En Passant

The biggest terrorist sits in Washington and kills women and kids every day. Why isn’t Barack Obama on trial for his terrorism?

Demonizing the North is made easy by the character of the regime in power there. Though it still claims to be socialist, it is the opposite: A tyranny in which most of the population lives in poverty and dictatorial power is passed down through a single family.

But targeting North Korea has its uses for the U.S. government, now as much as at any time in the past. Not since the first term of George W. Bush has the U.S. signaled so blatantly that it aims for the downfall of the North Korean regime. Kim has definitely got the message. Obama, however, is a stealthier aggressor than Bush, so he hasn’t shared the message with most people in the U.S.

David Whitehouse explains the backdrop to the ratcheting up of conflict in the Korean peninsula–and the role the U.S. government is playing.

Bradley Manning can fairly claim to have exposed war crimes and helped end wars, to have shone a light on the duplicity and double-talk of politicians and given the public sight of some of shameful things being done in its name. There are few of us who can say we have done the world such service.

Can we claim to believe in open government and the public’s right to know if we do not raise our voices to demand his release?

The Oscars are the revolutionary guards of US film gathering to award themselves prizes for the defence of the revolution, in this case US imperialism, or the idea of US imperialism, translated to the screen.

Eric Ruder in Socialist Worker US reports on a new weapon of choice in U.S. wars around the globe – the drone.

Easy access to guns – one-third of Americans own a gun, and the U.S. as a whole has half the world’s guns in civilian hands – may provide the means for committing certain types of crimes, but the roots of Adam Lanza’s actions go deeper. They lie in a profoundly alienated society in which violence in general is sanctioned by the most exalted American institutions–as long as it is carried out for “legitimate” purposes, like U.S. wars abroad or police at home defending law and order.

There has been almost no discussion of the context for these protests – decades of U.S. imperialist intervention in the Muslim region. In reality, the film has become a symbol of the contempt with which the U.S. government holds the people of the Middle East and North Africa.

As the US elite cynically manipulates the deaths of those killed eleven years ago on September 11 in America, where are their tears for the many dead in Chile, killed by the agents of their predecessors on the same day 39 years ago?

The strikes across Europe, the swing to the radical Left in countries like Greece and the uprisings across the Arab world for freedom and food, justice and jobs offer real hope to humanity – that people come before profit and that only with the triumph of a cooperative and democratic society worldwide can we end all the September 11s.

If James Holmes is a barbaric mass murderer for allegedly killing 12 innocent people (which he is if he is not insane and assuming he pulled the trigger) who will feel the full force of American justice (which he will), why isn’t the barbaric mass murderer Barack Obama going to receive the same treatment?