U.S. President Barack Obama (Reuters/Adrees
Latif)
Alifhafizin
- Jet Amerika memukul sasaran di Syria pada hari
Selasa dalam usaha diketuai Amerika terhadap negara Islam. Walaupun Amerika
Syarikat telah tidak meng-isytiharkan perang sejak 1942, ini adalah negara yang ke-7
bahawa Barack Obama, pemegang Nobel Peace Prize, banyak yang telah dibom pada
tahun-tahun.
Syria telah menjadi negara terbaru telah secara
terbuka disasarkan oleh Amerika Syarikat, dengan Washington diramal tidak ingin
mendapatkan kelulusan Presiden Syria Bashar Assad.
Amerika Syarikat dan NATO memulakan kempen
pengeboman di utara negara ini pada Selasa terhadap militan Negara Islam, yang
telah mengambil lebih daripada bahagian-bahagian utara dan timur negara itu.
Angka kematian daripada kempen semalam telah
diletakkan pada 70, walaupun angka ini boleh meningkat, menurut Balai Cerap
Syria bagi Hak Asasi Manusia, yang juga berkata bahawa lapan orang awam yg
tlh kehilangan nyawa mereka.
O, bomber! Obama
bombs 7th country in 6 years
American jets hit targets in Syria on Tuesday in the
US-led fight against Islamic State. Although the US has not declared war since
1942, this is the seventh country that Barack Obama, the holder of the Nobel
Peace Prize, has bombed in as many years.
Syria has become the latest country to have been
openly targeted by the US, with Washington predictably not seeking the approval
of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The US and NATO started a bombing campaign in the
north of the country on Tuesday against Islamic State militants, who have taken
over parts of the north and east of the country. The death toll from Tuesday’s
campaign was put at 70, though this figure could rise, according to the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, who also said that eight
civilians had lost their lives.
Gambar menunjukkan Isil
Perintah dan Pusat di Syria sebelum (dariKiri) dan selepas itu terpegun dengan
bom jatuh sebanyak AS F-22 jet pejuang dilihat dalam pemberian yang dikeluarkan
oleh Jabatan Pertahanan Amerika Syarikat (DOD) September 23, 2014 (Pictures
showing an ISIL Command and Control Center in Syria before (L) and after it was
struck by bombs dropped by a U.S. F-22 fighter jet are seen in handouts
released by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) September 23, 2014 (Reuters/US
Department of Defense/Handout)
Apabila Pentagon mengatakan bahawa konflik di Syria
mungkin mengambil masa bertahun-tahun untuk menyelesaikan, tidak jenaka - hanya
mengambil lihat pada bilangan "penglibatan tentera" Washington semasa
pentadbiran Obama.
Afghanistan (hari 2001-kini)
Ia hanya menunggu masa berikut 11 September 2001,
serangan pengganas ke atas tanah Amerika Syarikat yang akan Afghanistan menjadi
negara pertama Amerika akan mengebom pada abad ke-21, selepas Taliban enggan
menyerahkan pemimpin al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden.
Bermula dengan bandar-bandar yang terbesar di negara
ini - Kabul, Kandahar dan Jalalabad, Amerika Syarikat dan sekutu-sekutunya
telah terlibat dalam konflik yang berlarutan, yang menyaksikan puluhan ribu
mangsa yang disengajakan.
Walaupun terdapat pengunduran tentera berskala
besar, yang bermula pada Jun 2011 dan akan menamatkan pada akhir tahun 2014,
seperti Amerika Syarikat kelihatan untuk lulus baton daripada kepolisan dan
menyediakan keselamatan di Afghanistan kepada pasukan tempatan. Namun serangan
udara masih berlaku.
Amerika Syarikat telah membelanjakan lebih daripada
$ 100 bilion pada bantuan di Afghanistan sejak 2001 untuk melatih dan
melengkapkan pasukan keselamatan negara dan menaik taraf infrastruktur,
manakala 2,200 tentera Amerika terbunuh di Afghanistan sejak 2001, manakala
kira-kira 20,000 lagi cedera, menurut AP.
