The societal chakra of action is about how our nation works with other nations. In this section we will focus specifically on war. For this, we can apply 3 major principles:
1. We must obey international law
2. We may unilaterally strike back at any group that attacks our country first
3. We may work with the international community to prevent a humanitarian crisis such as a genocide. Multilateral force can be used if diplomacy fails.
Why is this chakra broken?
However, war comes at a serious cost to millions of people in our country and around the world. With the diminishing US economy in 1971, Nixon made a deal with Saudi Arabia to give them weapons and security f they were to buy and sell oil using the US dollar. This meant countries had to stock up on US dollars to buy oil from Saudi Arabia, making the US dollar strong and in high demand. Nixon removed the US currency off the gold standard and tied it to oil prices. As a results, the US economy boomed. For countries that try to nationalize their oil or free themselves from the petrodollar, the US government has a long history of taking the following steps:
1. Apply economic pressure to destabilize the region
2. Stage a military coup to topple the government
3. Justify the act under the guise of humanitarianism or fighting terrorism. Don’t believe these fake calls for protecting Democracy, the US backs 73 % of the world’s dictatorships
Why does this keep happening? Once again the answer is corruption. Lobbyists and special interest groups from the oil industry can buy politicians and press them to protect their business. Additionally, President Eisenhower famously warned us of the military-industrial complex, the relationship between the military and weapons manufacturers. These groups have their own lobbyists and special interest groups to buy politicians. Throw in corporate media, who stands to benefit from sensational stories that come from war, and now you have a system where war is profitable for many powerful groups. However, war comes at a serious cost to millions of people in our country and around the world.
How the US jacks natural resources and stays in endless wars
Afghanistan
Iraq
Syria
Libya
Venezuela
Iran
Somalia
Saudi Arabia
Afghanistan
Action: Osama Bin Laden led Al Qaeda in executing the devastating 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3000 people.
Reaction: The US and a coalition of 40 counties invaded Afghanistan to squash Al Qaeda and bring down Osama Bin Laden. Both goals were accomplished by 2011. However, rather than saying “mission accomplished” and bringing our troops home, the US moved the goalpost to go after the Taliban, who did not attack us on 9/11. The Washington Post recently reported that our government has been lying to us this entire time about how well we are actually doing in the Afghanistan War. Top officials have no idea what’s going on, or what the goals are anymore. Perhaps one of the goals is to capitalize on the $1 trillion in mineral wealth in the region.
Learn more: Secular Talk: US lied for 18 years about the Afghanistan War
Iraq
Action: In 2001, Iraq switched to selling oil in Euros.
Reaction: In 2003 the US government told us that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction, which was a lie. Riding on 9/11 hysteria, congress approval the unilateral war in Iraq.
Syria
Action: Syria moved away from the Petrodollar in 2006. Following the Arab springs uprising in 2011 that spread to Syria, the people attempted to overthrow Bashir al-Assad. He was able to hold onto power.
Reaction: The details of this war are very messy, but from 2013-2017, there was a covert CIA operation that spent $1 billion / year to arm and train 100,000 terrorists to fight Assad. In response to the Douma chemical attack in 2018, the US, UK, and France launched illegal strikes before they had sufficient evidence that Assad used chemical weapons on his people. Since then, leaked documents from OPCW counter this narrative.
Learn more: Rational National: U.S. launches illegal strikes on Syria
Libya
Action: In 2009, Muhammar Gaddafi proposed to African nations to create the Golden Dinar to remove dependency on the petrodollar and the French Franc.
Reaction: In 2011, Gaddafi used air strikes on his own people to combat the rebel uprising in Libya. The international community was able to call it a humanitarian crisis, and 19 states (including the US) went in to swiftly help overthrow Gaddafi. This war was not approved by the US congress.
Learn more: Secular Talk: U.S. considers ramping up troops in Libya
Venezuela
Action: In 1998 the people elected Hugo Chavez, who kicked out foreign oil companies. By nationalizing the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela became rich. Poverty went down, literacy increased, life expectancy increased.
Reaction: US applied crippling sanctions to try to bankrupt the country. Due to these sanctions and to lack of diversification of the country’s economy, Venezuela fell into economic crisis in 2010.
Action: After Hugo Chavez died, the people elected his protégé Nicolas Maduro.
