USA
Violence and Death at Home and Abroad
Monday 1 December 2025, by Dan La Botz
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan immigrant, walked up to two Virginia National Guard members stationed in Washington, D.C. on November 26 and shot them point blank. One of them, Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her injuries, while the other, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, remains in critical condition. Lakanwal was also severely wounded and he has ben accused of murder. À Following the shootings, Trump immediately paused migration from Afghanistan and 19 other “Third World Countries,” in Africa and Asia. He is pouring fuel on the fire of xenophobia.
Trump said of the shooter, “He went cuckoo, he went nuts. And that happens, happens too often with these people.” Well, who are “these people”? How did Lakanwal lose his mind? The U.S. war against Afghanistan began in 2001 when Lakanwal was five years old, when he reached adulthood, he joined a “Zero Unit” run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). These units have been described by diplomats and human rights organizations as “death squads” that carried out extrajudicial killings.
When the war ended in 2021 with the victory of the Taliban and the withdrawal of U.S. troops, tens of thousands of Afghans, including Lakanwal and his family, were given refuge in the United States. He settled in Bellingham, Washington. His wartime experiences murdering people for the CIA in his homeland evidently left him with post-traumatic stress disorder and one day he lost his mind, traveled 3,000 miles to Washington, D.C., walked up to a Guard unit, and shot Beckstrom and Wolfe.
The CIA death squads drove Lakanwal crazy, and it was Trump who as part of his campaign against Democratic Party mayors sent the National Guard to Washington. The CIA and Trump can be held responsible for Sarah Beckstrom’s death.
Now in the Caribbean, the United States is heading into another war that will also have its CIA and Zero Unit death squads, leading to more trauma and more violence not only abroad but here at home too. Trump continues murder on the high seas, having blown up 22 boats and killed 83 people. He claims that the boats are carrying drugs that will harm Americans, which he says constitutes a war on the U.S. and therefore give him the right to wage war on drug smugglers. The Trump administration has offered no proof that the boats and the people on them are drug dealers, but even if it did, the U.S. government would have no right to kill them.
The Washington Post reports that, according to two witnesses, Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, gave a verbal order during one attack. “The order was to kill everybody.” When in one attack two survivors in the sea clung to debris, following Hegseth’s orders, they were blown to bits. Hegseth is a war criminal for ordering the killing of unarmed civilians. This is precisely the reason that six U.S. congresspeople, all with military backgrounds, recently posted a video saying military personnel should and must refuse illegal orders. Trump called those legislators traitors.
The attacks on the boats form part of Trump’s growing campaign against Venezuela that could lead to war at any moment. The Trump administration, which doesn’t recognize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government, it has accused him of being the head of the Cartel de Los Soles, a government-led drug cartel, and it has offered a $50 million reward for Maduro’s capture. Trump has sent a U.S. carrier group to the waters off Venezuela and has 15,000 troops in the area. He also announced the closing of Venezuelan airspace and threatened to attack Venezuela on land soon.
The U.S. war against Afghanistan lasted twenty years and a war against Venezuela could become a protracted conflict as well. Trump and Hegseth will have responsibility not only for the war, but for the long chain of events that follow, with more trauma and more violence.
2 December 2025
Attached documentsviolence-and-death-at-home-and-abroad_a9293.pdf (PDF - 905.2 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article9293]
Dan La Botz was a founding member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). He is the author of Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union (1991). He is also a co-editor of New Politics and editor of Mexican Labor News and Analysis.
International Viewpoint is published under the responsibility of the Bureau of the Fourth International. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect editorial policy. Articles can be reprinted with acknowledgement, and a live link if possible.
Trump said of the shooter, “He went cuckoo, he went nuts. And that happens, happens too often with these people.” Well, who are “these people”? How did Lakanwal lose his mind? The U.S. war against Afghanistan began in 2001 when Lakanwal was five years old, when he reached adulthood, he joined a “Zero Unit” run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). These units have been described by diplomats and human rights organizations as “death squads” that carried out extrajudicial killings.
When the war ended in 2021 with the victory of the Taliban and the withdrawal of U.S. troops, tens of thousands of Afghans, including Lakanwal and his family, were given refuge in the United States. He settled in Bellingham, Washington. His wartime experiences murdering people for the CIA in his homeland evidently left him with post-traumatic stress disorder and one day he lost his mind, traveled 3,000 miles to Washington, D.C., walked up to a Guard unit, and shot Beckstrom and Wolfe.
The CIA death squads drove Lakanwal crazy, and it was Trump who as part of his campaign against Democratic Party mayors sent the National Guard to Washington. The CIA and Trump can be held responsible for Sarah Beckstrom’s death.
Now in the Caribbean, the United States is heading into another war that will also have its CIA and Zero Unit death squads, leading to more trauma and more violence not only abroad but here at home too. Trump continues murder on the high seas, having blown up 22 boats and killed 83 people. He claims that the boats are carrying drugs that will harm Americans, which he says constitutes a war on the U.S. and therefore give him the right to wage war on drug smugglers. The Trump administration has offered no proof that the boats and the people on them are drug dealers, but even if it did, the U.S. government would have no right to kill them.
The Washington Post reports that, according to two witnesses, Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, gave a verbal order during one attack. “The order was to kill everybody.” When in one attack two survivors in the sea clung to debris, following Hegseth’s orders, they were blown to bits. Hegseth is a war criminal for ordering the killing of unarmed civilians. This is precisely the reason that six U.S. congresspeople, all with military backgrounds, recently posted a video saying military personnel should and must refuse illegal orders. Trump called those legislators traitors.
The attacks on the boats form part of Trump’s growing campaign against Venezuela that could lead to war at any moment. The Trump administration, which doesn’t recognize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government, it has accused him of being the head of the Cartel de Los Soles, a government-led drug cartel, and it has offered a $50 million reward for Maduro’s capture. Trump has sent a U.S. carrier group to the waters off Venezuela and has 15,000 troops in the area. He also announced the closing of Venezuelan airspace and threatened to attack Venezuela on land soon.
The U.S. war against Afghanistan lasted twenty years and a war against Venezuela could become a protracted conflict as well. Trump and Hegseth will have responsibility not only for the war, but for the long chain of events that follow, with more trauma and more violence.
2 December 2025
Attached documentsviolence-and-death-at-home-and-abroad_a9293.pdf (PDF - 905.2 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article9293]
Dan La Botz was a founding member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). He is the author of Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union (1991). He is also a co-editor of New Politics and editor of Mexican Labor News and Analysis.
International Viewpoint is published under the responsibility of the Bureau of the Fourth International. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect editorial policy. Articles can be reprinted with acknowledgement, and a live link if possible.
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