On the one hand, it is a slap in the face to U.S. imperialism in North Africa. On the other, militarist forces in the U.S. ruling class can try to use the event as a pretext for further direct intervention in the region. Already two U.S. warships are heading to Libya’s coast and 50 Marines to Tripoli, its capital.
It is vital to working-class interests that the 99%, that is, all those who suffer the consequences of U.S. militarism, prepare themselves to fend off the avalanche of propaganda that the corporate media are sure to promote. Ruling-class forces here may even try to justify a military attack on Iran or Syria based on this phony pretext. …
The first step in understanding these events is to remember that the United States is an imperialist country. It, its NATO allies and Japan, by their very character, exploit and super-exploit the other countries and peoples of the world. As long as these countries continue to oppress peoples, they will arouse resistance, and that resistance is justified.
The immediate spark for the assaults on the embassies apparently came from a crude anti-Muslim film produced in the United States about a year ago by extreme, reactionary elements. This film is an open provocation to devout Muslims, an insult guaranteed to generate anger. Coptic Christians in Egypt demonstrated against the film in solidarity with their Muslim compatriots. Even the U.S. Embassy in Cairo tried to apologize and gain some distance from this film.
While such crude anti-Islam is not official U.S. policy, the official persecution of Muslims in the United States and the corporate media’s heavy anti-Muslim propaganda have created an atmosphere that allows the crudest and most reactionary groups to thrive here. …
U.S. officials claim the attack was premeditated and a group like al-Qaida did it. What they left out of the statement was that groups like al-Qaida are exactly the same as those the U.S. encouraged, armed and threw into battle against the legitimate Libyan government of Col. Moammar Ghadafi in 2011.
This maneuvering with extremist groups is nothing new for Washington. In the 1980s the U.S. armed al-Qaida and assorted “warlords” against the progressive Afghan government. Today it’s doing it once more against the Syrian government.
