Capitalist-technocratic psychopaths of imperialism vs. the psychopaths of Islamic State (IS) updated

By Fazal Rahman, Ph.D.  February 12, 2015

First posted on http://imperialismandthethirdworld.wordpress.com

https://imperialismandthethirdworld.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/capitalist-technocratic-psychopaths-of-imperialism-vs-the-psychopaths-of-islamic-state-is-by-fazal-rahman-phd/

Destruction of a home in Idlib, Syria, by US-led coalition’s aerial bombing, supposedly targeting the IS (Daish)

Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, who was beheaded later by the IS (Daish)

After failing to defeat the forces of Islamic State (ISor ISIS or ISIL, also known by its Arabic name Daish) in Iraq and Syria by massive aerial bombardments of the US and its Arab and Western allies, the American President, Barack Obama, has announced sending the American troops there for that purpose, again demonstrating his extraordinary trapeze abilities.  Such escalation will inevitably lead to predicable results and reactions.  The US and its above-mentioned allies are already heavily involved in funding, arming, and training of the so-called moderate anti-government groups in Syria, out of which the Islamic State emerged, to begin with.  Fighters from other groups and other nations, including the US and Europe, have been increasingly joining the IS in its various campaigns.  Such growth and development of IS forces is very likely to multiply after the involvement of US ground forces.   Whatever the US imperialism does in that region creates more and more sinister destructions and losses of life and means of living.  None of this would have happened if the US had left Iraq alone and not invaded it.  After diabolical destruction of Iraq by the American and European invaders, the new Shia-dominated government there marginalized the Sunnis, who were dominant before the invasion.  The new inferior and oppressive political and economic status imposed upon them, under the drastically changed balance of forces, forced them to search for alternatives and solutions to the huge problems of disempowerment, poverty, unemployment, and violence of the state and its allies in the Shia militias.  Sunnis found those hopes in the IS, after it demonstrated some of its successes and joined it in large numbers, including many well trained former soldiers and officers of the Iraqi military forces, under the late President, Saddam Hussain.  They knew how to use and operate much of the modern weapons and equipment and also trained others in their usage.  That seems to be one of the most important reasons for the astounding successes and resistance of IS against the combined military forces of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey (involved in training), Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Arab states, Jordan, US and some its NATO allies, Australia etc.  It is hardly possible to overemphasize the fundamental role of American imperialism in creating this most sinister and devastating disaster in the Middle East, first by invading Iraq and then funding, arming, and training of the anti-government forces in Syria.  As mentioned above, it is now planning to escalate the devastation and destruction in that area by sending its ground forces there.  Of course, there are already thousands of American military and CIA operatives in that area, involved in various operations.  The new escalation will multiply those.   Many Middle Eastern countries, like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey, have powerful and large military forces.  The IS problem can be handled effectively by any of them. Moreover, according to a Wikipedia article of June, 2014, the active Iraqi military personnel numbered 283,000, to be increased to 350,000, while the reserves numbered 528,500-total close to a million.  These forces were trained, and continue to be trained, by the US and NATO militaries and tens of billions of dollars have been spent on their training and armaments.  The IS is estimated to have around 31,000 fighters.  The Kurdish Peshmarga army in Iraq is also large-91,000-well armed, and trained and supported by the US and NATO militaries.  And yet, the Iraqi and Kurdish militaries are unable to defeat the IS and have been retreating and conceding more and more territory to it, in spite of the US-led coalition’s aerial bombings of IS controlled areas and targets, acting as their air force.  The IS has been fighting successfully on several fronts, including that of Syria, where it is emerging the dominant anti-government force, controlling significant territory.  Involving the American and NATO ground forces into that complex and paradoxical situation will only complicate and compound it further, especially in view of the fact that they were responsible for creating that problem, as well as numerous other problems in that area, to begin with.  Their escalation of interference and military actions will aggravate the current problems and create new ones.

The origins of the situation in Iraq and Syria are very similar to those in Afghanistan.  If the US had left Afghanistan alone in the late 1970s, after the socialist-oriented revolution there, there would be no Afghan or Pakistani Taliban, no Al-Qaeda and other Islamic groups, , engaged in the armed struggle, no state terrorism and terrorism, and no suicide bombings.  These problems multiplied after the 2001 US and NATO invasion of Afghanistan.  If they had left Afghanistan alone, it would have made great politico-economic, social, and cultural progress, instead of being devastated and embroiled in the war against the imperialist invaders and their local clients and collaborators.  After spending more than $1 trillion on that invasion and war and causing huge losses of life and destruction of the means and ways of living, they have now withdrawn most of their forces, in effect, admitting a humiliating defeat, leaving the country utterly devastated, after more than 34 years of constant proxy and direct wars.    The proxy war was started under the administration of Jimmy Carter and greatly escalated under that of Ronald Reagan.  Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Advisor under Jimmy Carter, later claimed boastfully that the objective of the plan, hatched under his leadership, was to trap the Soviets into a Vietnam-like quagmire.  Just like in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, the various problems, great devastations and destructions of lives and means and ways of living, and internal conflicts in Afghanistan grew and developed on the roots planted there by American and NATO imperialism.

