Imperialism Is the Cuase of Wars & Misery Around the World, and Must be Fought and Defeated!
A Talk by Nita Palmer, the
author of “War and Occupation
in Afghanistan, Which Way
Forward?"
Hello everyone and welcome to this important
forum on this beautiful sunny evening, I wish
we could find a way to do this outside because
it would be wonderful! I also want to say
thank you to Wala for her beautiful poem,
that's a very nice thing to have, to have a little
art before my hopefully not too long talk.
The purpose of this forum today is to reflect
on what has happened in the last 14 years of
war since September 11, 2001. It's been 14
years since the war on terrorism started, and
this war as we all know has cost trillions of
dollars and millions of lives around the world.
This war on terrorism, we were told, was going
to make the world a safer place. It was going
to bring security to us in North America so
that events like the September 11
th
attacks on
the world trade center would never happen
again. It was supposed to bring human rights
and democracy to countries throughout the
Middle East and North Africa. But instead,
over the last 14 years we have seen terrorism
increase, both throughout Western countries
in the Middle East and around the world. And
human rights and democracy certainly have
not improved. Today I think as peace-loving
people, many of us here have been activists,
some for many more years than I have been,
some for more years than I have been alive,
but I think that it’s very important for all of us.
Did We Win Afghanistan?
We will start our story in Afghanistan.
The war began there in October 2001,
and the Taliban were quickly overthrown
with the U.S. bombing campaign. This
was supposed to usher in a new era of
democracy and human rights in that
country. But where is that country today?
Today, the supposedly democratically
elected government of Afghanistan, of
President Ashraf Ghani, is well known
to be a farce. The government has very
little real power outside of Kabul, and
even their hold within Kabul is tenuous
at best. Afghans in the majority do not
have faith in their government, which
has massive problems with corruption, as
many government officials and politicians
are known to be well connected to war-
lords. During the last election there were
dozens of reports of war-lords forcing
people to vote for Ashraf Ghani, ballot
stuffing, people basically being forced to
vote a certain way at gun-point. Yet these
elections were hailed as a democratic
transition in Afghanistan. These war-lords
control large parts of the country, with
militias basically acting as hired guns, who
are often supported by Afghan and U.S.
government funds. The Taliban also has
had a resurgence and control large parts
of the country, even collecting taxes and
administering a judicial system in some
regions. So I’m sure today, after 14 years
of war and bloodshed and over 100,000
lives lost, there is no real democracy in
Afghanistan. The war has not improved
human rights there either. In the West, it has
been celebrated in the media that children
can fly kites in Afghanistan now, they can
play soccer, people can listen to music, all
the things that were not allowed under the
Taliban. But what do these rights mean in a
country where the most basic human rights
are still not met and in fact in many ways have
deteriorated since the war began. Forty-two
percent of the Afghan population still live
in poverty, which is defined as less than $2 a
day in Afghanistan. The unemployment rate
is around 40%, and thousands of children
are still not able to go to school because they
must work to feed their families, especially
those who have had their fathers killed in the
war. The fighting and ongoing violence has
displaced 4.1 million Afghans. Half a million
of those have been displaced internally and
are living in refugee camps with little access
to food, water, employment, and medical aid.
As we saw in the videos we watched earlier,
opium production in Afghanistan - which was
almost nonexistent under the Taliban - has
skyrocketed with record highs last year and
now is producing the majority of the world’s
heroin. Along with this, drug problems have
become epidemic across the country, and
along with it HIV and AIDS, a disease which
was almost unheard of in Afghanistan before
the war. Yes, schools and hospitals have been
built across the country. But many of them
remain empty due to the lack of security,
staff, supplies or funds to run them. Most of
these projects are good for little more than a
backdrop for photo-ops. So Afghans today
remain in a position which is no better than
before the war - except that now, they also
have to deal with the constant home raids,
harassment at check points, ongoing violence
and insecurity in their country.
Did We Do Better in Iraq?
Then the war moved on to Iraq, which was
invaded in 2003 under the justification of
liberating Iraqis from Saddam Hussain and
getting rid of weapons of mass destruction.
