CPP: End the 20-year global war of terror of the US imperialists

Propaganda statement posted to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Website (Sep 11, 2021): End the 20-year global war of terror of the US imperialists

COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES
SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today joins the American people in remembering the thousands who perished in the deadly airplane crash attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York and other locations in the United States on September 11, 2001. The CPP reaffirms its condemnation of those acts of terrorism which unleashed violence aimed at countless civilian lives.

The Bush government immediately pointed its fingers on Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda group who were once themselves allied and served US wars of intervention in Afghanistan and the Middle East countries. They were once mujahideen recruits armed and trained by the US Central Intelligence Agency and armed forces to carry out armed attacks against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The attacks in New York are portrayed as retaliation for the US wars of intervention and aggression against countries in the Middle East and Central Asia.

The acts of terror of September 11, 2001 marked the start of a bigger and more vicious war of terror mounted by the US imperialists across the globe. It used 9/11 and its declared aim of “homeland security” as justification to heighten repression and the erosion of the American people’s democratic rights, and mount a global war of terror and military interventions that wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people around the world and undermined the sovereignty of scores of nations.

Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the American people were placed by the monopoly capitalists under a draconian state characterized by government overreach, militarized police, mass electronic and drone surveillance, police abuses and other repressive acts and measures which subjected democratic rights to limits of “security.” The US fomented Islamophobia and racial profiling which targeted Muslims, as well as foreign nationals and immigrants.

Over the past 20 years, the US government has spent close to US$950 billion for “homeland security” to militarize and heighten surveillance systems on borders; arm the police with military equipment such as automatic weapons, tanks and drones; strengthen cybersecurity and raise the capacity on collection of data and information; and fund its secret service among others.

“Homeland security” has become equated with invasion of privacy, infiltration of communities, surveillance on political parties, SWAT raids, violent repression of protests and war against immigrants and refugees. Domestic law enforcement in the US is heavily biased against immigration offenses. Immigrants and Blacks suffer the brunt of police repression and violence.

On the heels of the 9/11 attacks, the US imperialist war hawks pushed the USA PATRIOT ACT of 2001 (An Act to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and across the globe, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes) which served as legal cover for mounting a global war of terror and unleashing unprecedented wars of intervention and aggression, and the exercise of unilateralism and American exceptionalism. The US imperialists arrested and extradited hundreds of “terror suspects,” including children, and imprisoned them in the US military base in Guantanamo Bay where they were subjected to the worst forms of torture (called “enhanced interrogation techniques”), inhumane treatment, illegitimate military trials, and murder by apparent suicide.

The US has spent an estimated US$7.18 trillion in various wars since 2001, including US$1.9 trillion specifically for Overseas Contingency Operations, or counter-terrorism operations. The US maintains at least 750 military bases in 80 foreign countries with 220,000 troops stationed permanently abroad.

The US has since carried “counterterror operations” in at least 85 countries—from surveillance, drone surveillance and strike operations, to commitment of troops in combat operations and wars of aggression. Estimates put the number of lives lost at 900,000 as a consequence of US wars since 2001, and the displacement of 37 million people.

It invaded and occupied Afghanistan purportedly to “capture” Osama Bin Laden despite the Taliban government’s offer to surrender him to a third party country if the US could provide proof of his guilt in the 9/11 attacks. It deployed hundreds of thousands of troops to quell the armed resistance of the Taliban and other groups. It spent $US2.3 trillion to fund its invasion and counterinsurgency operations. At least 47,000 Afghan civilians and 24,000 Pakistanis were killed in the course of the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

In 2003, the US imperialists invaded and occupied Iraq and continues to maintain large military contingents to prop up its client-state. It has used Iraq as a base for its military operations in the Middle East including mounting air strikes against Syria and undermining the sovereignty of Iran. It has also armed Saudi Arabia in its relentless bombing of Yemen and extended foreign military funding to Israel which has subjected Palestine to air raids and military aggression.

The US has carried out bombing raids and armed drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and other countries. It has carried out overseas assassination operations including the killing of the Iraqi military commander while in Iraq, the failed drone assassination of the Venezuelan president Maduro. It has provided tyrannical regimes with military equipment and drone systems to suppress their people.
Over the past twenty years, there has been an unprecedented growth of the US military-industrial complex, including arms manufacturers and private military contractors, funded by the American people’s money. The US is the biggest exporter of arms, more than the combined arms exports of Russia, France, Spain, Germany, South Korea and Italy. The US also maintains the biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons and has invested US$1.5 trillion to keep these weapons in service. Billions of dollars are being spent to develop more weapons using nuclear and hypersonic technologies.

Since 2001, the US has regarded the Philippines as its “second front” in its global war on terror. It has maintained hundreds of military personnel in various military bases across the country. After the expiration of “Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines,” the US initiated the “Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines” in 2017 as a “named operation” that receives a regular amount of funding from the US State Department. In exchange for US military aid, the reactionary Philippine government enacted in 2007 the draconian Human Security Act, recently amended as the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020, which undermines basic democratic rights and is now being used as a weapon for intimidation and suppression. The US imperialists are behind the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) that was conceived in line with the US Counterinsurgency Manual.

The US military is the biggest arms supplier of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and has recently provided the Duterte regime with surveillance drones, FA-50 jet fighters, howitzers, 500-lb bombs, machine guns, artillery shells, automatic weapons and other firearms which are being used in the campaign of suppression. American troops directly participated in combat operations especially in Sulu and other parts of Western Mindanao and are involved in the killing of civilians. US military officers supervised and guided AFP troops in using US-supplied weapons in the bombing campaign which pulverized Marawi City in 2017. US-supported drone surveillance and aerial bombing campaigns unleash terror and cause massive trauma among the rural population where these are disproportionately being used against guerrilla units of the New People’s Army.

The US imperialist global war on terror has been carried out by the US to strengthen and expand its hegemony in the Middle East and across the globe to protect and promote the interests of big American corporations and expand its spheres of influence and investment and sources of raw materials. Indeed, US imperialism is the world’s number one terrorist.

Despite its recent defeat in the 20-year war of occupation of Afghanistan, the US imperialists have no plans to put an end to its endless wars across the globe. US President Biden declared recently plans to continue striking Afghanistan with drones and other over-the-horizon weapons in utter contempt of the Afghan people’s national sovereignty.

The past 20 years is a continuum of the US policy of waging war in line with US economic interests and geopolitical strategy which has seen numerous wars initiated by the US military since the end of the second World War—from Vietnam to Kosovo, to Kuwait and Iraq, from the Middle East to the African continent, resulting in the massive loss of lives, destruction of property, socioeconomic crisis and outright violations of national sovereignty.

The oppressed and exploited people around the world, including the American people, must firmly stand up and demand an end to the US global war of terror, and an end to its policy of waging endless wars around the world. They must demand the dismantling of US military bases around the world, the abrogation of one-sided military treaties, an end to foreign military support for oppressive regimes, US military intervention, overseas military operations, and drone warfare being conducted by the US in different parts of the world.

End the US imperialist global war of terror!
Down with US imperialism!

https://cpp.ph/statements/end-the-20-year-global-war-of-terror-of-the-us-imperialists/