Sunday, September 28, 2014

“We Have Met the Enemy and He Isn't Only ISIS, He Is Us”

"Defense Spending the Top Priority, Critics Fear”: 
Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t;
 Adapted: Staff Sgt. Liesl Marelli / DVIDSHUB, designshard)
Dennis Kucinich’s perspective on the ISIS threat, the hysteria it has created, and why we are bombing Iraq and Syria is something we should not ignore.


In August, President Obama ordered “boots on the ground” in Iraq to protect U.S. assets from ISIS attacks, and initiated airstrikes against ISIS targets in support of Iraqi troops.

In September, the President ordered bombing and cruise missile attacks on ISIS targets inside Syria to reign in their ability to conduct over the border attacks on Iraqi forces. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan joined in the airstrikes.

On September 23, an Israel Patriot missile shot down a Syrian fighter. Syria condemned Israel’s action, describing it as an act of aggression and linked it to US-led air strikes against ISIS in Syria.

Turkey is now on the brink of joining the fight.

All of which can potentially expand the ISIS-Syria-Iraq conflict into a region-wide war. 
ARABIAN GULF (Sept. 23, 2014)
An F/A-18C Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 87,
prepares to launch from the flight deck
of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77)
to conduct strike missions against ISIL targets.
(DoD: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication
Specialist 3rd Class Robert Burck)


Here are some takeaways from Kucinich’s article, “The Real Reason We Are Bombing Syria.”

There wouldn’t be ISIS if it were not for the 2003 Iraq war and our “covert action in Syria.”

The funding of groups that repeatedly turn on the U.S is an “illustration” of Obama’s failed foreign policy.

“What a coincidence for war-profiteering [politicians] and the war industry, which has seen its stock rise since [the] congressional vote [on September 17] to fund the rapid expansion of war.”

“To sell its case, the administration [the main stream media, Congress as well] is borrowing from the fear mongering tactics of the Bush administration. ISIS poses no direct, immediate threat to the United States … yet we are being sold make-believe about ISIS sleeper cells.”

If you listen to Obama and our political leaders from both sides of the aisle, you might think that ISIS terrorist are hiding in every neighborhood just waiting to obliterate you and the United States.

That ISIS hysteria has now led us into our third Iraq war that most likely will be as long as the last. If you think you have heard all the scary rhetoric before, you have. The rationale and rhetoric are essentially the same:

Diane Feinstein (D-CA) says, “The threat ISIS poses cannot be overstated.”

Jim Inhofe (R-OK) says, ISIS is “… rapidly developing a method of blowing up a major U.S. city.” “We’re in the most dangerous position we’ve ever been in as a nation.”

Bill Nelson (D-FL) says, “This is a terrorist group the likes of which we haven’t seen before, and we better stop them now.” “It ought to be pretty clear when they start cutting off the heads of journalists and say they’re going to fly the black flag of ISIS over the White House that ISIS is a clear and present danger.”

Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says, “This is a turning point in the war on terror. This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home.”

Michele Bachmann (R-MN) says, “We haven’t seen anything like this since Hitler and the blitzkrieg in World War II.”

And there’s the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, who said, “This is going to be a persistent and sustained campaign. And it will take time.”

It has been thirteen years since the last time we heard that very same rhetoric and we’re still in Afghanistan. Our combat mission there is supposedly winding down with withdrawal scheduled by the end of 2014. It seems it will be just in time to increase the number of “boots on the ground” in Iraq.

The only winners over the last thirteen years and in perpetuity are all those who profit from war.

Copyright © 2014 Horatio Green