However, in addition to the legal ground that would be needed to legitimize this action, a theory was also needed. Today we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this theory has no connection with the truth. The CIA now admits to having acted on incorrect pieces of information. An intelligence service able to read even the license plates of cars anywhere in the world by using a satellite system putting forward a theory, based on incorrect pieces of information, that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, and then this service having been misled as a result of information on this and other issues “not tested well enough for accuracy” is completely inconceivable. The most celebrated theory on the Sept. 11 attacks was the one related to the al-Qaeda terrorist network and its leader, Osama bin Laden. A large number of operations were carried out on this assumption and still continue today. And according to a growingly popular thesis, the United States, with the intention of carrying out a global operation, had actually been seeking grounds to legitimize its actions, and these attacks provided the perfect opportunity. There is a fork in the road at this point: According to the first view the worldwide hatred against the United States reached its peak with the attacks on the Twin Towers, and America used this to its own benefit; that is, the attacks just coincided with its present intention with a perfect timing. According to the second view, some units within the state in the US plotted the attacks and then implemented them, thereby generating the pretext the US sorely needed. We don’t need to be conspiratorial; statements made by democrats, including those of some largest US media corporations that fiercely defend the war, and the latest apologies from the CIA indicate that we cannot just simply disregard this second view.
There is a fact we overlooked and it has ceased to be important because whatever happened, happened. What is apparently under way is that the United States set about a very large-scale operation, beginning in Afghanistan and including the entire Islamic world right after Sept. 11. Approximately 1 million people lost their lives in Iraq; a minimum 1.5 million people have been obliged to leave their homeland; and about 2 million Iraqis have been made refugees/migrants in their own country. This operation is so large as to give the 21st century a whole new shape and was planned a long time ago.
We should see the Sept. 11 attacks and the US occupation of two important countries in the Islamic world as the first “harbinger” of a major system change that will impact on the entire world. For the time being our world has only one pole; however, there are many potential poles, but there is no balance among them. Our world has no balance. What are the potential poles? The European Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the People’s Republic of China and India. These are poles or potential poles that have achieved a state of balance only within themselves. Nevertheless, the whole economic power of the world is currently represented by the United States because the US is very powerful both in terms of economy and military. It has an army of 2.5 million soldiers, for which it is able to set apart a huge budget twice as large as the total military expenses of the next 20 countries that follow it on the list.
The United States is trying to reshape the world. In 1991 Bush Sr. said, “We have taken action to establish a new world order that will last for a hundred years.” The new order will be established in the Middle East. That is, the Middle East is seen as the central base for this operation. This can be regarded as the third major operation in the Middle East. The first major intervention was the arrival of Napoleon in Egypt in 1798; the second took place with World War I in the beginning of the 20th century. And the third major shaping operation is the one we have been talking about. We should take a holistic approach to this operation. The problem is not simply limited to conflicts between Israel-Palestine, Lebanon-Israel, Iran-Syria or Turkey- the separatist and outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The problem has regional and global aspects to it. This plan, called the Greater Middle East Project, is aimed at changing the political regimes in the region as well as altering the boundaries on political maps.
