Is this the way to keep safe?

To the Editor:

U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who recently went on a fact finding trip to Syria, was repeatedly asked why the U.S. is supporting and arming terrorists groups. Every place she visited ordinary Syrians would say without hesitation that there are no "moderate rebels," and would naively ask why the U.S. is destroying their country when they had nothing to do with 9/11.

Rep. Gabbard has introduced a bill called the "Stop Arming Terrorists Act," which would prohibit the U.S. from supporting terrorist groups with money, weapons and intelligence. To quote her: "If you or I gave money, weapons and support to al-Qaeda or ISIS, we would be thrown in jail."

Neoconservative ideologues and a bipartisan Washington consensus thinks it's acceptable to spread "liberal democracy" through military force and regime change. By laying waste to countries, the U.S. has sought to strategically control populations and regions by the destruction and de facto partitioning of nation states. Their program is to weaken and destroy the central authority of the state through the "controlled chaos" of civil war, using proxy armies to foment and stoke the fires of ancient ethnic and religious rivalries. The U.S.-led imperialists plan to balkanize the countries of the Greater Middle East and rule them along tribal, religious and sectarian lines.

And as they recruit, indoctrinate and unleash these fanatical salafists/jihadis abroad, many of whom have been reduced to savages, they quietly put into place a militarized security and surveillance state at home. To "keep us safe."

John St. Lawrence

Johnston