United States foreign policy in the Middle East has been a policy of forced regime change for decades. A few examples include:

• 1953 overthrow of the elected Iranian government of Mossadegh by U.S. and British forces
   
• 1958 U.S. invasion of Lebanon with 15,000 troops
   
• 1963 CIA-aided coup deposing the Qasim government of Iraq, which 5 years earlier had ousted the U.S.-allied Iraqi monarchy
   
• 2002 invasion of Afghanistan, followed by a decade+ of occupation
   
• 2003 invasion of Iraq, followed by a decade+ of occupation

The U.S. has been pushing regime change in Syria since at least 2001. These policies should end.

U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost thousands of American lives, tens of thousands of grievously injured Americans, and the lives of hundreds of thousands Afghanis and Iraqis. They have displaced millions of Afghanis and Iraqis who fled their homes to save their lives. $2 trillion American taxpayer dollars have been spent. The wars have accomplished nothing, apart from creating an environment that bred the creation of ISIS and allowed it to thrive and expand.  Now the U.S. is pursuing the same counterproductive policies to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

John Pilger wrote in 2014:

A telling example is the rise to power of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge, who had much in common with today's Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). They, too, were ruthless medievalists who began as a small sect. They, too, were the product of a US-made apocalypse, this time in Southeast Asia. . . .

Al-Qaeda - like Pol Pot's "jihadists" - seized the opportunity provided by the onslaught of "shock and awe" and the civil war that followed. "Rebel" Syria offered even greater rewards, with CIA and Gulf state ratlines of weapons, logistics and money running through Turkey. . . .

ISIS is the progeny of those in Washington, London and Paris who, in conspiring to destroy Iraq, Syria and Libya, committed an epic crime against humanity. Like Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, ISIS is the mutation of a Western state terror dispensed by a venal imperial elite undeterred by the consequences of actions taken at great distance. Their culpability is unmentionable in "our" societies, making accomplices of those who suppress this critical truth.

All human life should be protected. French warplanes carried out airstrikes in urban Syrian areas using its 12 jet fighters based in Jordan and the U.A.E. for months prior to the brutal killing of innocents in France. The government of France saw no outrage in bombing the Syrians.  Nor does the U.S. government.

The solution is not more war. The solution is for western powers (particularly the U.S.) to stop their decades-long practice of military intervention to create or prop up compliant regimes, regardless of the wishes of the people who live there.

Portland City Council to consider withdrawing from FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force

Brad Schmidt
Oregonian
December 2, 2014

The Portland City Council, led by Mayor Charlie Hales, is considering withdrawing city police officers from the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Hales on Monday scheduled a Dec. 18 meeting where the City Council will consider "withdrawal from JTTF involvement." The 2 p.m. meeting is scheduled to run 90 minutes.

The move from Hales, a long-time skeptic of task force involvement, may have the political support in City Hall to dissolve the Police Bureau's hazy relationship with the group. Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Steve Novick have questioned involvement and have criticized the city's skimpy annual reports about the partnership.   Read Article at Oregonian.

Freedom Or Fear

An open letter from an Iraq War Veteran to the People of Portland, Oregon

My friends,

 In the near future, the Portland City Council will make a decision as to whether or not the city should again join the Joint-Terrorism Task Force. This decision could adversely affect the civil liberties of the People of Portland, and may lead to the unlawful surveillance of law-abiding Portlanders in violation of Oregon law and the Bill of Rights. In 2005, Portland withdrew from the JTTF at the behest of its citizens, who had no authority over the shadowy institution that federalizes Portland Police officers and removes their obligation to State law and replaces it with the Department of Justice’s Guidelines on General Crimes, Racketeering Enterprise and Terrorism Enterprise Investigations, which were released 3 year prior to the Portland withdrawal.