From this article: http://anarkick.com/doctors-without-borders-vs-the-united-states-monopoly-on-terror/
Discuss:
The news this weekend that a gigantic American war-plane unrelentingly bombed a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan for an hour can hardly be seen as an anomaly in a world thoroughly accustomed to the North American nation state’s global reign of terror.
The US AC-130 military aircraft lay waste to the hospital, setting patients laying in their sickbeds on fire, and dispersing volunteers body parts far and wide. At least 22 people have died so far, including 10 patients and 12 staffers. 3 children were among the dead.
The hospital, staffed by Doctor’s Without Borders, had repeatedly given its exact coordinates to the US military to avoid such an attack. The Doctor’s Without Borders organization is all too aware of the dangers doctors face in an American war zone and was sure to take every precaution, but ultimately the American military machine is not a force that can be reasoned with.
There is no precaution that can be taken to shield against a violent, destructive force that exists only to create chaos; to destabilise resource-rich regions and then allow American corporations to march in and plunder the battered population’s wealth.
The long, long history of American attacks on civilians in the lands they invade and conquer can only be described as a perverse monopoly on terrorism. The US leaders and their media expend incredible energy on inciting hatred against the ‘terrorists’ in the regions they’ve targeted for assimilation. These ‘terrorist’ fighters try desperately but futilely to fight back at the aggressive foreign attackers that fill their lands and skies.
The indigenous ‘terrorists’ are denigrated by NATO members as the very worst of humanity. Yet, the American military has slaughtered far more innocent men, women and children than any terrorist cell in history. In Afghanistan alone, just since 2008, the UN has documented 1,700 confirmed civilian kills by NATO airstrikes.
A similar strategy is employed on the home front, with the American police force’s strict monopoly on violence brutalizing America’s working poor. This so-called ‘legitimate use of physical force’ is held exclusively by the state.
“The modern state is a compulsory association which organizes domination.” –Max Weber
For a state to dominate, attack, imprison and assassinate its own population is bad enough, but when this state decides it holds the same monopoly over the entire planet’s population – this is cause for great alarm and it should be reason enough for the people of the world to embark on a mass shunning of this global terrorist organization that has made itself the de-facto compulsory world government, ruling over every being on the face of the planet.
It has gotten to the point where any person standing against North American imperialism is labelled a terrorist. Civilians of conquered nations are given a simple choice; either support the puppet government installed for you by the US, or you are a terrorist. Again and again, the empire vilifies anyone that stands apart from the state. The state is unquestionable, to oppose it is blasphemy and all those who attempt to fight against it will be branded terrorists and assassinated from the skies.
But what of the doctors, nurses and other apolitical volunteers dedicating their lives to treat the victims of the empire’s infinite wars? After the airstrikes on the hospital, the US desperately tried to excuse their latest slaughter, changing their story like clockwork every few hours, clumsily trying to shift the blame onto their puppet Afghan regime, and of course never offering anything resembling an apology for the unprovoked carnage.
The initial statement released by the US was the first of many blatant lies:
“U.S. forces conducted an airstrike in Kunduz city at 2:15am (local), Oct. 3, against individuals threatening the force. The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.”
Of course, it is now clear that the hospital was directly targeted for continuous bombing over a one-hour period, and wasn’t anything close to ‘collateral damage’ as the US claimed.
This surreal phrase, ‘collateral damage’, is so frequently used to excuse the mass ‘casualties’ (murdered people) of America’s global terror campaign ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’, that it has become embedded in the consciousness of the average US citizen, and as soon as the word ‘collateral damage’ is uttered, we’re able to shrug our shoulders and stop ourselves from analyzing the mass murder of innocents any further. After all, the brave US world police, punishing the evildoers that would stand in the way of American freedom (mass murder) and prosperity (mass profit) is completely necessary for our survival. The rest of the world is filled to the brim with terrorists, anarchists and communists, and we must destroy them all.
So, when the initial statement US officials released was held up to the light and found to be full of holes, the cunning US leaders, frustrated that the media hadn’t yet moved on to the next story, decided that the bad guys must have been hiding inside the hospital, and that necessitated the bombing. Usually, this is enough to placate the world’s cajoler media, with the only dissenting voices being unimportant brown peasants with missing limbs and dead babies; of no interest to the cosmopolitan westerner.
But this time, the US propaganda arm was up against a highly-respected western organization, Doctor’s Without Borders, and the medical humanitarian group refused to allow the war-makers lies to propagate. This is one of many denouncements that was published to the Doctors Without Borders twitter stream:
“(We are) disgusted by the recent statements justifying the attack. These statements imply that Afghan and US forces working together decided to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital – with more than 180 staff and patients inside – because they claim members of the Taliban were present. This amounts to an admission of a war crime. This utterly contradicts the initial attempts of the US government to minimise the attack as ‘collateral damage’. There can be no justification for this abhorrent attack on our hospital that resulted in the deaths of MSF staff as they worked, and patients as they lay in their beds. MSF reiterates its demand for a full transparent and independent international investigation.”
You would think that the US; the indisputable leader of the NATO empire, would be better at spinning its lies by now. I suppose they can’t be blamed for their feeble efforts, since they’re so unaccustomed to actually having to explain their actions to the public with any semblance of logic or common sense. The level of scrutiny this charitable organisation is suddenly shining on the almighty USA is simply unreasonable – We come, we destroy, we profit. It’s not that complicated, so why ask questions?
MSF153449
“Fucking charity workers, don’t you know America kills you to safeguard your freedom?”
After repeatedly giving their exact GPS coordinates to the US forces, most recently 5 days before the attack, the personnel at the hospital again called the US military during the attack. The staffers begged them to stop the bombing. Their pleas were ignored and the attacks continued for another 30 minutes.
This is by no means the first time the US has bombed a hospital. They’ve also wiped out schools, news stations, mosques, a wedding party, countless homes and several entire villages, each time refusing to apologise and offering wafer-thin explanations such as, “they sympathized with the Taliban”, “the report cannot be independently verified” and the trusty old “unfortunate collateral damage”.
The monopoly on terror that the US has enjoyed going as far back as 1950, can only be taken away from them if we stop allowing the officials to excuse their horrific actions with perverse doublespeak. These brave and courageous people weren’t ‘collateral damage’, or co-conspirators of a dastardly Taliban plot, they were simply the latest in a long list of USA murder victims.
It has become increasingly ironic that Afghanistan was invaded by the US all those years ago for being a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’.
Also ironic, or perhaps eerie is a better word: Doctor’s Without Borders had previously criticised the US for its Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). The agreement has just been met, affecting 40% of the world’s economy.