When the Pentagon says that the conflict in Syria
may take years to resolve, it is no joke – just take a look at the number of
Washington’s “military engagements” during Obama’s administration.
Afghanistan
(2001-present day)
It was only a matter of time following the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks on US soil that Afghanistan would become the first country America
would bomb in the 21st century, after the Taliban refused to hand over Al-Qaeda
leader Osama Bin Laden.
Starting with the country’s largest cities – Kabul,
Kandahar and Jalalabad, the US and its allies have become involved in a
protracted conflict, which has seen tens of thousands of casualties inflicted.
Although there has been a large-scale troop withdrawal, which started in June
2011 and will finish by the end of 2014, as the US looks to pass the baton of
policing and providing security in Afghanistan to local forces. Yet airstrikes
are still taking place.
The US has spent more than $100 billion on aid in
Afghanistan since 2001 to train and equip the country's security forces and
upgrade its infrastructure, while 2,200 American troops have been killed in
Afghanistan since 2001, while around 20,000 have been wounded, according to AP.
Tentera Amerika Syarikat
dari Batallion Pertama, infantri Rejimen ke-32 ke-3 Briged, 10 Gunung bahagian
rondaan di Kunar pada 12 Dis 2009 (US soldiers from First Batallion, 32nd
infantry Regiment 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain division patrol in Kunar on December
12, 2009 (AFP Photo/Tauseef Mustafa)
Kempen pengeboman Amerika Syarikat telah menjadi isu
perbalahan dengan kepimpinan Afghanistan, yang telah berkata bahawa terlalu
ramai orang awam terbunuh akibat misi pengeboman Amerika. Hanya minggu lepas,
peluru berpandu Amerika membunuh 11 orang awam di timur negara ini.
"Jika Amerika & Pakistan benar2 mahu,
keamanan akan datang ke Afghanistan," presiden keluar negara, Hamid
Karzai, berkata pada 23 September kerana beliau melangkah ke bawah.
"Perang di Afghanistan adalah berdasarkan
kepada matlamat orang asing. Peperangan di Afghanistan adalah untuk manfaat
orang asing. Tetapi Afghanistan pada kedua-dua pihak adalah anak-anak domba
korban dan mangsa peperangan ini."
Yemen (hari 2002-kini)
Kematian 17 anggota tentera laut Amerika Syarikat
pada bulan Oktober 2000, yang terbunuh apabila USS Cole telah diserang di
pelabuhan Aden, Yaman, Al-Qaeda, telah meletakkan negara dengan kukuh pada
radar Washington. Pada bulan November 2002, Amerika tidak memerlukan insentif
tambahan untuk men-jalankan pengeboman serbuan pertama di tanah Yaman, dengan kerajaan
negara itu memberikan Amerika Syarikat lampu hijau.
Sasaran itu Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, yang
Washington dipercayai adalah ketua operatif al-Qaeda di Yaman dan juga suspek
dalam pengeboman USS Cole. Beliau telah terbunuh apabila peluru berpandu neraka,
petunjuk dari sebuah pesawat tanpa pemandu memukul kereta beliau dalam
perjalanan.
Amerika Syarikat Timbalan Setiausaha Pertahanan pada
masa itu, Paul Wolfowitz, menyatakan bahawa ia telah "operasi taktikal yang
sangat berjaya" dan serangan seperti itu berguna bukan sahaja dalam
membunuh pengganas, tetapi dalam memaksa Al-Qaeda untuk menukar taktik.
US bombing campaigns have been a contentious issue
with Afghanistan’s leadership, which has said that too many civilians have died
as a result of American bombing missions. Just last week, American missiles
killed 11 civilians in the east of the country.
"If America and Pakistan really want it, peace
will come to Afghanistan," the country’s outgoing president, Hamid Karzai,
said on September 23 as he was stepping down.
