the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Sep 13, 2010
After a Florida preacher tried to make a name for himself, threatening to make 9/11 a day to publicly burn Korans, he was opposed by Obama administration and military officials. Fox News and Republican Party politicians already were making outright appeals to bigotry and racism by mobilizing opposition to the construction of an Islamic cultural center two blocks from ground zero in New York City–supposedly “hallowed ground” that had previously been a Burlington Coat Factory store, that happened to be one block away from a “gentleman’s club”–that is, a strip club.
These outright bigoted appeals posed problems for the U.S. military in its wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, especially since the U.S.’s main allies and client states are themselves Muslim fundamentalist states.
So Obama and all the rest pretended to oppose bigotry. Obama highlighted that in his speech at the Pentagon on September 11. “As Americans we are not–and never will be–at war with Islam.” No, the U.S. is not at war with “Islam”–only with the people of several countries in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Yes, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which took 3,000 lives, were horrifying and barbaric–like all terrorist attacks against civilians. And, of course, people, especially in New York City, may feel upset by them.
But for the last nine years, U.S. government officials have used the pretext of the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a blank check to wage war against any country this government chooses–sowing the U.S. military’s own brand of terror and mass murder against the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen.
The U.S. government has also carried out a witch hunt against immigrants, with mass arrests and detentions on trumped up charges that followed 9/11. Obama’s Justice Department continues to frame-up Muslims under charges of terrorism, including gunning down a Detroit minister in cold blood by FBI agents.
U.S. officials have turned the remembrances of the horrendous 9/11 terrorist attacks into a political circus. They have invoked the 3,000 deaths in this country to justify carrying out terrorist attacks on a vast scale against entire populations, as well as to justify that we pay for those wars, while the government steps up its repression at home. And the U.S. government’s own policies have sown the seeds of racism, bigotry and hatred.