EDITORIAL
Stop U.S. Terrorism

Sep 18, 2006

With the ceremonies to mark the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the politicians of both parties rushed to try to turn a horrifying tragedy to their own political advantage. Competing with each other, they pretended that their “War on Terror” is protecting us from further terrorist attacks.

But the truth is that by far, the biggest and bloodiest terrorist in the world is the U.S. super power. Look at how the U.S. has set the Middle East region into flames and turned the region into a living hell for the people living there. The U.S. itself invaded Iraq in 1991. It then continued to bomb the country and starve the people with an economic embargo. In 2003, it invaded the country and now its occupation is a bloody and barbaric debacle. Its war against the people of Afghanistan is, if anything, worse.

At the same time, the U.S. army, planes and ships patrol the Middle East. They serve as a constant threat of war and terror to the people living there.

U.S. forces support the brutal dictatorships in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, that are used against their own peoples. Its closest client state, Israel, has waged one war after another against the Palestinians, as well as the other peoples of the region.

In the past, U.S. forces overthrew governments, such as those in Iran and Iraq. The U.S. also encouraged and fueled the Iran-Iraq War, which left more than a million people killed, and both countries laid to waste.

Today, U.S. politicians decry the religious fanaticism of the terrorists. Bush talks about stopping “Islamo-fascists.” Politicians from both parties talk about “a clash of civilizations.”

It is all hot air. For decades in the Middle East, the U.S. encouraged, financed and armed religious fundamentalists against communists, socialists, trade unionists and nationalists. In the 1980s, the U.S. armed and financed religious fanatics in the war in Afghanistan–calling them “freedom fighters.” Even the name, Al Qaeda, is Arabic for “The Base,” which refers to the guerrilla base in Afghanistan that the CIA had set up and outfitted for Osama bin Laden and his forces in the 1980s.

As for today, regimes most closely tied to the U.S., such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, continue to support and arm these terrorist organizations–with the full support from the U.S. government. These regimes, with U.S. support, use religious fanaticism, prejudice and ignorance to enslave and control the people. And when that doesn’t work, they resort to terrorist methods.

Yes, the murderous terrorist attacks of 9/11 against the people of this country, as well as the bombs in London, Madrid, and Bali, have taken a horrible toll. Killing civilians in order to get at the government is an abomination.

But the wars that the U.S. carried out are themselves terrorist actions–and even more of an abomination because they are carried out by governments using the most advanced weapons of destruction. The attacks on 9/11 resulted in the immediate death of 3,000 civilians. The U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in the death of more than 100,000 people. This is nothing but terrorism on the grand scale, wars fought for control of oil and the global economy.

These wars have created many thousands more people whose bitterness pushes them toward terrorism–just as prior U.S. destruction of Middle East countries led to the terrorist attack of 9/11.

If we want an end to terrorism, we have to start by opposing the terrorism carried out by this government against other peoples–terrorism carried out in our name but against our interests.

Stop U.S. terrorism in the Middle East! Stop U.S. wars on Iraq and Afghanistan!