Obama's War on ISIS an 'Epic Formula for Blowback': Jeremy Scahill

Through a deadly mix of incompetence, ignorance, and misinformation, "we’ve created the very threats we claim to be fighting," reporter claims

By Deirdre Fulton
October 04, 2014 - Common Dreams

The Obama administration employed "flimsy justification" to enter a war that will only exacerbate the crisis in the Middle East, investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, co-founding editor of the The Intercept and author of the book Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield, said on Democracy Now! Friday.

"What I’m saying is that the United States, through its policies, created the very threat that it claims to be fighting now, and in continuing this policy, what President Obama is doing is embracing the very lies that made the Cheney-Bush Iraq War possible," Scahill argued. "And in the process, he’s creating yet another generation of people in the Islamic world who are going to grow up in a society where they believe that their religion is being targeted, where they believe that the United States is a gratuitous enemy. And so, this is sort of an epic formula for blowback."

The issue is not whether the latest U.S.-led war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria will make things worse in those countries, but to what extent, Scahill told interviewer Amy Goodman.

After describing the U.S. military's drone program as "kabuki theater," Scahill encouraged viewers to consider who benefits most from war.

"You know, Lockheed Martin is making a killing off of the killing, every Tomahawk cruise missile that’s launched," Scahill said. "You know, the next generation of drone aircraft is going to be coming out. They’re working on jet-propelled drones that are going to be able to stay in the air for a very long time. The war industry is in its twilight right now, under Mr. Transformative Presidency Barack Obama. His administration has been an incredibly great friend to the war industry. And outside of some small groups of loony bins that are in Syria and Iraq, the war industry is the greatest beneficiary of this policy."

The LA Times reported Friday that due to the renewed air strikes in Iraq and Syria, "many analysts foresee a boost to bottom lines for munitions manufacturers, weapons producers and other military contractors."

Scahill also spoke out in support of his colleagues in the media, both at home and internationally.

"You know, the age that we’re living in now, where there’s this war on journalists abroad by every possible force, and then this war at home, where journalists are being surveilled—their sources are being threatened with prosecution under the Espionage Act—the Obama administration is in league with some of the most ruthless violators of human rights in the world in a campaign against the press."

Watch the full interview here:

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Reproduced from: www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/03/obamas-war-isis-epic-formula-blowback-jeremy-scahill