US so-called war on terror ‘a big lie’ that only advanced Washington’s interests: US activist

An American political activist has debunked the reasons behind the United States launch of the so-called “war on terror”, which was waged following the September 11, 2001 attacks against the American soil.

Dr. Ajamu Baraka, organizer and spokesperson for the Black Alliance for Peace, a human rights project against war, repression, and imperialism, made the remarks during a meeting, dubbed “from ‘War on Terror’ to terrorizing the globe; a glance at the US from within,” in Tehran on Tuesday on the eve of the anniversary of the attacks.

“The ‘war on terrorism’ was a bogus war, and this led to advancement of the US’s interests,” he said, attending the meeting at HispanTV, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)'s Spanish language television network.

“At the beginning of the war, I was of the opinion that it weakens the international system,” said the activist during the event that had been organized by the Sobh Studies Center, which works in the area of media relations.

He also called the war a “selective” one that has complicated the situation on the international arena due “to the US’s lack of a proper understanding of terrorism.”

On September 11, 2001, a series of attacks targeted the United States, during which a group of hijackers crashed four planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon, and rural Pennsylvania.

The US followed the attacks with invasions of Afghanistan in the same year and Iraq in 2003, although none of the hijackers had originated from these two countries.

How Bush and Rumsfeld used 9/11 as ruse to invade, destroy Afghanistan

“Go massive — sweep it all up, things related and not,” then-US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said after 9/11 attacks, as the US bombers, gunships and drones wreaked havoc in Afghanistan.

The invasions, launched to allegedly combat terrorism, went on to trigger extensive anti-American sentiment in the targeted countries and prompt chaos on the ground that rather contributed significantly to expansion of violence and emergence of Takfiri terrorists.

Americans initially supported the idea of military action against the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, however, became fierce opponents of the war in Afghanistan as it dragged on endlessly.

The disastrous war ended in August 2021 the way it started in October 2001 — in a violent, shambolic and reckless fashion.

'Systematic elimination': Monopoly of US Democrats, Republicans

Elsewhere in his remarks, Baraka reflected on the monopoly being exercised by the Democratic and Republican Parties on the US’s politics that was preventing emergence of a third influential party and expansion of the country’s political structure beyond the bipartisan system.

“The Green Party is one of the oldest independent ones in the US, and they are after weakening it. We work towards creating structural change in the US, but our activities have been sidelined due to actions taken by the Democratic and Republican Parties,” he said.

“The Democrats consider the party to be a threat,” Baraka remarked, saying that as means of complicating the party’s activities, they once took legal proceedings against it in Nevada.

He noted that the greens once joined the presidential campaign in 2016 with Jill Stein as presumptive nominee and he as her running mate as means of “expanding the democratic process in America so it would exceed the bipartisan system.”

“We were [, however,] systematically eliminated from the polls,” the activist said.

“The Green Party seeks to prove effective amid such circumstances, but it is very difficult when you just have one democracy that is run by money,” he said.

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