive and destructive “war on terror” may now be entering a new and even more horrific stage and the start of yet another major war. Soon after 9/11, the US and its allies invaded a war-torn Afghanistan, a poor country that had once fought the West's war against its arch-enemy communist Russia. From the beginning of this war on terror, leading Western critics questioned the manufactured reasons and pretexts for a terror threat that they thought would never end or be overcome. Leading scholars, investigative journalists and Nobel Laureates have not questioned the events of 9/11 themselves, but they have challenged the official reasons for them and the identity of those behind them. Powerful lobby-groups, armaments manufacturers and arms dealers have all cashed in on the war on terror, even as old friends and allies have become foes, including the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and the Afghan Taliban, both of whom were previously supported by the British and Americans. The way some Western politicians and sections of the media sold the lie of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction before the US-led invasion in 2003, constituting a threat to world security, is an example of the power of manipulation. As a result of the West's invasion of Iraq, the country was destroyed and the Iraqi people lost their future. An unjust and unnecessary war, “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, was initiated in the name of the Western values of liberty and democracy. However, these are universal values not just Western ones, and they are acknowledged and supported as such by the UN. The same applies to the other Middle Eastern dictators and authoritarian regimes that have become notorious for their brutal and inhuman ways of controlling their own people. Once these dictators have fulfilled their purpose for the West, they become useless and are regarded as undemocratic like the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He once said that he feared being the next target of those in power in the United States after the hanging of Saddam Hussein some years ago. All this has sent a clear message to the Muslim world that the West aims to decide questions of guilt without proper trials, whether of Saddam Hussein or the former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The present-day Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad is no exception, as Al-Assad's family has long been an ally of the imperialist powers, whether the Americans or the Russians. It has become evident from the conflicts in the Middle East that for the imperialist powers, human rights, freedom and democracy are nothing more than empty slogans which cover up and present invasions as freedom movements. Whether in Afghanistan or Iraq, the same old tactics are used, as these have proven to be useful and workable. Today, the region as a whole is paying the price for America's imperialist ambitions that follow from unfair policies. What is happening now in the Middle East is proof of the imperialist powers' misadventures and their failed policies which have little to do with democracy. Iranians have not forgotten the overthrow of their democratically elected government under prime minister Mohamed Mosaddeq by the British and American intelligence agencies in the early 1950s, for example. The danger is that the continuation of such shameful policies puts peace in danger. Since 9/11, Western security institutions and sections of the media have failed not once but on several occasions to stop the rise of terrorist groups despite their being equipped with the world's best technological and human resources. Today, even many ordinary people are asking whether terrorist groups like the Islamic State (IS), Boko Haram in Nigeria or Al-Qaeda are stronger than states. Do these organisations really have more manpower, resources, and instruments of war than the major world powers? WESTERN STRATEGY: One former Pakistani diplomat and politician, Tarek Fatemi, argues that America's adventures reflect a three-part strategy to create the enemy, foster the enemy and finally fight the enemy. So far, this strategy has been visible in the Middle East, where American forces have been hunting various terrorist groups. The US invades and destroys country after country, among them Iraq, Libya and Syria, being determined to control the region's rich oil reserves and control its people under the pretexts of freedom, democracy or fighting terrorism. The world's major powers aim for domination in Syria at the cost of thousands of innocent lives. The Western powers, along with Russia and even Middle Eastern countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, have shown no mercy towards the millions of Syrians who have been displaced or who have had to emigrate and have been either drowned in their efforts to reach Europe or forced to live in camps. According to a leaked document published in the New Observer Online, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton admitted that the destruction of Syria was in fact part of a plan to secure Israel. Six years on, the conflict in Syria is getting worse and is likely to spread to neighbouring countries. Perhaps this is the plan for the Middle East region – that for the sake of Israel surrounding countries must be bombed back to the Stone Age. The Syrian conflict has been promoted as a religious Shia-Sunni conflict and not as what it actually is: part of a struggle for regional power between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Israeli academic Ami Ayalon of Tel Aviv University has admitted in an interview aired by the Awareness Project, a US group, that Israel's security requires the creation of a Sunni coalition in the region led by Turkey. Ayalon claims that Iran is a threat to Israel's existence because it cannot live with the possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons. Once again, the Western, Russian, Israeli, Iranian and Middle Eastern media are provoking fear among the public. The fall of Aleppo has been just the beginning, with Iran claiming that it was behind the victory of Al-Assad forces in the city. This is an eye-opening episode in violence that sooner or later may spread to neighbouring countries. The fall of Aleppo has given the Iranian leadership hopes of extending its hegemonic ambitions in the region, perhaps with an intervention in Bahrain. It is no secret that Iran has been intervening in Pakistan's richest province of Baluchistan, where Iranians are playing a double-game with India by secretly supporting an insurgency and supplying weapons, financial resources and hideouts for the rebels. The present situation shows that this is not the end but rather the beginning, as UK journalist Martin Chulov has written in an article in the London newspaper The Guardian. In the Syrian chaos, he wrote, Iran's game plan has emerged – “the path to the Mediterranean”. Concerning Russia's role in Syria, former US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power has warned that the world has reached a “point of no return” in the Syrian conflict. Iran's and Russia's ambitions have grown to take in regional politics and economies. Their role in butchering thousands of innocent Syrians has alarmed neighbouring Sunni Muslim states. The creation of a Muslim military alliance under the command of Saudi Arabia to combat terrorism headed by former Pakistani army chief Raheel Sharif has further intensified the conflict. An alliance of 39 Muslim countries signals ongoing preparations for the next battle in the war on terror. Will there be something worse than IS and Al-Qaeda? Security specialists are warning the parties involved to beware of a major war. Isn't now the right time for Christians, Jews and Muslims, whether Shia or Sunni, to stand up together? It is time for ordinary people to form an alliance for peace before it is too late, to challenge the war-mongers and say no to war. The media must also play a healing role rather than beat the drums for the next round of war. Perhaps we should listen to the late British journalist John Pilger, who once said that “provoking nuclear war by the media” would result in disaster for everyone. The writer is a journalist and campaigner from Pakistan.
