by John Wilson
There seems to be no end to the corporate media’s barrage of propaganda in favour of the “war against ISIS”. It is accompanied by relentless attempts to rationalize western imperialist interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere. This presents a serious challenge to the antiwar movement. How to mobilize public opinion in a situation made to look so much more muddy than during the initial invasion of Iraq. That was clearly the violation of a country’s sovereignty, an invasion the vast majority in the Canadian state opposed.
People are horrified by the atrocities of ISIS and those of similar reactionary gangster operations. Popular revulsion is expertly manipulated by the warmongers. Still, the “war on ISIS” is a transparent fraud.
The US and its accomplices could quickly stop ISIS in its tracks simply by getting Saudi Arabia and other “allies” to stop funding and facilitating this monstrosity. ISIS derives massive funding and armaments from Saudi Arabia and other capitalist, right wing Arab dictatorships. The venal Erdogan regime in Turkey pretends to fight ISIS while allowing many would-be “jihadists” to pass through its territory to areas controlled by ISIS. Ankara’s main concern is its war against the Kurdish people, which is used domestically to repress freedom of expression, trade unions, student groups and the left. Social patriotism in Turkey is used to try to whip the majority into accepting the attack on what little ‘democracy’ is present there, in the name of fighting “terrorism”, in much the same way as it is employed in Canada.
The crimes of ISIS are outrageous, but minor compared to the loss of millions of lives due to the reckless “interventions” of the imperialist powers in support of their perceived geopolitical interests and resource greed. Who or what is the real “terrorist threat’? The question answers itself.
Despite all the “sunny ways” propaganda, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s refusal to stop the $15 billion military contract with the murderous Saudi regime may prove to be his Achille’s heel. Polls show majority opposition to the deal. And as public awareness grows, the same will be the case with regard to Trudeau’s decision to triple the number of Canadian troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria, and consideration now being given to renewed Canadian military intervention in Libya – a country wrecked in 2011 by NATO bombing under the command of a Canadian Forces general.
It’s time for the antiwar movement, unions and the labour-based New Democratic Party to step up efforts to educate and mobilize public opinion against the deceitful policies of the Liberal federal government. The halo of humanitarian aid provider and refugee host cultivated by Justin Trudeau should be exposed as cover for a devil’s pitchfork that’s pushing profitable arms sales, domestic repression and foreign military intervention. Self-determination for the peoples of the Middle East and Africa! Canada out of NATO!