Thursday, August 29, 2013

No to air strikes in Syria

No to air strikes in Syria



Within days the USA and Britain are planning an attack on Syria. The recall of Parliament is expected to back the military action at an emergency meeting convened for Thursday 29th August. 

The situation in Syria has changed so much since the initial promise of the Arab Spring.
Minority groups of Christians and Alawites have felt threatened by the growing Islamic Sunni reaction to the potential of the Arab Spring.

The rebels in Syria are not a mass movement for change but an attempt by one armed group supported by foreign mercenaries to simply replace Assad with a fundamentalist regime.

Worried by the rise of Jihadists in the opposition forces the US has been supplying arms and by training the Free Syrian Army.

The Assad regime is clearly winning the war which has pushed the US to direct intervention in order to prevent Assad’s military advance.

The chemical weapons attack on August 21st killed hundreds of civilians including many children this is now being used as justification for American military action.
We don't know what circumstances are surrounding the use of chemical weapons in Syria but the Americans and opposition groups have no interest in establishing the truth.
 United Nations could play a role in preventing the conflict but we don’t want another dodgy dossier of false evidence.

What are the real aims of military intervention in Syria.

After more than 100,000 deaths in this bloody civil war in Syria over the last two years, the US government is now suddenly becoming extremely concerned by the killing of women and children and innocent civilians. How many have been killed before by weapons supplied by western  powers to one or the other sides of this bloody proxy war.

Conventional weapons have been used to kill thousands of civilians but that wasn’t enough to cross of red line for America and Britain.

Cruise missiles do not discriminate between military personnel and civilians when they strike Syria.   It is the ordinary Syrian people who will be the victims of the destruction of energy and water supplies. 

What are the real aims of American intervention?

The declared aim to destroy the deposits of chemical weapons is laughable, the Assad regime will have used the past months to protect their stocks of weapons and defend against air strikes.

From the Americans point of view a long stalemate in hostilities is preferable to one side getting the upper hand.

So airstrikes are being used to restrict the Syrians army’s ability to mount an offensive against the opposition.

The most plausible aim of US intervention seems to us to be that of seriously affecting the Syrian army's ability of taking advantage of the momentum gained in their offensive against the opposition armies. 

We will then see a so called peace conference leaving the monster Assad in power an allowed to attack opponents at will.

There is also a danger that Syria could be used as a proxy for a phoney war between America and its allies and Russia.

The Russian military has already delivered advanced surface-to-air missile batteries for Assad.  The US Navy has deployed in the area in recent days. And has the option to strike Syria from air force bases in several Mediterranean countries.

Russia has also established of a permanent presence in the Mediterranean and has moved several large landing ships to the area.

Over the coming days we will see the media propaganda aimed at building public opinion to support military action in Syria.

Military action should be opposed.  The Syrian people are being used as cannon fodder for the games played by the USA and Russian politicians.

What is required in Syria are decent living standards, jobs, cheap plentiful food supplies and an end to corrupt and brutal regimes.

For the mass of people in Syria the military action of the USA nor the Assad regime offer a way out, what is required is the overthrow of the Assad regime by the mass of working people and the organisation of society not based on religion but on the need of the population.