U.S. caused Iraq’s present war and chaos.

With the outbreak of fighting from Mosul to Tikrit putting Iraq back onto the front burner of world media coverage and with the Obama administration threatening air strikes in Iraq once again, anti-war organizations and activists in the United States must take a clear position against further U.S. intervention of any type. Broad opposition must again be mobilized to demand:

No bombing, no military aid, no advisors and no troops to Iraq!

While it is still unclear exactly who is directing the forces against the Baghdad regime, this remains clear: No intervention by the Pentagon or by the U.S.’s NATO allies can improve conditions for the Iraqi people. Such an intervention will widen the war and create even more harm.

In addition, military strikes in Iraq – not to mention the possibility of again sending U.S. troops into the region – will mean adding to the already trillions of dollars that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have stolen from working people inside the United States.

The history of U.S. relations with Iraq, especially the U.S. war of 1991 and the murderous sanctions of the following 12 years attest to this truth. Then in March of 2003, U.S. and British imperialism committed the gravest possible war crime when they launched an aggressive war to conquer Iraq.
This war and the eight-year occupation killed 1.5 million Iraqis, drove five million more into external and internal exile, and destroyed the healthcare, educational, sanitary and industrial infrastructure. It also killed 4,500 U.S. troops and wounded 30,000 to 100,000 more who are still suffering.

To keep a powerful popular resistance movement from defeating the U.S.-British occupation in 2004 and 2005, U.S. strategists did everything possible to exacerbate ethnic and religious differences among Iraqis so as to divide the resistance. The U.S. occupation force treated Sunni and Shiite differently and Arab and Kurd differently. They consciously fostered antagonisms and poisoned all relations between the groupings.

When the U.S. pulled its combat troops out of Iraq in 2011, it left an unpopular client regime headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, hated by many sectors of Iraqis. In the past months, the Baghdad regime answered all protesting groups with bullets and bombs. Fallujah, a town already much destroyed by U.S. bombs, was again a target.

It was almost inevitable that sectors of Iraqi society would try to topple this regime. Finally, armed opponents of the Maliki regime seized Mosul and other cities north of Baghdad. The Iraqi army occupying this region collapsed and retreated. This brought Iraq to today’s crisis.

Both Maliki and U.S. political leaders concentrate their propaganda against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as the group leading the military uprising in Mosul, Tikrit and other Iraqi towns. Other sources include Iraqi secular nationalist forces – such as those from the Baath Party and local tribal organizations in the forces fighting against Maliki.

ISIS, a reactionary sectarian heavily armed militia has been funded by Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are U.S. allies with their own local interests and connections. ISIS profited from U.S. and NATO attempts to enflame sectarian violence to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria.

Whatever and whoever is involved in the conflict in Iraq today direct U.S. military intervention can only make the situation worse for all, just as it did earlier in Iraq and just as imperialist intervention has in Syria, Libya, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Somalia, Mali, and Ukraine.

It is U.S. imperialist intervention that caused the crisis and instability that poisons Iraq today. Further intervention will only worsen life for the Iraqis and for the U.S. working class.

U.S. stay out of Iraq!

Tucson teach-in on U.S./NATO intervention in Ukraine

By Jafe Arnoldski

May 27, 2014

Originally published in FightBack!News http://www.fightbacknews.org/2014/5/27/tucson-teach-usnato-intervention-ukraine

Tucson, AZ – Tucson activists organized a presentation and discussion on the crisis in Ukraine, May 23. The teach-in was part of the nationwide emergency action campaign, initiated by the United National Antiwar Coalition, against U.S. intervention in Ukraine.

The event, attended by 20 anti-war activists and Tucsonans eager to learn about the ominous developments in Ukraine, featured speakers from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Alliance for Global Justice, and Workers World Party. The presentations covered the history and dynamics leading up to the Maidan protests, the U.S. and NATO-backed fascist coup in February, the current anti-fascist resistance across the country and the role of U.S. imperialism and the corporate media.

Paul Teitelbaum with Workers World Party and an organizer of the panel explained, “People will never be told the truth of the situation by the bourgeois media. So it’s important to gather and learn about the role of U.S. imperialism in creating the crisis in Ukraine and the relationship between the imperialists and the fascists. Combating media lies and clarifying the political character of the events will help us build the strong anti-imperialist, anti-war movement that we need.”

After the presentations, a lively question and answer discussion shed further light on the urgent need to oppose the U.S. efforts that are backing fascists in Ukraine and the malicious expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe. Speakers and participants also drew connections between U.S. meddling in Ukraine, Belarus and Venezuela.

In front of a flag of the newly established Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine, activists demanded “U.S. hands off Ukraine,” and “Victory to the anti-fascist resistance,” and vowed to uphold solidarity with the people of Ukraine in opposing the U.S.-backed Kiev junta.

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Crisis in Ukraine:
Presentation and Discussion

SIGN Petition: U.S. Hands Off Russia and the Ukraine

Please send email messages to President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Kerry, Senator McCain, Secretary-General Ban, Congress and the media saying: U.S. HANDS OFF RUSSIA AND THE UKRAINE!

SIGN the online petition at http://www.iacenter.org/ukrainepetition

TEXT of Petition:

TO: President Obama, Senator McCain, Secretary Kerry, Secretary-General Ban, Members of Congress, and Members of the Media:

The overwhelming majority of the population of the U.S. is against being dragged into another disastrous war. Nothing is more dangerous than the aggressive U.S./NATO troop movements right on the borders of Russia.

Sending U.S. destroyers into the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea; scheduling threatening U.S./NATO war games and troop movements in East Europe; and imposing sanctions on the Russian Federation is a threat to peace on a world scale. We have seen the cost of past and continuing U.S. wars, which enrich the military corporations while impoverishing the targeted countries as well as poor and working people here in the U.S.

