PeaceMaker Murdered In Iraq

Next week there will be mass demonstrations against the phony war on Terror.

Unfortunately the American occupation of Iraq has led to the death of the American PeaceMaker Tom Fox. One kidnapped peace activist found dead in Iraq

It is not just Fox who suffered and was tortured in Iraq. Under the continued occupation of Iraq, but so are the people of Iraq. They are being held hostage by the internecine battles of sectarian interests that have arisen from the occupation. Which is what the PeaceMakers were witnesses to and witnessing for in Iraq.

It is time to bring all the troops home, from Iraq and Afghanistan.

And to end the American bullying of Iran, which maybe the next front of Bush's phony War on Terror. Iran a 'grave' threat, says Bush

This would be the best tribute America could make for its fallen Peacemaker.

Annie Zirin
Leftwing Generals: the Dark Side of Liberal Imperialism

A Left that opposes the occupation of Iraq but accepts the overall war on terror will find itself inevitably on the side of supporting other wars and other occupations.

Fighting "terrorism"-imperialism's cover story

Noam Chomsky recently argued,

The fact of the matter is that there is no War on Terror. It's a minor consideration. So invading Iraq and taking control of the world's energy resources was way more important than the threat of terror. The U.S. invaded Iraq because it has enormous oil resources, mostly untapped, and it's right in the heart of the world's energy system. Which means that if the U.S. manages to control Iraq, it extends enormously its strategic power, what Zbigniew Brzezinski calls its critical leverage over Europe and Asia.3 In 2004, John Kerry ran a campaign based on the slogan that the war in Iraq was "distracting" the U.S. from its ability to fight the "global war on terror." This became a slogan that a section of the liberal-left was more than happy to adopt as its own. Because the unspoken aim of liberals and many leaders of antiwar organizations in 2006 is to elect a Democratic Congress in November, we have seen the consolidation of liberal critics of the Bush administration behind Democratic talking points. Unfortunately, in 2006, history appears to be repeating itself.

Liberal imperialism

We can hardly be surprised that a section of liberals continues to take their marching orders from the Democratic Party. There has always been a wing of American liberalism that has fully supported the project of U.S. imperialism, and their class interests find expression in the Democratic Party. These were the Cold War liberals that backed and helped prosecute the McCarthyite witch-hunts on communists and who were the architects of the Vietnam War. These were the liberals who supported Bill Clinton's "humanitarian" wars in the 1990s, and who saw economic sanctions on Iraq as an alternative to war. "The task of liberal realists," notes John Pilger, "is to ensure that western imperialism is interpreted as crisis management, rather than the cause of crisis and its escalation. By never recognizing western state terrorism, their complicity is assured."11

The Left in the U.S. needs to put forward an antiwar opposition on an entirely different basis. We must reject the idea that the U.S. has the moral authority to fight terrorism, when it is the leading cause of terror in the world. We must stand for the self-determination the people of Iraq, Iran, Palestine, and people around the world. We must reject Islamophobia and defend the Arab and Muslim communities in the U.S. who have been the victims of political persecution since September 11. We have to consistently and clearly expose the real imperialist interests behind the war on terror, as well as the history of U.S. imperialism, in order to build a stronger and wider foundation for our movement, and show how working-class people in the United States pay the price of the war on terror. The antiwar movement needs to remain independent, both in its political views and its organizing, from the Democratic Party that wants to strengthen U.S. imperialism, not to end it. The antiwar movement cannot oppose the occupation in Iraq while giving the U.S. a pass to wreak havoc elsewhere in the name of fighting the war on terror.

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