opinion The recent attack on Pentagon and World Trade Centre by hijacked civilian American airlines can be regarded as one of the worst forms of attacks on targets on American soil.

For a long time, there was belief within American official circles that the geographical location of the country and its supposedly super intelligence system would act as bulwarks against any form of terrorist attacks.

But then, when part of the Pentagon and the entire WTC was demolished, Americans woke up to the new realities of international conflict. It laid bare the utter nonsense of improving the country's missile defense system as it would only take a handful of individuals merely armed with knives to hijack civilian planes for the purpose of striking at any target.

But the funny thing is that the American officialdom seems to be learning no lessons from this disaster. The line of argument is simply that it has to find new ways to improve the country's intelligence system, get the support of its allies and make preparations for retaliatory strikes at targets abroad, especially in countries that are supposedly harbouring and nurturing terrorists groups; fingers pointing in the direction of Afghanistan, Iraq and to some extent, Pakistan.

There is no single attempt to consider what really went wrong in the foreign policy realm. There seems to be general amnesia on the fact that it was the foreign policy of the United States and its relationship with the rest of the world that is the prime cause of the recent attack and other attacks in different places.

Worrying jingoism

The American media in typical fashion has succeeded in whipping up a kind of jingoistic nationalism to the effect that the real issue is not so much the horrendous nature of American foreign policy but rather the conflict between good and evil.

In other words, America stands for all that is good whereas those who attacked and those who harbour terrorists are evil forces that need to be eliminated. This kind of jingoism is not something new in American history, for it has been invented and reinvented during certain periods for the country to go to war with other countries deemed the evil ones.

However, the recent attack has produced a kind of jingoism unparalleled in American history and that is worrying to say the least.

The attack on Pentagon and the WTC basically represents an attempt by groups and individuals to get back at US for the harm and humiliation it caused to people in different regions. While America might be a democratic country, its foreign policy towards other nations, however, is replete with contradictions.

It supports whatever regime that serves American neo-colonial and imperialistic interests; little or no attention is paid to the suffering of innocent people. Arms supplied by the US are used by regimes in power to punish or eliminate opposition forces in the name of opposing terrorism. American military advisors are stationed in many countries to advise and train troops of very corrupt regimes.

American intelligence is provided to eliminate leaders of opposition groups. In short, over the last few decades, the actions of the US, both direct and indirect, have caused much harm to people in various countries seeking a decent political future, democracy, human rights and others.

Tamils killed

Needless to say, groups and individuals affected by American policy have become angry and frustrated. Palestinians have been left in lurch because of the uncaring policy of the US in supporting and sustaining the reactionary regime in Israel. Promise of independence for Palestinians is not forthcoming at all.

Every successive government in Israel has sought to deny a decent political future for Palestinians. Beyond this, American moral and material support have been used to eliminate groups opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Palestinians and those who support their just cause know very well that Israel without the support and connivance of the United States would not be in a position to deny them their independence.

How long will the Palestinians have to wait and how many lives have to be sacrificed before they get their rightful independence remains unclear.

US is against terrorists. But no attempt has been made to date to identify who these terrorists are, what are their objectives, why are they willing to give up their lives and others. In Sri Lanka, American military help has been sought for years to eliminate the struggle waged by the Tamils for their homeland.

American military advisors, Israeli military experts and others have been utilised to crush the national liberation headed by the LTTE. Of course, the world, and America, in particular make no mention of the bombing raids and how innocent Tamils are being killed daily. Hundreds of Tamil women have been raped by the marauding soldiers of the Sri Lanka army in the name of preventing terrorism.

But the US remains tight lipped about this and many other atrocities committed by the armed forces all in the name of preventing terrorism.

Pernicious role

It was the US that brought Suharto into power in Indonesia so that he could mastermind the elimination of communists. Ironically, it was the same US through the International Monetary Fund that brought Suharto down from the heights of power. US interference and intervention is global. Its main interest is to ensure the protection of its political, economic and strategic interests.

To do this, the US has no qualms of 'sleeping' with dictators, military rulers, authoritarian governments and others. It was the same US that backed the Taliban in fighting against the Soviets. Today, the Taliban is accused of harbouring and supporting Islamic terrorists.

One can go on listing thousands of instances of the pernicious role of the US in global affairs. Thus, if there are individuals and groups affected by US policy, then it seems quite natural for them to retaliate in ways known to them.

Thus, after doing all these kinds of nonsense, the US cannot turn around and ask, 'Where did we go wrong?' The fault is not so much with others, but rather in the way successive policymakers in the US have sought to define the country interests - both domestically and internationally.

This has nothing to do with the country's intelligence system or the elaborate preparations for the development of their defense system. Who is the real enemy? Today, the enemies of the US are those groups, organisations, individuals and others who have been negatively affected by the nature of US foreign policy towards the struggle of oppressed peoples in the world.

P RAMASAMY is a professor of political economy at the Political Science Department, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and has academic interests in Malaysian politics and labour. He has written quite extensively and is currently focusing on conflict management in Sri Lanka.