The years of U.S. funding of fascist forces in Ukraine and the recognition of a government in Kiev that overthrew the elected government, seized power and appointed extreme right-wing groups to head the police, army and national guard in order to pull Ukraine into NATO membership makes the U.S. complicit in the complete denial of the rights of the Ukrainian people. It is also a provocation against the entire region.

People in East and South Ukraine, outraged by this coup government, have attempted to resist the illegal junta, have declared an independent People’s Republic of Donetsk, and have called for referendums. In response, the right-wing coup government has allowed its military forces and other fascists to terrorize the Ukrainian people. In the most recent incident, some 40 people were massacred in the city of Odessa on May 2 by fascist militants, loyal to the Kiev government, who set the Trades Union Building on fire. In addition, 23 people were killed at Slavyansk and in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region in attacks by Ukrainian military forces from May 2-3.

Despite mass desertions by Ukrainian police and military personnel, so-called “anti-terrorist” campaigns against activists in southeastern Ukraine were launched immediately after visits to Kiev by U.S. officials. Washington has spent $5 billion to effect “regime change” in Ukraine, helping to bring into power a junta dominated by fascist, racist, anti-Semitic organizations like Svoboda, Fatherland and Right Sector. Meanwhile, the U.S. has pledged up to $10 billion in loans to the illegal coup regime, and Washington has been instrumental in securing a $17 billion aid and austerity package from the International Monetary Fund.

This massive U.S. intervention in the Ukraine and ever-increasing campaign to surround and isolate Russia must end. I therefore demand:

1. That the U.S. government and all its public, secret, official and unofficial agencies immediately cease all forms of intervention in Ukraine, including ceasing all material and political aid to fascist and right-wing organizations within the country;
2. That all sanctions and threats of sanctions against the Russian Federation be dropped — sanctions are an act of war;
3. That U.S. military forces immediately be withdrawn from the Eastern European region and that NATO’s expansion and provocative actions against Russia be ended.

Stand with President Nicolás Maduro & the People of Venezuela!

No to U.S. Intervention in Venezuela!

Tell Obama, Kerry, Congress and the Media: HANDS OFF VENEZUELA!

Sign the Petition Online: www.iacenter.org/no-intervention-in-venezuela

Firme la petición en línea: www.iacenter.org/no-intervention-in-venezuelasp

TO: President Obama, Secretary Kerry, Members of Congress, and Members of the Media: Given: That since Feb. 12 a reactionary revolt led by pro-fascist elements in relatively few of the 335 municipalities of Venezuela has brought about the death of 37 people as of March 28 by the equivalent of terrorist acts, including the use of snipers and paramilitary forces infiltrated from Colombia, and of vandalism, destroying public facilities like health-care centers, government buildings, subway stations, universities. That these fascist groups have received political and material support from the U.S. government, the CIA and other entities like NGOs used by Washington to subvert progressive governments. That U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry and both Republican and Democratic senators and representatives have not only attacked the legitimatly elected government of President Nicolas Maduro but have also distorted reality by repeatedly insisting that the Bolivarian government is responsible for the deaths, caused by alleged but non-existent “government repression.” That the corporate media have repeated these lies from U.S. government figures and have in general followed the “Big Lie” formula made infamous by Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels who said: “Repeat it enough and people will believe it.” I demand: That the U.S. government and all its public, secret, official and unofficial agencies immediately cease all forms of intervention in Venezuela, including ceasing of all material and political aid to right-wing organizations within the country. That the big corporate media immediately stop their blatant lies about the Bolivarian government of Venezuela, admit their role in spreading these lies, and instead publish and broadcast the explanations of the events given by the Venezuelan government.

Para el Presidente Obama, el Secretario de Estado Kerry, Miembros del Congreso, y miembros de los medios de comunicación:Dado que: Desde el 12 de febrero una revuelta reaccionaria encabezada por elementos pro – fascistas en relativamente pocos de los 335 municipios de Venezuela ha provocado la muerte de 37 personas hasta el 28 de marzo, con actos terroristas, incluyendo el uso de francotiradores y fuerzas paramilitares infiltradas desde Colombia, y de vandalismo, como la destrucción de instalaciones públicas, incluyendo centros de salud, edificios del gobierno, estaciones de metro y universidades. Que estos grupos fascistas han recibido apoyo político y material del gobierno de EE.UU., la CIA y otras entidades como las ONG utilizadas por Washington para subvertir los gobiernos progresistas. Que funcionarios estadounidenses, entre ellos el secretario de estado, John Kerry y senadores y representantes republicanos y demócratas no sólo han atacado al gobierno legítimamente elegido del presidente Nicolás Maduro, sino que también han distorsionado la realidad insistiendo repetidamente que el gobierno bolivariano es el responsable de las muertes causadas por la presunta, pero inexistente “represión del gobierno”. Que los medios de comunicación corporativos han repetido estas mentiras de figuras del gobierno estadounidense que en general han seguido la fórmula tristemente célebre de la “Gran Mentira” del ministro de propaganda nazi Joseph Goebbels, quien dijo : “Una mentira repetida, se convierte en realidad.” Exijo: Que el gobierno de EE.UU. y todas sus agencias públicas, secretas, oficiales y no oficiales cesen inmediatamente todas las formas de intervención en Venezuela, incluyendo el cese de toda la ayuda material y política a las organizaciones de la derecha y de la extrema derecha en el país. Que los grandes medios corporativos detengan inmediatamente sus mentiras descaradas sobre el gobierno bolivariano de Venezuela, admitan su papel en la difusión de estas mentiras, y en su lugar, publiquen y difundan las explicaciones de los hechos ofrecidas por el gobierno venezolano.

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