Of course we knew almost immediately that
the claims of Iraq having weapons of mass
destruction were a lie. Saddam Hussain may
be gone, but human rights in Iraq certainly
have not improved. The war killed more than
1 million people according to the Lancet
Medical Journal, and today nearly a third
of Iraqis live in poverty and that number is
rising. The health-care system, which was once
one of the best in the Middle East, has been
destroyed by the war. Many hospitals were
destroyed by the bombings, and only some
have been rebuilt. But the greater problem
is the lack of doctors, because so many were
killed in the war or forced to leave the country.
According to the charity organization Med
Act, between 2003 and 2007 half of Iraq’s
doctors left the country. Along with this, other
medical and public health factors have been
documented to be falling. The number of fully
immunized children dropped from 60% of
Iraqi children before the war to 45% after. In
addition, the bombing campaign pounded Iraq
with thousands of tons of depleted uranium
and chemical weapons, which has left the
country with a toxic legacy which will be there
for thousands of years to come. It has polluted
the air, water and land especially in southern
Iraq. The overall cancer rate in the country has
increased from 40 cases per 100,000 people in
1991 to 1,600 per 100,000 in 2005, according
to the Iraqi government. The Iraqi ministry
of health has reported a sharp increase in
miscarriages, infertility and horrific birth
defects in Iraqis throughout the country.
Some of these birth defects that children are
born with are too horrific to describe. It’s like
something out of a horror film: children born
missing limbs, or born with organs outside of
their body, their lives short and painful. This is
thanks to the U.S. campaign for human rights
in Iraq. In terms of democracy, before 2003
Iraq was a relatively developed country. Iraqis
suffered greatly from the first Gulf War and a
decade of sanctions, but the country was fairly
stable. The overthrow of the government of
Saddam Hussain did not bring democracy to
Iraq. Instead it has thrown the country into
more than a decade of violence. The overthrow
of Saddam Hussain and the installation of a
weak U.S.-backed Iraqi government allowed a
violent extremist group to come to power, ISIS.
The roots of ISIS are in Al-Qaeda in Iraq, a
group which did no exist in the country before
the U.S. invasion. There is ample evidence that
the U.S. and their allies have been aiding and
abetting ISIS very directly, even while they
claim to be fighting them. However, even if
you do not believe this, it’s undeniable that
the U.S. invasion of Iraq has at the very least
set the stage for ISIS to come to power. Now,
the U.S. and their allies, including Canada,
have begun bombing the country again, in the
name of fighting ISIS, the very terrorist force
which they helped create. Many people in this
country were proud that Canadian forces did
not invade Iraq in 2003. But today more than
700 Canadian soldiers have been sent to the
country, and Canada has conducted over 50
airstrikes there.
They Destroyed Libya, to What End?
The next target to be in the sights of this
war drive was the NATO bombing of Libya.
This expanded the imperialist campaign
from the Middle East into North Africa.
Once again, the justification was the support
for democracy and the so-called popular
movement against the president Muammar
Gaddafi. But what occurred in the country
was in fact one of the most crushing blows
to secularism, democracy and human rights
in the region. Before the NATO bombing
of the country, Libya had the highest GDP
in Africa, and the highest life expectancy
as well. Health-care and higher education
were universal across the country, and Libya
had a lower poverty rate in fact than some
western countries, even than some European
countries. Since the NATO bombing of the
country, what is essentially a civil war erupted.
The country has been set back decades and
is now a failed state. It’s under the control of
at least five different groups, two main ones,
and the official government of Libya has no
real control. It’s a scattering of militias and
other groups, including ISIS, who are vying
for power across the country. The economy has
been destroyed and Libya’s once stellar health-
care system is on the brink of collapse. Libyans
are fleeing the country in droves, many dying
on the dangerous journey to Europe and
creating a refugee crisis on that continent. If
the U.S. and NATO are trying to promote
freedom, democracy and human rights in the
region, why would they attack Libya, which
had one of the best human rights records in
the region? The real crime of Gaddafi was
defending Libya’s political and economic
independence, and supporting other African
countries to do the same. Former CIA officer
Clare Lopez told the Daily Mail that the
U.S. was knowingly facilitating the provision
of weapons to known Al-Qaeda militias and
figures in Libya. So if this war is about fighting
terrorism, why is the U.S. working with Al-
Qaeda? This beyond anything else proves that
the U.S. will work with terrorists who they
claim to be fighting in order to achieve their
strategic interests.