"War in Afghanistan is based on the aims of
foreigners. The war in Afghanistan is to the benefit of foreigners. But Afghans
on both sides are the sacrificial lambs and victims of this war."
Yemen (2002-present
day)
The death of 17 US navy personnel in October 2000,
who were killed when the USS Cole was attacked in the port of Aden, Yemen, by
Al-Qaeda, already put the country firmly on Washington’s radar. In November
2002, America needed no extra incentive to carry out its first bombing raid on
Yemeni soil, with the country’s government giving the US the green light.
The target was Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, who
Washington believed was al-Qaeda’s chief operative in Yemen and was also a
suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole. He was killed when a hellfire missile,
guided from a pilotless aircraft hit the car he was traveling in.
The US Deputy Defense Secretary at the time, Paul
Wolfowitz, stated that it had been “a very successful tactical operation” and
that such strikes were useful not only in killing terrorists, but in forcing
Al-Qaeda to change its tactics.
Penunjuk perasaan setia
kepada kumpulan pemberontak Syiah al-Houthi membakar patung pesawat Amerika Syarikat
semasa demonstrasi untuk memprotes apa yang mereka katakan adalah Amerika Syarikat
campur tangan di Yaman, termasuk serangan berdengung di bandar Old Sanaa (Protesters
loyal to the Shi'ite al-Houthi rebel group burn an effigy of a U.S. aircraft
during a demonstration to protest against what they say is U.S. interference in
Yemen, including drone strikes in the Old Sanaa city (Reuters/Khaled Abdullah)
Walaupun terdapat kempen pengeboman sporadis yang
dijalankan oleh Amerika Syarikat, di bawah pentadbiran Presiden George W. Bush,
terdapat peningkatan yang ketara sejak Barack Obama mula berkuasa.
Kabel Amerika Syarikat yang diterbitkan oleh
Wikileaks menunjukkan bahawa kerajaan Yaman tlh membenarkan Amerika Syarikat
utk meneruskan serangan udara terhadap disyaki militan Al-Qaeda di negara
ini.
Serangan bom Amerika Syarikat di Yaman hampir
semata-mata dijalankan oleh pesawat dan mereka telah meningkat dalam intensiti
pd tahun2 kebelakangan ini.
Bagaimanapun kumpulan hak asasi yang semakin bimbang
bahawa terlalu banyak korban awam yang berlaku akibat daripada apa yang
dikenali sebagai Amerika "Perang ke atas Keganasan."
Satu laporan oleh Human Rights Watch pada tahun 2013
dianalisis enam serangan udara di Yaman yang dijalankan sejak 2009 organisasi
mendapati bahawa daripada 82 orang yang meninggal dunia dalam serangan udara,
57 adalah orang awam.
IRAQ (2003-2011)
Tarikh adalah 5 FEBRUARI 2003 lokasi, Pertubuhan
Bangsa2 Bersatu di New York. Setiausaha Negara Amerika Syarikat, Colin
Powell, baru sahaja menyampaikan ucapan kepada PBB, mengatakan bahawa Iraq
mempunyai senjata pemusnah besar-besaran - alasan untuk Washington untuk
terlibat dalam satu lagi konflik ketenteraan, seolah-olah telah beribu-ribu
tentera terikat di Afghanistan tidak mencukupi.
Yang pertama serangan udara ke atas Iraq akan
berlaku pada 20 Mac, 2003, dan dalam tempoh 3 minggu kerajaan Iraq telah
digulingkan. Walau bagaimanapun, seperti di Afghanistan, mendapat kawalan
keseluruhan di negara itu tidak akan terbukti menjadi semudah, seperti Amerika
Syarikat dan sekutu-sekutunya datang melawan tentangan hebat - pada pertama
dari penyokong Presiden Saddam Hussein yang digulingkan, kemudian dari pelbagai
rintangan kumpulan Sunni dan Syiah, dan masih kemudian Al-Qaeda dan
penyokong-penyokongnya.
