Tribute to the martyrs of the Syrian uprising

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNauJ8P1fDY

There is a very polarized debate about what is happening in Syria with opposing views about which side to be on. Most of us don’t have reliable or sufficient sources of information. Some support the Assad regime; some view the opposition militias, like the Free Syrian Army, as proxy armies for imperialist regimes; many argue a popular uprising against Assad was co-opted & became the current civil war, killing thousands, turning the country into rubble, & forcing millions to exile with no place to go. Much of the discussion is muddled by the predominance of libertarian conspiracy theorists, like Global Research.

Ironically, there is probably no more videotaped uprising than in Syria, with thousands of videos documenting the popular uprising against the Assad regime & the regime’s extreme violence against it. That documentation makes it irefutable there was a popular uprising as part of the so-called Arab Spring. But that uprising has been decisively crushed & has become a civil war with the unmistakable signs of proxy intervention by the US & other malignant regimes.

A poliical observer said, “The situation in Syria is extremely bad; so bad that I can only conceive of one thing that could make it worse, the intervention of imperialist powers either directly or by proxy.”  He added, “We know the Assad regime is a bloodstained Bonapartist clique & rebellion against it is amply justified, but the opposition contains disparate elements about which we know very little.” We know very little but have strong cause to be wary about who is arming them & who they're fighting for.

The Syrian poet, Ibrahim al-Kashoush, called “the bird of the Syrian revolution” led protests of millions with the chant,  “Freedom is at the door/Bashar leave leave.” In July 2011, he was kidnapped by the regime on his way to work & later found in the Assi River with his neck severed & body pumped with bullets. This is the fate of many troubadours of revolution like Victor Jara, murdered by the Pinochet regime in Chile in 1973, & many others.

The Arab uprisings are changing everything, not just in the Middle East but in global politics. They contain a mighty transformative potential which the US, Israel, & other predatory nations are working sometimes behind the scenes & sometimes openly to reverse & destroy. It appears they have succeeded for now in Libya & Syria & that is cause for bereavement because the toll in human suffering is immense & tyranny remains in place.

This post is a tribute to the thousands of victims of the Assad regime, to Ibrahim al-Kashoush, & to all the troubadours of revolution who put themselves in harm’s way to create the poetry of social transformation. Whatever our view of the Syrian uprising, most of us can stand together in demanding, “No intervention in Syria! Hands off Syria!”  (Video of Ibrahim al-Kashoush leading chants)