Reaction: The US teamed up with Saudi Arabia and Israel to drive down oil prices to undercut Venezuelan profits. The crisis escalates, leading to mass starvation and exodus.
Action: In 2019 the people re-elected Maduro.
Reaction: The US declared the election to be illegitimate and backs a coup in Venezuela. Despite 80 % of Venezuelans and most of Latin America wanting the US to stay out, the US propped up the opposition leader Juan Guaido, who was raised and educated in the US and was offering to sell Venezuelan oil to US private companies. The US government tried to blame Maduro’s government for the following:
1. Human rights abuses, which is a gross exaggeration of the freedom of speech suppression that is
going on.
2. A power outage that left 70 % of the country without power and access to water. Maduro blames this on US covert meddling, which has not been proven but is entirely possible.
3. Blowing up US humanitarian aid. This was later proven to be done by the opposition, not Maduro.
Learn more: Humanist Report: John Bolton admits US is backing Venezuelan coup because of oil
Iran
Action: Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh started to nationalize Iranian oil to give the proceeds to his people.
Reaction: In 1953 the US and the UK staged a coup to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh and push power to the Shah of Iran. The Shah allowed Western oil companies to come back into Iran, and gave discounted oil to the US and UK.
Action: Iranians were furious with this US puppet government, and executed the 1979 Iranian Revolution to replace the Shah with the Ayatollah. The Ayatollah successfully nationalized the oil.
Reaction: The US has placed many crippling sanctions on Iran to cause economic stress and destabilize the country. They also assisted Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons as well as military and strategic aid to fight Iran in the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s.
Action: In 2015 the US and many European countries signed the Iran Nuclear Deal to lift economic sanctions on Iran if they take no actions in building a nuclear weapon. While Iran honored the agreement, in 2018 they announced that they would be moving away from the US dollar in favor of the Euro.
Reaction: A few weeks after this, Trump backed out of the Iran Nuclear Deal to re-instate sanctions. Iran’s economy tanked. Additionally, the US has aggressively tried to point the finger at Iran’s “hostility” for the following:
1. Bombing a tanker. They have very little evidence and this makes no sense.
2. A car bomb in Afghanistan, despite the Taliban taking responsibility.
3. Shooting down a drone, which was done after Iran repeatedly asked the US to get it out of their airspace.
Learn more: Kim Iversen: The real reason the US in picking a fight with Iran
Somalia
Action: In 2016, a large amount of oil was found off the shore of Somalia.
Reaction: The US expanded its controversial African shadow war to Somalia by putting 500 boots on the ground. There was no Congressional approval.
Learn more: Secular Talk: U.S. building bases & deploying troops to Somalia
Saudi Arabia
Action: Saudi Arabia is run by a brutal dictatorship that implements Sharia Law. They follow Wahhabism, the same strict form of Islam followed by ISIS. They treat women as 2nd class citizens and behead people in the public square for sorcery, drug smuggling, and leaving the Islamic religion. 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi Arabian. They are arming Al-Queda forces to commit a genocide in Yemen, and blockading Yemeni ports to prevent food and medicine from entering the country. The Yemeni people are starving.
Reaction: Why would the US address any of this? We’re their buddy. We are arming them with the bombs they are dropping on Yemeni schools and hospitals.
Learn more: Secular Talk: US backed slaughter in Yemen exposed and called out
The aftermath of US imperialism
Monetary cost
Civilian cost
Soldier health
Public opinion
Monetary cost
$6 trillion. We spend $100 billion per year to fund our 800 military bases worldwide.
Civilian cost
In Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, almost half a million people have been killed, and half of those are civilians. Another 10 million people have been displaced due to the violence. Libya has been left lawless and with a destroyed infrastructure, with numerous attacks from ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Our Afghan allies are war lords who have child sex slaves out in the open.
Soldier health
In Iraq and Afghanistan alone:
1. 320,000 soldiers have suffered traumatic brain injuries
2. 1,600 soldiers have lost limbs
3. 138,000 soldiers suffer from PTSD
4. 20 Veterans commit suicide every day
Public opinion
Around 80 % of people believe we should use military intervention only as a last resort, and that Congress should control military action overseas.
After all of this, there’s only one thing left to say: END THE WARS