Lethal legacy of imperialism
HUMAN ethics demands that non-violent and God-conscious folk empathise with the innocent French citizens who have died at the vile hands of terrorists.
Having commiserated, what is vital is to monitor the result of this terrorism as it equates to what followed the 9/11 attack on New York.
For example, in 1914 the murder of the archduke of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, by a Serbian nationalist, drove Europe to war.
The archduke was valued by many royal families of Europe. He was linked to the royal families of Russia, France and Britain, rivals to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian empire.
World War I, in retrospect, could be considered a family spat. Because of this murder, millions died. Since the power of the royal families who upheld law and order was drained, fascism, Nazism and communism ascended and finally World War II ensued.
The reply by French leaders was instant bombing of Islamic State (IS). Pope Francis said the acts of terrorism which took place in Paris are the latest parts of a “piecemeal World War III”.
What is vital is that the ordinary people must question their government’s actions abroad.
For example, Russian and Iranian intelligence reported that the US, Britain, France and others were behind the military success of IS. How else can anyone explain the classy weaponry and training?
IS in reality is a Western imperial and royal Arab alliance against Persian and Russian interests that has gone horribly wrong.
Since the imperialists along with their Arab royalists have somewhat lost control of the IS project, it was left to the Russians and Persians to bring IS back to reality.
Since the US and allies stopped supporting IS at previous levels, the chickens have come home to roost.
This is also not the first time this type of covert operation took place.
The same imperialists – the US, Britain, France and others – promised support to those fighting Saddam Hussein in Iraq before the First Gulf War.
After Western forces withdrew, Hussein pursued and killed his detractors. He drained the wetlands where Marsh Arabs had lived for centuries, he gassed the Kurds and hanged important Muslim religious leaders.
The father and two brothers of Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, currently the most influential religious and political leader in the entire region, were also murdered by Hussein.
Many victims endured until the US and allies returned to oust Saddam in the Second Gulf War.
Those who withstood did not care about Saddam, but waited to move against the imperialists who had abandoned them previously. It was those who had survived Saddam, like Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, who crushed the US and their allies in Iraq, forcing their withdrawal.
Those who inspire war do so from a safe distance while they send ordinary people to bear the consequences. The imperialists have learnt nothing from Afghanistan and Iraq or, for that matter, from Korea or Vietnam.
The US and its allies fomented and then abandoned IS as a proxy to fight President Bashar alAssad of Syria, who then hauled in Hezbollah and Iran, Israel’s main enemy.
Now the Russians and French are committed. Who knows what will happen next?