Al-Qaeda and Daesh serve US hegemonic interests: Scholar

The United States does not want to defeat al-Qaeda or Daesh terrorists because they serve its hegemonic interests, says Professor Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

Etler said the US will not leave Afghanistan since the country serves as an essential staging ground for American imperialism's destabilizing the heart of Eurasia and disrupting its integration into Russia's Eurasian Economic Union and China's One Belt, One Road initiative.

Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Sunday while commenting on reports which say the Pentagon will ask the White House next week to deploy thousands of more troops to Afghanistan.

The Pentagon is also weighing a plan to deploy an unspecified number of Special Operations troops supposedly to escalate ground operations against al-Qaeda and Daesh militants. The US currently has around 8,400 soldiers in Afghanistan with about another 5,000 troops from NATO allies.

‘US uses Takfiri terrorists as its stormtroopers’

“What is the real aim of the proposed increased deployment of US military forces in Afghanistan? Some say it is to maintain control over the poppy fields and heroin trade in order to fund its clandestine network of terrorist cells throughout North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. First al-Qaeda and now Daesh serve US hegemonic interests well,” Professor Etler said.   

“The US uses the dictum of plausible deniability to allow its continued use of Takfiri terrorists as stormtroopers to be deployed whenever and wherever the US so chooses. CIA operatives use ‘black money’ to finance foreign proxies’ funding and training of terrorist networks and cells which are let loose to do their dirty work of creating chaos, destabilizing countries that resist US domination,” he stated.  

“The military can then be sent in to clean up the mess and establish military control of the region under attack. This scenario has been done time and again. It is important to maintain these insurgencies ad infinitum so the US can maintain its military presence throughout the world,” the scholar said.  

‘US destabilizes strategic areas to intervene militarily’

“It serves US interests for its left hand not to know what its right hand is doing. It may appear as if the CIA and the military are working at cross-purposes, but that actually is exactly what is planned. In that fashion the US can utilize the terrorists both as their agents and targets,” Etler said.  

“How, some say, can the US be sponsoring terrorists when they fight against them? It appears contradictory. But, that is the whole idea, create a situation in which the terrorists serve a dual purpose. They further the US goal of destabilizing strategic areas and then allow the US military to intervene to combat the very forces they’ve created,” he explained

‘Afghanistan serves as crucial outpost of US imperialism’

“In Afghanistan that means that the US doesn’t want to defeat the Taliban, al-Qaeda or Daesh. They want them to serve as the rationale for the continued occupation of Afghanistan. This is now more important than ever due to the growth and expansion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, aka One Belt One Road, throughout Central, South and Southeast Asia, potentially linking Eurasia and Africa in a Sinocentric trade network underpinned by Chinese investment in infrastructure and trade,” Etler said.  

“Afghanistan serves as a crucial outpost of US imperialism to try and disrupt this new economic system that challenges US economic, military and diplomatic hegemony throughout the Eurasian hemisphere as it is located smack dab in the middle of the crossroads linking the various regions of China’s emerging transcontinental economic nexus,” he pointed out.

“With a military presence in Afghanistan the US maintains a strategic foothold to monitor and potentially disrupt China’s initiative,” he continued.  

“The spread of Takfiri terrorist cells in Afghanistan can serve not only as a cat’s paw of US imperialism to directly attack Chinese interests but also as an excuse for the US to perpetuate its military occupation. In other words the US hopes to kill two birds with one stone by its increased military presence there,” he observed.  

‘Trump will intensify US military deployments’

“It should be clear that under Trump the US will intensify its military deployments and interventions throughout the world. Any talk about the US no longer seeking regime change or engaging in foreign military interventions was mere campaign rhetoric with no foundation in reality, as Trump’s actions to date fully indicate,” the analyst noted.

“The increase in the US war budget to upwards of 53% of US discretionary spending points to the fact that the US is on a perpetual war footing. The immense amount of money the US spends on war is the essential ingredient needed to maintain US global hegemony without which the US economy would come to a standstill,” he said.

“The war in Afghanistan is an object lesson in how and why the US continues its hegemonic policies, which are meant to keep the US in control and thwart the rise of any rival,” Professor Etler concluded. 

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