While there were sporadic bombing campaigns carried
out by the US, under President George W. Bush’s administration, there has been
a significant escalation since Barack Obama came to power.
US cables published by WikiLeaks showed that the
Yemeni government has allowed US airstrikes to continue against suspected
Al-Qaeda militants in the country.
US bombing raids in Yemen are almost solely carried
out by drones and they have been increasing in intensity in recent years.
However rights groups are becoming concerned that far too many civilian
casualties are occurring as a result of America’s so-called “War on Terror.”
A report by Human Rights Watch in 2013 analyzed six
airstrikes in Yemen carried out since 2009. The organization found that out of
the 82 people who died in the airstrikes, 57 were civilians.
IRAQ (2003-2011)
The date is February 5, 2003 – the location, the
United Nations in New York. The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has just
delivered a speech to the UN, saying that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction
– a pretext for Washington to get involved in yet another military conflict, as
if having thousands of troops tied down in Afghanistan was not enough.
The first airstrikes on Iraq would take place
on March 20, 2003, and within three weeks the Iraqi government had been
toppled. However, just as in Afghanistan, gaining overall control of the
country would not prove to be as easy, as the US and its allies came up against
fierce resistance – at first from supporters of ousted President Saddam
Hussein, later from various Sunni and Shiite resistance groups, and still later
Al-Qaeda and its supporters.
Konflik dan kempen pengeboman Amerika Syarikat terbukti
menjadi bencana bagi penduduk awam Iraq. Artikel yang disiarkan oleh AFP pada
bulan Oktober 2013, memetik satu kajian di Amerika Syarikat, meletakkan angka
kematian pada kira-kira setengah juta.
Para penyelidik menyatakan bahawa kira-kira 70 % peratus
kematian Iraq 11 - 2003 adalah ganas dalam alam semula jadi, dengan sebahagian
besar disebabkan oleh tembakan, dengan punca yang paling biasa seterusnya bom
kereta kematian dan letupan2 lain.
Ia juga menambah bahawa tentera bersekutu
bertanggungjawab bagi 35 % peratus daripada kematian ganas ini, atau kira-kira
125,000 kematian.
Pakistan (hari 2004-kini)
Walaupun serangan drone di Pakistan mungkin telah
bermula di bawah George W. Bush, pentadbiran Obama telah meningkatkan kekerapan
mereka ke tahap yang tidak pernah berlaku sebelum ini.
Menurut laman web, Biro Siasatan Kewartawanan, ada
390 serangan drone di Pakistan sejak 2004, di mana yang mengejutkan 339 telah
dijalankan sejak Obama berkuasa. Ini telah membawa kepada hampir 4,000
kematian, di mana kira-kira 1/4 orang awam.
Tidak menghairankan, serangan drone Amerika Syarikat
yang diterajui telah mem-bawa kepada banyak geseran dengan kerajaan Pakistan.
"Penggunaan pesawat bukan sahaja melanggar
integriti wilayah kita, tetapi mereka juga menjejaskan usaha kita untuk
menghapuskan keganasan dari negara kami," kata Perdana Menteri Pakistan
Nawaz Sharif dalam pertemuan dengan Obama pada bulan Oktober 2013, sambil
menambah bahawa isu yang mempunyai menjadi "kerengsaan utama" dalam
hubungan Pakistan- Amerika Syarikat.
The conflict and the US bombing campaigns proved to
be disastrous for the Iraqi civilian population. An article published by AFP in
October 2013, citing a study in the US, put the death toll at around half a
million. Researchers stated that around 70 percent of Iraq deaths from 2003-11
were violent in nature, with most caused by gunshots, with the next most common
cause of death car bombs and other explosions.
It also added that coalition forces were responsible for 35 percent of
these violent deaths, or approximately 125,000 deaths.
