The USA that never experienced the World Wars on its land, felt the war on its land for the first time in September 11, 2001 when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, which are the symbols of the states and capitalism, and Pentagon were attacked. In his statement the President of the USA, George Bush said “This war which is a crusade against terrorism will take time”.
With the demand of Bush, the United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the President of Britain Tony Blair visited the Middle East countries and Afghanistan’s neighbors in order to receive support before the operation.
The United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld firstly met with King Fahd and Prince Abdullah in Saudi Arabia. Rumsfeld stated that his aim was to meet with the leaders, understand what they wanted to do, and to negotiate. After Saudi Arabia, Rumsfeld went to Oman, Egypt, Uzbekistan, and Turkey and he received great support from every country he visited as he wished.
The USA said to Ankara that they wanted to use military airports in Malatya and Diyarbakır apart from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. According to news from Air Force Command, the demand of Washington was fulfilled by saying “We will fulfill the wishes of the USA”.
On the other hand, Tony Blair made his first visit to the capital city of Russia, Moscow. After his positive meetings with the Prime Minister of Russia-Putin-, Blair visited Pakistani and then India. And in a meeting when he visited Pakistani, he indicated that Britain gave a guarantee to solve the economic problems of Pakistani. And the President of Pakistani, Pervez Musharraf said that the evidence adduced against Bin Laden for September 11 attacks were persuasive and enough and added that he was grateful to Blair for economic support by saying “I am grateful to Blair”.
Bush convinced the Muslim leaders mentioned above in order to be in opposition with the Muslims by his definition of “the crusades” and he occupied Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
There has been 9 years since Bush defined “the crusades”. According to news of Sabah newspaper taken from ABC in January 21, 2010, instead of serial numbers there are the numbers of verses in the Bible on the weapons used by the American soldiers and this unsettled the Muslims. Depending on the explanation by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wanted these weapons to be withdrawn immediately. The MPAC’s reaction was after the American TV channel ABC expressed that the weapons sold to the American army by Trijicon Incorporation whose corporate office in Michigan have the numbers of verses in the Bible on them. MPAC ‘s director Haris Tarin said “If there is a reference from the Bible on a military weapon, it violates the values and fundamental ideas that form the basis of our country. What is worse, it became a kind of propaganda for the radical religious people who suggested that it was a crusade of the USA against Islam”.
And the New Zealand will remove the numbers of the verses in the Bible on the weapons on the grounds that it is not appropriate and can lead to religious tension. Kristian Dunne, a spokesman for the New Zealand Defense Force expressed that they would say Trijicon Incorporation to remove these numbers from the weapons for the new productions and the numbers on the existent weapons would be removed. Dunne said that the inscriptions put them on a difficult situation. They were unaware of it and they deemed them to be inappropriate.
Trijicon incorporation admitted that there were references from the Bible on the weapons; they had been using them for 30 years; and he said that it was not illegal.
It is possible to evaluate the fact that instead of serial numbers there are references from the Bible on American weapons, as one of the consequences of Bush’s explanation of the crusades. In that sense, in the near future the multicultural democratic system of the USA can turn into a dream with the evangelical reveries of the republicans who support Bush administration. Therefore, although the leaders of the Islamic countries do not agree on a union of the Islamic countries, the attitude of the USA could give birth to a compulsory Islamic union.
Khalillullah Rasuli, Assistant