A View From The Left-NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong

NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong

9/11s

It is well-known but rarely mentioned in current anniversary press coverage that 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were from US “ally” Saudi Arabia.  The roots of this catastrophic attack go back to the US-Saudi-Pakistan intervention in Afghanistan during the 1970s-1980s, when Osama bin-Laden and other international jihadists were subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars to fight the then Soviet Union.  This Cold War intervention began under Democratic Pres. Jimmy Carter and his national security advisorZbigniew Brzezinski, who later commented: What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?  Bin-Laden and his followers later asserted that US intervention in the Muslim Middle East and support of Israel were the immediate motivations for the attack.  (Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s spontaneous unfiltered response to 9/11 was: “It’s very good.” Then he edited himself: “Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.”)

But long before Afghanistan, the US had been encouraging Saudi Arabia to deploy its oil wealth to spread its extremist version of Islam as a means of combatting communism.  This activity was instrumental in promoting the ideologies that led to the creation of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, active today across the greater Middle East and beyond. Religion was deployed as a Cold War weapon at home too: this is when “In God We Trust” was put on US paper money and “under God” was inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance.

9/11 lawsuit looms over Saudi Arabia's ambitions

A lawsuit alleging Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attack is overshadowing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's economic and political plans…  In 2016, the US Senate overruled then-President Barack Obama to pass Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), a law allowing civil lawsuits by victims of "international terrorism" to proceed in US courts against sovereign states. The bill opened the door for the families of the 9/11 victims to go after Saudi Arabia over its alleged role in the attacks. While Riyadh maintains that it has nothing to do with the al-Qaeda militants, who have launched attacks in Saudi Arabia often targeting security forces, US District Judge George Daniels in New York gave a green light in March for a lawsuit against the Saudi government to proceed.   More

The “other 9/11” was in 1973 when the US organized a military coup to overthrow the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile. Thousands were killed or disappeared during the decades of military dictatorship which followed.Henry Kissinger, who is now lauded as an elder statesman – a prominent speaker at the funeral of John McCain – declared during a 1970 National Security Council meeting: I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. Today, the Trump White House admits itmet with military coup plotters from Venezuela.

Code Pink issued a withering report on the Military-Industrial Complex and violence, especially in the Middle East:

WAR PROFITEERS:  The U.S. War Machine and the Arming of Repressive Regimes

The current regime of U.S. arms exports is part of a deliberate strategy to outsource U.S. war- making, projecting military power through alliances with U.S.-armed client states as a substitute for direct U.S. military action. This minimizes both domestic opposition from a war-weary U.S. public and growing international resistance to the catastrophic results of U.S. wars, while U.S. military-industrial interests are well served by ever-growing arms sales to allied governments…  For over a century, the U.S. has installed and supported dictators and absolutemonarchs on every continent, trained their torturers and secret police, and made enemies of their downtrodden people. The harvest of these catastrophic U.S. policies still fills endless graveyards, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Central America to Korea and Vietnam…  Saudi Arabia has the third largest military budget in the world, after only the U.S. and China, and is now using its “Made in the U.S.A.” war machine to bomb its neighbor, Yemen, into a humanitarian abyss that threatens millions of people with starvation, disease and death.   More

Thursday, September 27: MEDEA BENJAMIN: Taking on the Military Industrial Complex, 7 PM – 9 PM, Cambridge Friends Center, 5 Longfellow Part (off Brattle St) Cambridge.  Come hear one of the U.S.’ most prominent war analysts, anti-war speakers, and activists give us insight into ongoing U.S. wars and what we can do about them. Medea will focus in CODEPINK’s new strategy for stopping these wars focused on divestment from war contractors and the financial institutions that back them.  This will also be the official “Launch” of the Massachusetts Raytheon anti-war campaign. Hear about our new strategy to oppose the Saudi-U.S. war in Yemen and U.S./Saudi/Israeli sanctions and threats of war against Iran.

