EDITORIAL
Wars Made in the USA

Jul 21, 2014

The Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip along with the downing of a Malaysian Airline jet over eastern Ukraine on the same day highlights the arc of war that stretches for thousands of miles from the Mediterranean Sea through the Middle East into Central Asia. These wars include not just Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the Ukrainian civil war. There are also wars in Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, plus those throughout Africa.

Needless to say, U.S. government officials condemn all these wars. From Obama to Biden on down, they sanctimoniously pose as the supposed “peacemakers.”

Peacemakers????

No, they are the war mongers! The U.S. government bought and paid for the bombs, rockets and shells that the Israeli military is using against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. rulers and commentators shed crocodile tears for the 300 people killed on the Malaysian jet. All they want is “peace,” they say, as they beat the war drum louder. Obama and the U.S. media blame Russian-backed forces for bringing down the jet. They claim that the war in Ukraine was made in Russia. But whatever role Putin has played, the U.S. super power has been fueling that war. To the U.S., Ukraine is merely a pawn to be used against its big rival, Russia.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: they were created directly by the U.S. invasions and occupations. Those wars spread to Pakistan and Syria. U.S. troops, Special Forces, CIA agents and mercenaries are still in all those countries. U.S. drones, jets and bombers, continue to kill and destroy.

All these wars are “Made in the USA.” The U.S. government and military are the biggest arms dealers. The armies and police of the dictators in charge of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are also “Made in the USA.” Their torturers were trained by U.S. Special Forces and the CIA. And many of the religious fundamentalists and fanatics who are running wild in those countries are getting backing either from the U.S., or from the closest U.S. allies in the region, starting with Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Remember, it was the U.S. intelligence services that originally recruited and armed Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

The people of these countries are paying an astounding price for imperialism’s wars. Two million people in Gaza are trapped on a tiny strip of land, sitting ducks, while the Israeli military shoots at them and rains bombs and shells on their heads. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan, whom the U.S. military supposedly liberated, have suffered millions of casualties. Millions more were forced to flee as refugees. Their countries and vital infrastructures have been destroyed. Decades of hard work were turned into smoking rubble and ash. Shock and Awe, they called it. Religious fanatics or extreme-right wing and fascist militias rule the roost, with women being pushed into abject enslavement.

All so the U.S. super power can impose its power, and big U.S. oil companies, banks, military contractors, construction and engineering companies can tighten their grip over what the workers produce, further enriching the capitalist class.

U.S. working people have also paid a steep price for these wars and military adventures, in lives, destroyed bodies and minds, as well as through big cuts in social spending, education and health care. And the U.S. government uses these wars as an excuse to militarize American society, with more heavily armed police, more spying on the population, etc. The wars are like a poison seeping through the entire society.

In order to increase the domination of its own capitalist class, the U.S. government, representing the richest, most powerful country in the world, along with the governments of the other wealthy countries, is turning more and more of the world into a war zone, engulfing more of humanity in truly barbaric conditions. The only way out of this catastrophe is for the working class to end the capitalists’ death grip over society.