By Solomon Comissiong
Year-after-year United States politicians and corporate media pundits utilize their fork-tongues to vaguely lecture the American populace on the topic of state sponsors of terror. I say, ‘vaguely’ because any kind of honest discussion on terrorism would sharply point multiple fingers right back at the United States as being a long time sponsor and perpetrator of terrorism. A common dictionary based definition of “terrorism” is, “the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.” Even the Central Intelligence Agency’s website lists “terrorism” as, “The term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.” It is not a stretch to say that both aforementioned definitions more than implicate the US government for carrying out acts of terrorism, plain and simple. The hypocritical United States government routinely publicizes that various countries that are on their arbitrary list of ‘state sponsors of terror’. Needless to say, they (United States) have never listed themselves as a state sponsor of terror.
There is seldom any need for explanation; they fully know that most of their audience consists of millions of systematically programmed, and mentally indoctrinated Americans. Corporate media pundits and US politicians alike, do an excellent job in politically dumbing down the collective minds of Americans. “Provide as little context as possible”, is a reoccurring objective within their playbook for mind control. They know they can simply tell the US populace that any particular nation is a ‘state sponsor of terror’, and Americans will mentally consume their rubbish—usually with no questions asked. This cult-like behavior from Americans limits the amount of lies politicians have to use on them. Essentially it enables politicians to be able to save their arsenal of lies for another occasion.
It is not just that the United States government is riddled with reprehensible hypocrites; it is also replete with unrepentant liars. They masterfully create their own set of rules, expecting others to abide by them. Ironically these hypocrites seldom abide by their own arbitrary list of rules. If countless Americans were not so mentally programmed it would be fairly easy for them to spot the lies, as well as the hypocrisies. For instance, the United States at one time placed the African National Congress (ANC), and the likes of Nelson Mandela on their arbitrary list of terrorists. Their crime you may ask—-they resisted the brutal, white supremacist, Apartheid regime in South Africa (Azania). Instead of supporting those who resisted the white invaders who stole land and brutalized African/black people in South Africa, the US government supported the white supremacist, barbaric and illegitimate government. As they say, “birds of a feather flock together.”
South Africa’s illegitimate “National Party” routinely carried out terrorist acts against the indigenous populations of African/black people, including the Soweto Uprising of 1976, where hundreds of unarmed people were gunned down in cold blood, mostly school-aged children. These types of despicable terrorist attacks did not prevent the United States government from its continuation of support for the “National Party”. These facts should give us all good insight as to why the United States continues to support the Apartheid state of Israel. Systematically racist nations tend to support one another. Its like they have their own multi-nation fraternity of racist countries.
The United States’ support of brutal inhumane regimes such as, South Africa and Israel are a mere two of numerous examples that could be delved into. They are by no means novel. We must never forget that it was the United States government that sponsored terrorist death squads in countries like, El Salvador, Angola, and Nicaragua. Meanwhile the US government has vilified governments such as Cuba, Iran and Venezuela. The US has long arbitrarily placed Cuba and Iran on their list of state sponsors of “terrorism”, and recently accused Venezuela of being a threat to United States national security. Even though the United States recently removed Cuba from their arbitrary list of state sponsors of terrorism, they should have never been placed on the list in the first place. The US placed these countries within their arbitrary catalog of state sponsors of “terrorism” primarily because these countries refused to bow down to the United States government. They refuse to be used as a footstool by the United States government. To put it plainly, they reject US imperialism.
Despite the United States’ baseless claims that Cuba and Iran were/are sponsors of terror, the United States has and continues to arm so-called rebel groups in places like Libya and Syria. Many of these so-called rebel organizations, are and have been linked to terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS. This is no secret, except to most of the geo-politically clueless US population. The US government knew damn well that they were arming terrorist organizations. They armed them because their imperialist interests superseded that of innocent civilians who were/are being massacred by these US funded terrorist organizations. The United States government wanted regime change, and could care-less about the civilians caught in the carnage. After all, it was the United States and its NATO pets that created the bloodshed.
