Stop the Air Strikes on Libya! -- BAYAN USA

News StatementMarch 21, 2011Reference: Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN USAemail: chair@bayanusa.orgSTOP THE AIR STRIKES ON LIBYA! NO TO ANOTHER US IMPERIALIST WAR FOR OIL!Filipino-Americans, under the banner of BAYAN USA, are joining the growing ranks of the broad public outcry within the United States against the recently launched military air strikes on Libya by US, NATO, and allied forces. On the 8th anniversary of the ongoing US war in Iraq, BAYAN USA vehemently condemns the imperialist military attacks on the Libyan people and calls for increased protest action to demand the Obama government cease and desist from creating another trillion-dollar bloodbath for oil that the situation in Iraq has become.Washington Needs Another Puppet State in the Middle EastWhile the US continues to be rocked by protest movements, a la Wisconsin, that clearly signal the American people's growing discontent and awakening to class warfare, Washington's response is to launch another murderous and expensive war in the Middle Eastern region, this time on Libya. Capitalizing on the civil strife in Libya as an opportunity for military intervention under the guise of humanitarianism, Obama proves he is really no different from his much reviled predecessor, serving as a front man for US big business. Even justification tactics and PR schemes remain the same. Humanitarianism is to Obama what the War on Terror was for Bush, a useful pretext to launch an imperialist war of aggression. The Obama administration has also found a convenient enemy figurehead to play bounty hunter with in Muʿammar al-Qaḏḏāfī just as the Bush administration did with Saddam Hussein, all the while disguising its real objectives of seizing control of rich oil-reserves US big business has been salivating over for decades and installing a reliable US puppet regime to protect US economic interests in the region.It must also be noted that another reliable US post in the Middle East, like Zionist Israel, is even more critical to the US in light of ongoing pro-democracy movements in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen that continue to sweep the region and threaten US interests. This is the same role the Philippines has played for the past 112 years as a reliable US puppet state in Asia serving to protect and promote US economic interests in the region since the US unleashed it's first war of aggression on the Philippines in 1899.Growing Class War in the USUnder the worsening crisis of monopoly capitalism, the US defense industry has become the most bankable for the US ruling elite and thus the main priority for the US government. In fact, US big business averages over $6 billion annually in arms sales to the Middle East and South Asia alone. This renders insatiable the imperialist appetite for unending war for its profitability more than anything else. But as the chronic crisis has also sent US big business in a downward spiral of its own doing, these same big businesses have no qualms stealing trillions in public funds allocated for education, healthcare, jobs, housing, unemployment, pensions, and other social services to beef up its military industrial complex. Concurrently, the US government concocts a deceitful line blaming the crisis on social spending, hoping to dupe the American people into believing that massive budget cuts and other austerity measures are required sacrifices in the path to recovery.But the people of the US, as exemplified by the occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol building, are not swallowing it. The $3-trillion dollar and growing waste in tax dollars that is the US war on Iraq, in addition to the astronomical cost of innocent human lives, continues to galvanize communities in the US into a perpetual state of discontent. For the past 5 years, public opinion research in the US consistently shows that the American people's opposition to the war in Iraq far outweighs those who support it.This discontent is additionally being fueled by increased state attacks on unions, immigrants, workers, and other communities in the US. The passing of the anti-immigrant SB 1070 in Arizona and the anti-union Walker Bill in Wisconsin are examples of how the US government exacts policies aimed at sowing divisions in the US working class. It is in the utmost interest of US big business to whip up divisions between citizen and immigrant, documented and undocumented, union and non-union, white and non-white because in its drive to save itself through war and neoliberalism, it can't afford to be challenged by a united front of the anti-war movement, the labor movement, the immigrant rights movement, the anti-racist movement, the affordable housing movement, the education movement, the civil rights movement, and other democratic movements burgeoning in its own house.Filipino-Americans Stand in Solidarity with the Struggling Libyan and US MajorityAs one of the largest Asian groups in the US numbering at over 4 million, Filipino-Americans also bear the brunt of increased budget cuts and state repression by the US government. Like others in the US, Filipino-Americans remain inspired by the continuing revolutions that have swept across the Middle East and North Africa, and like the example of Wisconsin, Filipino-Americans are joining others in the US struggling to broaden that same pro-democracy spirit into a formidable unity to that can concretely frustrate US big business and its strategy of unending imperialist war. More and more Filipinos in the US are also organizing to struggle for genuine national independence and democracy in their homeland in recognition that US imperialism is also at the root of the Filipino people's longtime suffering from poverty, landlessness, joblessness and corruption.As an alliance in solidarity with all peoples suffering from US hegemony, BAYAN USA stands with the people of Libya in their struggle for national independence and democracy as well as with the growing class struggle in the US. BAYAN USA has seen firsthand and remains confident that the overwhelming majority of people of the US will never accept Washington's unending battle cry for war overseas. Like others around the globe, the American people have also suffered from the devastation, loss, and pain caused by imperialist wars. BAYAN USA is also confident that these sufferings will encourage the continued awakening and intensification of the class struggle in the US, a struggle that when linked to other anti-imperialist movements across the globe, can decisively topple US big business and stop its imperialist war campaigns. ###STOP THE AIR STRIKES ON LIBYA!US OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA!US OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES!LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!