The Article below was published in Vol. 135, Issue 5 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on February 7, 2020
By Josh Hager ’22
Staff Writer
In the first few days of the new decade, the United States sparked a near all-out conflict in a most shocking manner by assassinating one of Iran’s top generals, Qasem Soleimani. Soleimani, leader of the Quds Force in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was in recent years a crucial figure in the fight against the Islamic State, and America and Iran were briefly cooperating in that campaign. Following the assassination of Soleimani, Iran retaliated with missile strikes on American bases in Iraq. On January 26, small rockets hit the American embassy in Baghdad and there is still dangerous international tension looming over the world.
The actions of the United States in the Middle East are the primary cause of any attacks against American facilities in the Middle East because the United States has wrecked the region with its imperial wars. Weak framing of the issue, such as the mealy-mouthed statements of presidential candidates like Pete Buttigieg, who agreed that Soleimani was a murdering terrorist but objected that President Trump should have notified Congress, inaccurately portrays the situation. The problem with the assassination of Soleimani was not that Trump did not do the right paperwork, but that American imperialism, or the extension of our power and influence over foreign nations through diplomacy or military force, is the number one threat to the world’s people.
The only sensible option in Iran is that there should be absolutely no escalation by the United States, no war, and the United States’ withdrawal of forces from the Middle East and everywhere. The people of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, among many other nations in the world, correctly see American intervention as a threat to their nations. The US Government does not need the domestic popularity of a war as an excuse to launch one, as the idea of conflict with Iran is much less popular now than the War on Terror was decades ago. The protests against the Iraq War were millions strong, but simply protesting the war did not stop the US Government from doing it anyway. Because of that war, millions of people in Iraq are still living the consequences of American terrorism on the Iraqi people. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of Americans have been killed. Some acts by American troops include the use of depleted uranium munitions on civilians, massacres (the Haditha Massacre, Mukaradeeb Massacre, among many others), and under-reported killings that occur on everyday patrols. The United States’ invasion of Iraq caused the loss of any real stability in Iraqi society for years, partially leading to the rise of ISIS in Iraq.
American troops have been in Iraq and Afghanistan since I was a small child, and these wars have continued to be unimaginable wastes of life in these countries and for Americans dying fighting for American imperialism. These wars have been continued and expanded throughout the remaining Bush years; during Obama’s imperialist bombings in Libya, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan that further expanded the scope of American wars; and now could reach another critical tipping point with Donald Trump’s warmongering with Iran.
The countries threatened by the United States have every right to resist imperialist invasions. In Iraq, people see their occupiers as illegitimate and, in response, carried out an attack on the American embassy. American bases in Iraq are there illegitimately as occupiers, and the Iraqi people want their sovereignty. If the US did not want to have their embassy attacked, they should simply not have troops in the country! However, the cynical counterargument to all of this is that without the American presence in the region, there would be chaos in all of these countries, or that America has created democracy out of dictatorships. Where is the order and stability in American troops killing untold thousands? Where is the order and stability when American planes indiscriminately bombed Fallujah? Where is the democracy in Libya after American intervention where there is now a thriving slave trade? Where is the democracy being brought to Iran when Trump threatens to bomb some of humanity’s most treasured cultural sights? It is up to the people of Iran to decide what they see fit as a form of government. The country’s destruction will not bring that, and it will only serve imperialism. Imperialism, principally American imperialism, threatens the sovereignty of all of the world’s peoples.
American imperialism does not just look like the possible invasion of Iran, but it is also right here at home. Imperialism is also Laquan McDonald being shot in the streets of Chicago, it is the repression of Lakotans defending their water at Standing Rock, and the placing of undocumented immigrants in cages at the US–Mexico border. Americans should unite in their opposition to what could be one of the bloodiest conflicts in years. Who wins but the people oppressing people here? Who wins but the oil and defense companies? Who wins but the generals using those who believe they fight for freedom as pawns against the people of these countries?
