(please forward widely) Stop Obama’s New War on Iraq and Syria In his speech on September 10, President Obama brought back the same old failed strategy of military action to control the Iraq and Syrian regions of the Middle East. Coming out of the NATO summit in Wales last week, Obama was able to put together a new coalition of countries to wage war against the people of Iraq and Syria. He has initiated a bombing campaign in Iraq and says he will pursue IS (ISIS/ISIL) anywhere, including Syria. 
The U.S. government always comes up
with a pretext to justify its aggression towards other countries. In Iraq, it has been Iraq’s invasion of
Kuwait, imagined weapons of mass destruction, and now The Islamic State
(IS/ISIS/ISIL). Make no mistake: the
U.S. bottom line has always been to “protect American interests,” read “control
the energy resources and ensure profit for U.S. corporations.” No U.S. military intervention has ever
improved the lives of the people in those countries. In fact, the total opposite has occurred. It is U.S. policies that
have led to secular states in Iraq and Syria becoming chaotic, sectarian,
failed states that have brought terrible living conditions to the people of
those countries. The U.S. has been
attacking Iraq for decades, starting with its support for the 1980-88 Iraq/Iran
war, which killed over a million soldiers from the two countries. In 1990, the U.S. launched the Gulf war
against Iraq, followed by the imposition of sanctions that killed 1.5 million
Iraqis and half a million Iraqi children. The “Shock and
Awe” war started by the U.S. with the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 never ended. Through these actions, the U.S. has helped foster
sectarian division in Iraq that allowed for the present situation, where the
country is deeply divided between Kurds and Arabs and Sunni and Shia
populations. In such a situation, the
U.S. is better able to fund and militarily support one faction over the others
for the price of doing the bidding of U.S. imperialism. In Iraq, a succession of U.S. supported Shia
regimes brought misery to the Iraqi people, especially the Sunni
population. So when IS starting taking
territory from the Iraqi puppet government, disenfranchised populations were
quick to support them as the lesser evil to the U.S. and its puppet al-Maliki
government. Before the U.S. invaded
in 2003, al-Qaeda had few supporters in Iraq.
But U.S. military aggression in the region, support of sectarian
division and support for Al-Qaeda like groups by U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia
and Qatar have been key to creating the situation that exists today in the
region. The U.S. is the enemy of
the people of Iraq; it cannot be
part of the solution in that country. It
is the problem. One year ago Obama
announced that he was going to bomb Syria.
There was such an outcry against this act of aggression that Obama had
to go on TV and back off from his plan.
But his plans to intervene against the Assad regime and replace it with
a sectarian puppet government have never changed. So today, Obama is using the backdoor method
of attacking IS in Iraq and pursuing them in Syria as a way to carry out his
plans from a year ago. Obama says that he will
get Saudi Arabia to train “moderate” Syrian rebels to continue his effort to
overthrow the Assad government. But it
is Saudi Arabia and wealthy Saudis that has been the funding and arms source
for IS and other groups like al-Qaeda.
Since the “rebels” have been so discredited in Syria, the only way
Obama’s plan can work is if there is outside intervention with boots on the ground. As in Libya, this may mean foreign
mercenaries in large numbers. The role
of the U.S. coalition partners in this process is something that antiwar forces
must pay attention to. A little at a
time, Obama seems to be introducing more U.S. ground forces as well. Although the U.S. is now
using IS as justification for intervention in both Iraq and Syria, the U.S. has
indirectly supported IS when it was fighting Assad in Syria. The U.S. had admitted to giving non-lethal
aid to Syrian rebel groups that made its into the hands of IS in Syria, and
there has been evidence that the U.S. has trained fighters in Jordan that later
joined IS. But the main way that the U.S.
has built IS and al-Qaeda is through its military actions in Muslim countries
throughout the area. These interventions
have helped the U.S. steal resources such as oil and have caused death and
destruction throughout the region. It is
anger due to these policies that has led to the growth of IS and other groups. UNAC calls upon all
antiwar and social justice organizations to start protesting the new Iraq/Syria
war by building demonstrations, press conferences, teach-ins, petition campaigns and other actions. UNAC is talking to other antiwar groups and
hopes to be able to call for more coordinated actions soon. Stop the Bombing! Bring all the Troops
home now! No New Wars on Iraq and
Syria! Self-determination for the people of
Iraq and Syria! click here to donate to UNAC Click here for the Facebook UNAC
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