Global Barbarians Condemn ISIS' Barbarism
NO U.S. Military Escalation in Iraq!

by Larry Everest | September 1, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

A Comment on Events in Syria and Iraq

Any ideology or set of beliefs that can't stand criticism and denounces people who disagree with it as "heretics," and kills or otherwise seeks to silence those people who disagree with it, is a cowardly and bankrupt ideology and one that nobody should have anything to do with...

Today the representatives of the U.S. express shock and outrage at such tactics. But fundamentally, to the USA and other imperialists, whether or not to support this kind of religious fundamentalist fascism is a matter of taste—their only criterion is whether it works for, or against, how they view their interests in any situation. Think of Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. has used massive weaponry and political support to reinforce a reactionary religious state which goes so far as to forbid women the right to drive! And, quiet as it's kept today, check out the way in which the U.S. bankrolled and gave military support to Osama bin-Laden and other forces like him in Afghanistan in the 1980s, when that suited their interests.

"Savage," the "face of a new evil," "butchers." Thus spoke U.S. officials and their media mouthpieces after the Sunni jihadist group Islamic State (or ISIS) group beheaded captured U.S. journalist James Foley on August 19. President Obama called ISIS "barbaric terrorists" and a "cancer" that had to be "rooted out."

All this is part of a campaign to whip up support for U.S. military attacks in Iraq and the Middle East. But U.S. military intervention and forces it has set in motion directly or indirectly is responsible for the lion's share of the barbaric terrorism that has wracked Iraq, Syria, and the region for the past two-and-a-half decades in particular.

Who IS the World's Most Barbaric Power?

Barbaric? Savage? Butchers? Yes, ISIS is all that. It has killed people and threatened whole towns because they won't accept its brand of Sunni fundamentalism. It has massacred prisoners, especially followers of Shi'a Islam. It aims to violently impose strict patriarchy, suppressing women. Its program preserves capitalism and oppression.

But the U.S. rulers take a back seat to no one when it comes to butchering, barbarism, and savagery. Here is a tiny sampling:

* The United States was founded on slavery and the genocide of Native peoples, butchering millions—literally millions—in the process. Barbarism on a massive scale!

* The U.S. is the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons—twice—incinerating Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan (when the Japanese government was seeking to surrender), leading to the death within six months of more than 215,000 people from flash burns, trauma, and radiation sickness. If that's not "barbaric terrorism," then what is?

* While the U.S. imperialists pose as defenders of the Iraqi people, they've been imposing sanctions on, bombing, or invading Iraq for the last 24 years—savagely killing over 500,000 children through starvation or disease in the 1990s, then bombing, invading, and occupying Iraq from 2003 until 2011, directly killing over 120,000 Iraqis, causing the deaths of between 600,000 and 1.4 million more and driving 4.5 million from their homes. (The U.S. government generally makes a point of not keeping track of civilian casualties in its bombing campaigns.) Isn't this barbarism against a whole nation?

* At the very time the U.S. was hypocritically condemning ISIS, it was directly supporting Israel's destruction of Gaza and the murder of over 2,000 Palestinians.

* And what about the savagery and barbarism of the U.S. rulers towards the masses of oppressed people right here—especially Blacks and Latinos? Millions are terrorized, brutalized, and incarcerated, and thousands, like Mike Brown, are murdered in cold blood. And America's rulers have the nerve to talk about savagery!

The crimes ISIS has committed don't hold a candle to what the U.S. has done—and is doing every day—to humanity and the planet!

Bring Forward Another Way! NO U.S. Military Action in Iraq!

The Unseenery Is Lovely

Dwayne Booth (Mr. Fish) is an award-winning cartoonist and writer whose work has appeared in numerous magazines and on websites across the country and internationally. He is also the author of Go Fish: How to Win Contempt and Influence People, as well as a forthcoming book on art as commentary, due out in September. To see more of his work visit his website, clowncrack.com.

America's and Israel's crimes have driven many toward groups like ISIS. This is a terrible situation. Imperialism and religious fundamentalism are both reactionary, and reinforce each other, even as they clash. Supporting either strengthens both. And 13 years of America's so-called "war on terror" proves this.

The world needs another way, one that breaks with all exploitation and oppression. Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism IS the real, radical, viable, and visionary alternative to Western imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism, and getting that on the map right now is critical for humanity—and as part of that, critical for breaking through the deadly dynamic of McWorld vs. Jihad.

Getting a whole other way on the map globally means people around the world need to see people in this country resisting "our" government's crimes. That means, right now, protesting the escalation of U.S. military action in Iraq.

Over the last two months, the U.S. has sent nearly 1,000 U.S. military personnel to Iraq. It has carried out about 100 air strikes there. U.S. drones are doing surveillance. And the U.S. is directly arming and advising the Iraqi government and Iraq's Kurdish militia. The Obama administration is keeping the exact objectives of this U.S. campaign secret so far. The New York Times reports (August 26) that the U.S. is trying to mobilize its allies to support an expanded bombing campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and to increase support for the pro-West "rebels" in Syria.

Don't believe the hype! These missions are not guided by, nor do they serve, humanitarian relief. They are moves to defend, entrench, and expand U.S. domination over a world of exploitation and oppression.

How will these moves by the U.S. to ramp up military action in Iraq turn out? Will they serve as more fuel for the fire in the vicious cycle where imperialist crimes give rise to more virulent jihadist forces, and then more intensified imperialist intervention... and on and on?

Or will people step up and demand the U.S. military get OUT of Iraq!

Our actions can make a real difference, now!

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