The highest-ranking U.S. general to die in combat since the 1970s was just murdered by a member of the Afghan military he was training — yet another so-called insider attack. Iraq is imploding as elements of the globalist-backed “rebels” in Syria butcher their way to Baghdad, seeking to exterminate minorities such as Christians, Kurds, and the ancient Yezidi people along the way. Many of the Islamists are armed with U.S. weapons. Libya is in a freefall after the UN-approved “regime change” war waged by Obama. Meanwhile, almost half of the weapons given to the globalist-backed government in Afghanistan have reportedly gone missing. All over the world, the poison fruits of interventionist U.S. foreign policy are becoming too obvious and bloody to ignore.
In response to the escalating chaos, though, the Obama administration and the neo-conservative wing of the Republican Party are pushing for still more war and further foreign interventionism. On August 7, without approval from Congress, Obama purported to “authorize” supposedly “limited” air strikes against the barbarian terrorists styling themselves the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIS). That is one of the groups that benefited from U.S. scheming in Syria before crossing the border to seize major Iraqi towns. Obama claimed the strikes were aimed at protecting minority communities that fled to the mountains around Sinjar to avoid being massacred by ISIS.
“When we face a situation like we do on that mountain, with innocent people facing the prospect of violence on a horrific scale and we have a mandate to help — in this case a request from the Iraqi government — and when we have unique capabilities to act to avoid a massacre, I believe the United States cannot turn a blind eye,” Obama claimed in a statement from the White House late Thursday night, defying the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that wars be declared by Congress. “Earlier this week, one Iraqi said no-one is coming to help. Well, today America is coming to help.”
Of course, as The New American has documented extensively, much of the current turmoil engulfing Iraq is largely due to previous rounds of U.S. government “help.” Obama vowed not to get the U.S. involved in yet another war in Iraq. However, with U.S. military “advisors” flooding in and American fighter jets dropping bombs, it seems to be more a question of semantics. The GOP establishment has also been pushing for deeper U.S. involvement in Iraq, helping the administration and its apparatchiks in the press seem more reasonable by comparison.
In Afghanistan, meanwhile, the situation is quickly going from bad to worse. On August 5, for example, Army Maj. Gen. Harold Greene was killed when a U.S.-armed and -trained man wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on “international troops” at the Marshal Fahim National Defense University at Camp Qargha on a base west of Kabul. More than a dozen others were wounded in the attack. Gen. Greene was a key figure in the ongoing U.S. government campaign in Afghanistan, serving as deputy chief of the training and assistance schemes aimed at building up the regime in Kabul and its “security” forces.
The whole nation could be on the verge of plunging into chaos for more than a few reasons, too — particularly amid an ongoing dispute in recent “presidential elections” that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is meddling in. “This is really an Afghan solution to an Afghan problem,” Kerry claimed at a news conference, sounding oblivious to the irony. “Both parties have agreed to stay at it and both parties have agreed to live by the outcome.” Kerry, who arrived in Kabul two days after Gen. Greene was killed in the latest “insider attack,” was helping to mediate the “talks,” according to media reports.
Separately, the mushrooming disaster in Afghanistan was illustrated yet again late last month with the release of a weapons accountability audit by the Special Inspector General of Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). According to the findings, some 43 percent of the weapons sent to Afghan “security” forces by the U.S. government — grenade launchers, machine guns, and more — cannot be accounted for. The lost arms could now be in the hands of terrorists, Afghan Taliban fighters, drug traffickers, or on the black market, experts said. Similarly, large quantities of U.S. weapons given to Iraq are now in the hands of ISIS.
Congressional neocons, meanwhile, are seizing on the escalating problems in Afghanistan to seek greater U.S. government involvement there as the troubled land teeters on the verge of implosion following more than a decade of U.S. government meddling. “I have told the president privately and publicly that my biggest concern is that America will end its mission in Afghanistan just short of the goal line,” said House Speaker John Boehner without specifying what exactly the perpetually shifting “goal line” actually is. “So let me reiterate: if the president decides to re-think his strategy, including withdrawals, deadlines, and policy restraints, particularly on certain associated terrorist networks, he will have my support.”
Obama has repeatedly promised to withdraw U.S forces from Afghanistan, although timelines and numbers of troops to be left behind have been in constant flux. For Boehner, more occupation is the way to go. “After my visit there in May, I warned that if we did not demonstrate a determination to finish the job, we would be looking at a reversal of progress similar to what we have seen in Iraq,” he said. “The national security interests of our country are too high, and too much sacrifice has been made to watch that happen.” It was not immediately clear what the “job” to be finished or the “national security interests” in Afghanistan were.
Boehner also claimed the Taliban’s recent high-profile attacks are “calculated to accompany a global PR strategy highlighting the fact that U.S. and coalition forces will soon be leaving Afghanistan and abandoning its weak and ineffective government.” The formerly U.S.-funded and trained Taliban, which had some of its leadership unlawfully released by Obama recently in exchange for a U.S. soldier, “wants everyone to know it will soon dominate all aspects of life in Afghanistan once again.”
Countless analysts have suggested that such an outcome is all but inevitable at this point, no matter how many more U.S. troops and tax dollars are squandered in the conflict. Other senior Republicans, though, agreed with Boehner that Americans must continue sacrificing for the unconstitutional U.S. government campaign to transform Afghanistan, a nation often referred to as the “graveyard of empires.” After the killing of Gen. Greene, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said, “The event only underscores the importance of leaving Afghanistan when the job is finished — rather than stubbornly adhering to arbitrary political deadlines.”
The group Obama is now bombing, known as ISIS, which was fighting on the same side as various Obama-backed Islamist groups seeking to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, has already overrun vast swaths of Iraq. Right now, after Kurdish forces apparently backed down, the Yezidi people of northern Iraq are facing potential genocide at the hands of ISIS. Many fled their homes and took refuge in nearby mountains. But with no food, water, or supplies — and with terrorists seeking to massacre them — the situation is becoming dire. Reports from sources on the ground suggest many have already died. Tens of thousands of Christians have also been forced to flee the area as the ongoing destruction of the ancient Christian communities of Iraq nears completion.
In a seemingly bizarre twist, the Iranian regime’s forces — long demonized as part of the “axis of evil” by the U.S. foreign policy establishment — are now fighting on the same side as Obama in Iraq, with both governments taking on ISIS. It should be abundantly clear by now that interventionist U.S. foreign policy has played a major role in setting the Middle East and much of the world ablaze. Rather than responding to it with still more intervention, Congress should obey the Constitution and follow the advice of the Founding Fathers. Individual Americans and groups concerned about the humanitarian crisis can and should help by supporting the broad range of aid efforts and organizations involved in the region.
Alex Newman, a foreign correspondent for The New American, is currently based in Europe. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU.
Related articles:
Our Empty Future in Afghanistan
Christian Massacres: A Result of U.S. Foreign Policy
Unknown Quantity of U.S. Weapons Now in Hands of Militants in Iraq
Bergdahl’s Captors Armed and Funded by U.S. Taxpayers
Obama Considers Military Cooperation with Iran Terror Regime
In Iraq, U.S. Foreign Policy and Obama’s “Rebels” Strike Again
Under “Democracy,” Iraqi Christians Face Potential Extinction
After Obama/UN “Liberation,” Libya Collapsing Into Civil War