Pakistan
(2004-present day)
While drone attacks in Pakistan may have started
under George W. Bush, the Obama administration has increased their frequency to
unprecedented levels. According to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a
website, there have been 390 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, of which a
staggering 339 have been conducted since Obama came to power. This has led to
almost 4,000 deaths, of which around one-quarter have been civilians.
Not surprisingly, the US-led drone strikes have led to plenty of friction
with the Pakistani government.
“The use of drones is not only a violation of our
territorial integrity but they are also detrimental to our efforts to eliminate
terrorism from our country,” Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in a
meeting with Obama in October 2013, adding that the issue has become a “major
irritant” in Pakistani-US relations.
Penyokong Pakistan ini
Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) slogan parti politik menjerit semasa bantahan terhadap
AS mogok berdengung di Karachi pada 17 Disember 2013 (Supporters of Pakistan's
Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) political party shout slogans during a protest against
US drone strikes in Karachi on December 17, 2013 (AFP Photo/Rizwan Tabassum)
Demonstrasi terhadap penggunaan drone oleh Amerika
Syarikat yang lazim berlaku di Pakistan. Pada Disember 2013, kira-kira 5,000
penunjuk perasaan menyeru Amerika Syarikat untuk segera menghentikan serangan drone
di negara itu, yang dianjurkan oleh Majlis Pertahanan Pakistan, yang terdiri
daripada 40 kumpulan agama dan politik, AFP melaporkan. Penunjuk perasaan
melaungkan slogan dan cuba untuk menyekat bekalan NATO diangkut ke Afghanistan
melalui Pakistan.
Sementara itu, sebulan lebih awal, Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) yang diketuai oleh Imran Khan bintang negara kriket,
menjatuhkan nama Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) pembedahan kepada pihak
polis dalam surat di mana pihak yang menuntut bahawa ejen berdepan dengan
"kesalahan kasar" serangan drone itu.
Surat itu telah dikeluarkan kepada media. Walau
bagaimanapun, nama yang tidak dapat disahkan secara bebas.
"Saya ingin menamakan agensi sulit CIA Amerika
Syarikat (Agensi Perisikan Pusat) Ketua Stesen di Islamabad . . . dan Pengarah
CIA John O.Brennan kerana melakukan kesalahan kasar melakukan pembunuhan dan
melancarkan perang terhadap Pakistan, "PTI maklumat setiausaha Shireen
Mazarisaid menulis dalam surat itu.
"Ketua stesen CIA bukanlah satu jawatan
diplomatik, oleh itu dia tidak menikmati apa-apa kekebalan diplomatik dan
berada dalam batas-batas undang-undang domestik di Pakistan," kata surat
itu. Aduan itu dikemukakan balai polis Tal di daerah Hangu, barat laut
Pakistan.
Somalia (hari 2007-kini)
Pada bulan Januari 2007, telah serangan udara Amerika
Syarikat terhadap disyaki pemimpin Al-Qaeda di Somalia, yang Washington percaya
ada melakukan serangan ke atas Kedutaan Amerika Syarikat di Kenya dan Tanzania
yang mengorbankan lebih daripada 200 orang pengeboman. Serangan udara Amerika
Syarikat ini mendapat sokongan penuh daripada Somalia Presiden Abdullahi Yusuf
Ahmed.
Penglibatan Amerika Syarikat di Somalia sebahagian
besarnya jatuh di bawah radar, dengan perhatian yang kurang antarabangsa
diberikan kepada Washington "Perang ke atas Keganasan" di tanduk
Afrika.
Walau bagaimanapun, pada awal bulan September, jihad
Somalia dalam kumpulan Al-Shabaab, yang mempunyai kaitan dengan al-Qaeda,
mengesahkan bahawa pemimpin mereka Ahmed Godane telah dibunuh oleh serangan
udara Amerika Syarikat, sebelum amaran serangan membalas dendam.
Tentera Amerika Syarikat melanda perkhemahan Godane
di Somalia selatan-tengah dengan peluru berpandu Hellfire dan peluru berpandu
laser, Reuters me-laporkan. Serangan berdengung adalah yang pertama di Somalia
selama 7 bulan.
