US empire to be blamed for refugee crisis + photos

Renowned Palestinian-American literary theorist Edward Said differentiates between colonialism and imperialism, saying colonization takes place when the dominators enter and usurp a country by force while imperialism is a kind of soft power exertion which gradually alienates one from the culture of his/her motherland.

Over the past decades, the United States has proven to be an imperialist power per se, but the world power, as it is called, thinks nothing of unveiling its shrouded war machine whenever imperialism fails to serve Washington’s interests.

Today, the refugee crisis is in the limelight, especially after the tragic death of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi off the Turkish coast. The media reports abound with commentaries on the ways to tackle the worsening crisis, with the pro-refugee camp calling on the European states to host more asylum seekers and the far-right parties employing a xenophobic, racist rhetoric against the Muslim and colored refugees. But what is frequently ignored in the media reports of the developments is the root of all this evil: the greed of the Western powers, and particularly the US, to establish their dominance over the world through indirect, and, if needed, direct means.

US colonial-imperial juggernaut is still working with full power in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa, says T.J. Petrowski in his “The Refugee Crisis is a Crisis of Imperialism.”

The analyst believes that the number of refugees has increased dramatically since the inception of the US so-called “war on terror,”

“Wherever the U.S. and its imperialist allies have intervened, whether through direct military action or indirect proxy wars, economic sabotage, and coups, in the name of ‘democracy,’ the ‘War on Terror,’ or the ‘responsibility to protect,’ death and despair have been forced upon millions of innocent people, who have been left no other choice than to abandon their native lands to embark on a dangerous future of desperate struggle,” he stated.

The “impoverished, traumatized, and desperate” Afghan civilians have borne the brunt of deadly clashes between the US-led foreign invaders and reactionary Taliban militants for years, and still have failed to find peace and stability in their homeland.

Nor is better the situation of the Arab countries of the region, which, were once swept by the hopeful radiance of the Islamic Awakening, heralding a new era of democracy and prosperity. The dreams soon turned out to be nightmares when US and its allies entered the equation in the Arab states in an alleged attempt to protect the rights of the democracy seekers.

“In 2011, when the Arab Spring protests swept across the Middle East and North Africa, Western imperialism hijacked legitimate grievances of the masses as a pretext for intervention in the name of the ‘responsibility to protect’ and “democracy promotion,’” Petrowski went on to say.

The most prominent example of such painful perpetuity is Libya, where the promising revolution of people against the reign of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi eventuated in a full-fledged catastrophe as a result of foreign interference, particularly by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“NATO airstrikes killed hundreds of civilians and forced Libya back into the Stone Age ... Thousands have been killed as rival tribal and extremist factions, some now allied with ISIS (Daesh), are battling for control of the country,” the analyst noted.

Then why would it be strange if Libyans decide to flee their homeland under the current circumstances, in which their country is grappling with a severe power vacuum and grave security problems?

And the same is true about the Syrian Arab Republic which has been consumed by the fire of foreign-backed militancy since 2011. No one can deny the fact that the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group is “a product of the illegal US occupation of Iraq that killed 1 million Iraqis.” According to Petrowski, incontrovertible evidence further testifies that “US and its allies have been actively training and supporting ISIS (Daesh) elements since the start of the proxy war in Syria.”

The situation in Syria becomes ironic when the very same powers that created and cultivated Daesh later decide to bomb the positions of the Takfiri group in an alleged bid to curb the advance of terrorism and extremism in the region. Hence the Syrian people had no other option but to choose between decapitation by the Takfiri elements and decimation by US-led aerial campaign! Do you still find it surprising that the majority of today’s Europe-bound refugees come from Syria?!

It goes without saying that no sustainable solution can be envisioned for the refugee crisis without a drastic change in Washington’s foreign policy. And what seems as important is the stance of European policymakers on the crisis: maybe it is now time for Europe to stand on its own feet and avoid blindly following US policies in the region. Refugees escape, and have the right to escape, as long as warmongers and their agents operate in the region. You want no refugees? Stop waging wars!

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