Home


Crowdfunding Countercurrents

Submission Policy

Popularise CC

Join News Letter

Defend Indian Constitution

CounterSolutions

CounterImages

CounterVideos

CC Youtube Channel

Editor's Picks

Press Releases

Action Alert

Feed Burner

Read CC In Your
Own Language

Bradley Manning

India Burning

Mumbai Terror

Financial Crisis

Iraq

AfPak War

Peak Oil

Globalisation

Localism

Alternative Energy

Climate Change

US Imperialism

US Elections

Palestine

Latin America

Communalism

Gender/Feminism

Dalit

Humanrights

Economy

India-pakistan

Kashmir

Environment

Book Review

Gujarat Pogrom

Kandhamal Violence

Arts/Culture

India Elections

Archives

Links

About Us

Disclaimer

Fair Use Notice

Contact Us

Subscribe To Our
News Letter

Name:
E-mail:

Search Our Archive



Our Site

Web

 

Order the book

A Publication
on The Status of
Adivasi Populations
of India

 

 

 

Getting Serious About Terrorism

By Andy Piascik

11 March, 2015
Countercurrents.org

Last month, President Obama convened a summit at the White House to discuss terrorism. As could easily have been predicted, the focus was entirely on those the United States deems official enemies. Conversely and equally predictably, the two best and most obvious ways the United States can combat terrorism - stop doing it and stop giving arms, money and diplomatic cover to others who do - were not on the agenda.

Though international polls regularly indicate that people around the world overwhelmingly regard the US as the number one purveyor of terrorism, that fact has no impact on our political class. As American nationalists, they proceed from the assumption that the US is part of the solution – in fact, the solution, to terrorism. Never mind the ongoing US wars of terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other places too numerous to list; that the US might be the problem is unthinkable, so unthinkable anyone invited to such a summit would never even consider it a possibility. And so thoroughly totalitarian is our political culture that no one in the mainstream media – not one single person –would ever dare consider such a possibility, either.

For those of us who live in the real world, however, here’s what a real strategy to stop terrorism might include:

First, we can demand that our ruling class stop invading other countries. Illegal invasions of Iraq in 1991 and 2003, plus the interceding sanctions of mass destruction, have resulted in three million Iraqi deaths and a society in utter disarray. Where Sunni and Shia coexisted for centuries in relative harmony, they now live in savage conflict catalyzed by US aggression. Where al-Qaeda and ISIS were nonexistent, they now thrive, again because of US-induced chaos. And still the killing by the US goes on, long after all the announced pretexts for the invasions have been stripped away as lies and the real reason – access to and control of oil – has become apparent to all.

Iraq is only one example. In recent decades, the US has invaded Laos, Haiti, Vietnam, Panama, Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Nicaragua, and many more while many others have been invaded by US proxies. In every case, those invasions were to defend, install, or re-install dictators in service to Wall Street and answerable to Washington who were despised by their people.

Second, we can demand that our ruling class stop arming, funding and providing diplomatic support to mass murderers. Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame is one current example. In 1990, Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front provoked war by illegally invading Rwanda from Uganda. After killing hundreds of thousands of Rwandans, Kagame twice illegally invaded the Congo and bears most of the responsibility for the 6-8 million deaths in that country the last two decades. None of Kagame’s crimes were possible without US support.

Again, Kagame is just one in a long line of butchers supported by the US: the Somozas, Jonas Savimbi, Suharto, the ARENA terrorists in El Salvador, the Duvaliers, Ian Smith, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Mobutu, Roberto D’Aubisson, the Kosovo Liberation Army and on and on. Right now, the US is sabotaging the peace accords negotiated recently in Ukraine, upping its aid to the neo-Nazis in Kiev and showing again it prefers war to peace and has nothing but contempt for democracy.

Third, we can demand that our ruling class stop overthrowing governments and putting into power dictatorships that oppose the people and serve US corporations. The US spent $5 billion to overthrow the Ukrainian government and install war-hungry, neo-Nazis in power. It has spent tens of millions trying to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Venezuela including a foiled coup attempt last week. In 2009, it embraced coup leaders who have turned Honduras into one of the poorest and most violent nations in the world. Again, the pattern is long and clear: Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Congo in 1960, Brazil in 1964, Indonesia in 1965, Ghana in 1966, Greece in 1967, Chile in 1973, Argentina in 1976, Haiti in 1991 and 2004.

Fourth, we can demand that our ruling class stop arming and financing Israeli terror in Palestine. Time and again, Israel launches strikes against occupied Palestine and every time the US is there with support. Every time, millions around the world rally to demand justice for Palestine. In addition, leaders of virtually every country except the US have come to see Israeli attacks on Palestine as a likely road to calamity in the Middle East. In addition to Israel, the US props up the monarchy in Saudi Arabia that funds ISIS, al Qaeda, the 9/11 terrorists and who knows who else.

The US political class serve the Super Rich and by definition rule in opposition to the popular will, as President Obama’s recent budget proposal illustrates. In the midst of a major crisis in education and with a majority of Americans opposed to US aggression, Obama is proposing eight times as much spending for weapons as for education. Change of the sort suggested above can, therefore, only come from an aroused populace. Then and only then will we stop the carnage inflicted worldwide in our names and perhaps begin to live with others in something approximating harmony.

Andy Piascik is a long-time activist and award-winning author who writes for Z, Counterpunch and many other publications and websites. He can be reached at [email protected]

 





.

 

 

 




 

Share on Tumblr

 

 


Comments are moderated