Explaining 11 September

In: Studies in political economy: SPE ; a socialist review, Heft 67, S. 25-31

Abstract

Addresses the problematics for the Left that are raised by the task of explaining the terrorist attacks on the US of 11 Sept 2001 without appearing to justify them. It is useful to point out that imperialism & anti-imperialism are interdependent, as is exemplified by Osama bin Laden's own debt to US Cold War policies in Afghanistan. Globalization, particularly as informed by oil interests, has transformed direct colonialist imperialism enforced by military power into an imperialism of the market. US intervention in Afghanistan & its declaration of an open-ended "war on terror" seems to have as much to do with establishing a form US toehold in the region (especially in oil-rich Iraq) as with destroying al Qaeda. K. Coddon