ILPS Commission 13 condemns U.S. aggression, destructive impact of war technologies

Commission 13 on Science and Technology for People’s Development, part of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles or ILPS, joins anti-imperialist peoples and organizations in strongly condemning the military offensives instigated by the United States in the Middle East particularly in Iran and iraq.

The killing of General Qasem Soleimani of Iran at the Baghdad International Airport along with nine others last January 3 via a drone strike cannot be justified on vague grounds of “defensive action” amid an “imminent attack”. It is against both United States law and international law. It is a blatant act of direct aggression and warmongering by the US.

For decades the United States has been instigating conflict in the Middle East in order to further their agenda of controlling its vast energy resources. Amid unabated politico-military tensions in the region, we also denounce the wielding of war technologies by imperialist United States and its allies to decimate populations and pollute the planet.

General Soleimani and his companions are the latest victims in a drone war being waged by the United States and its allies, chiefly Israel, in the region and beyond. Since the 1970s the Israeli military has been developing and using drones to carry out surveillance, electronic warfare, and military offensives against the peoples of Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen. The United States relied heavily on drones in the offensives in Pakistan since 2004. Countless thousands have been killed as a result of drone strikes, many of them noncombatants.

The United States as chief imperialist and the world’s number one warmonger has at its disposal a whole range of military arsenal, from guns and ammunition, missiles, rockets, smart weapons, laser weapons, drones, warships, tanks, etc. Their number one ally in the region, Israel, has devoted billions of dollars in the development of sophisticated war material and training of their armed forces.

In order to create more sophisticated technologies for warfare, billions of dollars in public funds are being diverted for military research in universities in the world’s powers. Children from Saudi’s ruling elite are enrolled in these universities while students especially in the United States are forced to take out debilitating loans to get their degrees.

In the hands of imperialists who wield their military strength to subjugate sovereign governments and their people, science and technology is being used not just to murder populations, but to poison the planet. A 2019 study from Brown University has identified the US Department of Defense as “the world’s largest institutional user of petroleum and correspondingly, the single largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world”. Since 2001, the US military emissions have reached a staggering 1.2 billion tons, mostly in unjust wars of occupation.

As advocates of Science and Technology for People’s Development, we stand in solidarity with the peoples of Iraq and Iran as they resist the present onslaught against their sovereignty and freedoms. We also unite with the peoples of the world opposed to imperialist United States’ unjust war and military offensives against in the Middle East. We call on fellow peace-loving, anti-imperialist activists and advocates to join us as we protest in our millions worldwide against the latest military incursions of the United States.##