Iraq had been invaded after the global terrorism event that took place on September 11th, 2001, and more importantly, the weapons that were at their disposal in the era of the asymmetrical transnational war conducted by the non-state actors. So, President Bush, on January 29th, 2002, in his State of the Union, made it clear that the United States would not differentiate between the nation and the terrorist groups who would arm them. Due to this policy, the invasion of Afghanistan had been made for the need to remove the training ground and safe houses of al-Qaeda. Whereas Iraq didn’t provide al-Qaeda a safe haven, it had been the training ground and supportive place for different terrorist groups that were fighting Iran and Turkey’s governments.
The main arguments of the Bush administration for going on the war were the possession of weapons of mass destruction by Saddam, Saddam’s threat to the Middle East, the linkage of Iraq with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups that were fighting the governments of Turkey and Iran. Moreover, the harsh treatment of the people of Iran by Saddam and the lack of democracy in Iraq provided grounds for different terrorist groups to operate freely in the region. The unofficial reason behind removing Saddam would be the US military demonstration against the visible enemy and the demonstration of hawkish elements within the military establishment and the Bush administration to prevent others from thinking that the United States was weak following 9/11 (Globalsecurity.org).
The international community had shown significant opposition to launching the war in Iraq. UN stated that the invasion is illegal according to the United Nations Charter, and it would result in instability in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in the Middle East. Different nations of the world and allies of the US responded with different reactions. Argentina criticized the United invading Iraq, and they stated that their participation in the war was dependent on a clear mandate of the United Nations charter and that invasion is illegal. Britain participated in the military venture, which took great opposition from the Britain public and even the political parties. China criticized Bush’s criticism and called it a breach of the UN charter. Georgia pledged for its use of the military bases of the U.S. troops. During the war, Italy allowed the U.S. to use their air bases. Japan also took part in the coalition for disarming Iraq by deploying units in the area. Russia protested the actions of the US and demanded the end of the Iraq war.
The term orientalism is a way of seeing, distorting, emphasizing, imagiemphasizingxaggerating differences between Europe and the people and cultures of the Arabs. This term often involves seeing the Arab culture as uncivilized, backward, exotic, and dangerous at the time. In the book Orientalism, Edward W. said, “the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for the elaborate theories, epic novels, social description, and political accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, ‘mind,’ destiny and so on.” He stated that European colonialism rationalization is a rationalization history where the West considered themselves more civilized than the civilized and, therefore in need of the Intervention of the West.
After the attack on the trade centre in 2001 following the event of 9/11, Americans’ way of seeing Asians totally changed. They believed that Asians and Muslims were dangerous murderers. In the schools, the South Asian American and Muslim students and youth were being bullied and harassed by the Americans. The local police agencies of America and the FBI started to put an unknown number of Muslims under Surveillance, monitoring phones, email, and social media communications and activities and infiltrating the communities of Muslims and their worship places.
Due to the concept of orientalism, many of the women and men who were notified as doubtful by the agencies or even by the citizens and those who were having minor infractions in the migrations were jailed and arrested by the authorities and were detained under the authorities and even got deported (Dissentmagazine.org). Many South Asian Americans were murdered by self-styled Patriots in their working gases or in gas stations, including Waqar Hasan, Balbir Singh Sodhi, Vasudev Patel, and Sukhvir Singh. Moreover, the American media made Muslims terror in their news and even in Hollywood movies by showing that they are promoting acts of terrorism. For about thirteen years after the incident of 9/11, Islamophobia, xenophobia, acts of anti-Muslims and Sikhs, and anti-South Asian violence remained high.
The United States has control over most of the governments that are members of the United Nations, and therefore, the United States has made a large integrated system of Military bases for the coverage of the whole world, including the Oceans, Continents and Outer Space. Military bases are being used for the purpose of training, and for keeping the stock of the military equipment, which can be used in case of an emergency. The United States has established many military bases for performing certain military functions across the globe, and these bases can be classified under four main categories: army/land bases, air force bases, navy bases, and spy and communication bases.
The United States controls/operates about 700 to 800 military bases in the entire world. Hugh d’Andrade and Bob Wing’s 2002 map 1, entitled “U.S. Military Troops and Bases around the world, The Cost of ‘Permanent War’”, revealed that about 156 countries have the US military personnel in them. There are about 63 countries that are equipped with US military bases. After September 11, 2001, brand new military bases have been made in about seven countries. About 255,065 US military personnel have been developed in the entire world, having the 30 million acres of the underlying land surface that has been occupied by the bases. There are about a total of 737 bases in the US and in foreign countries. If we include the area of the bases that are in the US and in the whole world is about 2,202735 hectares, due to which the Pentagon is the world’s largest landowner.
The enormous military bases and various kinds of installations are being distributed throughout the entire world as a command structure that is divided into four unified combatant commands and five spatial units (Map 1). Each of these units is under the command of a General. The surface of the Earth has been structured as a wide battlefield which can be traversed from the bases. The territories that are under the command include the Northern Command (NORTHCOM) (Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado), the Pacific Command (Honolulu, Hawaii), the Southern Command (Miami, Florida – Map 5), The Central Command (CENTCOM) (MacDill Air Force Base, Florida), the European Command (Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany), the Joint Forces Command (Norfolk, Virginia), the Special Operations Command (MacDill Air Force Base, Florida), the Transportation Command (Scott Air Force Base, Illinois) and the Strategic Command (STRATCOM) (Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska).
