In the Wake of the Orlando Massacre by Resisting and Opposing U.S. Wars for Empire

When I woke to the news Sunday morning June 12th about the horrific massacre at the LGBTQ night club, Pulse in Orlando FL, my heart was very heavy and my gut twisted. As speculation by the media and officials about the shooter were being made I became very worried. Would this act of violence against LGBTQ people by a man who they said claimed allegiance to ISIS be used as justification for yet more bombing of innocent people, more indefinite detention, more repression of civil liberties by our government?

“Have you killed before?” a wide-eyed student asked him. Jeremy answered that he never pulled the trigger, but he does regret every day, every hour, the role he played in death and suffering.

Jeremy is a young, tall, green-eyed ex-Marine officer. His life was very good; his Connecticut town wealthy, educated. On his way to a college class in 2001, he saw everyone crying. A large screen showed the second tower falling. At that moment, he felt a powerful solidarity with other Americans. His grandfather was an Iwo Jima veteran. After 9/11, Jeremy experienced national pride, and in 2006, he signed up.

The New York Times ran a feature, "How Hillary Became a Hawk," in its magazine May 1, 5 years after Obama & Clinton cheered on the killing of Osama bin Laden and his family members. "Throughout her career she has displayed instincts on foreign policy that are more aggressive than those of President Obama — and most Democrats," they say.

What does that tell us about what's coming?

Revcom.us fills out examples that the Times article does not.

Quiz: what is most needed in the world now is:

1. Unjust, immoral and illegitimate war of terror by the U.S. carried out against 7 countries in our name, along with torture and mass surveillance.

I am writing to revcom.us/Revolution because this is the one place that consistently stands with the people of the world against all forms of oppression and for a radically different and far better world. The reason for this letter is the current wave of patriotism, using America’s soldiers and veterans to justify every conceivable crime and atrocity being carried out by the “troops,” i.e., the U.S. military.

How many people have been killed in the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Somalia? On Nov. 18, a UN press briefing on the war in Yemen declared authoritatively that it had so far killed 5,700 people, including 830 women and children. But how precise are these figures, what are they based on, and what relation are they likely to bear to the true numbers of people killed?

The rulers of the U.S. empire are once again facing new difficulties and challenges in the greater Middle East region. Once again they feel compelled to escalate their military intervention—even though their own aggression contributed in a major way to the difficulties they now face, and even as they have few good options and no certain path to victory. Their invasions and bombing campaigns create incredible suffering for the masses of people—something hardly ever discussed in the ruling class’ media. And their invasions exacerbate the global clash between Western imperialism and reactionary Islamic Jihad.

On December 10, a full-page ad appeared in the New York Times under the headline, “IS THIS AMERICA?” with a large image of an American flag at half-mast in the background. The ad calls out:

Recently I have noticed a lot of good sentiment all over social media around the need for people to take a stand against anti-Muslim bigotry. In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino there has been a frightening rise in attacks against Muslims here in the U.S. and Europe. You can read for yourselves about this disturbing trend from a piece by Glenn Greenwald or in this piece on Alternet.

Human rights day gets smugly celebrated by those who run this country as a day to call on the failures of societies with which the U.S. is not allied.  China, Venezuela, Iran -- bad.  No mention of Saudi Arabia, Israel, or, for that matter, the United States where 42% of people on death row are African American, while the population is only 12% African American.

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well