Who heads the procession?

First published January 15, 2015.

After the terrorist attacks, two million people, crossed Paris in a procession, making it (in the words of President Hollande) the world’s «capital of freedom». Indeed, the prevailing sentiment that mobilized so many people of different nationalities was the need to vindicate our freedom from hatred, terroristic violence and war.

But at the head of the procession, there were actually some of the leaders responsible for policies that brought all this about :

• Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of NATO, a US-led alliance, that in the war against Libya in 2011 and the war currently being waged against Syria has armed and trained Islamic groups that were previously defined as terrorists.

• The Prime Minister of Turkey, the King of Jordan and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, countries that still today provide weapons to Isis, training, transit routes and financing to wage war in Syria and Iraq.

• The British Prime Minister Cameron and the former President Sarkozy, who have used special forces and secret services for terrorist operations in Libya, Syria and other countries.

• The Prime Minister Renzi, representing an Italy that, by participating in the demolition of the Libyan State, has contributed to inflaming North Africa and the Middle East.

• President Hollande, the promoter of the military operation by France in Mali and Niger (represented by their respective presidents at the Paris procession), officially to help them combat Islamic terrorists, but actually to exploit their rich raw materials (gold, coltan, uranium and others), the income from which ends up in the pockets of multinationals and local elites.

• The Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who, exploiting our grief for four Jewish victims in one of the terrorist attacks at Paris, seeks to make us forget the thousands of Palestinian victims that include hundreds of children, in the operation «Cast Lead» and in the ensuing operations that he ordered against Gaza. The fact that in the Paris procession Abu Mazen was there in the second row, not as the Palestinian President but as the representative of Al Fatah, does not indicate that Israel has changed its policy. By participating at the head of the procession, Netanyahu also seeks to make us forget the support that Israel is providing to the terrorist operations of the Syrian «rebels».

• The US Secretary of State John Kerry should have also been prominently placed at the head of the process. However he preferred to stay back in India to conclude functional Anti-Chinese and Anti-Russian agreements. The United States was represented at Paris by Eric Holder, the Attorney General, who participated at a meeting with the Ministers for Internal Affairs of 11 European states including Italy. Kerry will arrive in the French capital on 14 January, to prepare for «Summit on Global Security» which will take place on 18 February at Washington.

In the meantime, the [French] Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, announces «France is at war against terrorism and is ready to adopt new measures». The West is thus in the process of closing ranks, under US leadership, under the official justification of tackling the threat of terrorism. That which the West itself has contributed to create and has fed in tragic social situations provoked by wars triggered in a period spanning more than twenty years. Of which the grass root militants play, almost always unknowingly, a role that is functional to the interests of the powers that they think they are fighting.

Thus they give a helping hand to those, at the head of the West’s procession, who try like the Pied Piper to enchant the West with their music, leading it on the path that finishes up in the inferno of war.