Who is the real terrrorist?
"We are a kind people. No one could have envisaged this act of terrorism." George W. Bush JR. Camp David War room. Saturday 15th September.

The president of the United States of America clearly has no sense of history, nor any knowledge of his own foreign policy. As a socialist, it is important to know why the US was targeted by terrorists. As far as George Bush Jr. would have you believe, it was as if a group of people woke up on Tuesday the 11th and, with nothing better to do, decided to kill 3,500 people.

The attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon was not a random act. The WTC is the most visible symbol of US finance and the economic domination of the majority of the world. It is the symbol of wealth and power. The Pentagon is the heart of the US military machine. The attacks were a direct result of the actions of the US government that has led organisations to feel there is no other way to fight back.

Who are the real terrorists?
America has pushed its economic agenda onto the rest of the world through its foreign policy interventions backed up with military might. This is not the first time they have gone after Bin Laden , and what are the effects? In the bombing of Sudan in 1998, the US acted in retaliation against the bombing of their embassies in Africa. It was believed that the factory was producing nerve gas; it was, in fact, producing 60% of the medicines used in Uganda. The death toll of the Ugandan population deprived of vital drugs has never been officially counted, but we can only guess how many suffered.

In Iraq, 200,000 Iraqis died during and in the immediate aftermath of the slaughter known as the Gulf War. Since then, at least a million civilians, half of them children, have died as a result of economic sanctions imposed by the US and Britain. On September 9th, 8 people were killed in southern Iraq when American and British planes bombed civilian areas. These bombings have gone on week in and week out for a decade.

In Palestine, the enduring illegal occupation by Israel would have collapsed long ago were it not for US backing. Since the Intifada uprising in September last year, over 700 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, not to mention the people who have lost their homes in the West Bank. Only now are the Americans pushing for a resolution on the peace process because they are trying to leverage the Arab countries on board for the retaliation strikes on Afghanistan.

In Colombia, the US are funding the government and equipping them with helicopters in a ‘war against drugs’ which is truthfully a war against the Farq, a guerrilla group, and the peasant population. The countryside is being laid to waste by defoliation sprays that are supposed to wipe out the coca plants, but also decimate legitimate food crops, effectively starving the peasants.

In Serbia, the US looked on as Milosevich attempted to ethnically cleanse Kosova for over a decade. The Kosovans that took up arms against their oppressor were labelled ‘terrorists’. That is until Milosevich proved an unreliable ally. Then the Americans tried to bomb Serbia out of existence.

Every day 35,000 people die of starvation and poverty even though the world produces enough food to feed everyone double. Is this not a form of terrorism imposed on the world through US backed IMF structural adjustment programs?

When world leaders speak of terrorism, we must speak of terrorism as well. We must talk about the suffering of thousands killed directly or indirectly by the US through its foreign policy. The actions of the terrorists on 11th of September show that the deep seated divisions caused by U.S. imperialism can explode at any time and at any place. We must be prepared with the revolutionary answer to the problems caused by capitalism.

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Is war inherent to capitalism?

War in Iraq - which side are we on?

War: what is it good for

Capitalism creates war

The truth about Iraq

Puppest, black gold and tyranny

Who is the real terrorist