Blood at the Roots, Blood on Our Hands: The Audacity of the U.S. Calling Other Nations ‘Terrorists’

Trump called Iran the No. 1 ‘state sponsor of terror,’ but who is the real terrorist?

(Screenshot: PBS via YouTube)

In the wake of President Donald Trump deciding against all things rational to attack Iran, which has been engaged in a war with Israel for almost two weeks, he stated, “Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror.”

It was Trump’s selective, self-serving use of the word “terror” that caught my attention because how does one determine who is a terrorist? And, once that determination is made, who is held accountable? How does one accept what authorities designate legal or illegal when the entire system is guilty as hell?

The FBI defines terrorism, domestic or international, as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government or civilian population in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

That’s interesting.

Because, on Dec. 4, 1969, police officers from the Cook County, Ill., State Attorney’s Office, in collusion with the FBI, assassinated Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and Black Panther Party leader Mark Clark. Yet, I haven’t seen the FBI label itself a terrorist organization. This must mean their definition is incomplete and open to interpretation.

As a Black woman born and raised in Mississippi, my definition of terrorism has always included what author Kiese Laymon calls “the worst of white folks.” Still, white supremacist capitalist violence is neither quarantined in the Deep South nor limited to within U.S borders.

This is the nation of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission and the Ku Klux Klan and the murder of Emmett Till, but it is also the nation where white supremacists destroyed Black Wall Street; where the Philadelphia Police Department, with the full support of city officials, carried out the MOVE bombing, killing 11 people, including five children; and where Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann gunned down 12-year old Tamir Rice in a state-sanctioned drive-by, murdering Samaria Rice’s baby in 0.792 seconds. He would have turned 23 years old on June 25.

According to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement’s 2012 landmark report, Operation Ghetto Storm, every 28 hours in the United States, a Black person is killed by “police, security guard, or vigilantes.”

Perhaps I missed it, but I haven’t seen any government documentation designating police departments as terror cells.

This is also the nation that proudly stands beside the state of Israel, despite global condemnation, as it continues slaughtering, starving, shooting, bombing and displacing the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, countless organizations—from Amnesty International, to Human Rights Watch, to the Center for Constitutional Rights—are calling a thing a thing: The state of Israel, with the support of the United States of America, is committing genocide.

Is that not terrorism?

There Are No Red States or Blue States, Just the United States

During a 2012 press conference, then President Barack Obama said with his whole chest, “There’s no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders … we are fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself from missiles landing on people's homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians.”

This is the position that every U.S. president and presidential candidate—from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, Joe Biden to Kamala Harris—has held. In 1986, then Sen. Biden said, “Were there not an Israel, the USA would have to invent an Israel to protect her interest in the region.”

In 2024, Harris said, "Let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.” Harris also said that ensuring Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power would be “one of her highest priorities” if elected.

There can be no confusion, nor equivocation: None of the widespread, soul-crushing violence we’re witnessing, nor the United States government’s endorsement and funding of it, is novel. Whenever Israel is at war, the U.S. is at war—by proxy or otherwise—regardless of which political party holds power and occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. White Supremacist-in-Chief Donald Trump and his clown car of a regime have just stepped right up to embolden Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces, further solidifying a relationship that has always existed between the U.S. and Israel, while threatening to turn Palestine into the waterfront resort of his son-in-law’s dreams.

Who You Calling a Terrorist?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once called the United States government the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” And, on April 3, 1968, one day before he was assassinated, he said in his final speech, “All we say to America is, 'Be true to what you said on paper.’“

The stark, cold truth, though, is that this nation, in many ways, has always, unapologetically, been true to what it said on paper as it blatantly lies about the depth and caliber of its character to disguise its insatiable addiction to violence, money and power.

The U.S. said on paper that slavery was legal. The U.S. said on paper that Black people couldn’t vote and that locking people in cages is a form of justice. From convict leasing to all the current discriminations baked into this MAGAt-filled American pie, the system is functioning exactly as it was designed to function.

It is not broken, but it needs to be.