Source: http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2009/0109_unifiedcommand
The Global Network of the United States military bases across the entire world is more like territorial imperialism. As America is extending its bases in the whole world, its only purpose behind doing this is the capture the power and take the whole world under its control. If the United States’ interest is not in the expanding of its power, then why are they creating so many bases for the military in the entire? Over 181 countries have the military personnel of the United States in their countries (Globalresearch.ca). The United States wants to take control of the whole damn world by sending its troops everywhere. The United States wants the exploitation of all the states, which is linked to colonialism. America is working on the concept of spreading freedom and democracy in all the nations by making their military bases there. But its intention behind this concept is the capturing of the power of all the states.
The United States is using these military bases for the purpose of ending any uplift of power against them. Wherever in the world the United States felt the threat, they used these military bases to oppose these powers. The United States invested trillions of dollars in military expenditures and military bases in the war in the Middle East. United States corporate elite had been driven out of Syria, Iraq, and Libya, where military imperialism was engaged. United States strategies of the imperial state chose to expand the underdeveloped areas like Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Yemen.
One of the most important issues in assigning national resources is war versus peace. The United States is busy with the concept of territorial imperialism by expanding its territory with the building of military bases in the entire world. But this choice of the United States is greatly wrong, wasteful of a lot of sums and is the discouragement of national security. America is now suffering from “imperial overreach” in terms of economics and geopolitical, as the United States is trapped now in the Middle East war that is costing it a lot, and the budgetary costs of imperialism alone could disrupt the hopes of the solution of the vast domestic problems.
Racism has been widespread in the United States in the Era of Colonialism. Due to racism, social and legal rights were given to White Americans, while these rights were denied to other races. European Americans were given special privileges in the matter of citizenship, voting, education, immigration, and the acquisition of land. Whereas, due to the imperialism concept in the American homeland, the non-protestant immigrants like Irish, Poles, and Italians faced strong discrimination from the Americans. Moreover, Middle Eastern Americans, like Arabs and Jews, have faced very strong kinds of discrimination, and East and South Asians also faced the same racism from the Americans in their homeland (Schepers, 2017). Most of the racial institutions included the war between the American Indians, slavery, segregation, Native American boarding schools, and naturalization naturalizationation.
African Americans were facing very strong discrimination due to American imperialism. In the American Homeland, due to this imperialism, there were separate schools for the African and the American children. Moreover, there were also separate facilities, and separate trains and buses for the whites and the blacks. Because the Whites considered themselves superior to the African Americans on the basis of their colour and personality. For example, in February 1960, in North Carolina, African American students went to the store and sat down, but no service was given to them. Moreover, the whites poke them, throw ketchup on their head, and also try to give them pain by burning cigarettes. This all racism was due to the Imperialism of the Americans. Americans considered themselves superior to all races on the basis of civilization. Civilization that they were more civilized than civilized Americans and believed that African Americans should be their slaves. Moreover, the American government banned the marriage of the interracial and Mildred, a black woman and Richard, a white man, were sent to jail for about a year due to marriage with each other in 1967.
Americans, due to the concept and imperialism, not only hate African Americans, but they also have hatred for Asian American as well. This hatred can be seen in the act of Naturalization in 1970, in which Asians were ineligible for citizenship in America, and citizenship was limited to whites only. East Asians, South Asian and Southeast Asians faced discrimination and racism from the Americans in their homeland. Chinese immigrant labourers were used for the purpose of mining and rail industries functions, but these Chinese were hated for picking the jobs of Whites for a very small salary, and it predicted the decrease of the Civilization of the West due to these Chinese immigrants, which results in the banning of the Chinese immigration in the American by the Act of Chinese Exclusion. That act shows the pure discrimination from the Whites towards Asian Americans based on ethnicity and class.
After the attack of 9/11 in the United States, racialized Isracialized had risen to enormous heights due to the tension between the Islamic world and the American government. Due to the imperialism concept that followed the 9/11 attack, the racialized violence had increased against the Muslim religion and its groups. Americans attacked the Muslims not only on the basis of their religion but also on the basis of ethnicity, including on the basis of their colours. Americans, on the basis of their imperialism concept, have thought that they are superior to any other nation of the world. Muslims were most demonized anddemonizedor living in the United States as the Muslims were considered murderers and terrorists due to the attack of 9/11. Numerous Asians and Arabs have been killed on the basis of their appearance as well. Moreover, many Middle Eastern peoples were also killed due to their resemblance to the Muslims. Even the Muslim soldiers in the American army were discriminated against and forced to play the role of terrorists during their training in the camps and were being bullied by many American soldiers.
References
Pike, J. (2018). Attacking Iraq – International Reaction. Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq-view.htm
Bald, V. (2018). American Orientalism | Dissent Magazine. Dissent Magazine. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/american-orientalism
US Global Power in the 21st Century: Military or Economic Imperialism? | Global Research – Centre for Research on Globalization. (2018). Globalresearch.ca. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-global-power-in-the-21st-century-military-or-economic-imperialism/5404911
Schepers, E. (2017). Imperialism in the 21st Century affects Americans, too. Communist Party USA. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from http://www.cpusa.org/article/imperialism-in-the-21st-century-affects-americans-too/