Apa pada Libya?
Libya mungkin pengecualian kepada peraturan di mana
Eropah dan NATO tentera dijalankan kebanyakan kempen pengeboman. Walau
bagaimanapun, ia adalah Amerika Syarikat yg memainkan peranan penting dlm
meningkatkan sokongan untuk cuba menjatuhkan bekas pemimpin Libya Muammar
Gaddafi pada Mac 2011.
Barack Obama telah memberi kata 2 Gaddafi yang
dirujuk kepada: Turun ke bawah, atau kami akan mengebom anda 'Apabila dia
enggan untuk mendengar permintaan Washington, tindakan ketenteraan adalah tidak
lama lagi yang akan datang.
Demonstrations against the use of drones by the US
have been common in Pakistan. In December 2013, around 5,000 demonstrators
called on the US to immediately stop the drone assaults on the country, which
was organized by the Defense of Pakistan Council, which is comprised of 40
religious and political groups, AFP reported. Protesters chanted slogans and
tried to block NATO supplies being transported to Afghanistan through Pakistan.
Meanwhile, a month earlier, the Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), led by the country’s cricket star Imran Khan, dropped
the name of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative to police in a
letter in which the party demanded that the agent face up to the “gross
offence” of the drone strike.
The letter was released to the media. However, the name could not be
independently verified.
“I would like to nominate the US clandestine agency
CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) Station Chief in Islamabad . . . and CIA
Director John O. Brennan for committing the gross offences of committing murder
and waging war against Pakistan,” PTI information secretary Shireen Mazarisaid
wrote in the letter.
“CIA station chief is not a diplomatic post,
therefore he does not enjoy any diplomatic immunity and is within the bounds of
domestic laws of Pakistan,” the letter added. The complaint was lodged with Tal
police station in Hangu district, northwestern Pakistan.
Somalia
(2007-present day)
In January 2007, the US launched airstrikes against
suspected Al-Qaeda leaders in Somalia, who Washington believed were guilty of
bombing attacks on US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200
people. The US airstrikes had the full backing of the Somali President
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
US involvement in Somalia has largely slipped under
the radar, with significantly less international attention given to
Washington’s “War on Terror” in the horn of Africa.
However, in early September, Somali jihadists in the
group Al-Shabaab, which has links to Al-Qaeda, confirmed that their leader
Ahmed Godane had been killed by US airstrikes, before warning of revenge
attacks. US forces struck Godane's encampment in south-central Somalia with
Hellfire missiles and laser-guided munitions, Reuters reported. This drone
attack was the first in Somalia for seven months.
What of Libya?
Libya is perhaps the exception to the rule where
European and NATO forces carried out most of the bombing campaigns. However, it
was the US who was instrumental in drumming up support to try and topple former
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in March 2011.
Barack Obama had given Gaddafi an ultimatum which
alluded to: ‘Step down, or we will bomb you.’ When he refused to listen to
Washington’s demands, military action was soon forthcoming.
Pemusnah peluru berpandu
USS Barry melancarkan peluru berpandu Tomahawk dari busur kapal di Laut
Mediterranean dalam ini nota foto Tentera Laut Amerika Syarikat bertarikh 29
Mac 2011 (The guided-missile destroyer USS Barry launches a Tomahawk cruise
missile from the ship's bow in the Mediterranean Sea in this U.S. Navy handout
photo dated March 29, 2011 (Reuters/Jonathan Sunderman/U.S. Navy//Handout)
Perang saudara berakhir dlm masa 8 bln,
walaupun kekacauan & pertempuran antara puak2 saingan di negara ini masih
terus ketika beribu-ribu rakyat Libya mati di kedua-dua belah pihak
dlm konflik asal, kebanyakannya orang awam.
The civil war was over within eight months, though
chaos and fighting between rival factions in the country still continues while
thousands of Libyans died on both sides during the original conflict, many of
them civilians.