NO
TO WAR! AUSTRALIAN TROOPS OUT NOW!
VICTORY
TO SYRIA!
05-09-2015 – In an eerie
similarity to the Vietnam War, Australian PM Tony Abbott has denied that it was
his office which pushed the US to request Australian assistance to extend air
strikes into Syria.[1]
In the spirit of never believing anything until it is officially denied, it is
a fair assumption to state that the official entry of Australia into the US war
on Syria echoes Australia’s entry into the Vietnam War over four decades ago.
Then, it was the Australian government which urged the US to intervene
militarily in Vietnam, rather than the US requesting Australian participation.
This time, there are no conscripts being sent to fight a war for the US empire,
but there are certainly Australian troops brandishing military hardware,
including six F/A 18F Super Hornet fighter jets, along with a KC-30 refuelling
tanker. These jets have already been bombing targets in Iraq, while the tanker
has been refuelling US fighter jets.
Above: Druze on the Israeli side
of the Golan Heights celebrate Syrian Independence Day. Photo by Hamad Almakat.
The criminal US led war to
destroy and overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic has now entered its fourth year.
The majority of the world’s population vehemently opposed the US led war on
Iraq in 2003. Yet around 10 years later, many of those who opposed that war are
now either not active or are silent in the face of the West’s war on Syria. It
is not being carried out by conventional means – it is not a case of simply
declaring war on a sovereign state and sending in uniformed troops to invade
and occupy. These days, it is much more convenient for US imperialism to
outsource its wars, invasions, and overthrows of states which are not totally
compliant to the Washington consensus. In the case of Syria, mercenary
jihadists from 81 different countries have been armed, funded and in many cases
trained by the US and its NATO allies Britain, France, Turkey, Israel, Saudi
Arabia, Jordan and Qatar – and ferried into Syria. All the jihadist groups now
in Syria, which claim to be an “opposition”, compete for the weapons and
funding flowing in from the West. All jihadist groups, from the so-called “Free
Syrian Army”, to Al-Qaeda, to Al-Nusra, to Ahrar Al-Sham, to the manufactured
“ISIS” have the same aim – the overthrow of the Syrian Government led by
President Assad, on behalf of their benefactors.
Washington, egged on by
Canberra, Tel Aviv, Riyadh, London, Paris and the like, have not been
successful with their aim of “regime change” in Syria, for a number of reasons.
Not the least of these is the fact that the majority of Syrians support and
back the secular state of Syria and its current President Bashar Al-Assad. In
June 2014, presidential elections were held in Syria. Despite horrific war
conditions, 73.42% of Syrians cast a vote, and 88.7% of these voted for Bashar
Al-Assad.[2] Many Syrians no doubt
rallied behind the government, despite many other concerns, because they
recognised that the Syrian Arab Army was the only military force which was
protecting civilians against the gruesome and barbaric executions carried out
by the Western backed mercenaries. Since that time, the Syrian Arab Army has
been joined by the Lebanese Hezbollah, who recognise the danger to neighbouring
Lebanon if Al-Qaeda and “ISIS” are able to topple the Syrian government.
Hezbollah are a significant fighting force, which was demonstrated during their
effective defeat of the Israeli armed forces in 2006.
Another significant reason
why the US was not able to destroy Syria in the way that they destroyed Libya
in 2011, was the opposition of major powers Russia and China. Russia and China
unfortunately did not oppose the NATO bombing of Libya, which was preceded by
the same arming and funding of Al-Qaeda linked jihadists. In the case of Syria,
however, Russia and China appear to recognise that the war on Syria is also
directed at them as much as the Middle East. Russia and China have voiced
opposition to the war on Syria in the United Nations, and while they haven’t
directly assisted Syria militarily, there are reports of Russian weapons being
used by the Syrian armed forces. This is not unusual, however, as Russia and
Syria have been allies since the days of the former Soviet Union.
“ISIS”
For the first two years of
the war on Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, did not exist.