When it comes to a nation like Cuba, it is ironic that the US had listed it state sponsor of “terrorism”, despite the fact that the United States has long given safe haven for known terrorist such as Luis Posada Carriles and the late Orlando Bosch. These two men, for instance, were CIA backed operatives that carried out heinous terrorist acts against Cuban civilians. One of those nefarious crimes was the terrorist bombing of Cuban airliner 455 (Cubana de Aviacion Flight 455) on October 6, 1976. All 73 civilians on board this plane were killed. The CIA backed these evil men, thus the United States government provided them with safe haven within its illegally manufactured borders. This fact makes the US a place where its government provides safe haven to known terrorists. Ironically, this is a claim the US frequently (and arbitrarily) accuses other countries of—-mostly nations that reject American imperialism. By the way, the devilish Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch are far from the only terrorist that the US has provided safe haven for. It is important to remember that many of Hitler’s Nazi commanders and genocidal scientists not only found safe haven in the US, they were provided jobs by the United States government. This is a far different picture of the benevolent global policeman that the United States government tries to portray itself as. A mafia boss, would be much more accurate!
Lastly, it is instructive to comprehend that each time the United States government gives orders to indiscriminately bomb, or drone strike an area that is populated with civilians, that too, is a blatant form of terrorism. This is premeditated, it is politically motivated, and the bombing of an area with civilians combines to create a situation in which terrorism is unequivocally the correct term to be applied—if not the term “mass murder”! It is important to note that when the US government made the decision to conduct bombing campaigns in Afghanistan in November of 2001, well over 3,000 Afghan civilians were killed. This is more than the number of Americans who were killed on 9/11, yet for some reason this is seldom ever also labeled terrorism. Why? Because the US government is hypocritical and ultimately cares very little about the lives of civilians caught in the vicious path of American bombs, drones, airstrikes and ground raids. US officials callously refer to this as “collateral damage”. And since it is not aptly referred to as terrorism by the US government or by the corporate media, most Americans follow suit referring to it also as “collateral damage”. Americans have unfortunately been programed to ignore the widespread suffering “their” government is inflicting upon human life globally.
Many Americans have systematically been polluted with Americanism, which prevents them from seeing the lives of people outside the US, as their equals. This is especially true if those humans are of color and/or Muslim. Americanism is a psychological disorder, in and of itself. Without the mental pollutant of Americanism perhaps Americans might be able to clearly see the truth regarding this reprehensible matter. And that truth is, without an ounce of ambiguity, that the United States has an unfortunate and long tainted history as not only a state sponsor of terror, but also a state that harbors terrorists. When we factor in the United States’ imperialist wars, a valid claim can be made that it exports terror as well. US orchestrated terror should also include domestic terror that has been dished out to people of color within the United States. From slavery to the genocide of Native Americans to present day police terror; the United States government has played a significant role in sponsoring, orchestrating and carrying out these heinous and violent acts.
The evidence and facts do not lie. This article is a mere snapshot of the wide variety of United States terror. So what is to be done by those who want to see these inhumane practices halted? Those of us who know this history must be willing to spread this important information to as many as possible, especially those that are willing to learn (and listen). Have informal conversations with friends and family. Work collectively to host community forums and dialogues. Create and support independent media. We must then collectively find creative and engaging ways to mobilize our communities, one-by-one. Stress the importance of radically altering the scope and impact of US foreign and domestic policy, from policing to war. We desperately need community control over policing, as well as a Department of Peace. This ultimately means that government organs, like the Central Intelligence Agency, will need to abolished.
Throughout the CIA’s history, this organization has assassinated people, overthrown sovereign governments, and committed war crimes. The CIA has no place in a peaceful society, or world. The CIA is a direct opposite to peace. The abolishment of the CIA won’t happen overnight, however it is goal that needs to be set, something for activist to work towards.
Lastly, we need to be organized, now and in perpetuity. We must organize to reshape society, as we know it. We must be consistent every step of the way towards this new world. We all play a role in cultivating it. Developing a society that completely rejects imperialism (and injustice) is imperative. This fosters an environment that shapes young children into adults, free of the warped social ideals numerous adult Americans cling to today. In this new society, tomorrow’s children will intrinsically reject wars of aggression and imperialism/state-sponsored terrorism. And, ultimately they will champion peace.
We set the examples for the children of today, and tomorrow. If we espouse imperialism, or even remain silent about it, many of those children will do the same. However, if we are intrepid and set examples that are anti-imperialist, and are vehemently opposed to injustice, then most of those youth will emulate our actions. We must be unwaveringly committed to peace, justice and social equity. This in essence, goes a long way towards the establishment of a much more peaceful humane society, and globe!
Solomon Comissiong (www.solomoncomissiong.com) is an educator, community activist, author, and Founder of the Your World News Media Collective (www.yourworldnews.org). Solomon is the author of A Hip Hop Activist Speaks Out on Social Issues. Solomon is also the writer and producer of the documentary, Hip Hop, White Supremacy & Capitalism: Why Corporations Infiltrated RAP Music. He can be reached at: solo@yourworldnews.org
