Klobuchar: Stop Enabling Trump's War Machine

Speech given by Autumn Lake on 1/17/2020 in front of Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office.

Minnesota’s favorite hometown disappointment, Senator Amy Klobuchar, is somehow still on the campaign trail, seemingly for no other reason than to prove what many of us have known for years; that the Republicans and the Democrats will always unite to serve the interests of the powerful over the interests of the broad masses. She’s managed to distinguish herself from more progressive candidates by embodying the status quo and supporting the Trump administration’s most heinous acts. Amy Klobuchar’s work in the Senate has facilitated the Trump administration’s recent attacks on Iraq and Iran, making the Minnesota Senator complicit in the most recent iteration of the US’s terror campaign in the Middle East.

This terror campaign was brought to a head with the Trump administration’s recent assassination of Iranian General Qassim Soleimani, but by a conservative estimate the US’s destructive influence has been disrupting Iran on a consistent basis since 1979. We in the Anti-War Committee have always stood firm in saying that sanctions are an act of war that kill hundreds of thousands, and the sanctions that the US has placed upon Iran over the course have 40 years are the most intense that any nation has ever seen. In that same time the United States has threatened Iran, surrounded the country with military bases, and engaged in covert operations to disrupt and destabilize the country.

The reasons that the United States continues to undermine Iran should be familiar to anyone that has been around the anti-war movement for a little while. When Saddam Hussein was terrorizing Iraq, the United States was more than happy to look away. Later on, Hussein’s Iraq began to nationalize resources to fund social programs and safety nets for the Iraqi people, and provided support to Palestine and other countries in the Middle East under threat from imperialism and colonialism. It was only when Iraq put prioritized internationalism and providing for its people over serving US interests that Saddam Hussein became the US’s Enemy Number One. Similar stories have played out all over the world – in Qaddafi’s Libya, in Chavez’s Venezuela, and in Morales’s Bolivia.

The same international anti-imperialist solidarity and dedication to the welfare of their people came to fruition in Iran in 1979, when the people of Iran brought forth an independent government that served the interests of the people instead of the interests of the ruling classes of the world imperialist powers. While the US considers Iran to be part of an “Axis of Evil,” other nations in the region recognize their place among an anti-imperialist bloc of progressive countries. Iran has demonstrated this in recent years through their dedication to fighting ISIS forces throughout the Middle East. General Soleimani led this campaign, ensuring that people in Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and Syria would be free from extremist terror. It is this man, considered a hero throughout the region, that the US saw fit to assassinate as it began to ramp up their terror campaign once more against Iran.

It is this terror campaign, and many others like it, that our hometown Senator continues to enable through her work in the Senate. While condemning Trump in words she continues to vote to expand his military powers and the defense budget. She continues to be as strong a proponent of war and imperialism as any run-of-the-mill Republican, proving that the unity of the ruling class is realized in the state. Frankly, she is not to be trusted when she attempts to vilify Iran with the same fervor that she vilified Iraq and Venezuela.

For one thing, Iran has never terrorized the people living in the United States. Iran didn’t murder innocent black people in the our streets. Iran didn’t force a pipeline through Standing Rock. Iran doesn’t lock up children at our border. Iran doesn’t make us work for poverty wages and deprive us of access to healthcare and housing. I have more in common with the people of Iran than the politicians and capitalists that try to make them my enemy.

Senator Klobuchar, on the other hand? Her career as a “tough-on-crime” prosecutor enabled the increase of the mass incarceration of people of color here in  Minnesota, meanwhile she never prosecuted police killings or police brutality cases. She continues to vote the same way as Republicans on matters of militarism and foreign intervention. While supporting the US’s most heinous policies, she neglects to push polices that provide relief for the working and oppressed masses. The military budget increase that she voted in favor would be put to much better use if it were used for housing, healthcare, or education. Senator Klobuchar’s career has harmed more people living in the United States than the state of Iran has in the past 40 years.

When the people of Iran are under attack, what do we do?  STAND UP! FIGHT BACK!