Whatever people in the U.S. might think about the killing of al Zawahiri in the middle of the Afghan capital 7,000 miles away, safety and security are hardly likely to top the list.
By Phyllis Bennis, LA Progressive
President Joe Biden, to his credit, did not come out swaggering at his press conference announcing that the CIA had just killed al-Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri. But he did make the dubious assertion that the assassination somehow “made us all safer.”
In reality, this killing will not end the war on terror, and is unlikely to make us safer. And meanwhile, the Biden administration and other top U.S. officials are taking actions that do threaten our security.
The U.S. is still spending billions of dollars arming Ukraine against Russia, while numerous experts around the world are discussing openly how the war escalates the danger of a nuclear exchange between the world’s two largest nuclear weapons states.
Another problem is that Biden spoke just as the third most powerful U.S. political leader, and second in line of succession to the presidency, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was about to land in Taiwan, deliberately provoking China in what looks an awful lot like the abandonment of Washington’s longstanding policy of recognizing only one China. An increasingly tense cold war between Washington and Beijing may be on the verge of rapidly heating up.
Recent Posts
We Have Fascism at Home: Resisting Militarized Police
Take Action Now While we must organize against fascism at the federal level, we must not lose sight of the threat of local police and their damage to…
The Bezos Post Editorial Page Has Become a Mouthpiece for Pro-Billionaire Propaganda
Take Action Now Jeff Bezos said The Washington Post would no longer publish opinion pieces critical of free markets. Recent editorials show just how…
Iran Says It Won’t Negotiate With ‘Erratic’ Trump After Genocidal Threat to ‘Blow Up’ Whole Country
Take Action Now “Our assessment is that Trump effectively lacks both a coherent plan and the capacity to secure even a temporary agreement,” an…
The Case for Blaming Billionaires
Take Action Now Criticizing the billionaire class may lack nuance, but the ultrawealthy are robbing us of our voice and vote, trashing our…