Cause of Orando Shooting

In 1953 the United States and Great Britain (What makes them so great?) overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran. When the lie that was used was discovered, the Iranian peoples began rising up to retake the country that was theirs. (BTW: They are still fighting to overthrow a repressive regime and install a democratic government.)

In 1968, because of the instability that was developing in Iran, the US government overthrew the democratically elected government of Iraq. We all know what a warm and fuzzy person Saddam Hussein was.

In the 1970s, over Cold War fears, the United States supported insurgents that were opposed to the democratically elected government of Afghanistan. These insurgents, funded by Saudi Arabia and other religious extremists, became the core of Al-Qaeda. They succeeded in the 1980's in driving out the Soviet Union and exporting terrorists wherever the US stuck its nose in the Middle East.

We destabilized Somalia and Al-Qaeda expanded their network into Africa.

In 2001 the United States jumped full bore into Afghanistan and began the longest war in American history. (I am teaching students that were born in 2001. They have known nothing but war all their life. “Peace” in some form would be alien to them.)

In 2003 we expanded our Middle Eastern war effort with the invasion of Iraq and gave Al-Qaeda the foothold in Iraq that Saddam Hussein had denied them for so many years. From Iraq they expanded and splintered off into many other organizations. ISIS, more appropriately Daesh, is one of the splinter groups that formed as a result of the Iraq invasion.

On Sunday we all became too painfully aware of the terrorism that is almost a daily occurrence in the Middle East as a result of the US government's misguided foreign policy.

The shooter, a child of Afghani parents, was heard to say “Stop bombing my country” several times as he murdered LGBTQ people in Orlando.

And the US media and government was quick to portray this as an ISIS directed attack on America.

Let's take another view: This attack was the consequence of the United States government's misguided Middle East foreign policy.

Had democracy been able to flourish in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and other Middle Eastern and African nations, would the shooter have had a complaint?

Would any of these terrorist organizations exist?

Socialists stand in opposition to the violence of US foreign policy that has created all these terrorist groups.

Socialists also stand in opposition to the terrorists and their misguided ideology which has them attacking innocent civilians.

Socialist support pro-democracy groups that stand for the right of self-determination of peoples.

We stand for peace and brother (and sister) hood with oppressed peoples everywhere.

The people that were at the Pulse dance club on Sunday morning were out to have fun and spend time with friends.

They did not want or need to become what they are now: The latest victims of US foreign policy.