ISLAMABAD: Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed has said that 25 years after 9/11, the United States has emerged weaker, conceding space to China, while Muslim middle powers in the Middle East have become relevant in a transformed world.
Speaking at a talk hosted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in the federal capital, Senator Mushahid presented a fact sheet titled “9/11 in 25, the date that changed the world”.
He said the biggest change since 9/11 was that the United States, which was regarded before the attacks as the sole superpower, no longer held that position in the same manner.
Citing a Brown University study, Senator Mushahid said the United States squandered $8 trillion in the 20 years after 9/11, resulting in 38 million people displaced, nearly five million direct or indirect deaths, and 324,000 drones, bombs and missiles expended in battle-front countries and regions including Afghanistan, the former FATA region in Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Lebanon.
He also cited American sources as saying that the Pentagon had decided within nine days of 9/11 to launch wars against seven Muslim countries, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia and Sudan.
Referring to American journalist Tom Friedman, Senator Mushahid said Friedman wrote in The New York Times on May 8, 2003, that “If 25 men working in the vicinity of the White House had been exiled to an Island, there would have been no Iraq war”. Senator Mushahid said the observation implied that the Iraq war was pushed and promoted by a selected and influential group of pro-Israel lobbyists and journalists.
He also cited the book “Lawless World” by a British author, saying it stated that before the American invasion of Iraq, US President Bush had shared with Prime Minister Tony Blair his plan to target Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on the ostensible plea of nuclear proliferation.
Senator Mushahid said one of the biggest mistakes after 9/11 was made during a meeting in Bonn in December 2001, when the opportunity for reconciliation with the defeated Afghan Taliban, as well as the chance to restore the Afghan monarchy, was missed. He said the monarchy had been the centre of gravity of the modern Afghan state.
He compared Afghanistan’s situation with Cambodia, where he said the return of the monarchy after a devastating civil war restored stability. In Afghanistan, he added, a reverse process led to the creation of a republic that crumbled with the American military exit.
Discussing the implications of 9/11 for Pakistan, Senator Mushahid said that compared to other Muslim countries, Pakistan survived the American onslaught in neighbouring Afghanistan. However, he said Pakistan also suffered tremendous destabilisation, especially in the former FATA region, which led to the formation of the TTP in 2007, the collapse of Pakistan’s Afghan policy and Pakistan’s inability to prevent Indian ingress into Afghanistan under the cover of the US military occupation.
Talking about the global consequences of 9/11, Senator Mushahid said the attacks were a major turning point in modern history and marked the beginning of American decline and the rise of China. He termed both developments irreversible, saying they had led to a multipolar world marked by the resurgence of Russia, the rise of major Muslim middle powers like Pakistan, and the formation of new regional organisations such as the SCO and BRICS.
He termed the rise of Islamophobia and right-wing racism in most Western countries another major and worrisome consequence of 9/11. He said these trends had widened the gulf between Islam and the West, adding that the confrontation had also expanded due to US support for Greater Israel through what he described as its Israel First foreign policy.
