The Allied attacks on Afghanistan are being done for the good of mankind - so we are being told. Both George W. Bush and Tony Blair of Britain have gone to great pains to stress the war in Afghanistan is a just war. It is not against Islam but against the terrorists. They claim it is a just war to defend the principles held dear by the Western world and all civilized societies, namely freedom, democracy, human rights to name but a few.

However the American action does not correlate to the words spoken by the likes of Bush and Blair or even to their proclaimed motive.

Statements made on one day are incongruent to statements made on another day. At first the war was described as a war by the free and civil world (read Capitalist) against the uncivil and the not so free world (read Islam). However, it was also described as a war only against terrorism and nothing more than that.

The media would have us believe that America, as a civilized nation acts on the basis of high ideals, motivated by lofty principles. This is not so.

The leaders of the Western world have said the attack of September 11th was an attack against Western civilization itself.

On September 11th, Secretary Powell said, "We also have to remember that the greatest target that they have been going after are American values. The fact that we stand for a form of democracy and representative government and a value system that they find threatening to theirs and one that they have to destroy for their own radical purposes."

Tony Blair said on September 20th, "This is a struggle that concerns us all, the whole of the democratic and civilized and free world."

There is little doubt that this war is not against Bin Laden, the Taliban or even terrorism itself. It is a pre-emptive war. It is a war declared against the only civilization that remains a challenge to the West, namely Islam. The terrorist attack of September 11th was not a threat to Western values, or lack thereof. Rather, it is Islam that is and has been the threat. Thus, America is opportunistically using the current climate to increase her strangle hold over various regions of the world and thus realizing her 'New World Order' to pre-empt a future challenge. A challenge that has been predicted by Huntingdon and others.

War has been described by some, as politics by other means. What America could not achieve by political means or through intellectual persuasion, she aims to achieve through war. Thus the old adage of 'Might is Right' is what America relies upon to achieve her colonial aims. An implicit acknowledgement that her values and aims are not convincing to others.

America claims to fight in the name of 'Human Rights', 'Democracy' and 'Freedom'. But her latest crusade only exposes her real motive. It exposes the foundation upon which America; nay the Western civilization is built upon. It is not Human Rights, Democracy or Freedom, since these ideas remain mere ideas without a reality.

No country has absolute freedom. Every country has laws to maintain order, which every citizen is obliged to obey. Thus man imposes his will on other men.

Democracy in practice is non-existent. An elected chamber that is manipulated by capitalists and powerful lobby groups makes laws. Laws are not made through referendums. Members of the elected chamber are expected to tow the party line. They do not represent the people. They rather try and convince their constituency that what their party is saying is correct.

Self-determination too is a hollow slogan. America is notorious for directly imposing governments around the world. She intends to do exactly that in a post Taleban Afghanistan. In this matter Britain is unsurpassed, she not only imposed rulers, but created nation-states where non existed, e.g. Israel and Saudi Arabia to name but two.

A J Balfour's said on July 12, 1920, "So far as the Arabs are concerned, I hope they will remember that it is we who have established an independent Arab sovereignty of the Hejaz (i.e. Saudi Arabia) . . . we who desire the way for the future of a self-governing autonomous Arab State, and I hope that, remembering all that they will not grudge that small notch (reference to Israel) . . . being given to the people who for all these hundreds of years have been separated from it."

Human Rights and individual liberty are not sacred, as the politicians might have us believe. The talk of I.D. cards in Britain and the curtailment of liberties in America for the sake of protecting freedom, lay open for all to see the contradiction as well as the impracticality of her ideas.

America's motive in declaring war is not due to values she claims to believe in. Had the real motive been in against terrorism, A,merica would have shown consistency in acting against the IRA, Israel and the rebels of East Timor to name but a few. Had the real motive been freedom, then we would have seen consistency of action against Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Syria. Had it been democracy .... you get the picture. Had these ideas been the real motive, then all Western nations would have shown the same enthusiasm in this latest exploit, but Germany and France have been dragging there heels behind the likes of Mr. Blair the 'bat out of hell'.

However one motive has always been consistent without exception for all Western nations in all their foreign interference, hidden behind the slogans aforementioned, namely benefit.

The capitalist ideology is not devoid of a foundation. Although it is built on the four freedoms, the freedom of ownership overshadows all else and this is the overriding motive in any action conducted by a capitalist state.

Prior to the gulf war, Lawrence Koth, a former US assistant defense secretary exposed America's real motive, he said, "If Kuwait grew carrots, we wouldn't give a damn". Years later in reference to the Gulf War, Anthony Cordesman stated before the U.S. Senate's foreign affairs committee (1/3/2001) "...we came out of a serious crisis in the foreign policy in the Middle East with a situation where we achieved therein the greatest gains since World War Two".

The motive for action is Afghanistan is no different. The scramble to control Afghanistan and Central Asia is down to benefit and greed, pure and simple.

Ariel Cohen, senior policy analyst in America said, "The Caspian Sea reserves have been estimated to hold 100 billion to 200 billion barrels of oil worth between $2 trillion and $4 trillion at current market prices (1996). The region's reserves of natural gas are similarly enormous--larger than those in all of North America."

Uzbekistan's oil and gas reserves alone have been estimated to be worth more than $1 trillion.

Not surprisingly many foreign companies are clamoring to get a share. The American oil giant Texaco is one such company, along with Japan's Mitsui working in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to build the Central Asia Oil Pipeline (CAOP), which, if constructed, would transport Central Asian oil via Afghanistan to a proposed new deepwater port at Gwadar on Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast. However, continuing unrest in Afghanistan has stalled any progress on the CAOP.

In 1996, Unocal Corporation and Delta Oil Company of Saudi Arab,ia signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia's Gazprom and Turkmenistan's Turkmenrusgaz as important additions to the consortium that plans to build a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan. Unocal claims now to have withdrawn from the project.

America's foreign policy aim in this region has been to stabiles it. The ISI and CIA created the Taliban to stabilize the area, which they did not manage to achieve. The U.S. has now decided to take direct action.

John J. Maresca (VP Unocal), speaking before the committee on international relations (12/2/98) said, "From the outset, we have made it clear that construction of the pipeline we have proposed across Afghanistan could not begin until a recognized government is in place that has the confidence of governments, lenders, and our company."

Moscow Times reported (11/10/01), "A speedy resolution of the Afghan problem will be a key step to unlocking the oil and gas riches of the Caspian Sea, but any spread of the unrest could jeopardize some existing projects."

America may hide behind the slogans of human rights, freedom, democracy, but these are only to hide the real motive for their actions. America cannot be considered a 'civilised' nation based on 'civilised' principles, since they live by only one principle which is sacred and that is benefit, all else is negotiable.

This war is nothing to do with September 11^th, but everything to do with Capitalist terrorism by America. The BBC reported, "Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October."

America bombs and kills to feed its unending greed, in the same predatory fashion predators ravage their victims in the jungle. It does not act like a civilized nation driven by principles. No that is the job of the Khilafah state.

America lives by the law of the jungle, but will fall by the law of Allah (swt) once the state that lives by this law emerges, inshaAllah.

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Mazhar Khan is a free-lance writer.