Western Terror 2

Terror Attacks, G20 Hypocrisy

Art Young

I join with many others who stand for a world of peace and justice in completely repudiating the terrorist attacks in Paris and the similar atrocity in Beirut. We express our full solidarity with the hundreds of innocent victims, dead and injured, many of whom remain in critical condition at this time.

That said, the terror attacks must be seen in a wider context.

We live in a world of massive inequality and environmental degradation, one dominated by the global 1% and the states that act in their interests. To maintain their power, in recent decades the U.S. and its allies have engaged in a seemingly endless series of imperialist interventions across the globe, unequal wars that have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, destroyed societies, created profound animosities between communities, and forced millions of people to flee their homes to seek safety in bleak refugee camps or risk death on land and sea. Our condemnation of the crimes committed in Paris and Beirut must not blind us to the crimes of imperialism, many orders of magnitude larger, and which create the conditions that have led some to turn to terrorism.

That is why I refuse to stand with Barack Obama, Justin Trudeau or François Holland when they condemn the attacks in Paris. Obama and Hollande have too much blood on their hands. Their statements are hypocritical, designed to promote more repression, war and violence. Trudeau has just assumed office, but the record of his party in office and his election program indicate that his foreign policy will not differ from that of Stephen Harper in any substantial way.[1] It is apparent that the leaders of the G20 who met in Turkey on November 15-16 have made plans to take maximum political advantage of the opportunity that the killings in Paris afford them.

Selective Solidarity

One day before the attack in Paris, two suicide bombs exploded on a busy street in Beirut, killing 43 bystanders and injuring many more. The attack, which was directed against supporters of Hezbollah, received only perfunctory attention from Western leaders or the Western press.[2] This illustrates that the reaction of the self-proclaimed leaders of ‘the civilized world’ to acts of violence (other than their own) is highly selective, as they shape their response to serve their larger aims. It also demonstrates that a life lost in the Middle East matters less to them than a life lost in New York or Paris.

For those of us committed to the struggle for a world of peace and social justice, it is important to reflect on the lessons of 9/11. The path of restrictions on democratic freedoms in the name of “national security” is a fraud and a dead end. Casting suspicion on ‘others’ in our midst who are not like ‘us’ and heightening police surveillance of them – in this case, Muslims – promotes racism and Islamophobia and weakens us all. Participation in imperialist wars – such as Canada's lengthy commitment to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, which left the country in ruins – must be vigorously opposed. (The previous Liberal government, under Jean Chrétien, took the decision to go to war.)

In this situation, it becomes particularly important to demand of Justin Trudeau that he:

• Fulfil his election pledge to withdraw the Canadian jets from combat in Iraq and Syria;
• Withdraw Canadian special forces from Iraq. There should be no Canadian boots on the ground, in any capacity, in Iraq or Syria;
• Refuse to employ the Canadian military anywhere in the Middle East or North Africa, except to facilitate the transfer of refugees to Canada;
• Repeal Bill C-51, Harper's far-reaching attack on democratic rights[3] and enact no further restrictions on fundamental freedoms;
• Meet his election commitment to bring 25,000 government-sponsored Syrian refugees to Canada before the end of the year;
• In the New Year, continue welcoming even more refugees on an emergency basis, extending the invitation to include refugees from all countries, including Afghanistan. Canada has a special responsibility to the people of Afghanistan in light of the destruction it has visited upon them;
• Eliminate the massive bureaucratic obstacles to accepting privately sponsored refugees;
• Provide generous government support for the resettlement and integration of all refugees;
• Vigorously oppose all manifestations of Islamophobia, in contrast to Harper's deliberate promotion of anti-Muslim racism before and during the election campaign;

Art Young is a long-time socialist and solidarity activist who lives in Toronto, Canada.

Endnotes:

1. Except perhaps for a greater willingness to accept Syrian refugees. But what the new government will actually do remains be seen.

2. See “Beirut, Also the Site of Deadly Attacks, Feels Forgotten,” New York Times, Nov. 16, 2015.

3. See killc51.ca.

Their Wars, Our Dead Bodies:

The Barbarity of Imperialism Produces Terrorist Barbarity

The following is a translation of a statement issued by the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) one day after the terrorist attacks in Paris. The NPA is part of the far left in France.

The statement was issued in French under the above heading. The NPA also published an English version on its website. I have edited the translation and corrected it in a few places to better correspond with the French text.

At one point the NPA statement refers to “Islamist” barbarity. It is worth noting, however, that many of the organizations fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have strongly repudiated the attacks in Paris. Forty-nine of them, including some of the most prominent ones, quickly published a joint online statement which said, in part,

“Rebel factions in Syria strongly condemn these criminal acts, which violate all divine laws and human values, and consider this act of terror no different than the terror the Syrian people have been suffering from on a daily basis for almost five years – both stem from the same root: the Assad regime and its instrument ISIS.”[a]

— Art Young.

Statement of the New Anticapitalist Party, France

The horrible attacks which took place in Paris on Friday evening, killing more than 120 people and wounding dozens more, this blind violence, provokes revolt and indignation. The NPA shares these sentiments and expresses its solidarity with the victims and their friends and relatives. This tragedy is even worse in that it has befallen innocent victims. The murderous attacks were aimed at the general population.

This contemptible barbarity in the heart of Paris is a response to the equally blind and even more deadly violence of the bombings perpetrated by French warplanes in Syria following the decisions of [French President] François Hollande and his government.

These strikes are supposed to be against the Islamic State, the terrorist jihadists. But in fact, together with the Russian intervention and bombings in Syria, they serve to protect the regime of the main person responsible for the martyrdom of the Syrian people, the dictator [President Bashar al-] Assad.

And there too civilians are the principal victims, condemned to survive under terror or to flee at the risk of their lives.

Imperialist barbarity and Islamist barbarity feed on each other. And do so to control oil supplies.

In a pitiful intervention, Holland broke down before the cameras and stammered some words about the Republic. He, who is quick to launch new wars, and carries an enormous responsibility for this new tragedy, now asks for our ‘trust’. He has declared a state of emergency throughout France, considering that it is necessary to respond by trampling on basic freedoms. [Former president Nicolas] Sarkozy has quickly supported him. Thus, from now on, the political authorities have the power to ban public meetings and control the press.

Once again, those responsible for this surge of barbaric violence appeal for national unity. They are trying to take advantage of this dramatic situation in order to choke off indignation and revolt. For this they have a ready-made scapegoat, Muslims. We reject any national unity with those responsible for wars, the bourgeoisie, Hollande, Sarkozy and [leader of the far-right National Front, Marine] Le Pen. We denounce the racism that the state disseminates in the name of so-called “republican values” at the very same time that it threatens democratic rights in the guise of fighting terrorism. We demand that the state of emergency be lifted.

The only response to wars and terrorism is for workers and people to unite, irrespective of their origins, their skin colour, their religions, across borders, struggling together against those who are trying to silence them, to dominate them, and to finally put an end to this capitalist system which is the source of barbarity.

To end terrorism, we must end the imperialist wars whose purpose is to continue the plunder of the wealth of the people who live under the domination of the multinationals. We must force the withdrawal of French troops from all countries in which they are present, in particular in Syria, in Iraq, and in Africa. •

Montreuil, France
November 14th, 2015

Endnotes:

a. See also the letter of condolences sent to the people of France by residents of Douma City, located in the Damascus countryside, who continue to resist despite enduring many months of ruthless saturation bombing and mass starvation at the hands of the Assad regime, “We condemn in the strongest of terms the targeting of civilians there [in France] and anywhere around the world.”

« Previous

Home

Today

Next »

Not a word here about the role of the Saudis.16 November 2015| Andre Vltchek
8814
Blogs
Ignorance and Indoctrination of Westerners Kills Millions 2
Our Planet Earth is heading straight towards the most dangerous collision in its history. It is not a collision with some foreign body, with an asteroid or a comet, but with the most brutal and selfish chunk of its own inhabitants: with people who proudly call themselves “members of the Western civilization.”


Again and again it is clearly demonstrated that Western culture, which the paramount psychologist Carl Jung used to call “pathology”, couldn’t be trusted.