After repeated debacles in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya-trillions of dollars of expenditures and huge exterminations of lives-why do the successive American administrations continue to repeat that history?   That is one of the most important questions that needs to be asked.  Various geopolitical and politico-economic jargonistic reasons and answers have been given to that question, some of which are quite valid.  However, the simplest and most important reason is often omitted, which consists of the fact that such wars and invasions result in fabulous profits for the Military-Industrial-Complex (MIC), no matter what their outcome.   Whether the US wins or loses a war, the MIC always wins its profits.  Much of the academia and media are also tied in with the MIC and actually it has now become the Military-Industrial-Media-Academia-Complex (MIMAC).  This is a method to redistribute and divert huge amounts of public funds-from tax-payers money-to the MIC, and increasingly, to private contractors.  Just in the Iraqi and Afghanistani invasions and wars, more than $4 trillion were transferred to the MIC and private contractors.  What do the American people gain from it?   Nothing, except shame, humiliation, and great crimes and sins committed against humanity, in their name and on their expense.  They lose enormous resources and tens of thousands of lives are destroyed, through death and physical and mental injuries.  In the victimized countries, incomparably more lives and resources are destroyed in these wars and invasions.  In Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Pakistan, around three million have been killed, millions made refugees and internally displaced persons, countless millions reduced to poverty, unemployment, and without healthcare and education, colossal damages inflicted on the infrastructures and means of living,  devastating sectarian and other conflicts created, some of which develop into various forms of terrorism etc.

No mentally healthy humans can do what has been done-and continues to be done-by the government, politico-economic, and military leaders of the US and other imperialist countries, as well as those enslaved to them.  This is indeed the worst and unmatchable type of psychopathology, as it involves systematic mass murders and devastation of the lives of countless millions of human beings, most of them innocent civilian non-combatants, including men, women, and children of all ages.  And yet, the establishment psychology and psychiatry have nothing to say about this unmatchable psychopathology.  The massive extreme technocratic brutality and barbarity is self-evident in these wars and invasions.  As is now well-known, systematic and massive tortures have also been routinely practiced for decades around the world, in the service of capitalism and imperialism.  According to some estimates, a million torturers from Latin America and other countries were trained by the torture experts of the Office of Public Safety of the Agency for International Development (AID) alone, ten thousands receiving advanced training in the US (http://williamblum.org/chapters/killing-hope/uruguay ).  The CIA and military torture experts had their own programs and operations.  Among other wars and invasions, extreme tortures were also practiced during the Vietnam War, especially in the Phoenix Program.  Post 9/11 tortures were continuation of that history, even though these are being presented by the recent US Senate Committee Report and news media as if these were anomalies.

The Devil could hardly do any better.

The IS, the origins of which are directly attributable to the American operations in the Middle East, is also practicing its own version of brutality, barbarity, and psychopathology, by beheading the captured foreigners and other enemies, enslaving the conquered non-Muslims, like Yazidis, and instituting various outdated harsh punishments.  However, some of these practices happen on a larger scale in countries like Saudi Arabia, which is the major ally of US in the Middle East.  These are generally overlooked and ignored by the US and the West, which only condemn the IS as being barbaric and brutal, for these.  Of course, they do not say a word about their own incomparably greater and more massive technocratic brutalities and barbarities.  When populations are bombed and shelled indiscriminately, innumerable human bodies of all genders and ages are torn apart; beheaded; arms, hands, legs, and feet severed from the bodies; bodies burnt and mutilated.  This happens on an incomparably larger scale.  Why is it not condemned as barbaric and brutal?  Why are these words only reserved for the much smaller individual actions of enemies, like the IS, who perform these with primitive weapons, like swords and knives?  The answer is clear.   The incomparably greater and more massive technocratic barbarism and brutality are not characterized for what they are because these are technocratic and because these are committed by the Advanced Capitalist-Imperialist Technocratic Societies (ACITS) in the Third World countries.  ACITS have always been classist and racists, both internationally and domestically, and will continue to be, as long as the diabolical marriage of advanced capitalism and advanced technocracy continues.

It also needs to be mentioned that the Shia-dominated Iraqi military and militias are also committing barbaric and brutal atrocities against the Sunnis and the IS, wherever and whenever they succeed in occupying their territory or capturing them.  There are many reports of the slaughters of Sunnis by the Iraqi military and Shia militias.  This is a conflict in which all sides are practicing some of the worst forms of brutality and barbarism.

Tags

barbarity, brutality, capitalism, Daish, Fazal Rahman Ph.D., history of tortures by the US, imperialism, Iraq, IS, ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State, Middle East, military industrial complex, profits of wars, psychopathology of Islamic State, psychpathology of imperialism, Syria, terrorism, tortures