Until 2013, no one in Syria had ever heard of “ISIS”. It is extremely
suspicious that it mysteriously dropped from the sky, and then received further
prominence immediately after the resounding victory of President Assad in the
elections of June 2014. This is because ISIS is almost entirely a manufactured
proxy force. Forget about the fanfare stating that ISIS aims to establish an
Islamic caliphate. The game was given away when it was recently revealed that
British SAS forces have been dressing up as ISIS fighters, flying ISIS flags,
and attacking the Syrian government under the pretext of “fighting ISIS”.[3] This is on top of the US
and British government openly admitting and announcing that they are training
the “moderate” Syrian opposition, that is, training the almost entirely
non-Syrian jihadists to murder Syrian civilians in the most brutal manner
imaginable. The West’s “war against ISIS” is the media line. In reality, ISIS
is set up to justify the US war machine intervening anywhere in the world where
“ISIS” shows its head.
Washington, backed by
Canberra, has in recent years specialised in funding and/or arming proxy forces
in efforts to overthrow the government of any country which is too independent
for their liking. Hence, there have been ongoing attempts to arm and fund
opposition political forces in countries such as Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela,
Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong, no matter how reactionary the politics of the
opposition forces may be. Yet in Syria, it is not an “opposition” which is
being armed and funded by the US and it’s Saudi, Turkish, and Qatari allies.
Overwhelmingly, the forces of the “Free Syrian Army”, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Al Nusra
and the rest are not Syrian in the slightest way. In fact, they originate from
81 different non-Syrian countries.[4] So any notion of a “civil
war” in Syria is demonstrably false. What’s occurring is a Western led proxy
war for “regime change”, an invasion by armed mercenaries, in plain violation
of any semblance of international law.
Unfortunately, some left
parties have fallen victim to US propaganda about the Syrian “dictatorship”
which is allegedly suppressing a legitimate “revolution”. Left parties which,
at other times, claim to stand for secularism, and even socialism and
anti-imperialism, effectively reverse their stance when it comes to Syria. The
fact that the only forces fighting to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic, which
is secular, multi-cultural and multi-religious – are all part of the most
extreme versions of Salafism or Wahabism – seems lost on them. And it is even
doubtful whether some have any allegiance to Islam at all, given that British
soldiers are amongst them. Plus there have been reports of US soldiers taking
part under black balaclavas as well. As President Assad has stated, a
revolution requires ideas and leaders. A “revolution” which would return women to
pre-medieval times, which rejects even conservative ideas of “democracy”, is
quite obviously a reaction to a dark age, rather than a “revolution”.
Capitalist
Crisis
If the US empire is able to
destroy Syria in the way they have Libya, even more immense human suffering
will result. Further, the Islamic Republic of Iran will almost certainly be the
next target. The takedown of Syria, an Iranian ally, will mean Iran will be
more isolated and more vulnerable to open imperialist assault. The proximity of
Iran to Russia and China could easily trigger a world war, even if the total
destruction of Syria does not. The decision to launch a world war may be
incomprehensible to many citizens in the West, yet it may be the only way out
for a capitalist ruling class which is desperate to save its system. The longer
the US does not confront China, whose socialist dominated economy is tearing
strips of the Western economies which are uniformly in recession, the further
will the US fall behind. The US cannot accept this. Furthermore, greater
integration between Russia and China possibly sets up an alternative trading
and financial bloc which emerging countries can orient to. It may seem crazy,
but for a crazed US ruling class whipped into a frenzy by its faltering economy,
it may just go for what in poker terms is called “double or nothing”. That is,
it is prepared to risk everything it has to go for the big prize – the toppling
of Russia and China. Needless to say, a global holocaust will be only one of
the results.
