{"id":309689,"date":"2025-12-15T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=309689"},"modified":"2025-12-12T05:51:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T05:51:41","slug":"the-war-on-terror-the-war-on-drugs-and-other-bedtime-stories-for-grown-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/12\/the-war-on-terror-the-war-on-drugs-and-other-bedtime-stories-for-grown-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"The War on Terror, the War on Drugs, and Other Bedtime Stories for Grown Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"

If everything you thought you knew about the\u00a0War on Terror<\/em>\u00a0were nothing more than a mirage\u2014an extravagant shadow-play staged by geopolitical puppeteers\u2014would you really be surprised? After all, the last two decades have taught us one thing: nothing sells like fear, and nothing pays like chaos. Enter the familiar cast of characters: Obama, Clinton, McCain, Brennan, Soros, Abedin\u2014names recited like an incantation in the global ritual of \u201csaving democracy,\u201d usually by destroying someone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t worry. This time, it\u2019s different. That\u2019s what they always say before dropping another bomb.<\/p>\n

Bin Laden: The Man, the Myth, the Perpetual Asset<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with America\u2019s favorite ghost: Osama bin Laden. Hunted for a decade, allegedly found multiple times, yet somehow always allowed to slip away\u2014until 2011, when eliminating him finally aligned with a White House political calendar. Funny how that works.<\/p>\n

Why wait so long if he was \u201cEnemy Number One\u201d? Why ignore intelligence in 2005, 2007, 2009?<\/p>\n

Well, because a living bogeyman is a very lucrative business model. Ask Boeing. Ask Raytheon. Ask any defense stockholder who suddenly discovered the joy of quarterly dividends.<\/p>\n

And then\u2014poof!\u2014the SEAL team responsible for the raid dies in a mysterious helicopter crash months later. A coincidence, of course. Washington runs on coincidences; it\u2019s practically the city\u2019s main export.<\/p>\n

Emails, Servers, and the Occasional Sexting Scandal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was busy deleting 33,000 emails\u2014allegedly about yoga and wedding plans, which must make her the most flexible and socially overbooked woman in U.S. history. Too bad some of those emails inconveniently link foreign donors, Gulf monarchies, and groups who\u2014surprise!\u2014funded extremist militias in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

Then Anthony Weiner\u2019s laptop appears on stage like an unwanted comic relief character in a Shakespeare tragedy. Suddenly, classified emails resurface in places they were never supposed to be. Yet the media called the whole thing \u201coverblown.\u201d Of course. Nothing to see here\u2014unless it\u2019s your laptop, in which case the FBI shows up faster than Amazon Prime.<\/p>\n

Syria, Libya, Daesh: The Franchise<\/strong><\/p>\n

After Gaddafi fell, Libya\u2019s weapons didn\u2019t retire\u2014they simply changed employers. They traveled to Syria; via networks no one officially acknowledges but everyone privately knows. McCain posed with \u201cmoderate rebels,\u201d some of whom later turned out to be high-ranking ISIS members. Oops. But it\u2019s fine\u2014errors happen. Especially when your foreign policy is written by weapons manufacturers.<\/p>\n

ISIS rose like a startup with excellent venture capital and suspiciously advanced media production skills. They blew up ancient sites\u2014Babylonian, Assyrian, Mesopotamian\u2014erasing the evidence of civilizations older than the Western narrative. Because when you control history, you control the future. And what better way to redesign the Middle East than by erasing anything that contradicts your blueprint?<\/p>\n

The Sahel: The New Desert of Convenient Enemies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fast forward to today. The War on Terror is tired, overused, fraying at the seams. So, the international community reaches for a new franchise:\u00a0The War on Drugs\u2014Sahel Edition.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If Africa have learned anything from the last century, it\u2019s this: whenever the world\u2019s great powers announce a new \u201cwar\u201d\u2014on terror, on drugs, on trafficking, on poverty\u2014it usually means Africa is about to become someone else\u2019s battlefield again.<\/p>\n

The War on Terror burned the Middle East. The War on Drugs decimated Latin America. And now both narratives have packed their bags, put on desert boots, and moved south into\u00a0the Sahel<\/strong>, where they are sold to Africans as \u201csecurity partnerships\u201d and \u201cstability initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only thing being stabilized is the flow of minerals.<\/p>\n

