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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBACK TO THE STREETS: Anti-War Coalition Joins with People's Climate March/NYC September 21st
Join the People's Climate March in NYCTaking place during the United Nations Climate Summit
Sunday, Sept. 21
11:30 a.m.
Assembly Location: Central Park West, between 59th and 86th streets
End Location: 11th Ave. in the streets between 34th Street and 38th Street
New York City, N.Y.
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Anti-war movement responds to Obama's speech on Iraq, Syria and the Islamic State
We oppose this war and will be organizing mass demonstrations against it
http://www.answercoalition.org/
President Obama's new war plans in Iraq and Syria will not liberate the people of either country but will lead to more destruction. The U.S. military defeat of the secular Iraqi and Libyan governments (in 2003 and 2011) and its policy of fueling armed civil war against the secular, nationalist government in Syria are the fundamental reasons the so-called Islamic State has grown and become strong.
Perpetuating a now 23-year-long U.S. political tradition, President Obama is announcing tonight that he, like the three preceding U.S. presidents, will go forward with another bombing campaign in Iraq. This is a war that will lead only to more catastrophe and destruction.
We in the ANSWER Coalition oppose this war and we will be organizing mass demonstrations to oppose the bombing of Iraq and Syria. This war, like the earlier ones, is being sold on the basis of misinformation and fear. The United States is a major part of the problem and cannot be the solution to the current crisis in Iraq, stated Brian Becker, National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition.
If one goes by the media headlines this U.S. war too will be for another noble cause just as the previous wars and bombing campaigns were described when they were conducted by George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. This time the war will be conducted under the slogan of defeating the heinous so-called Islamic State forces who have come to dominate predominantly Sunni communities in northern and western Iraq.
The U.S. military cannot solve, but only exacerbate, the current crisis in Iraq and Syria. In fact, the U.S. government, the CIA and the Pentagon are responsible for the disintegration of Iraq and Syria and the consequent rise of the Islamic State and other equally reactionary, sectarian forces in Iraq's central government and elsewhere in these countries.
1. The United States invasion in 2003 destroyed the unitary secular government of Iraq and then followed it up by outlawing the Baathist political party, disbanding the national Baathist-led Iraqi army, and then, as an occupation strategy, hand picking Iraqi Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki whose government pursued a sectarian policy of terrorizing Sunni communities.
2. This Iraqi national government and army, and the Shiite militias that support the government, have carried out similar atrocities against Sunni communities that the Islamic State forces are carrying out against Shiites, Christians, Yazidis and other Sunnis who don't support their ultra-reactionary, sectarian and anti-women policies. It was precisely the brutality of the Maliki government that has allowed the Islamic State to pretend to be the defender of Sunni communities in north and western Iraq. If the U.S. media had reported on the widespread abuses and atrocities committed by the Iraqi government against Sunni communities, it would have aroused the same visceral disgust that has now been engendered against the atrocities committed by the Islamic State.
3. The United States and its NATO partners smashed the secular, nationalist Libyan government through a massive bombing campaign in 2011. This war of aggression fractured Libya as a unitary state, similar to what happened in Iraq, and led to the seizure of vast tracts of territory and heavy weapons by jihadist militias. These weapons and many fighters quickly migrated to join the war supported by the United States and its regional allies against the secular nationalist government in Syria.
4. The Islamic State in Syria acquired vast quantities of heavy weapons and funds since 2011 as part of the armed opposition in Syria. Official U.S. policy was to support the armed struggle against the secular Syrian government. The armed opposition groups, including the Islamic State, received weapons and funds from a coalition of countries that included the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The U.S. government is also planning to use the current crisis to directly intervene militarily in Syria. The real goal in Syria will be to militarily defeat the Assad government. The armed rebel groups in Syria including the Islamic State have shown that they cannot defeat the Syrian army without the direct military intervention of the United States. Any military intervention by the United States in Syria without the consent of the Syrian government is a violation of international law and the UN Charter.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Don't know if there are as many these days who care still here on DU...but, it's time once again to push back...for those of us who are advocates of political solutions and not endless wars which we can no longer pay for.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)We are not Dead.....we LIVE.... Take THAT Dick Cheney and Stuff it in your BLACK HAT...Hate.
The Liars and Disinfo Specialists are Still Out There.....They Shill for the MIC even MORE than they did in the past.....So.....
countryjake
(8,554 posts)I've scanned DU for something of this nature several times during the past month and had pretty much given up on finding any remnants left of what was a strong Anti-War movement here, only a few turbulent years ago. It's quite disheartening to see the concerted attempts at condemning those Peace activists who do remain. War mongerers of any stripe are repulsive.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)that doesn't get posted here on DU. In some ways maybe it's good that these efforts have gone more "Underground" than "Du/Kos Underground.
People on their own doing "Activism" and finding their own places to connect outside the sources like DU/KOS we used in the "old days?"
Thank you for replying! 's.. Still keep posting...in case there are some like me who still care about these issues!