East Africa: Q&A - America's Secret 'War Without End'
By Maria Caspani, 17 June 2013
Sheffield - There's a covert war that has been fought by the U.S. government
over the past decade. It is part of, but goes far beyond, the "war on
terror" launched by former President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11
attacks on America.
It is more ruthless and bloodier than the "conventional war" we hear reports
of on television and read about in mainstream media.
This is the conclusion investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill and filmmaker
Richard Rowley came to after years of investigating America's wars. The pair
traveled thousands of miles, from Afghanistan to Yemen and Somalia, to
uncover the "Dirty Wars" - the title of their compelling documentary
screened at this year's Sheffield Doc/Fest - that the United States and its
allies are secretly carrying out under the guise of fighting terrorism.
It's a global war of targeted attacks and air strikes that wipe out men,
pregnant women and children, and are subsequently and systematically covered
up by American authorities. Its material executors are the men of the Joint
Special Operations Command (JSOC), a secretive branch of the U.S. military
born under former Vice President Dick Cheney that has grown exponentially
under President Barack Obama.
Rowley, the director of "Dirty Wars", spoke to Thomson Reuters Foundation
about the "war without end" that America is carrying out beyond Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Q: How is America fighting a "permanent war"?
A: Some of the people we talked to are on the inside - operators or members
of the military intelligence community - they talk about this...they say
it's like mowing the lawn. When the jihad rises above a certain point, you
come in and you chop off the leadership of it knowing that it is going to
grow back up. So that means you're managing a permanent state of crisis.
A calculation that, I think, some people are making is that we allow
countries like Yemen to turn into terrifying places and just hope that we
wipe out enough of the leadership that they don't have the logistical
capability of getting on a plane and getting to the U.S. ... It's a tactic
without a strategy.
Q: Do you think this tactic is proving to be effective?
A: It's completely counterproductive, even if you didn't have a problem with
civilian casualties and drone strikes, even if you didn't have a political
problem with this massive overreach by the executive wing declaring covert
war without any oversights, assassinating people without a trial or charges
and spying on Americans... On Sept. 11, al Qaeda was a tiny organisation
that was on the run, it didn't control any territory. Now there are tens of
thousands of members of al Qaeda and they control swathes of East Africa,
parts of Yemen. The war has produced a spiral of violence that we need to
find a way to exit.
Q: In 2014, international troops will pull out of Afghanistan. Do you think
it will make a difference at this point?
The special operation forces (JSOC) are going to stay in Afghanistan.
They're going to continue to have their kill list to work through, so while
the conventional war is winding down, the covert war is accelerating and
expanding. Obama will be credited with ending two conventional wars - Iraq
and Afghanistan - but, under (George W.) Bush, JSOC was authorised to
operate in 26 countries around the world. Under the Obama administration,
that's expanding to over 70. This issue, this war, is bigger than any
political party, is bigger than the office of the president.
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Received on Mon Jun 17 2013 - 17:38:49 EDT