Obama Prepares to Escalate War in the Middle East!
- Obama prepares to escalate war in the Middle East!
by Patrick Martin, http://www.wsws.org/, 8 Sept 2014
President Obama will use a nationwide television address Wednesday night to argue for a major escalation of the US military intervention in the Middle East, according to an interview broadcast Sunday morning.
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The immediate target of the escalation is the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as ISIL, which has overrun much of western and northern Iraq, threatening the US-backed puppet regime in Baghdad.
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Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, Obama began by answering interviewer Chuck Todd’s question, likely rehearsed in advance, “Are you preparing the country to go back to war?”
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Obama’s response was a qualified “yes.” He said, “I’m preparing the country to make sure that we deal with a threat from ISIL. Keep in mind that this is something that we know how to do. We’ve been dealing with terrorist threats for quite some time.”
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He cited the attacks on Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan’s tribal area, conducted with drone-fired missiles that have taken the lives of hundreds of civilians, as well as last week’s attack in Somalia that killed the top leader of the Islamist Al-Shabaab organization.
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As Todd noted, Obama has scheduled the nationally televised address on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York and Washington.
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Obama previewed the alarmist and warmongering character of this speech by telling the NBC interviewer that compared to Al Qaeda, “ISIL poses a broader threat because of its territorial ambitions in Iraq and Syria.”
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Given that the Bush administration used the 9/11 attacks as the pretext for invading and occupying Afghanistan, invading and occupying Iraq, and launching a frontal assault on democratic rights within the United States, the declaration that ISIL “poses a broader threat” has the most ominous implications.
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Whatever specific military plans Obama chooses to discuss Wednesday—the speech will likely conceal more than it reveals—the Pentagon is already drawing up options for military actions in both Iraq and Syria, including not only bombing and missile strikes, but also the mobilization of US ground troops.
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In a further extension of the new US role in Iraq, US warplanes struck targets in the western province of Anbar Friday and Saturday for the first time since the US withdrawal in 2011. Bombers hit ISIS positions near the Haditha dam on the Euphrates River, which is still controlled by the Iraqi Army but under attack from Sunni fighters.
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