The drums of war are sounding. Now that American bombs have fallen on the Syrian government, an increase in tensions with Russia threatens to set off a new Cold War, or worse.
Eighty civilians died in Idlib, Syria after a chemical weapon attack, was allegedly carried out by the Syrian military. In retaliation, U.S. Navy ships fired 59 tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase, destroying fighter jets and other military equipment.
“The United States crossed red lines by attacking Syria, from now on we will respond to anyone, including America if it attacks Syria and crosses the red lines,” said Russian and Iranian officials in a joint statement released in the wake of the U.S. missile strike.
As the rhetoric on both sides ramps up, many Americans are left to wonder in fear about what will happen in the coming years. Are we facing a new Cold War with Russia? Will there be a military escalation with U.S. troops on the ground in Syria? Who stands to benefit? Are we all being duped?
While no one knows what the future holds for Syria, the writing is on the wall and another un-winnable war is on the horizon. This will turn into President Donald Trump’s version of the Iraq War.
To prevent another endless middle eastern conflict, the United States should avoid any further military intervention in Syria and provide humanitarian aid to the Syrian people.
A prolonged war with Syria will kill or displace millions of civilians and decimate the already precarious Syrian infrastructure. It will distract from the negative impacts of the Trump administration’s domestic policies and create a new source of revenue for the military industrial complex.
While it is presented as an act to defend the Syrian people, the recent U.S. missile strike serves the Trump administration as a political distraction from the administration’s harmful domestic policies.
In the days following the chemical weapon attack and the April 6 missile strike, many policy proposals slipped past the eyes of the American public.
The failure of Trump and House Republicans to pass their American Health Care Act might as well have happened a year ago with how quickly the public eye turned away.
The same day as the missile strike, Senate Republicans eliminated the option to filibuster from the Senate rules and, the next day, confirmed Trump’s controversial pick, Neil Gorsuch, to the U.S. Supreme Court.
While the public is distracted by big explosions, defense contractors are joyously lining up to fill their pockets.
As Eisenhower warned so long ago, “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
Revelations recently surfaced of a meeting brokered by United Arab Emirates officials in the Seychelles Islands between Trump surrogate Erik Prince and Russian officials in order to create a direct line between Russia and the Trump administration. Prince is the founder of the infamous defense contractor Blackwater and brother of Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos.
What’s most troubling about this revelation is that it establishes a concrete connection between Moscow and Trump’s administration. A connection forged at the hands of one of the most prolific war profiteers of all time, Erik Prince.
Couple that with the knowledge that Trump owned stock in Raytheon, the company that manufactured the tomahawk missiles that hit the Syrian air base. Following the strike, Raytheon’s stock jumped, adding $1 billion to the company’s market cap.
Only a few planes were destroyed in the strike. In the days following the strike, Assad launched more aerial bombings on Idlib from the targeted air base. Nothing was accomplished beyond drumming up media hype.
Trump and his cabinet profit off military strikes and Russia profits off the sale of military equipment to Assad. All these connections clearly suggest collusion between Trump and Russia to start a proxy war in Syria and reignite the Cold War.
After the Great Depression, World War II lifted up the American economy. Since then, capitalists in America have seen war as a profitable venture. Even during World War II, the Bush family profited off deals with Germany. If the economy is in a slump, modern political conventional wisdom says to start a war.
This desire to profit from war is easily exploited, as evidenced by the 9/11 attacks and the surprisingly salient words of Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden saw his actions as “bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.”
“One cannot say that al-Qaida is the sole factor in achieving those spectacular gains,” said bin Laden in 2004 about the rise in the U.S. national debt. “Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations – whether they are working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction – has helped al-Qaida to achieve these enormous results.”
By embroiling the U.S. in another un-winnable conflict, Trump will all but do bin Laden and the Islamic State’s work for them. While our infrastructure crumbles domestically, we spend trillions of dollars bombing other countries. The cycle of bloodshed and profits continues, and the people are the ones left paying for it.
Americans should demand the immediate cessation of all military intervention in Syria, the release of Trump’s tax returns and a massive reduction in military spending.
Also published on Medium.