Canberra’s move to go to war
in Syria should not be seen simply as a poor decision, or a mistaken policy
that can be abandoned with rational argument. The drive to war stems from the
deepest wellsprings of the system of private production for private profit, which
has run aground yet again, with little or no prospect of revival. Working
people need to make the link between the rapidly deteriorating standard of
living in Australia, and ever more reckless and criminal wars overseas. The
lawless abuse of refugees and asylum seekers, the ever-increasing surveillance
of citizens using the internet, the tracking of communications, heavily armed
police patrolling public transport and the recent attempt by the newly
constructed “Border Force” to check the visas of people walking down the
street, are all examples of increasing repression which occurs when big capital
acknowledges that it could potentially lose its political control. They are
aware that the skyrocketing cost of living, the unaffordability of housing, the
daylight robbery of privatised electricity and water bills, the relentless
harassment and bullying of workers by managers, the accelerating destruction of
the natural environment, the continual slashing of public funds for health care
and education, and the crumbling state of public transport infrastructure can
only lead to open rebellion if not contained. Thus the war on the sovereign
Syrian Arab Republic and the war on working people here are intricately linked.
This is one of the many
reasons why it is in our interests to act to prevent the Australian rulers contributing
to a vicious war of aggression against Syria. The Syrian people have endured
unbearable suffering at the hands of the West’s covert and overt war, waged
with the assistance of Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other Gulf
Monarchies. They have the misfortune to be in the firing line of the West’s
unconscionable arming and funding of non-Syrian mercenaries. These barbarians,
whether in the form of the “Free Syrian Army”, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Ahrar Al-Sham or
others, have committed unspeakable atrocities against innocent Syrians, with
either the knowledge or the participation of the world’s imperialist powers –
specifically the US, France and Great Britain, but also Australia.
Some of the left parties who
have backed the mythical Syrian “revolution” have, without acknowledging it,
partially seen the political problem of offering support to US armed jihadists
who appear beyond the pale to even those on the political right. Hence, they
have jumped on the bandwagon of an equally mythical “Rojavan Revolution”. What
occurred was that nationalist Kurdish groups initially allied themselves with
the Syrian government for the first two years of the West’s proxy war. Then,
Kurdish nationalists such as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) switched sides
to ally with the US, presumably because they judged the days of the Syrian
government were numbered. They now act under the cover of US air strikes,
acting as bomb-spotters for the empire. In doing so, they have turned against
the Syria with which they had been allied. A few skirmishes with some ISIS
forces do not make them “revolutionaries”, especially when working directly
with the US war machine. Moreover, they have also signed agreements with parts
of the “Free Syrian Army” – which in practice is identical to ISIS. Workers
internationally cannot afford to extend any political support to any group
which works side by side with the US empire.
Workers and all those who
stand against war need to take an urgent stance against the criminal war
against Syria. No matter what your personal political opinion is of the Syrian
government or its elected leader President Assad, Syria itself must be
defended, and not just for the sake of Syrians, as important as that is. Syria
must be defended so that the US war machine – in effect the military/political
arm of world capitalism - can be blocked from achieving its goal of “full
spectrum dominance”. Workers are entitled to a world without war, but the war
against Syria indicates that we are going to have to fight for it. We can be
inspired by the brave stance taken by the Syrian people, as well as those
actors which have acted to prevent war, such as Iran, Hezbollah, Russia and
China. The US and their proxies must be stopped.
AUSTRALIAN
TROOPS OUT NOW! VICTORY TO SYRIA!
MARXIST-LENINIST
GROUP
PO BOX 66 NUNDAH QLD 4012
mlgroup271@gmail.com /
0421 408 692
www.ML-Group.blogspot.com.au
[1] http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/prime-ministers-verbal-gymnastics-over-syria-20150826-gj8ojp.html
[2] http://www.rt.com/news/163696-assad-win-president-syria/
[3] http://www.globalresearch.ca/british-sas-special-forces-dressed-up-as-isis-rebels-fighting-assad-in-syria/5466944
[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/08/29/at-least-81-nationalities-are-fighting-in-syria/
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