The US war in Pakistan

The CIA, a notorious secret organization very much akin to the old Soviet KGB, whose many operatives now run Russian society in one way or another, is routinely using unmanned planes they call “drones” to fire missiles in to the homes and villages in Pakistan. This is all being done as part of former president Bush’s and now Obama’s “War on Terror”.

The CIA is “expanding its covert war using armed drones against militants” the New York Times reports Saturday. Who knows who dies in these cowardly assaults? The press reports that they are “suspected militants” or “Al Queda operatives”, or Taliban officials, etc. These assaults generate a lot of hostility towards us as Americans and are a powerful recruiting tool for fighters who want to retaliate against the US government (and people) for the killing of their children, uncles, wives, aunts and other civilians that are known to die because of them. By some US estimates, 50 civilians are killed for each enemy fighter.

President Obama said last Thursday that, “We will continue to help strengthen Pakistani capacity to root out terrorists”. and that, “Terrorists safe havens within their borders must be dealt with.” If Obama is so intent in rooting out terrorists we might suggest he start by letting us know where the likes of Henry Kissinger and Paul Wolfowitz reside. Wolfowitz is known as the “Architect” of the war in Iraq and served as the Deputy Secretary of Defense in the Bush administration under another war Criminal and terrorist, Donald Rumsfeld. Wolfowitz went on to the presidency of the World Bank but was forced to resign in disgrace for ethics violations. Kissinger is responsible for the death of millions of Vietnamese people and authorizing the spraying of Dioxin, the most poisonous substance known, on their food source and their persons, as well as on our own troops. The death of almost 70,000 Americans and the destruction of their families is also blood on Kissinger’s hands. These are the people responsible for the attacks on Americans.

The US taxpayers fund a third of  Pakistan's military budget

The top CIA man in Pakistan has been outed because a Pakistani man has filed a lawsuit against the CIA for the deaths of his son and brother who were killed in a drone strike, and the man’s lawyer made the name public. “My brother and son were innocent, there were no Taliban hiding in my house” the man claimed in a recent interview. The suit also accuses the CIA of running a clandestine spying operation out of the US Embassy in Islamabad.

These “mistakes” have occurred many, many times in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The US chucks $100 at the victims’ relatives and says sorry. Imagine how we would feel and what we would do were the shoe on the other foot.

This has nothing to do with keeping Americans like you and me safe; it does just the opposite, it makes us less safe and creates global hostility towards all Americans. This is why we have to take action; our own government is a force for terror in the world. Its operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including their former alliance with Osama bin Laden and Pakistan’s ISI against the Soviets, are all about protecting the interests of the corporations and the US government will ally itself with any force that achieves that aim, Hussein and bin Laden to name a few. It has nothing to do with democracy or women’s rights. Up until 1999 every Taliban official was on the payroll of the US government. *

They want us to live in a permanent state of fear. Everyone hates us; everyone is against us because we are “free” What nonsense. We simply can’t continue to leave the people in charge in charge any longer. We have to show the world that there are different Americans. We are the people they are throwing out of work and our homes. Our own government lies constantly to us, as they all do. This is why Wikileaks is such a threat. Human beings have a powerful tendency to kindness and compassion and to feel for the suffering of others; Americans are no different. This is why they never show the real affects of their activities abroad. They learned from Vietnam, the war fought on television. The scenes from that war affected many Americans, changed minds. That’s why their wars are very clean, no blood and guts, very antiseptic.

If you haven’t seen that short video clip that Wikileaks released you should watch it. Is this the image of Americans that we want people around the world to think of when they think of us?

Now Joe Biden is rehashing the Wikileaks has put US lives at risk argument when it is him and the US government and corporations that put US lives at risk through their actions abroad. They are destabilizing whole areas and through their constant bombing of Pakistan and killing of civilians further destabilizing a country with nuclear weapons. The escalation of the drone attacks in Pakistan will increase the likelihood of splits within the Pakistani government at US encroachment on its sovereignty. As Patrick Cockburn points out in the Independent UK Nixon tried this strategy in Vietnam to no avail.

It’s time we put a stop to it. Changing Republicans for Democrats or vice versa will not solve our problems; they are both political parties of the corporations. An important part of our struggle to change this situation is the building of an independent mass party of workers’ and youth through which we can reach out to workers throughout the world in friendship and solidarity.

*For more information on the ISI and the US role in Central Asia read: War and Globalization by Michael Chossudovsky and War on Truth by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed