The U.S. military stands ready to bomb Syria. President Obama and other supporters of this planned assault claim that Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad has used chemical weapons against Syrian civilians and killed a thousand people. Whoever used these horrific weapons against a civilian population is indeed a monster, whether it was Assad’s forces or those opposed to his dictatorship. But this doesn’t justify another massacre.
The attack occurred as UN weapons inspectors were entering Syria. Their investigation was thwarted by all those involved – from Assad’s regime to Obama’s. Their limited investigation has yet to produce a report. So, why the rush to unleash an attack on Syria?
After more than a year of brutal warfare, who could believe that launching an attack on Syria using some of the most advanced weapons in the world will lead to anything more than further destruction? Already more than 100,000 have been killed, cities and villages destroyed. An estimated two million refugees have fled the country.
The Obama administration is lining up support in the Senate and House of Representatives and is pressuring governments around the world to back this military attack. The claim that the Syrian regime has stepped over a line with its supposed use of chemical weapons is just an excuse. Have we forgotten the Bush administration’s lies about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that were used as proof for the need to wage war on Iraq?
How dare the U.S. government portray itself as the upholder of world morality and opposed to the use of chemical weapons! It was the U.S. that used napalm and Agent Orange in Viet Nam. It was the U.S. that used white phosphorous in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004. Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons, supplied by the U.S., (including Sarin gas) in the Iraqi war against Iran. But in those days Saddam Hussein was the ally of the U.S.
Decades of U.S. wars have destroyed the lives of millions of people in other counties, ruined their infrastructure, so today they don’t have electricity or access to sanitary water. These wars have cost trillions of dollars, robbing people in this country of access to decent social services, education, and healthcare. Those who fought these wars come back with wounds to their bodies and minds.
It is the worst sort of hypocrisy for the U.S. government to claim that they are concerned about human life! Whose lives are they concerned with? Certainly not the millions who have fled Syria or who will die as the U.S bombs their country.
The U.S. politicians claim this is about freedom for the people of Syria. Nothing could be further from the truth. The freedoms being defended are not those of the Syrian people but the interests of the corporations and the banks. What is being defended is their rights to the oil of the Middle East and the resources of the world. What is being defended is a system that rests on the exploitation and control of the resources, the labor and the wealth of the planet.
The majority of the people of the world have no interest in the bombing of Syria. The overwhelming majority of people polled in the U.S. do not support this war. All over the world, including here in the U.S., people are demonstrating against this attack.
The U.S. government has shown its total disregard for the rights and freedoms of the people of the Middle East. The U.S. military uses its forces on the ground and its drones in the air to carry out targeted assassinations and terrorize ordinary people. With this latest build up to a war on Syria, the U.S. government is stating to the world that the economic and political interests of the large corporations will be imposed – regardless of international law and despite the will of the people.
We cannot allow ourselves to be fooled into supporting another war which will lead to a further waste of life and resources. We cannot allow ourselves to be accomplices to these attacks. We need to oppose these attacks in every way we can. We need to say loud and clear:
