US back in Iraq, renews push to oust Assad of Syria: Analyst

The new war in the Middle East against ISIL is a pretext for the United States to reestablish its military role in Iraq and renew efforts to topple the independent government of Syria, says an antiwar activist and analyst.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that the US-led airstrikes had inflicted “significant” damage on the ISIL terrorist organization in Iraq and Syria.

Addressing representatives of more than 60 nations contributing to the so-called anti-ISIL coalition, Kerry promised that the military campaign would go on “for as long as it takes.”

“By saying that, he [Kerry] sounds, as a Democratic administration, very much like the previous Republican administration which talked about ‘an endless war on terror’,” Joe Iosbaker, a leader of the United National Antiwar Committee, said in an interview.

Iosbaker said that the broader question was why the new war in the Middle East was taking place. “First we can rule out immediately that this is not actually a war for humanitarian purposes.”

“The truth is the United States has no concern for humanity and all you have to do to prove this is witness what they did as Israel was bombing Gaza this summer. Not only did they stand without taking any action, they continued to supply weapons to Israel right through that atrocity,” he added.

“A second line of argument that has been raised is that the war on ISIS (or ISIL) is being done for the benefits of the military industrial complex, the weapons manufacturers and those who profit from war,” Iosbaker said. “The Pentagon has announced that they’ll expect a larger defense budget.”

“War in the Middle East is good business,” the antiwar activist contended. “The real truth of why this war is happening and why we are being told that this war is making progress is because the United States cannot be a supper power and not be in the Middle East.”

Iosbaker said that the United States is being defeated in Afghanistan as it was driven out of Iraq, and the ISIL group “gives them the excuse to be back in Iraq in a bigger way.”

The war on ISIL is “a pretence for reestablishing a direct military role for the US in Iraq and for continuing their efforts to remove the independent government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria,” he concluded.