More Troops To #Syria, More Refugees Fleeing U.S. Imperial Violence

Image source: Organizing Notes

Can you find Syria on this map? Can you find the Aegean Sea where toddlers are drowning when boats of refugees capsize fleeing war in Syria? Most in the U.S. could find neither if the map weren't clearly labeled.




When President Obama announces he will send more troops into Syria, do his constituents care? He already sent B-52 bombers to drop weapons of mass destruction this month and there was hardly a peep. People in the U.S. are too busy being super excited about the presidential election which will change nothing in the march toward a third world war.

Liberal Democrats are being outflanked by far right Republicans when it comes to criticizing U.S. imperial expansion abroad. Probably because the project of empire is seen as tremendously expensive and ultimately unsustainable by fiscal conservatives. Some of the criticism is nativist as in "let them kill each other, it's none of our business" which exhibits a deep ignorance of the history of colonialism.

Japan is effectively a U.S. colony and has been since the end of the second world war. Yesterday President Obama threatened North Korea with bellicose rhetoric, saying "the U.S. could destroy" that country. As reported by Reuters via the Huffington Post:

Separately, President Barack Obama said the United States is working on defending itself and its allies against potential threats from what he called an “erratic” country with an “irresponsible” leader. 

On April 15, the North failed to launch what was likely a Musudan missile, with a range of more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles), meaning it could, if launched successfully, hit Japan and also theoretically put the U.S. territory of Guam within range.

Here's the question corporate news has trained the taxpayers who support all these wars never to ask: why would Guam be a U.S. territory? There must be actual human beings on Guam who have the right to govern themselves.

Here's another one: why is the U.S. funding terrorist groups like ISIS on the one hand and bombing them on the other? Don't ask Obama. Ask the CEOs of General Dynamics, Boeing, Lockheed and other "defense" contractors.

I vote we return to calling the Department of "Defense" the Department of War. In this age of information control and euphemisms, this will not happen. In the meantime, I will continue to call out the Pentagon for its crimes against humanity and the environment.

Toddlers will keep drowning, the charade of two corporate parties running against one another will continue to entertain, and the super rich will get even super richer as we escalate the unwinnable "war on terror." If history is any indication, none of this will end well.

What to do? Use the internet while you still have it and use your networks to find real information. Lift up your voice and share some truth.