Syria and Beyond: NO to U.S. War Moves!
November 9, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Who are the REAL Terrorists?
The U.S. claims they are in Syria as part of a global battle against "terrorism." But who ARE the greatest terrorists on the planet today? The U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 murdering 225,000 civilians in a hellish inferno and with radiation poisoning. The rulers of the U.S. sometimes talk about how many Americans die in their wars, but they don't talk about the millions they killed. U.S. invaders killed three million people in Vietnam and the rest of Indochina and three million more in Korea—for empire. When questioned about the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children as a result of U.S. sanctions that cut off the flow of food, sanitation resources, and medicine into Iraq, Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, "We think the price is worth it." (At the time that Madeleine Albright made this statement, she was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.)
Investigate these crimes. Search revcom.us. Look at all kinds of sources. See for yourself if these things happened, and investigate why. What you will learn, if you confront the evidence, is that as horrible as the Islamic fundamentalists are, including but far from limited to the draconian oppression of women, they aren't even close to being in the same league as the U.S.It is impermissible to say this in mainstream discourse. It makes some people uncomfortable to hear it. But it is TRUE.
This week the U.S. massively ramped up bombing attacks on Syria. The U.S. and its allies carried out a dozen strikes in Syria on Saturday alone. This escalation in bombing followed Obama's announcement last week that 50 U.S. Special Forces are being sent into Syria where they will operate out of a headquarters for forces that the U.S. is trying to shape into a reliable military factor on the ground. The U.S. rulers are already talking about sending in more troops.
None of the strategists or news analysts who serve the U.S. ruling class think the insertion of U.S. troops and the ramped up bombing is going to accomplish their objectives in Syria, or solve the whole mess of conflicts they are embroiled in there and beyond. The U.S. rulers do not even agree on who their enemy is, or what their immediate objectives are in Syria. One week it's ISIS, next week it's the Russians or Assad... But what is clear is that U.S. moves, along with bombing campaigns by Russia, the military actions of Syria's reactionary regime, and the actions of ISIS and other Islamic Jihadists, are all intensifying the hellish situation in Syria.
Already, over 250,000 people have been killed in four years of war, and over 12 million people out of a population of only about 17 million have been driven from their homes—refugees inside or outside the country. This is on top of U.S. invasions of Iraq and other military moves that have killed a million people, torn up the whole region and created millions more refugees.
"Why Is Religious Fundamentalism Growing in Today's World—And What Is the Real Alternative?" by Bob Avakian at revcom.us—an excerpt from the book, AWAY WITH ALL GODS! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World available from Insight Press).
Each U.S. Move Makes Things Worse, and Ratchets Up Conflict and Danger
It's not easy being a global Tony Soprano. This is a world where the U.S. empire is being challenged by rival forces and powers at every turn. This is a very unstable world. In the Middle East—and beyond—the U.S. rulers are trying to balance and juggle all kinds of rapidly shifting conflicts and alliances with friend and foe alike. The U.S. has no easy solutions to all these challenges.
Look at the recent U.S. agreement with Turkey: Turkey is a regional power and ally of the U.S. and shares a substantial and strategic border with Syria. It has been a real problem—as the U.S. rulers see things—that Turkey's rulers have not been collaborating with them militarily in Syria as closely as the U.S. feels is necessary. The Turkish rulers have their own, conflicting, agenda—of oppressing the rebellious Kurdish people on the Syrian border. So when the U.S. moved to bring Turkey into closer alignment with their interests in Syria and beyond, they agreed to not object to Turkish attacks on the Kurds in Turkey and in Syria—even as the U.S. has been betting on many of the same Kurdish forces the Turks are massacring to be their most reliable force fighting ISIS.
And this is just one of a whole host of shifting contradictions the U.S. is trying to stay on top of to keep their empire intact.
No to U.S. War Moves—Anywhere—No Matter What Excuse They Give
Bringing Foward Another Way is an edited version of a talk by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, to a group of Party supporters, in 2006. It is must reading for a serious understanding of what the U.S. "war on terror" is really about and how to bring forward a positive force in the world in opposition to both Western imperialism and Islamic Jihad.
Download PDFEscalating U.S. moves in Syria, as with the actions the U.S. takes throughout the region—however they justify them—are driven by a whole complex array of challenges that really have nothing to do with "fighting terrorism" and everything to do with maintaining their position atop a world of sweatshops and slums, and every kind of oppression.
The situation is tending towards getting more and more out of control. Each U.S. move ratchets up the stakes in the conflicts they face, and makes things worse and poses great dangers for humanity.
None of this is in the interest of the people of the world, including people in this country.
NO to the U.S.; NO to ISIS; NO to Assad and the Russians: people need real revolution and emancipation, not the "choice" between different oppressors.
STOP Wars of Empire, Armies of Occupation, and Crimes Against Humanity!
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