‘Fortress USA’: How 9/11 produced a military industrial juggernaut

September 12, 2021 Mohammed Abbasi

Clare Corbould, Deakin University Since the September 11 terror attacks, there has been no hiding from the increased militarisation of the United States. Everyday life is suffused with policing and surveillance. This ranges from the inconvenient, such as removing shoes at the airport, to the dystopian, such as local police departments equipped with decommissioned tanks too big to use on regular roads. This process of militarisation did not begin with 9/11. The American state has always relied on force combined with the de-personalisation of its victims. The army, after all, dispossessed First Nations peoples of their land as settlers pushed … Continue reading ‘Fortress USA’: How 9/11 produced a military industrial juggernaut

The many shades of McWorld

April 4, 2014 Mohammed Abbasi

Some years ago, in response to a rather strong piece on US shenanigans in the Middle East, an American reader wrote back: “Why do you hate America?” As some of my perceptive readers might have already deduced, I get loads of fanmail in response to my weekly rants, especially from my own kind and most of it not most flattering. Yet the accusation ‘why do you hate America’ from an all-American white reader was a little disconcerting. For I do not see myself as an America phobe. The influence of American literature, Hollywood, culture and their collective glorification of ambition, excellence, grit and … Continue reading The many shades of McWorld

When the US leaves Afghanistan – what will happen?

April 2, 2014 Mohammed Abbasi

Operation Enduring Freedom was launched in October, 2001 against Al-Qaeda and Taliban and within two months coalition forces had captured Kabul and Kandahar. The Taliban did not put up the expected resistance, instead fleeing to their villages and towns and a few over to Pakistan. The US had not visualised the resurgence of the Taliban in the initial operational plan, so did not make any serious effort to secure the eastern and southern Pakhtun provinces of Afghanistan, the strongholds of the Taliban. By mid-2002 the US was confident of having secured Afghanistan and that Al-Qaeda was in Waziristan and Pakistan Army … Continue reading When the US leaves Afghanistan – what will happen?