{"id":139262,"date":"2014-09-14T17:27:25","date_gmt":"2014-09-14T17:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=139262"},"modified":"2014-09-14T17:27:25","modified_gmt":"2014-09-14T17:27:25","slug":"dont-bomb-isis-behalf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/dont-bomb-isis-behalf\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Bomb ISIS On My Behalf"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Ernesto<\/em>
\nRINF Alternative News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted Sept. 4-7 among 1,001 adults nationwide revealed that 59% of Americans believe ISIS (or ISIL or the Islamic State) is a \u201cvery serious threat to US vital interests.\u201d Another 31% view ISIS as a \u201csomewhat serious\u201d threat.<\/p>\n

So, 90% of Americans believe ISIS is a threat to US interests<\/a>. And only 2% think ISIS is not a threat. I\u2019ve never belonged to the \u201c1 percent\u201d but now I\u2019m part of the \u201c2 percent\u201d who don\u2019t think ISIS is a threat to the US.<\/p>\n

I live down the street from the US Capitol. If ISIS struck in the belly of the beast, my family and I would likely be negatively impacted. But I\u2019ve never lost a minute of sleep worrying about it, and I never will. Not because I\u2019m \u201ctough\u201d but because I\u2019m not a pawn of the government controlled media that misleads Americans into accepting Obama\u2019s propaganda to \u201cscare\u201d us into more war.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a better chance that Santa Claus comes down my chimney than there is for \u201cMuslim terrorists\u201d to invade the US.<\/p>\n

In tried-and-true fashion, Obama gave his \u201cwe will destroy ISIS\u201d speech on the eve of the September 11 anniversary. What better way to push for blind acceptance of yet another war than to conjure up memories of the 9\/11 World Trade Center attack?<\/p>\n

One wonders how Americans can go along with the \u201cterrorists are a threat to the US\u201d narrative so quickly after the Iraq war debacle but 90% do and believe the brilliantly worded narrative, which brings to mind imagery of falling buildings and smoky skies.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ironic that ISIS, formerly known as al-Qaeda in Iraq, originated in 2004<\/a> because of the US invasion of Iraq. And in a further bit of absurdity, ISIS has received arms from the US in Syria<\/a> while at about the same time the US was bombing them in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Do 90% of the people in the US still not understand that groups like ISIS exist primarily because<\/em> of what the US military is doing around the world? And that for every ISIS fighter and innocent civilian the US kills, another set of enemies will be created?<\/p>\n

The US creates the problem it claims it is trying to resolve. \u201cUS military intervention has tremendous propaganda value for the Islamic State<\/a>,\u201d wrote Mideast scholar Ramzy Mardini in the Washington Post. \u201cMoreover, to the extent that the group poses any threat to the United States, that threat is magnified by a visible US military role.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the US insists on going to war with ISIS, it should at least have the courage to send US troops \u2014 airstrikes, particularly those carried out by drones, are cowardly. If you\u2019re going to kill people, you should at least have the nobility of putting your own life at risk.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, weapon manufacturers must be quite pleased over Obama\u2019s new war on ISIS, as any war — no matter the reason or validity — is good for business.<\/p>\n

So while the US government makes weapon makers richer, it threatened legal action against<\/a> the mother of beheaded US journalist James Foley for trying to raise ransom money to free her son from ISIS capture. Maybe Obama needed the imagery of an American journalist being killed by ISIS to justify its new war \u2014 Foley\u2019s mother almost got in the way of his plan.<\/p>\n

ISIS, which has about 30,000 fighters<\/a>, according to the CIA, and with no air force, navy, or nuclear weapons, is not a genuine threat to a country that has over 1.4 million soldiers on active duty<\/a>. But that doesn\u2019t stop the people from feigning fear. It\u2019s like watching a horror film during which you feel scared, but then you realize it\u2019s just a movie. Unfortunately, when it comes to the \u201cMuslim terrorists are a threat to the US\u201d storyline, Americans still haven\u2019t realized it\u2019s just a movie.<\/p>\n

So is Obama\u2019s new war on terror a smokescreen with a hidden agenda that he cannot publicize? Is his real target Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and then Iran? How long will it take before some of Obama\u2019s targeted strikes hit a Syrian weapons depot, or a government building?<\/p>\n

Syria would become the sixth Muslim country Obama bombs<\/a> this year, and the seventh in his presidency. Yet people still buy the myth<\/a> that Obama is a moderate who only uses military force reluctantly. I believe that about as much as I believe that someday ISIS will come into the United States, torch the Constitution and institute Sharia law. Too bad 90% of Americans disagree.<\/p>\n

Chris Ernesto is cofounder of St. Pete for Peace<\/a>, an antiwar organization in St. Petersburg, FL that has been active since 2003. Mr. Ernesto also created and manages OccupyArrests.com<\/a> and\u00a0USinAfrica.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Ernesto RINF Alternative News A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted Sept. 4-7 among 1,001 adults nationwide revealed that 59% of Americans believe ISIS (or ISIL or the Islamic State) is a \u201cvery serious threat to US vital interests.\u201d Another 31% view ISIS as a \u201csomewhat serious\u201d threat. So, 90% of Americans believe ISIS is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-139262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}