ISIS murders 140 in Paris - The route to freedom lies through love and solidarity by WSM

 (en) anarkismo.net: ISIS murders 140 in Paris - The route to
freedom lies through love and solidarity by WSM

The 140 people killed in the attacks in Paris last night were murdered by Daesh, the self 
proclaimed 'Islamic State'. On June 25th this year a much larger ISIS suicide force of 
about 80 attacked the city of Kobane using a similar mix of suicide bombs, guns and the 
taking and murdering of hostages. Some 223 civilians were murdered, many when ISIS broke 
into homes killing everyone inside. Around 40 Kurdish militia were killed in the process 
of stopping the slaughter. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobanî_massacre) ---- On October
16th ISIS suicide bombers attacked a pro-Kurdish peace rally in Ankara, killing 102 
people. Although the bombers were from ISIS many understood that this bombing and the
earlier Suruc bombing which killed 33 was accomplished with the aid of the Turkish state. 
http://www.wsm.ie/c/bombing-ankara-turkish-state-oct2015 ) The October bombing was seen 
as part of the process of deliberate polarisation of the AKP government enabling them to 
once more win a majority in the parliament. Between the Suruc and Ankar bombings the US 
military had done a deal with Turkey where in return for the use of a major airbase they 
would turn a blind eye to Turkish airforce attacks on Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in Iraq 
and Syria. (http://www.wsm.ie/c/turkish-state-launches-massive-assault-kurds-isis)

There are two points being made in responding to the Paris bombings with a reminder of 
these earlier attacks. The first is that this sort of slaughter has become routine where 
ISIS operates, indeed Thursday they also bombed Beirut killing up to 50 people. In these 
other attacks almost all their victims would have been people from Muslim backgrounds. 
Indeed overwhelmingly their victims are Muslim's and some from other minority religions in 
the region including Yazidi and Christian communities.

The second is that while ISIS are certainly the enemy of freedom this does not mean the 
western rulers are our friends. ISIS were born out of the vast prison camps the US set up 
after its invasion and brutal occupation of Iraq. They became militarily significant 
because they captured vast quantities of US supplied heavy weapons and armoured vehicles, 
allowing them to overwhelm the poorly armed Kurdish forces north of them and almost 
capture Kobane this time last year.

Turkey is not only a NATO member but has the 2nd largest army in NATO, an army which quite 
literally has sat in tanks watching ISIS murdering Kurds right across the border. And 
which, at least until recently, supplied ISIS with weapons, treated wounded ISIS fighters 
and allowed new recruits from ISIS to flow across the Turkish border. In the June attack 
on Kobane it was believed that many of the ISIS fighters had somehow managed to come 
across the militarised border with Turkey. The dead of Paris like the dead of Ankara, 
Kobane and Suruc are victims of the power game being played between the NATO powers,
Russia and the Assad regime in Syria and Iraq. As well of hundreds of thousands of people 
dying in this game millions have become refugees.

Many of those arriving in Europe this summer were fleeing the sort of violence, and worse, 
that hit Paris last night. That is why the risky sea crossing that has drowned so many 
seem's like a reasonable risk.

The question for us is how to bring their power game to an end. Many will advocate pouring 
yet more petrol on the fire that is burning, putting forward demands to beef up security, 
drop more bombs and control the movement of people. This is the route to eternal war and 
the police state where everyone learns to permanently fear the next attack. That has been 
the reality of daily life for the population of Iraq stretching back to the 1991 war and 
beyond. A situation that in most years simply became more bloody and more brutal until the 
monster that is ISIS was born out of that decades long bloodbath.

We say you can't out macho a suicide bomber. The route to freedom lies through love and
solidarity between working people and not through their wars and 'clash of civilisations'. 
There is a choice to be made in the days and years ahead, Paris will not be the last 
atrocity and such attacks are designed to provoke militarism and hate. Our allies are not 
the forces of imperialist slaughter that created these conditions but rather those in the 
region fighting for a genuinely free 
society.(http://www.wsm.ie/c/rojava-revolution-between-rock-and-hard-place)

Read more about the other events referred to in the text at the linked articles below 1 - 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobanî_massacre 2 - 
http://www.wsm.ie/c/bombing-ankara-turkish-state-oct2015 3 - 
http://www.wsm.ie/c/turkish-state-launches-massive-assault-kurds-isis 4 - 
http://www.wsm.ie/c/rojava-revolution-between-rock-and-hard-place

Related Link: http://www.wsm.ie/isis

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/28722

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