Prison Radio
Mumia Abu-Jamal

“Empire of U.S. Idiots.”

As these words are written, the U.S. empire takes a dangerous step closer to another war in the Middle East after its assassination of an Iranian military leader, major general Qasem Soleimani, a man revered in two countries, Iraq and Iran, for his military genius in a career spanning decades.

General Soleimani was a young man during the ruinous Iraq-Iran war in which over a million souls were lost. He was so highly regarded by Shias that he was known as the living martyr for his long survival from war. Until that is, the Americans sent a missile from a drone ending his life.

The Iraq war, based on lies from leading U.S. politicians and intelligence agencies, sent Americans to war in search of weapons of mass destruction and ended up in what foreign policy experts have called the biggest foreign policy blunder in modern U.S. history, for while the war costs trillions in U.S. dollars and lost thousands of American lives, it strengthened immeasurably Iran and gave rise to a Shia Spring. Iranian power has waxed while U.S. power has waned.

Worse, the lesson of the Iraq war had been lost upon American politicians who wish to impose its hegemony upon the world. Military power is a destructive force, but it is rarely a creative force. The Vietnam war proved that a country can be stronger militarily and still lose. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars proved that the objectives of war aren’t always awarded to the strongest but to who can endure.

Today, Iraq’s parliament has voted that all foreign troops should leave the country, including the Americans. Imperial powers work when they appear to be working on behalf of the occupied countries. The U.S. no longer even pretends to do so. Iraq is sick and tired of the American precedents. This happens just as the U.S. is on the brink of leaving Afghanistan.

What was won? What was lost? America is more hated today than ever, and perhaps, just perhaps, a new war is on its way. Thank you all.

From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.

These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.