Issued by the Office of the Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
September 30, 2013
US imperialism under Obama is experiencing unprecedented isolation and condemnation over his drive for the US to attack Syria, overthrow the Assad government and install a pro-US government.
By his own pronouncements and actons, Obama, ironically the Nobel Peace Prize awardee in 2009, has totally discarded his dovish mask and exposed himself as no less barbarous and arrogant a warmonger than his predecessors. His direct supervision over the vicious drone attacks that has victimized countless civilian casualties callously tagged as “collateral damage” has proven Obama to be as murderous as past US imperialist chieftains in prosecuting their wars for global hegemony and superiority over their imperialist rivals.
Obama has added a new “concept” to justify the US war viz-a-viz against countries such as Syria. In his acceptance speech of said Nobel Peace Prize, Obama said that there is a “new type of warfare”, i.e. wars within nations, insurgencies, secessionist movements, failed states… that bring more deaths to civilians than soldiers, increase of refugees, scores of children hurt and killed…”
In that kind of warfare, Obama believes that force is needed – American force. In fact, US imperialism and its allies have been the most coldblooded instigators and arms suppliers of puppet groups, such as those waging a reactionary and pro-imperialist war in Syria. The US has been trying hard to fabricate the pretext for bombing attacks and a war of aggression.
In yet another poorly disguised attempt at grand deception, Obama in his UN General Assembly address last 24 September waved the tattered flag of “American exceptionalism” to justify invasion, occupation and the concomitant violations of human rights and the sovereign rights of nations all over the world in the name of humanitarianism, altruism and world peace. US imperialism has indeed, over the 20th century and into the 21st, consistently displayed exceptional greed, cunning and brutality in establishing itself as the mightiest and now sole superpower consolidating its hegemony over the entire planet.
Overweening arrogance and reactionary greed have blinded Obama to the fact that one cannot fool the people all the time.
Obama has now been shamed by the widespread rejection, even by the US’ closest reactionary allies such as Britain and the US Congress, of his plan for the US and other NATO powers to attack Syria following his allegation that the Assad government is using chemical weapons against the Syrian rebels and protestors, killing thousands including civilians and innocent children. Obama could not get the approval of the UN Security Council with Russia and China declaring at the outset that they will not consent to any foreign military intervention in Syria.
Failing to get support from other powers, Obama turned to the US Congress for a mandate to commit US forces to an attack on Syria, echoing Bush Jr.’s unilateralist boast that if no other country will join the US, “we will go it alone”. However, Obama stumbled on the first hurdle, with the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee shelving the Obama plan, sending the clear signal that the US Congress, wary of their constituents’ possible negative reaction. It did not help Obama that his proposal to attack Syria met with criticism and objections even from within US military circles as a reckless adventure lacking in clear military planning and strategy.
In yet another slap to Obama’s solicitation for support for air strikes against Syria, even Pope Francis called on all peace-loving peoples of the world last September 07 to join a global day of fasting and prayer against US’ military intervention in Syria. People from different faiths and beliefs rallied to the pope’s call.
The Obama justification for the attack – Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons – is much too reminiscent of Bush’ justification for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, that Saddam Hussein possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, and that these had to be destroyed. That pretext was eventually exposed as an elaborate hoax fabricated by US and British intelligence. The allegation of a chemical attack by Syrian government forces was first made last May, but fizzled out when a UN fact-finding team reported that evidence pointed to the Syrian rebels, not the government, as the perpetrators.
Obama reiterated the claim after thousands of civilians were reportedly killed in a second chemical attack last August, but the UN Security Council responded by sending another investigating team, this time to determine only whether chemical weapons were indeed used, but not by whom. Russia has repeatedly asserted that the chemicals and gas missiles being used by the anti-Assad forces come from stocks manufactured in 1967 and supplied by the Soviet Union to Yemen, Egypt and Libya and never to Syria.
It is hypocritical for the US to self-righteously rant and rage at any country’s possession of chemical and other weapons of mass destruction while reserving for itself the right to possess the largest stockpile of such weapons, including its nuclear arsenal, and continues to use these to threaten, blackmail and coerce the rest of the world into compliance with its wishes. Worse, it has the mot ignominious and unparalleled record of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in brutally employing these weapons, killing and maiming millions of innocent civilians in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Iraq and elsewhere in its imperialist wars of aggression.
Syria, like Libya, has long been high on the US imperialists’ hit list for regime change mainly because of its resistance to imperialist schemes in the Middle East. Israel, the US’ hitman in the region, has been itching to attack Syria and had, in the Arab-Israeli wars, occupied the Golan Heights on its northern border with Syria. Bush, in the wake of 9-11, named Syria as part of the “axis of evil”, one of the “rogue states” being targeted by the US-led on “war on terror”.
The wave of anti-government protests known as the “Arab Spring” that swept through the Arab countries starting 2010, hit Syria in March 2011. Armed rebel groups eventually emerged, and coalesced into various coalitions. These are backed by the US and NATO powers, despite the significant presence of groups affiliated with the Al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood tagged as foreign terrorist organizations by the US. The credibility of the Syrian rebel and opposition coalitions suffers from their inability to unite in a single coalition, with those in Syria wary of the Western-sponsored opposition in exile.
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) joins all anti-imperialist and freedom-loving forces all over the world in condemning and opposing the US imperialist-led foreign intervention and schemes to invade, occupy and effect regime change in Syria. ILPS global region committees, national chapters and member organizations are vigorously conducting education and information, organizing and mobilizing protest actions in their respective areas in solidarity with the Syrian people.
People’s resistance and international solidarity, including the American people who object to and oppose their government’s criminal actions, significantly contributes in preventing and eventually frustrating the schemes of US imperialism. Ultimately, it will be peoples’ struggles that will weaken and defeat imperialism and reaction all over the world. ###
