Who attacked America Mr. O'Malley?

The bankers' party candidates debate

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

Well I couldn’t watch much more than about 20 minutes of the debate last night.  It started to go downhill for me when I heard O’Malley’s passionate appeal for vigilance after “This country has been attacked.”

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what he was talking about.

“Have I missed something?”, I asked  myself.  Who has attacked the US now? Firstly, there is no threat at all that any country would be attacking the US like we are led to believe on a daily basis. The idea that Iran is a threat to the US is a joke, a propaganda ploy in the vein of the Gulf of Tonkin affair.  It would be suicidal for Iran to attack the US and whatever they may be, the Mullahs are not stupid.

Then it dawned on me, O’Malley was talking about the shootings in San Bernardino. That infuriated me further.  The FBI has admitted there is no evidence the two suspects were connected in any way to organized terrorist groupings religious or otherwise. That they had a stash of weapons is not exactly a rare occurrence in the US.  Half the state of Michigan could supply the military of a small country, maybe a mid-sized one.

But why was it an attack on America? A short time before the San Bernardino incident a Christian fanatic killed a number of people at an abortion clinic. Some time before that a right wing terrorist, a supporter of a white supremacist ideology, Nazism of sorts, and most likely a Christian, killed nine African Americans in a church. A Korean killed many more people at Virginia Tech some years ago. We have these events on a regular basis in the US.  Were these all an  "attack" on America? Assuming the couple suspected of carrying out the San Bernardino murders are the actual perpetrators, perhaps their motives would most likely be rooted in the incredible hostility and ideological war conducted against their religious beliefs and cultural identity.

It was earlier revealed that a co-worker of the male suspect was a Messianic Jew and Zionist who repeatedly published anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic rants on his Facebook page.  Who knows what the mental state of the male suspect was with regard to harassment.  There was a brief report that this right wing Zionist and the Muslim suspect got in to an argument at the party but that and the entire subject has disappeared from the airwaves. Assuming the suspects were the perpetrators this in no way justifies such indiscriminate murder of course but was it an attack on America?

But the San Bernardino incident is labeled “Terrorism” by Obama which means religious terrorism while the other incidents are not.

Muslims, are faced every day with fear that some racist or other disturbed individual, given confidence perhaps by the racist ranting’s of a major political figure like Trump, might take them out. What’s it like for Muslims in traditional garb or perhaps praying in a park or just having a picnic in one with their kids? It has to be stressful. In fact I know it is because I’ve talked to them about it.

So I turned the debate off early but the cause of the rise of religious fanaticism and terrorism was not mentioned I’m sure. The cause of the rise of ISIL was not mentioned.  These debates are not designed to inform but to manipulate. I think Clinton or one of them said the responsibility to curb Islamic radicalism lay with Muslim Americans.  Talk about blaming the victims.

The illegal occupation of Iraq and slaughter of some one million people was not mentioned. Bombing Syria, Afghanistan, supporting ruthless Arab/Muslim dictators has nothing to do with increased terrorism does it? Arming and financing the Saudi’s, Mubarak of Egypt and the Zionists has nothing to do with it either does it?  One cannot be blamed for thinking US capitalism’s savage wars on former colonial countries are religious wars, the numerous countries the US has dropped bombs on for the last 25 years are all Muslim countries. The thousands of refugees fleeing the Middle East are victims of US foreign policy but this is never mentioned either.

Until US foreign policy changes these problems will not go away.  But this won’t happen as things are. As the most left representative of US capitalism and the 1%, Bernie Sanders’ support for the King of Jordan’s so-called coalition as a solution to the crisis in the Middle East was put forward for one reason only, it is no threat to the Zionists that Sanders supports and Zionism is major contributor to the problems in the Middle East. 

It was a rare treat to hear Sanders talk of the members of Congress being "bribed" by the  insurance companies and the need for health care for all as a right, but he knew going in to this that the Democratic Party to which he belongs will never deliver it. Sanders, like Warren, Reich and  other liberals see the dangers, fear the anger beneath the surface of society may break through in the form of social unrest are are tapping in to it not to use it, but to draw it in to the Democratic Party.

There is a simple solution to the exaggerated fear of hordes of Muslims coming to the US with ill intent, even the one or two out of thousands that might want to extract some retribution for the destruction of their lands, homes and slaughter of their families. Stop bombing them. Stop killing them. Stop plundering their natural wealth.

As John Pilger said in a recent interview, the only way the US and other capitalist governments will stop doing what they’re doing is if the people stop them. He’s right about that, they can’t stop themselves.