This “culture” had already mercilessly slaughtered several hundreds of millions of people in all corners of the world; it enslaved entire continents, and plundered all that had any value, whether it was located above or under the surface of earth.

Inhabitants of Europe, the United States, as well as rulers of the client states, showed chilling indifference towards the suffering of their victims.

They also demonstrated utmost ignorance and the highest level of indoctrination!

For centuries, citizens of France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and other Western nations were staring at the battle ships leaving their shores, sailing towards Asia, Latin America and Africa ... Mouths open wide; they were pretending that they did not really know what horrors these ships were going to spread. When the ships returned, packed with slaves and unimaginable booty, they shut down their brains, claimed ignorance once again, attributing thriving of their cities and states to some “Western ingenuity, enterprising spirit and hard work,” but definitely not to terror, rape and appalling plunder of the world.

What Germans did, gazing at the chimneys of the concentration camps that were regurgitating thick smoke of the victims of Holocaust and then claiming that “they did not know”, was exactly what all Europeans did for centuries and millennia, when their troops and “investments” into all sorts of Crusades, were looting and brutalizing everyone on the surface of our Planet.

Throughout the history, holocausts have been performed, again and again, all over Africa, in the Middle East, in Latin America, Caribbean, sub-Continent, and Asia Pacific, even in Oceania.

The Westerners never lifted a finger to stop crimes that their states have been committing! As long as they were getting fat, why should they? Their servile and cowardly intellectuals are still refusing, with some tiny exceptions that do not constitute even 1 percent, to depict gruesome destruction, humiliation and torment of “the others”. Western philosophers are locked at the sclerotic institutions called universities, whoring for tenures, instead of describing the world in all its sickening dismay. The media and artists are not fairing any better.

The role of Christianity has been vast and monstrous. In a foreseeable future I will dedicate an essay that will describe its responsibility for the global genocide, as well as a slender but provocative philosophic book on the same topic, co-authored with one of the leading Christian theologians. Christianity (even its non-religious forms called “secularism” or “atheism”) has been spreading intolerance, bigoted dogmas, exclusivism and complexes of superiority. It offered justification; it even inspired the crusades, colonial expansionism, mass murder as well as destruction of entire local cultures.

And yet, the same bandit nations, the same cowardly but sadistic culture, the same perverse religion, are still clinging to power, still torturing and murdering the millions.

Their gangrenous sisters, capitalism and nihilism, are brainwashing people all over the world, while driving them into dark valleys of despair.

It is because their weapons of mass destruction are the deadliest, their propaganda the most advanced, their opposition the most indoctrinated and their opposition almost non-existent!

*

War after war, genocide after genocide, the Westerners are still playing dumb! They refuse to acknowledge whet they are doing to the world.

When over 100 French people died during a bizarre recent string of attacks in Paris (who was behind them? West’s allies - jihadists, or maybe their own establishment?), Europeans began mourning their own victims – and pointing fingers at “the others”. People all over the world, either too scared to say “no” or too brainwashed as well, began expressing solidarity with the French nation.

Part of “The Jungle”, a terrible refugee camp near the French city of Calais, went ablaze. Refugees got attacked all over Europe, as “retaliation”. But retaliation for what? After all, refugees were only escaping their countries that were ruined and plundered by both Europe and the United States!

But this is not how a common European was instructed to see the world.

The common European and North American is much more submissive to the regime, than a common inhabitant of any other part of the world. He or she learns what is required to be learned, listens attentively what the media/propaganda people digest and serve. Debates are almost always within the permitted framework.

A common citizen of a Western country devours hours of bizarre entertainment daily (including “news entertainment”). They watch dozens of propaganda films and clips, every year. He or she can hardly make any distinction between reality and fiction, anymore. Such a citizen is willing to sacrifice billions of men, women and children all over the world just for their own material benefits and wellbeing.

All he or she knows, all he or she feels is (somehow abstractly) is that they are somehow “superior” to the rest of humanity; that their culture is exceptional and predestined to rule the world. All heor she senses is that he or she has the right to consume and to use all the natural resources of the world, and that their government can decide which country outside the Western realm should be allow to stand and which would be forced to fall.