How Imperialists Destroyed One of the
Cradles of Civilization?
In Syria, a supposed popular movement
against President Bashar Al-Assad began in
2012. But from the beginning this popular
movement was suspicious. It did not start as
the other Arab Spring protests did, a mass
movement in a large city, but with a small
group of armed rebels in a town near the
Turkish border. The New York Times reported
that CIA operatives were working within
Syria, helping to supply weapons to the rebels
shortly after the war began. This so-called
civil war has killed over 200,000 people, and
displaced over 10 million, according to the
United Nations. The country’s health-care
system, which had improved greatly since the
1980’s, has largely been destroyed or disrupted
since the war. Many hospitals and health-
care clinics have been destroyed or do not
have the equipment to operate, and a lack of
security prevents many Syrians from accessing
health-care, particularly women and children.
A report on Syrian health-care before and
during the war published in the Avicenna
Journal of Medicine found specific concerns
for the chronically sick:
“It is estimated that
more than half of those chronically ill have been
forced to interrupt their treatment. These concerns
are exacerbated by the virtual halt of referrals
of ordinary patients outside of conflict areas, as
life-threatening injuries receive a higher priority
in an overwhelmed health-care system.”
Today,
only 43% of the primary health-care centers
in Syria are partially functional, and there
are country-wide shortages of even the most
basic medicines. The education system in
the country has been decimated as well, and
risks leaving an entire generation of Syrian
children lost without an education. The UN
High Commission on Refugees reported
that before the war 97% of children attended
primary school, and 67% attended secondary
school. Today enrollment is as low as 37% in
some areas. There are 2.5 million children not
in school. The report said that
“what remains of
Syria’s education system bears little resemblance to
pre-crisis conditions”
and found that
“schools had
been destroyed, teachers fled and children were
unable to attend classes due to lack of security.”
Although what is happening in Syria is being
called a civil war, it is in reality a proxy war.
There is plenty of evidence that the U.S. and
their allies created and fanned the flames
of the conflict by supplying the so-called
rebels of the Free Syrian Army with material
support and training. In March 2015 the U.S.
announced that they would be spending $70
million on aid to these moderate rebel groups
in Syria. And yet many of these rebels have
gone on to join Al-Qaeda and ISIS. So even
as the U.S. and their allies, including Canada,
claim to be fighting ISIS, they are arming its
supporters. Now a large part of Syria is under
control of ISIS, thanks to the support of the
U.S. and their allies. But the proxy war was no
longer enough for the U.S. to try to achieve its
ends in the country, and airstrikes have begun
by the U.S. and Canada in Syria.
Yemen, The Latest Victim of Imperialist
Military Aggression
The latest war to open in the Middle East is
the massive bombing of Yemen. It's officially
not led by the United States, but by the Gulf
Cooperation Council led by Saudi Arabia.
But the U.S. has provided logistical and
intelligence support, by re-fueling planes and
identifying targets for the Saudis to bomb.
The airstrikes have killed over 2000 people so
far, and 19 people were killed today alone. But
these numbers don’t even include the hundreds
of Yemenis killed over the years by U.S.
drone strikes in Yemen. The CIA through it’s
drone strike program claims to be targeting
terrorists in Yemen, but dozens of innocent
civilians have been killed. These airstrikes
have destroyed many of Yemen’s ancient and
beautiful historical sites, as well as hospitals,
schools, and other vital infrastructure. The
shortage of fuel in the country has caused
wide-spread power outages and forced
hospitals to close, leaving those injured in
airstrikes without urgently needed medical
care. This brutal war in Yemen was yet again
justified on the basis of stopping terrorism.
