EDITORIAL BY JAKE HRIBLJAN
Terror.
What images come to mind at the sound of that word? September 11th, George W. Bush’s declaration of the “War on Terror”, al-Qaida, the Islamic State: these images pour in before the last “r” can be uttered.
Politicians, both Canadian and American, bombard us with warnings of terrorists in the Middle East who wish to destroy us because of our freedom, all in the name of Islam.
Regardless of their purported religious beliefs, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS and ISIL) and its members’ true doctrine is fascism, the ideological monster that rises from poverty and devastation.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his coalition members would be wise to remember that. It wasn’t social and economic equilibrium that brought Hitler to power. It was immense hopelessness and poverty.
In the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis, Harper has chosen to remain steadfast in Canada’s contribution to hopelessness and poverty in Syria, through aerial bombings of alleged ISIL strongholds.
Last Friday, on the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Harper stated, “As long as the most violent and barbarous individuals in the world are committing massacres, as long as they’re happy to boast about it, and as long as they continue to threaten to do the same things to Canada and Canadians, this Conservative government will remain in the international coalition fighting ISIS.” What a stroke of diplomatic genius. Repeatedly bomb the Middle East, kill millions of innocent people and cause trillions of dollars in damage. This will surely bring a new era of peace and democracy.
And who are really the most violent and barbarous individuals? Noam Chomsky says the United States is the leading terrorist state in the world. For a country whose history includes over 20 coups of foreign governments, committing mass genocide of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian people during the 1960s and killing over 1 million innocent Iraqis during the illegal Iraq War (not to mention a long list of other atrocities), Chomsky’s point is profound.
And Canada considers America, a world-dominating, imperial power, as its closest ally, with Harper gleefully picking up the stick to join in the banging of the war drum.
With a completely straight face, no hint of a smile, Harper on Friday also said, “The Russian government and (President Vladimir) Putin remains a government that complicates, in dangerous and unhelpful ways, security situations all over the world.”
This tragic hypocrisy was textbook rhetoric out of the Nazi’s propaganda system. If we do it, it’s good. If someone else does it, it’s evil.
Is this what we as Canadians want our country to become? An arm of the American war machine?
Back in 2003, Harper as Opposition Leader came out in support of the Iraq War, in spite of Canadians’ resistance and the disapproval of the United Nations. In 2006, he expanded Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan when the campaign was due to end. And now in 2015, Harper has committed $528 million to bomb Syria.
Whether it is 2003, 2006 or 2015, Harper has repeatedly shown his willingness to serve the military interests of the United States. All the dead innocents be damned.
Click here to check out a timeline of United States acts of terrorism.