The unfolding disaster at the In Amenas gas facility in
Algeria, alongside the Anglo-French military adventure in neighbouring Mali,
reveal once more the futility of the “war on terror” and with it the West’s
total inability to chart an alternative path.
One gruesome result is that workers from around the world
have been placed in the firing line at the BP-run plant, caught between the jihadists
led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar and an Algerian regime that in practice is impervious
to human life.
Negotiations were ruled out and helicopter gunships blasted
away indiscriminately. Requests from prime minister Cameron to be informed
before military action was taken were treated with disdain.
Since the military annulled the Islamists’ victory in the
Algerian elections in 1992, over 250,000 people are thought to have perished in
subsequent terror and counter-terror operations. Belmokhtar, Algerian-born,
himself returned from fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan – no doubt with US
backing – to take up arms against his country’s regime.
Naturally, Algiers
learned from its old colonial master, France. In the post-war period, the
French military and police conducted a vicious and sinister war against the
national liberation movement. This colonial “legacy” found its echoes in the
conduct of Algerian governments after independence was achieved in 1962.
A half a century later and François Holland, the Socialist
Party president of France, recently visited Algeria, made a half-baked apology
for his country’s history and got what he wanted – deals to exploit the
country’s vast gas and oil reserves and support for his war in Mali .
As to Mali ,
you’ve probably guessed the country has mineral wealth that has to be protected/exploited. This time it’s gold and
oil. So no way are the major powers going to let a bunch of jihadists take
control, even if they are Malians. Self-determination? Out of the question.
Belmokhtar’s is only one of many jihadist groups involved in
cross-border actions in the region. Their presence is testimony of the
attraction of terrorism to a generation dispossessed economically and, just as
importantly, politically.
The major capitalist powers were always content to play
along with authoritarian secular regimes in Algeria ,
Syria , Egypt and Iraq
as well as the oppressive autocracies of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. The
legitimate claims of the Palestinians were essentially ignored. Defence of
energy supplies and strategic allies like Israel have always trumped human
rights and political freedom.
As a result, the West has, not surprisingly, come to be seen
by new generations of Muslims as a bearer of bad news in every respect. The
invasions of Afghanistan and
then Iraq ,
with all their horrific consequences, only served to confirm this viewpoint.
The globalised capitalist system in truth has nothing to
offer – either to its own citizens, who are increasingly impoverished as a
result of the economic crisis – or to people in the Muslim world.
Democracy? Ah yes. The kind of “democracy” which produces
gross inequality, mass unemployment and a loss of political rights as the
corporations and banks call the tune? Culture? What the ruling elites mean by
this is turning every country into a market-driven, consumer society fuelled by
gross advertising (and debt).
The fact remains that present capitalist society cannot propose
a progressive secular alternative to those attracted to the jihad. In any case,
the “war on terror”, because it has no end in sight, is a convenient sideshow
for Washington , London
and Paris at
times of social unrest.
So when the political class sheds tears over the deaths of
hostages, they are surely of the crocodile variety.
Paul Feldman
Communications editor