But in this case the terrorists that the U.S. and
the Gulf Cooperation Council are trying to
stop is a popular
opposition
movement to
the U.S. and the Saudi-backed government
of Mansur Hadi. This movement has been
labeled as so-called “Iranian-backed Houthis”
but in fact the popular movement against the
government which began in 2011 was much
broader than this.
The U.S. War on Terrorism Failed
So we can see, this is a very brief picture of
some of the things that have happened over
the last 14 years of war and occupation. How
has democracy improved? We see nothing
but evidence that it is failing in every country
that the U.S. and their allies have intervened
in. Terrorism certainly hasn’t stopped, we now
have ISIS spreading across the Middle East
and into Europe as well. This hasn’t improved
the security situation for anyone in the Middle
East or really anywhere in the world.
So why has this war on terrorism failed?
They spent trillions of dollars on this, there
has been massive amounts of resources
from around the world put into this war,
why has it not succeeded? At one time you
may have been able to argue that this is just
a failure on the part of governments around
the world. But I think today the evidence is
clear. Governments including the U.S. are
working directly and indirectly with some of
the most brutal and anti-democratic forces in
the region, including terrorist groups like Al-
Qaeda which they supposedly set out to rid the
world of. I think the only logical conclusion
from this is that spreading democracy and
human rights and stopping terrorism never
was the true objective.
So if that’s the case, what was? I would argue
that the real reason behind the past 14 years
of war are political and economic agendas.
The global capitalist competition for trade
markets and natural resources is increasing,
and imperialist countries are trying to secure
their hold on the market. While countries like
Canada, the U.S. and Britain are ultimately in
competition with each other, they have formed
alliances against the larger threats to their
power. Up and coming economic powers such
as China and Russia threaten the hegemony of
the US and its allies. Another major threat
to their economic and political dominance
are popular movements in the third world,
movements for self-determination in which
people are demanding control over their own
lives, countries, and resources. Should the
worldwide movements for self-determination
succeed, they would deal a serious blow to
countries such as the US and Canada, which
have gained wealth through the plundering of
other nations’ resources.
U.S. Imperialism is the Source of All Social
Ills Around the World
Now, this might just sound like a crazy
conspiracy theory, but I have some evidence
straight from the horse’s mouth to back it up.
In 1992, the U.S. Defense Planning Guidance,
a classified document that was leaked to the
New York Times, said the following:
“Our first objective is to prevent the reemergence of
a new rival. This is a dominant consideration
underlying the new regional defense strategy,
and requires that we endeavor to prevent any
hostile power from dominating a region whose
resources would, under consolidated control, be
sufficient to generate global power. These regions
include Western Europe, East Asia, the territory
of the former Soviet Union, and Southwest Asia.
There are three additional aspects to this objective.
First, the U.S. must show the leadership necessary
to establish and protect a new order that holds the
promise of convincing potential competitors that
they need not aspire to a greater role, or pursue
a more aggressive posture to protect their
legitimate interests. Second, in the non-defense
areas, we must account sufficiently for the
interests of the advanced industrial nations,
to discourage them from challenging our
leadership or seeking to overturn the established
political and economic order. Finally, we
must maintain the mechanisms for deterring
potential competitors from even aspiring to a
larger regional or global role.”
As well, the Pentagon’s Quadrennial
Defense Review published in 1997, had
this to say:
“The security environment between
now and 2015 will also likely be marked by
the absence of a global peer competitor, able to
challenge the United States militarily around
the world as the Soviet Union did during
the Cold War. Furthermore, it is likely that no
regional power or coalition will amass sufficient
conventional military strength in the next 10
to 15 years to defeat our armed forces, once the
full military potential of the United States is
mobilized and deployed to the regional conflict.
The United States is the world’s only superpower
today and is expected to remain so through the
1997 to 2015 period. In the period beyond 2015,
there is the possibility that a regional great power
or global peer competitor may emerge. Russia and
China are seen by some as having the potential
to be such competitors, though their respective
futures are quite uncertain.”
