After more than 10 years of war against al Qaeda and the accompanying global "war on terrorism," we have failed to learn that our actions create reactions. Our presence creates destabilization, then radicalization. Occupations create insurgencies. In Afghanistan, we have fueled the very insurgency we struggle to fight.
Al Qaeda had relatively little if any presence in Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion. The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the subsequent destruction and violence, enabled al Qaeda to flourish. Al Qaeda and its affiliates are now conducting an accelerated campaign of relentless attacks and suicide bombings in Iraq.
Last year's intervention in Libya is another example. The U.S. and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies spurred a civil war, taking sides despite persistent questions about the nature of the opposition. The war and the chaos that followed have allowed radical groups to gain another foothold.
In Syria, prominent leaders in western nations are trying to make the case for intervention, despite the fact that our own intelligence agencies do not know exactly what is transpiring on the ground or who is doing what to whom. We do know that the chaos has provided al Qaeda the opportunity to expand, as recently reported by The New York Times:
The evidence is mounting that Syria has become a magnet for Sunni extremists, including those operating under the banner of Al Qaeda...
Daniel Byman, a counterterrorism expert who is a professor at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said it is clear that al Qaeda is trying to become more active in Syria. As it has already done in Somalia and Mali, and before that in Chechnya and Yemen, the group is trying to turn a local conflict to its advantage.
Headlines in papers around the world eliminate any doubt. The Guardian: "Syria: Foreign jihadists could join battle for Aleppo" and "Al-Qaida turns tide for rebels in battle for eastern Syria." The New York Times: "As Syrian War Drags On, Jihadists Take Bigger Role." The Washington Post: "In Syria, group suspected of al-Qaeda links gaining prominence in war to topple Assad."
Recently, despite the presence of extremist elements among the opposition, President Obama stated:
"We cannot have a situation in which chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people... We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized."
This situation is rife with potential for a "false flag" operation.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria -- al Qaeda surfs instability created or supported by U.S. interventions. Al Qaeda is ready to exploit resentment toward the U.S. while capitalizing on the openings created by U.S. interventionism. As a result our U.S. tax dollars are being used to fuel the rise of extremism.
Have we learned nothing from the Soviet Union's demise as a result of its adventure in Afghanistan? Will we continue to spend tax dollars to create even more U.S. enemies which will then be used to justify the expenditure of more U.S. tax dollars, thus setting the stage for an accelerated downward spiral for our economy and our own decline as a great power?
Follow Rep. Dennis Kucinich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RepKucinich
We the People of the United States do not even have the luxury of true free unbiased elections in our own country! Our airwaves are so filled with propaganda planted by a Media that intentionally distorts the truth or fails to report the News at all, it is truly impossible for anyone to become informed much less WELL INFORMED! So how in the world can we justify killing so many innocent civilians one country after the other to install the puppet of somebody's choice?
It is way past time for us to bring our troops home and work on rebuilding our nation. We would be far better off spending all those tax dollars taking care of our own business here by spending a lot more on quality health care and education for United States citizens instead of continued wasting our tax dollars supporting the Military Industrial Complex!
Al-Qaeda is entering the Syrian battleground precisely because the US and other Western countries have failed to provide any meaningful assistance to the Syrian opposition in the face of an 18-month attack by President Assad's armed forces. As regime air strikes hit hospitals, helicopter gunships strafe civilian streets and artillery shells target bread queues, the US has done almost nothing. Al-Qaeda argues that the US does not value Syrian Muslim lives, will do nothing to help Syria even in the face of such appalling atrocities.
The result is that 18 months into the conflict, extremists begin to find a fertile ground to offer their assistance. Even now, though, it is not too late for the US to help positively. Opposition Free Syrian Army elements have attacked jihadists, making it clear they are not welcome on the opposition's side. Helping now and helping rapidly could push the jihadist and al-Qaeda out of Syria, not invite them in. Kucinich's strategy, in contrast, is to abandon Syria to its devices, a policy that will only encourage the rise of al-Qaeda there.
As I say to my friends, "we can be of different minds, and we can be of different opinions, but we cannot be of different realities, because that is a form of mental illness which cannot be overcome by any facts".
And for all the rhetoric about being "exceptional" as the world leader, this is the only FACT that the world is watching in US foreign policy": http://goo.gl/22xFS
Defending this nation we call America has many components, but any nation producing this many "instruments of death" is surely not interested in uplifting humanity. A SMALL TRUTH, but one that cannot be challenged by lies, ignorance, or 'exceptional' rhetoric.
- Sun Tzu, THE ART OF WAR
This was indeed true and absolute wisdom over 2,000 years ago when General Sun first touched his brush to bamboo strips authoring his ART OF WAR, and that wisdom has remained unchanged since.
