Attiullah, 7, shot in the back by U.S. forcesThe war for oil being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan is also taking its toll in the U.S. The 13 deaths at Ft. Hood can be added to the 5,300 dead U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and over one million Iraqi and Afghanis killed since the invasions of 2003.
We shouldn’t fall for either of the bosses’ media spins on the Ft. Hood shootings: the overtly racist Fox News take that "all Muslims are evil," or the liberal Obama-New York Times slant that "embraces all religions" in pursuit of imperialist war. The profit system itself stands guilty of all the murders, from Texas to the Mid-East to Central Asia. Our Party has long held the position of "Turn the Guns Around." Unlike Hasan, who targeted rank-and-file soldiers, we advocate mass, militant, anti-racist, anti-imperialist action against top officers and the capitalists they serve. This struggle forms part of our long-term strategy to build a mass communist party that will ultimately destroy the war-making billionaires in a communist revolution.
The profit-driven U.S. war machine had already slaughtered over 700,000 non-combatants in oil-rich Iraq by 2006, according to the British medical journal Lancet. In Afghanistan, U.S.-led forces killed 345 civilians between January and August 2009, the UN reports. These figures don’t include the 90 Afghan civilians wiped out in September by NATO or the six innocent farmers and three of their children incinerated recently by a U.S. missile. CIA and U.S. Air Force drones have slain over 700 Pakistani civilians since 2006. To perpetuate this serial killing, U.S. rulers are pouncing on the Ft. Hood incident to increase anti-Islamic sentiment.
Whether Major Nidal Hasan did this on his own or was put up to it, the shootings in the military processing center were not the actions of a sane stable person. Hasan cracked under the duress of hearing the stories of atrocities in the war told to him day after day.
By the military’s own admissions, this war is taking a tremendous mental toll on soldiers. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety over deployment, suicide, and domestic violence are all at very high levels in the military. (More next issue)
Racism is also to blame. The military has always used racism to dehumanize its victims. Anti-Arab racism is tacitly approved. Derogatory names for Arabs are the norm. Racist cadence and banter by the Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and acceptance of racist comments by lower-rank enlisted soldiers drill disgustingly negative views of Arabs into the heads of soldiers.
The U.S, Chinese, Russians, and European bosses all have a stake in these wars. The Arab capitalists are maneuvering to protect their own interests by aligning with different sides. All sides are using a toxic mix of nationalism, patriotism and religion to motivate young men and women to kill for capitalism. Wars like this are how the bosses fight each other over resources and the "right" to exploit workers.
The mental toll comes from soldiers committing atrocities for a cause they don’t believe in. In the history of modern warfare, the two militaries that suffered the least mental breakdowns were the Soviet and German armies in World War II. Those armies were politically committed, the Soviets to Socialism, and the Germans to Fascism.
A big reason for the mental health problems among U.S. soldiers is because — despite the rhetoric about "protecting our country" or "helping" people in Afghanistan and Iraq — inside the military most soldiers know what this war is really about: oil. Fighting for that lie takes its toll.
Nidal Hasan is neither the first or last person to be driven crazy by a system that kills millions for profits. PLP is organizing for communist revolution and a society without bosses and profits, run by workers and for the needs of the working class all over the world. Join us!