This is essentially the assessment of what is
happening in the world today, straight from
the United States’ government. They are
affirming that they will do what they must,
politically and militarily, to remain the world’s
superpower.
More Than a Decade of Imposed Suffering
and Pain by Colonial Powers
The last 14 years have essentially been a classic
example of how imperialism works. If we look
back in history, we can see that the period we
are living in today is in many ways similar to
the “scramble for Africa” in the 1800s, or the
colonization of Indigenous lands in North
America. Even the justification is similar.
Hundreds of years ago the imperialist powers
justified their brutal colonization of other
nations with the idea that they were in fact
helping Indigenous peoples, bringing them
education, technology, and religion. But what
Indigenous people across the world ended
up with was the takeover of their land and
resources and the destruction of their culture.
Today we are told that imperialist countries
are helping the people of the Middle East by
bringing them freedom and democracy. But
what they have ended up with are governments
that do the bidding of the U.S. and their allies,
and the destruction of their countries.
I think the most important question for us
today is: who is the real enemy? If you watch
the news these days you could be easily led
to believe that the biggest threat to humanity
today is Russia, China, Iran or whichever
government is next in the sights of the United
States. But as we have seen, these targets of
Russia or China or Iran that we hear about
in the media are
being portrayed that
way because it is in
the interests of forces
within Canada and
the United States to
portray them as the
big enemy. In fact, the
real threat to humanity
today is imperialist
forces across the world.
They have proven
without a doubt, over
the past 15 years and
for many hundreds of
years before, that they
have no principles or morals. They will ally
themselves with anyone, even the repressive
Saudi regime or terrorist organizations, to
achieve their goals.
Around the world imperialist countries are
bringing in drastic austerity measures. Here in
Canada we have seen extensive cuts to health-
care, education, unemployment insurance and
environmental protection. As well we have
seen major attacks on basic democratic rights
and rights to free speech, as has happened with
the passing of bill C-51. Yet, despite all of
these cuts, the money continues to pour in
for campaigns like the war in Afghanistan
or the bombing of Iraq.
Are We in a Safer World After 14 Years of
the New Era of War and Occupation?
But the destruction of the Middle East
or North Africa has not made the world
a safer place. It has destroyed millions of
lives, torn apart countries and supported
the development of extremism. I think
today, for anyone really paying attention to
what is going on in the world, the veil of
humanitarian intervention and the war on
terrorism has been lifted. Every day new
evidence arises that these wars are not being
fought in our interests, nor are they being
fought in the interests of people in the
countries under attack.
An important question often arises when we
are discussing the need to end these wars,
however – the question of what is to be done
in the many countries around the world where
human and democratic rights are indeed
lacking, even before they were invaded by the
US and their allies. Unfortunately, I think the
answer is at once simple and very, very complex.
Ultimately, the only way countries in the third
world – oppressed countries – will be able to
progress, will be able to develop human rights
and democracy, is to attain self-determination
– that means no wars, occupations, or foreign
meddling or interference. It is not a neat, quick
or easy solution – but in the long run neither
wars nor well-intentioned aid will solve any
country’s problems. Self-determination for
oppressed countries is the only solution which
has the possibility to create a world which is
peaceful and just for all.
Unfortunately, these wars are not going to end
just because we wish them to. It is essential
that we educate ourselves and others about
the truth behind these wars. We must then
organize and mobilize against them, as we
have done in forums like this, in rallies and
pickets. It seems sometimes like we’re fighting
a very uphill battle, maybe even sometimes
it feels like a hopeless battle. As much as we
struggle for a better world, nearly every day
there is a new attack, a new war on another
country. But we have to remember that mass
mobilization and resistance, both in the
U.S. and in Vietnam, were what ended the
Vietnam War. The massive protest movement
in the U.S. as well as the heroic resistance of
the Vietnamese people succeeded in ending a
terrible and criminal U.S. war. People in the
Middle East are resisting against the wars
and occupations in their countries, and it is
essential that we here support them. If we
want to win, and bring peace to the world, we
must unite with people all around the world to
end this brutal new era of war and occupation.
Thank you.