Past time We The People compelled our elected representatives to stop playing at war using the lives of our GIs, Marines, airmen, and sailors as their own personal toy soldier collection, and bring our good people in uniform home from the misbegotten graveyard of empires that is Afghanistan.
Leland R. Erickson
Citizen
Here is a link to safe source documents that contain their statements and they do brag.
http://jihadology.net/2012/08/17/five-new-statements-from-jabhat-al-nu%E1%B9%A3rah/
They aren't just a future danger to us, these Wahabbist fundamentalists are wiping out minorities and their heritage now, creating millions of refugees who are welcomed nowhere. They are in a own quest for an empire which will be headed by disgusting decadent oil princes.
It's like messianic zealots are in charge of our foreign policy and will leverage them for their own selfish reasons. They have no concern for the future, or no understanding of the likely results, either that or they don't care what happens to world as long as they are the rulers over the rubble pile they are creating.
We've given the red button or the nuke codes to the idiots.
I wish you would focus on calling out the sources, the ugly power brokers and what their ultimate goal is, not just the disastrous end results.
IMO they are operating according to the dictates of the Anglo-American-Atlantic compact controlled by oligarchs; They are remnants of the Swabian dynastic families who have remained rich but loosely in control of our so called democracies,are moving to return to full feudalistic power.
'Terrorists' were in Soviet sights; now they are in the Americans'.
by Robert Fisk
I sit on the rooftop of the old Central Hotel - pharaonic-decorated elevator, unspeakable apple juice, and armed Tajik guards at front door - and look out across the smoky red of the Kabul evening. The Bala Hissar fort glows in the dusk, massive portals, the great keep to which British army should have moved its men in 1841. Instead, they felt the king should live there and humbly built a cantonment on undefended plain, thus leading to a "signal catastrophe".
At night, the thump of American Sikorsky helicopters and whisper of high-altitude F-18s invade my room. The USA is settling George Bush's scores with "terrorists" trying to overthrow Karzai's corrupt government.
Now rewind 29 years, and I am on balcony of Intercontinental Hotel on other side of this great, cold, fuggy city. Impeccable staff, frozen Polish beer in the bar, secret policemen in the front lobby, Russian troops parked in forecourt. The Bala Hissar fort glimmers through the smoke. The kites - green seems a favourite colour - move beyond the trees. At night, the thump of Hind choppers and the whisper of high-altitude MiGs invade my room. The Soviet Union is settling Leonid Brezhnev's scores with the "terrorists" trying to overthrow Barbrak Karmal's corrupt government.
good short read:http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/23-4
The path that we choose will define our residual value and our legacy.
They are only arguing over who gets the management jobs, and despite the democrats rhetoric and paens to freedom or progressivism, it doesn't hasn't matched it's actions since Jimmy Carter.
You might like this article.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/repository/the-convenient-state/
I like the first comment. It reminds me of the book "The Law" written in 1850 by Frédéric Bastiat. if we followed it, it would solve most of our problems.
Tell that to the Irish, Welsh and Scotch.
The US had a unique chance to leverage its soft power post WW 2, but arrogance and ignorance ensured that would not happen. Has it learnt any lessons..... Iran is a test.. place your bets
As long as we stay, we wirk in direct opposition to the very reasons we're told we're there for--our national security. With every innocent killed in drone attacks within Pakistan and Afghanistan, we only crate another generation of more enemies with those family members and loved ones who have survived. Those people are not things,--collateral damage--but people, and people with very long memories.
No matter. "...eventually we'll retreat to Kabul. ...build(ing) a Baghdad-style "green zone" of fortifications and blast walls. The city will become a western client statelet of stunning venality, floating on an ocean of corruption-fueling dollars. It will last as long as liberal (and conservative – my additon) interventionists care to enjoy a lethal cocktail of incoming mortars and outgoing pie in the sky.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/08/afghanistan-catastrophe-chilcot
“Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Wednesday that the strategic partnership agreement signed Tuesday by Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai commits the United States -- its troops and potentially tens of billions more dollars -- to Afghanistan for the indefinite future.
"The plain fact is we are not exiting Afghanistan, despite the appearances which the White House is trying to create," Kucinich said in a statement. "We are staying."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/02/dennis-kucinich-afghanistan_n_1471684.html
Obama is a terrorist, pure and simple, and his empire is a terrorist state-- far worse than the "terrorists" he claims to be fighting against, in the extent of innocent human lives lost.
In the wake of a questionable event, Bush and his minions invaded that region and have caused untold numbers of families-- real people, to repeat a phrase-- to be wiped out.
This is not a plan for a safe world-- it's the endgame. The next step is WWIII with Russsia and China, and the decimation of a world population. Feverish work has taken place to complete the hundreds of deep underground cities.
Dever, CO is the nexus of this and thus the real seat of government in the US. The plan's been in the works for a long, long time, and this is its culmination. We've not long to go, I fear.