[Green Left Weekly, #649, November 16, 2005]
Terrorism has become a kind of new Cold War. During the post-World War II struggle of the US-led "free world" against the Soviet Union and its allies, everything was justified by the needs of the fight against "communism", Soviet "totalitarianism", Reagan's "evil empire", etc. Under these banners, the West carried out a permanent arms race (which included the massive deployment of nuclear weapons), sponsored and supported scores of atrocious Third World dictatorships, and witch-hunted their own citizens and attacked their democratic rights.