Catastrophic Consequences of U.S. Imperialists' Wars of Aggression
-
Nick Lin -
September 11 this year marks the 19th anniversary
of the tragic
terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, DC and
Pennsylvania that
gave the U.S. imperialists, along with appeasers
of U.S. imperialism
like Canada, the pretext for their brutal and
unending worldwide "war
on terror."
Claiming
to be bringing justice to
those who died, the U.S. government said that the
government of
Afghanistan was responsible for providing aid and
training to those who
carried out the 9/11 attacks, despite never
providing any proof of such
responsibility. Less than a month after the
attacks, the U.S. invaded
Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, with the support
of NATO countries
including Canada. The Chrétien government
announced
"Operation Apollo" and committed air, sea and land
support and 2,000
troops. Working people in the U.S., Canada and
elsewhere immediately
made it clear that this revenge-seeking was not
carried out in
their name.
In a study published September
8, titled "Creating Refugees: Displacement Caused
by the United
States' Post-9/11 Wars," Professor David Vine and
his students at the
Watson Institute of International and Public
Affairs at Brown
University in Providence, Rhode Island, attempt to
quantify the
catastrophic human costs in terms of those
displaced by the past 19
years of the U.S. war on terror.
Toronto demonstration,
March 30, 2003, against U.S. war in Iraq, part of
large-scale
opposition across Canada to U.S. wars of
aggression.
In their
introduction to the paper, the authors point out:
"Since
the George W. Bush administration launched a
'global war on terror'
following Al Qaeda's September 11, 2001 attacks on
the United States,
the U.S. military has waged war continuously for
almost two decades. In
that time, U.S. forces have fought in wars or
participated in other
combat operations in at least 24 countries. The
destruction inflicted
by warfare in these countries has been
incalculable for civilians and
combatants, for U.S. military personnel and their
family members, and
for entire societies. Deaths and injuries number
in the millions."
Notwithstanding some mischaracterizations of the
U.S.
conflicts covered in their study, the authors
indicate that this paper
"calculates the total number of displaced people
in the eight post-9/11
wars in which U.S. forces have been most
significantly involved. We
focus on wars where the U.S. government bears a
clear responsibility
for initiating armed combat (the overlapping
Afghanistan/Pakistan war
and the post-2003 war in Iraq); for escalating
armed conflict (U.S. and
European intervention in the Libyan uprising
against Muammar Gaddafi
and Libya's ongoing civil war and U.S. involvement
in Syria); or for
being a significant participant in combat through
drone strikes,
battlefield advising, logistical support, arms
sales, and other means
(U.S. forces' involvement in wars in Yemen,
Somalia, and the
Philippines)."
The paper documents "several
categories of people displaced by the post-9/11
wars: 1) refugees, 2)
asylum seekers pursuing protection as refugees,
and 3) internally
displaced persons or people (IDPs)."
The study
gives the following as its major findings:
"- The
U.S. post-9/11 wars have forcibly displaced at
least 37
million people in and from Afghanistan,
Iraq, Pakistan,
Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Libya, and Syria.
This exceeds
those displaced by every war since 1900, except
World War II.
"- Millions more have been displaced by
other post-9/11 conflicts involving U.S.
troops in smaller
combat operations, including in: Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Central
African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Mali, Niger,
Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia.
"- 37 million is a very
conservative estimate. The total displaced by
the U.S.
post-9/11 wars could be closer to 48-59 million.
"- 25.3 million people have returned after
being displaced, although
return does not erase the trauma of displacement
or mean that those
displaced have returned to their original homes or
to a secure life.
"- Any number is limited in what it can
convey about
displacement's damage. The people behind
the numbers can be
difficult to see, and numbers cannot communicate
how it might feel to
lose one's home, belongings, community, and much
more. Displacement
has caused incalculable harm to
individuals, families,
towns, cities, regions, and entire countries
physically, socially,
emotionally, and economically."
Putting these
figures in the broader global context, the authors
state that "The
United States' post-9/11 wars have contributed
significantly to the
dramatic increase in recent years in the number of
people displaced by
war and violent conflict worldwide: Between 2010
and 2019, the total
number of refugees and IDPs globally has nearly
doubled from 41 million
to 79.5 million."[1]
 It is worthwhile
to note that the scope of the study does not
include other forms of
U.S. aggression during this time, such as
sanctions against countries
that the U.S. claims support terrorism against it
and the resulting
destruction of infrastructure and loss of life.
The study also does not
include countries where the U.S. has backed
and fomented coups
such as Haiti and Honduras, where the situation
for the people has yet
to stabilize and many have been forced to flee due
to economic or
security issues.
Canada is increasingly implicated
in the last 19 years of the U.S. war on terror as
an appeaser of U.S.
imperialism, bearing part of the responsibility
for the tens of
millions of refugees created by U.S. wars of
aggression in that period.
Canada's role is particularly unconscionable in
that it provides a
human face and high ideals for U.S.-led
aggression. It also presents
itself as a condescending saviour for the victims
of war that it has
played a part in creating. All of it is
unacceptable, an affront to the
memory of those killed on 9/11, and anathema to
working people in
Canada who reject any Canadian involvement in U.S.
wars of aggression
and want Canada to be a zone of peace and a
country that upholds the
peaceful resolution of conflicts worldwide.
Note
1. To read the paper
in full, click
here.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 34 - September 12, 2020
Article Link:
Catastrophic Consequences of U.S. Imperialists' Wars of Aggression -
Nick Lin
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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