Dems plan resolution to withdraw US forces from Yemen civil war

A group of House Democrats wants to force a vote to withdraw U.S. forces from the civil war in Yemen, the lawmakers announced on Thursday… “We are preparing to introduce a new, privileged resolution in September invoking the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to withdraw U.S. Armed Forces from engaging in the Saudi-led coalition’s conflict with the Houthis should additional escalations continue and progress fail to be made towards a peace agreement,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement…  The effort is being led by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who previously led the charge for a House-passed nonbinding resolution that called U.S. military involvement in the war unauthorized.   More  (McGovern and Capuano are among the cosponsors.)

Mass Peace Action:

STOP TRUMP FROM BOMBING SYRIA

When will the Trump administration learn? You can’t protect Syrian civilians by dropping bombs on their country.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis just suggested a U.S. military intervention in Syria could be imminent. John Bolton threatened “much stronger” action than President Trump’s earlier strikes on Syria. War plans are being drawn up. Fortunately, our allies in Congress are already organizing to stop this.  Instead of engaging in gratuitous saber-rattling, the United States should be supporting diplomatic efforts to protect civilians and achieve a political settlement in Syria.

An Unending U.S. War in Syria

Amid a week of attention-grabbing drama about the dysfunction of Donald Trump’s presidency, it almost escaped notice that his administration is putting U.S. troops in harm’s way in a foreign war for a new purpose—a purpose that does not entail countering a threat to the United States. Newly appointed special envoy for Syria James Jeffrey stated that under a “new policy” on Syria, the United States is “no longer pulling out by the end of the year.” This policy goes against what Trump had been saying not only in the presidential campaign about wanting less U.S. involvement in Middle Eastern wars but also, more recently and more specifically, about wanting to withdraw the 2,200 U.S. soldiers now in Syria.   More

SYRIAN REBELS PREVENTING REFUGEES FROM LEAVING IDLIB

As Russian and Syrian forces prepare an offensive to take the last remaining rebel stronghold, some refugees from Idlib province say Syrian rebels are stopping their families from fleeing the fighting…  The United Nations and the United States, among other nations, are urging the Syrian Government and its allies Russia and Iran to negotiate a peaceful solution in Idlib … but these refugees say the onus is on the rebels. "They won't let people leave to safer zones, to safer regions," Ahmad said.  "The Syrian Arab Army has opened more than one corridor but the terrorists are not allowing anyone to leave because they are using them as human shields."   More

Are the US and UK empowering al-Qaeda in Yemen?

A recent investigation by the Associated Press found that militias in Yemen backed by the Saudi-led coalition, of which the US and UK are a de facto part, have been recruiting hundreds of al-Qaeda militants to fight Houthi forces to reinstate the ousted government of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.  The coalition has been cutting secret deals with these al-Qaeda fighters, paying some to leave key towns with weapons and looted cash worth up to $100m… The coalition and al-Qaeda militants have been described by the International Crisis Group as having a “tacit alliance” in Yemen. Ansar al-Sharia, a militant group created by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as its local insurgent arm - has regularly fought alongside coalition forces against Houthis in Aden and other parts of the south, including the cultural capital of Taiz, indirectly obtaining weapons from the coalition.   More

MIGHT A BELEAGUERED TRUMP GO TO WAR…AGAINST IRAN?

What with anonymous “senior officials,” new revelations from “crazytown” provoked by Bob Woodward’s latest book, new indictments and/or plea bargains flowing out of the Mueller investigation, let alone little to no likelihood of a real breakthrough on North Korea or anywhere else., it’s difficult to see how Trump’s and the GOP’s current downward trajectory will be easily reversed. So, faced with these prospects, what might a politically beleaguered president do to rally the public behind him or stave off the worst? Of course, it’s a cliché that leaders in trouble, both authoritarian and democratically elected, are often tempted to invent or exploit or manipulate a foreign crisis—including even war—against a convenient “enemy” in order to at least distract attention, if not reverse their fortunes. History is replete with examples…  And what “enemy” would likely be the target? Again, judging from all we know, Iran must rank at the top.    More