Never mind that the Sahel\u2019s instability is fueled largely by climate change, corruption, and the fallout from NATO\u2019s Libya adventure. Never mind that drug trafficking networks have thrived\u00a0because<\/em>\u00a0of collapsing states, not despite them.<\/p>\n

Enter Western headlines: \u201cDrug Cartels in the Sahel Threaten Global Security.\u00bb<\/strong> Translation: \u201cWe found a new justification for military bases.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because nothing says \u201chumanitarian concern\u201d like drones circling above Nigerien villages while cobalt and uranium travel safely to European factories.<\/p>\n

The War on Drugs and the War on Terror share the same logic: Create a monster. Feed the monster. Pretend to slay the monster. Send the bill to taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Narco-Jihadists: Because Two Boogeymen Are Better Than One<\/strong><\/p>\n

We now hear about \u201cnarco-terrorists\u201d in Mali and Niger, a term so catchy it deserves. its own Netflix series. Are there traffickers? Yes. Are there extremists? Yes. Are they sometimes the same people? Sometimes. But are they the\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0threat?<\/p>\n

Absolutely not. The true threat is the unholy marriage between geopolitical ambition and moral storytelling\u2014the kind that turns tragedies into market opportunities.<\/p>\n

But Let\u2019s Be Honest, <\/strong>The War on Terror was never about terror. The War on Drugs was never about drugs. They were both wars on inconvenient truths\u2014and lucrative opportunities for whoever controlled the narrative. Just ask the Sahel, ask Iraq,\u00a0 ask Syria or ask the families of soldiers whose lives became collateral damage in classified chess games.<\/p>\n

A Brief Moment of Lucidity, <\/strong>If Daesh collapsed quickly under Trump, why not under Obama? If narco-networks can be neutralized, why do they grow after every new foreign intervention?<\/p>\n

If stability is the goal, why destabilize every country with minerals essential to global supply chains? Unless, of course, chaos\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0the point.<\/p>\n

A destabilized region cannot negotiate. A fractured society cannot resist extraction.
\nA frightened population cannot challenge power.<\/p>\n

In the End, All Roads Lead to the Same Desert<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the caves of Tora Bora to the dunes of the Sahel, the logic remains: Big players create the fire, then sell the fire extinguishers. And when the flames spread? Blame the locals. Call it terrorism. Call it narcotrafficking. Anything but what it really is:<\/p>\n

A war on sovereignty disguised as a war on vice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Final Thought, <\/strong>they erased Assyrian history, almost destroyed Timbuktu. They erased Mesopotamian stones. Now they want to erase Sahelian voices. Because the biggest threat to empire has always been memory. And yet\u2014memory persists.<\/p>\n

Stories persist. People persist. The mirage is fading. Even the deserts are speaking. And this time hopefully, the world is finally listening.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ra\u00efs Neza Boneza is the author of fiction as well as non-fiction, poetry books and articles. He was born in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Former Za\u00efre). He is also an activist and peace practitioner. Ra\u00efs is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Media Service<\/em><\/a> Editorial Committee and a convener of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/em><\/a> for Central and African Great Lakes. He uses his work to promote artistic expressions as a means to deal with conflicts and maintaining mental wellbeing, spiritual growth and healing. Ra\u00efs has travelled extensively in Africa and around the world as a lecturer, educator and consultant for various NGOs and institutions. His work is premised on art, healing, solidarity, peace, conflict transformation and human dignity issues and works also as freelance journalist. You can reach him at <\/em>rais.boneza@gmail.com<\/em><\/a> – <\/em>http:\/\/www.raisnezaboneza.no<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If everything you thought you knew about the\u00a0War on Terror\u00a0were nothing more than a mirage\u2014an extravagant shadow-play staged by geopolitical puppeteers\u2014would you really be surprised? The last two decades have taught us one thing: nothing sells like fear, and nothing pays like chaos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1113,2571,70,2686,1892,492],"class_list":["post-309689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","tag-hoax","tag-official-lies-and-narratives","tag-usa","tag-war-of-terror","tag-war-on-drugs","tag-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309689"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309692,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309689\/revisions\/309692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}