by Danny Haiphong
For nearly 40 years the U.S. and its allies have played “a dangerous game of carrot and stick with terrorist forces” in the Arab and Muslim world, using them as proxies to destroy secular governments. Now it’s blow back time. “ISIS and the jihadist network plan on turning their guns toward the states that fathered them – one of many signs of the decline of the imperialist system, a process that began in the late 1970’s.”
Imperialism's "Chickens Come Home to Roost" in Paris to Fuel War and Repression
by Danny Haiphong
“Imperialism is trapped in a strategy of war that relies on jihadists to reassert US-Western dominance in the resource-rich regions of the Middle East and North Africa.”
After John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Nation of Islam leader and Black liberation icon Malcolm X declared the event an example of "chickens coming home to roost" in the US. What Malcolm meant was that the US system of white supremacy had produced blow back against the efforts of the liberal civil rights movement in the form of Kennedy's murder.
In 2016, jihadist chickens birthed from the imperialist farm have come home to roost. France experienced blow back in Paris on November 13th in response to the proxy wars fueled by imperialism in Asia and Africa. Imperialism as a whole has inevitably used the 100-plus people who died in the Paris attack as a pretext to further its war agenda in Syria and the region.
Imperialist war is defined by the use of military, economic, and political state force to expand the profits and power of monopoly capital in every corner of the globe. In a period marked by a significant decline in living conditions in the West, imperialist states are required to justify such global force to a large section of their own population. In the US, France, and the West generally, the most effective means to rally white people to support war is through appeals to racism.
The attacks on France were immediately framed as an act of war on the part of imperialism's newest boogeyman, ISIS. The corporate media was also quick to note that a Syrian refugee may have been behind the atrocity. This compelled the racist, anti-refugee and pro-regime change currents to attack the Muslim and Arab populations living in the West and support US President Obama and French President Hollande's call to escalate the imperial war on Syria abroad.
“The most effective means to rally white people to support war is through appeals to racism.”
White supremacy has historically served the function of clouding the motivations of the ruling class at the expense of its colonized victims. After 9/11, the entire Arab world was blamed for the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. The US went on to invade Afghanistan in violation of international law and UN approval despite evidence that neither the Taliban nor any other force in Afghanistan could have been responsible for the incident. Imperialism subsequently declared a War on Terror and strengthened its military and surveillance apparatus in the US and abroad. In the same vein, French airstrikes ensued directly after the Paris attacks and martial law declared at home.
Imperialism has framed the recent escalation as a necessary emergency response to the so-called “war" ISIS has declared on the West. The West has spread this lie to avoid the fact that the terrorist attacks were the product of chickens coming home to roost for the imperialist system. Imperialism has been playing a dangerous game of carrot and stick with terrorist forces inside of Syria since 2011. The US and its allies have financed, armed, and supported ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Al-Nusra Front for the purpose of overthrowing the Syrian government. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the entire NATO alliance have all played a key role in the empowerment of terrorism throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
These terrorist forces, while happily receptive to imperialist support, ultimately have their own interests at heart. ISIS does not plan on being indefinite foot soldiers of US and Western imperialism. Once the conditions of chaos have spread and the region destabilized, ISIS and the jihadist network plan on turning their guns toward the states that fathered them. This development is one of many signs of the decline of the imperialist system, a process that began in the late 1970’s.
“The terrorist attacks were the product of chickens coming home to roost for the imperialist system.”
Ever since 1979, when the Mujaheddin was brought to life to overthrow the socialist government of Afghanistan, the US and its allies have nourished a jihadist network of terror throughout the region to secure imperialism's economic and political interests in the face of economic and politic crisis. The terrorist network has gained significant traction in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya in the process. Yet US and Western influence has become less and less secure.
Afghanistan remains too unstable to withdraw military occupation forces. Iraq is developing political ties with Iran after imperialist destabilization cost the country millions of people and threw the nation back into underdevelopment. The destabilization of Libya has yet to bring imperialism any economic or political benefit other than the elimination of a sovereign state. To top it off, imperialism's jihadist network is being pushed back in Syria following the infusion of Russian aid. Russian aid has threatened to place a permanent halt on the imperialist policy of regime change.
These setbacks in the arena of imperial expansion alongside the parallel crisis of capitalism's economic infrastructure have laid the basis for a perfect storm after the Paris attacks. The proxy war in Syria is creating the conditions for blow back while having been unsuccessful in the objective of regime change. Workers and oppressed people are experiencing permanent low wages and long periods of joblessness. The only possible remedy to these problems for the parasitic ruling class is to raise the level of state violence on the exploited peoples of the world. The Paris terrorist attacks have given space for the ruling class to militarize city streets within the West and increase its bombing campaign in Syria with relative impunity.
“Imperialism's jihadist network is being pushed back in Syria following the infusion of Russian aid.”
Imperialism's path of destruction guarantees that more instances of "chickens coming home to roost" will occur in the near future. France is the second largest supplier to the US in arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia happens to be the world's largest supplier of jihadist terrorism. Imperialism is trapped in a strategy of war that relies on jihadists to reassert US-Western dominance in the resource-rich regions of the Middle East and North Africa. The jihadist forces understand their importance to the imperialist system. ISIS and its surrogates have their own plans for power, none of which include servitude to the US and its allies.
To stop imperialism's chickens from coming home to roost, we must destroy the farm and all of its overseers. Anti-war and anti-imperialist forces must strike at the heart of the parasitic system of imperialism with ideological cohesion and practical persuasion. Imperialist war must be connected to the fascist, racist repression enforced on migrant peoples. Black America's just struggle against the Mass Black Incarceration state must be linked to the struggle of peoples all over the world for self-determination. Neither social transformation nor peace can be realized under occupation. But foreign occupation and the complex mechanisms that support it cannot be effectively fought without consciousness of the common enemy which unites the oppressed wherever they are. That enemy is the ruling class of the Empire.
Danny Haiphong is a candidate for Workers World Party and member of Fight Imperialism Stand Together in Boston. He is also a regular contributor to Black Agenda Report. Danny can be reached at [email protected] and FIST can be reached at [email protected].
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