“We must do something!”

“We must do something!” is often heard today in relation to the terrorist group known as ISIS. It’s very true, we should do something, but let’s think for a minute about what “we” already did.

ISIS did not exist until after the illegal war in Iraq, which “our” government supported. Al Qaeda had no significant presence in Iraq until the US/UK governments killed over a million Iraqis, destroyed their country, crushed their army and then, their oil fields safely back under “our” control, abandoned the Iraqi people. An Al Qaeda group established itself in the power vacuum, which then evolved into ISIS. So that’s what “we” already did. ISIS is “ours”; “we” created it, firstly through “our” iniquitous foreign policies, then with “our” arms sales and other material and financial support to a multitude of despicable allies in the region, and then with military training and other assistance from “our” special forces.

So the first thing “we must do” is understand that most of the gangster/terrorist groups that plague the planet today have been created by our own trusted leaders, to serve the cynical purposes of big business, and the massive military/police/”intelligence” organisations who need Permanent War so they can stay in business. ISIS is just the latest from “our” production line – that previously helped to produce monsters like al Qaeda and the Taleban. When ISIS is gone “we’ll” simply promote another monster to replace it – al Shabaab, perhaps? Or Boko Haram? That’s what “we” do: “we” help create monsters to serve “our” 1%.

The next thing we must do is understand that there’s no depth of depravity that’s too extreme for the monsters. In the deeply murky world of “special” operations there’s something called a “false flag” attack. This is an attack that’s carried out by some terror group (often against their own people), pretending to be someone else — so that that someone else gets the blame. It’s a very old trick of the warmongers, and very successful. Perhaps the best-known example of a major war known to have been started by a false flag was the Vietnam War, which was triggered by the false flag attack on USS Maddox, in the infamous Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Terrorist outrages may indeed be done independently by terrorists – who “we” create directly or indirectly – but they may also be false flags, trying to provoke war. Given the considerable cover-up of events around the destruction of the World Trade Centre, the jury is still out as to whether that was also a false flag.

The next thing we must do is very simple: obey the law. International law is very clear on the subjects of regime change and military interventions in other people’s countries. The US, our “special relationship” buddies, has illegally overthrown governments in over thirty countries since WW2, often with British assistance, and often with illegal military attacks. The US routinely ignores international law and is strongly opposed to the existence of the International Criminal Court, whose purpose is to enforce it. Britain is also building up an impressive dossier of cases that are potentially indictable war crimes and/or crimes against humanity. The latest UN Security Council resolution, 2249, does NOT specifically authorise military attacks in Syria; but it does insist we obey international law.

So what “we must do”, is demand our government obeys the law, stops creating monsters like ISIS, and does NOT bomb Syria.

John Andrews is a writer and political activist based in England. His latest booklet is entitled EnMo Economics. Other Non-Fiction books by John are: The People's Constitution (2018 Edition); and The School of Kindness (2018 Edition); and his historical novel The Road to Emily Bay Read other articles by John.