Millions of human lives lost in the Middle East, tens of millions of men, women and children murdered by imperialism in Africa? Who cares? Who bloody cares? Westerner eats, copulates, sometimes works and then he either tries to enjoy his life, or he fights for much better benefits... for himself, or for herself. Rest of the world is there to provide or to subsidize such benefits; that is all.

The dumber they, the Westerners, are, the more self-assured and arrogant their worldview. You see people like this in a pub, but you also see them controlling all international organizations, even the UN agencies. Those big, beefy, tall Germans, Scandinavians, North Americans, Brits - speaking with air of a stone superiority to those “agile Asians, clumsy Africans and insecure Arabs”! Telling them what to do, how to run their societies. Absolutely no shame! You would never hear them lamenting: “We fucked up the world. We raped the planet. We are still doing it...” Never.

No apologies, no remorse, no grand plan for how to reverse the flow, how to return at least some part of what had been stolen and how to stop murdering.

Of course, everywhere you go, you read stuff like “May Peace Prevail on Earth!”

*

Yes, over 100 people died in Paris. Right before that, almost 50 died in Beirut, Lebanon. While thousands are dying in Yemen, every month... While 17,000 already vanished in Iran – victims of West-sponsored terrorism... While hundreds of thousands have been dying in Libya and Syria... While millions have been dying in Somalia and Iraq... While some 10 millions already died in a looted and raped DRC (the Democratic Republic of Congo) … All of them victims of Western assaults and banditry or of Western-sponsored terrorism directly!

All those Mujahedeen, al-Qaida, al-Nusra, IS... That entire Wahhabi fundamentalism created first by the British and later North American imperialism. All that vile, toxic stuff that had been armed, and financed and serviced by the Europeans, as well as Saudis, Turks and other great allies of the West.

And why was that stinky stuff so diligently armed and financed? So it could ruin and destroy progressive, socialist Islam, from Egypt to Iran to Indonesia! So it could destroy the Soviet Union and any Marxist roots in Afghanistan! So it could murder millions of progressive people in those proud and independent nations. So the West could rule, unopposed, grabbing all it wants, deciding who will be governing where!

*

Now Russia stands against the terror with its fighter jets. Its bombers are flying sorties for survival of this humanity. Just recently, Russia already paid a tremendous price, and we all know what it was. But it is used to paying unimaginable prices, for the survival of our planet. 25 million human lives in just one war, in order to defeat Nazism. Or great chunk of economic output of the USSR, “just” in order to defeat Western imperialism and colonialism.

China sent military advisers, and is standing by, rock solid, shoulder-to-shoulder Russia.

Syria managed to shock the world by refusing to surrender, by fighting with unimaginable heroism against all odds. Half of its people are on the move, millions of refugees are flooding all shores, but the country is standing tall, injured and bleeding but standing, nevertheless.

And so is Latin America, despite all those vicious attacks from the West. Standing, damn it, standing towering and proud!

And those ignorant, selfish, brutal hordes in the West see nothing. They repeat propaganda injected to their heads, providing slight variations to it, calling it freedom of expression!

*

After the “Paris attacks”, Western propaganda is in top gear once again. Its apparatchiks were clearly “prepared and ready”. Future direct attacks against Syria are already “justified” well in advance. Not against ISIS (although that would be the official pretext), but against President al-Assad and his government which is, despite everything, supported by the majority of Syrian people. Attacks against Syria will not be called “Western terrorism”, but something like a “heroic revenge”.

Can this planet be entrusted to those who watch crap on their television screens, day after day – both Hollywood propaganda production, and news propaganda briefings?

Can anything that comes from the West be taken seriously, after centuries of lies and murder?

Who is killing whom, lately? Who is behind what?

I will stick to what I know. And what I know is who is actually killing millions in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

I will not speculate about some “insider job” of the Empire, although I have some strong suspicions; of course I do! For now I will only stick to facts that I can prove.

And the facts are simple and horrendous: the Empire has been murdering tens of millions of people on our planet. The Empire, and that self-perpetuated ignorance, fundamentalism and blindness of its indoctrinated citizens!

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: 
 "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/bloggers/Ignorance-and-Indoctrination-of-Westerners-Kills-Millions-20151116-0001.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english