Nowhere in recent years have the contradictions of imperialism been so clear than in the West’s war against ISIS. Working people are bombarded with messages in the media of the worldwide threat of ISIS, with the aim of the messages to convince working people of the need to sacrifice their civil liberties and democratic freedoms to counter ISIS and to support more military interventions in the Middle East.
This is a very serious matter – they will slaughter him.
— Sabah Al-Mukhtar, President of the Arab Lawyers Association
The media is selling fear of beheadings to the public. Syria is destroyed and so is Iraq, principally at the hands of the U.S. military machine and western partners. Oil pipelines and weapons deals are the reasons for this monstrosity that knows no end in its brutal occupation. The U.S. sold arms to Nouri al-Maliki to back his corrupt regime and backed his forces with drone strikes against ISIS, even though the American CIA also previously supported jihadist Sunni rebels, including the ISIS—procuring weapons for these groups, to attack the government of Bashar al-Assad.
Only the Americans can help the Iraqis….
– Paul Bremer, June 16, 2014
A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.
— Albert Camus, 1913-1960
On September 7th 2012, the US Department of State (“Diplomacy in Action”) assured on their website:
“When they first put the electricity on me, I gasped; my body went rigid and the bag came off my head,” Israa Salah, a detained Iraqi woman told Human Rights Watch (HRW) in her heartrending testimony.
Israa (not her real name) was arrested by US and Iraqi forces in 2010. She was tortured to the point of confessing to terrorist charges she didn’t commit. According to HRW’s “No One is Safe” – a 105-page report released in February 06 – there are thousands of Iraqi women in jail being subjected to similar practices, held with no charges, beaten and raped.
I’d like to insert a joke about “freedom is on the march!” here but am too disgusted to do it. I just received a lengthy report from Dr. Muhamad Al-Darraji, President of CCER (Conservation Center of Environmental & Reserves), Fallujah City, Iraq (PDF, Doc). It documents the attacks of the past year on the people of Fallujah by the government of Iraq. The U.S. government has rushed weapons to the Iraqi government for this assault.
As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hurried to his helicopter ready to take off at the end of a visit to Iraq last year, it was becoming clearer that the Americans have lost control of a country they wished to mold to their liking. His departure on March 24, 2013 was the conclusion of a ‘surprise’ visit meant to mark the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Ten years prior, the US had stormed Baghdad, unleashing one of the 20th century’s most brutal and longest conflicts. Since then, Iraq has not ceased to bleed.
They came, they plundered and they left a country in ruins. Not that this narrative impressed itself upon the architects of the invasion of Iraq who cooked up and implemented a ghastly recipe of power that opened up new fronts for radical Islam. Iraq is now descending into something less than peace and more than civil strife. The term civil war, initially one as popular as leprosy, is now being used. Ever since the despotic Saddam was deposed, the country has been part of a song and dance with its occupiers and molesters.
