http://warisacrime.org/content/obama-admits-us-military-policy-responsible-terrorist-attacks-europe
On April 1, 2016 President Barack Obama
addressed the closing session of the Nuclear Security Summit and praised
"the collective efforts that we've made to reduce the amount of nuclear
material that might be accessible to terrorists around the world."
"This
is also an opportunity for our nations to remain united and focused on
the most active terrorist network at the moment, and that is ISIL,"
Obama said. Some observers might argue that the US, itself, now
represents the world's "most active terrorist network." In doing so,
they would merely be echoing the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. who, on April 4, 1967, railed against "the greatest purveyor of
violence in the world today, my own government."
While Obama
hyped the fact that "a majority of the nations here are part of the
global coalition against ISIL," he also noted that this same coalition
was a major recruiting conduit for ISIS militants. "Just about all of
our nations have seen citizens join ISIL in Syria and Iraq," Obama
admitted, without offering any thoughts as to why this situation exists.
But Obama's most
remarkable comment
came with his public admission that US foreign policy and military
actions were directly linked to the spike in terror attacks against
Western targets in Europe and the US. "As ISIL is squeezed in Syria and
Iraq," the president explained, "we can anticipate it lashing out
elsewhere, as we've seen most recently and tragically in countries from
Turkey to Brussels."
Having established that US-led attacks
against ISIS fighters were "squeezing" the jihadists to abandon the
besieged cities in Syria and Iraq to wreak havoc inside the cities of
NATO's member states, Obama seemed to directly contradict his
assessment: "In Syria and Iraq," he declared, "ISIL continues to lose
ground. That's the good news."
"Our coalition continues to take
out its leaders, including those planning external terrorist attacks.
They are losing their oil infrastructure. They are losing their
revenues. Morale is suffering. We believe that the flow of foreign
fighters into Syria and Iraq has slowed, even as the threat from foreign
fighters returning to commit acts of horrific violence remains all too
real." [Emphasis added.]
For most Americans, the Pentagon's
military assaults on countries thousands of miles from the US border
remain little more than a dim and distant distraction—more like a rumor
than a reality. But the international monitoring organization,
Airwars.org, provides some missing context.
According to
Airwars estimates,
as of May 1, 2016—over the course of an anti-ISIS campaign that has
lasted more than 634 days—the coalition had mounted 12,039 air strikes
(8,163 in Iraq; 3,851 in Syria), dropping a total of 41,607 bombs and
missiles.
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US military reveals 8 civilians died in airstrikes against ISIS between April and July 2015 (Daily Mail).
A Jihadist Links US Killings to Growing Resentment and Revenge Attacks
Obama's
link between attacks on ISIS and the bloody blowback on Western streets
recently was echoed by British-born Harry Sarfo, a one-time UK postal
worker and former ISIS fighter who
warned The Independent
in an April 29 interview that the US-led bombing campaign against ISIS
would only drive more jihadists to launch terror attacks directed at the
West.
"The bombing campaign gives them more recruits, more men
and children who will be willing to give their lives because they've
lost their families in the bombing," Sarfo explained. "For every bomb,
there will be someone to bring terror to the West…. They've got plenty
of men waiting for Western troops to arrive. For them the promise of
paradise is all they want." (The Pentagon has admitted responsibility
for several civilian deaths during the period Sarfo says he was in
Syria.)
ISIS, for its part, has frequently citied air strikes
against its strongholds as the motivation for its attacks on Brussels
and Paris—and for its downing of a Russian passenger plane flying out of
Egypt.
In November 2015, a group of militants staged a series of
attacks that killed 130 people in Paris followed by twin bombings on
March 23, 2016 that claimed the lives of another 32 victims in Brussels.
Understandably, these attacks received intense coverage in the Western
media. Meanwhile, equally horrendous images of civilian victims of US
attacks in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq (and US-backed Saudi airstrikes
against civilians in Yemen) are seldom seen on front pages or evening
news broadcasts in Europe or the US.
By comparison, Airwar.org
reports that, in the eight-month period from August 8, 2014 to May 2,
2016, "an overall total of between 2,699 and 3,625 civilian
non-combatant fatalities had been alleged from 414 separate reported
incidents, in both Iraq and Syria."
"In addition to these
confirmed events," Airwars added, "it is our provisional view at Airwars
that between 1,113 and 1,691 civilian non-combatants appear likely to
have been killed in 172 further incidents where there is fair reporting
publicly available of an event—and where Coalition strikes were
confirmed in the near vicinity on that date. At least 878 civilians were
also reportedly injured in these events. Some 76 of these incidents
were in Iraq (593 to 968 reported deaths) and 96 events in Syria (with a
reported fatality range of 520 to 723.)"
'Nuclear Security' = Atomic Bombs for the West
Back
in Washington, Obama was wrapping up his formal statement. "Looking
around this room," he mused, "I see nations that represent the
overwhelming majority of humanity -- from different regions, races,
religions, cultures. But our people do share common aspirations to live
in security and peace and to be free from fear."
While there are
193 member states in the United Nations, the Nuclear Security Summit was
attended by representatives of 52 countries, seven of which possess
nuclear weapons arsenals—despite the existence of long-standing
international treaty agreements calling for nuclear disarmament and
abolition. The attendees also included 16 of the 28 members of NATO—the
nuclear-armed military juggernaut that was supposed to have been
dismantled after the end of the Cold War.
The purpose of the
Nuclear Security Summit was a narrow one, focused on how to prevent
"terrorists" from acquiring the "nuclear option." There was no
discussion of disarming the world's major existing nuclear arsenals.
Nor
was there any discussion of the risk posed by civilian nuclear power
reactors and radioactive waste storage sites, all of which pose tempting
targets for anyone with a shoulder-mounted missile capable of turning
these facilities into "home-grown dirty bombs." (This is not a
hypothetical scenario. On January 18, 1982, five Rocket Propelled
Grenades (RPG-7s) were fired across France's Rhone River, striking the
containment structure of the Superphenix nuclear reactor.)
"The
fight against ISIL will continue to be difficult, but, together, we are
making real progress," Obama continued. "I'm absolutely confident that
we will prevail and destroy this vile organization. As compared to
ISIL's vision of death and destruction, I believe our nations together
offer a hopeful vision focused on what we can build for our people."
That
"hopeful vision" is difficult to perceive for residents in the many
foreign lands currently under attack by Hellfire missiles launched from
US aircraft and drones. While video footage of the carnage in Paris,
Brussels, Istanbul and San Bernardino is horrifying to behold, it is
painful but necessary to acknowledge that the damage done by a single US
missile fired into an urban setting can be even more devastating.
War Crime: The US Bombing of Mosul University
On
March 19 and again on March 20, US planes attacked the University of
Mosul in ISIS-occupied eastern Iraq. The airstrike came in the early
afternoon, at a time when the campus was most crowded.
The US
bombed the University headquarters, the women's education college, the
science college, the publishing center, the girls' dormitories, and a
nearby restaurant. The US also bombed the faculty members' residential
building. Wives and children of faculty members were among the victims:
only one child survived. Professor Dhafer al Badrani, former Dean of the
university's Computer Sciences College, was killed in the March 20
attack, along with his wife.
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Dr. Jill Stein 
Solidarity with those who will not be silenced tonight @ SF City Hall. The people must fight for community safety