In human history, there has been no greater obstacle to social transformation than war & as a result nothing separates wheat from chaff faster than war. Fault lines get exposed, political ruptures that could previously lie low emerge as pro-war patriots line up uttering time-worn banalities endorsing “humanitarian interventions” & take their distance from antiwar activists, accusing them of rigidity & ossified politics stuck in the bygone era of Vietnam.
Those reactionary forces write the history books & make the films promoting WWI & WWII as the good wars fought for democracy & against genocide when in fact they were at heart inter-imperial conflicts over the division of colonial plunder. There wasn’t a damn good thing about either war--& WWII had nothing to do with stopping genocide in Europe.
So here we are on the threshold of another US-NATO military conflagration in Syria. If there’s one thing those governments know how to do it’s propaganda & milking tears out of the tender-hearted champions of war. “We can’t stand by & do nothing,” they cry out. (The use of the royal we, identifying with their own governments, is the first clue to where their loyalties lie.) And of course their governments haven’t stood by & done nothing. For the past few years through covert operations, they thwarted a popular revolution against the tyranny of Assad & turned it into a barbaric civil war.
To suggest that US-NATO forces have humanitarian intentions or could possibly achieve some peace for the millions of Syrians bombed out of their homes & sent to flight in other countries is to be either unforgivably stupid or irredeemably pro-war. One only has to look at Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, DR Congo, Uganda, Libya.
Human rights organizations take the cake in this regard, in particular Human Rights Watch (HRW) & Amnesty International. Amnesty has already won its Nobel Peace Prize; HRW is probably angling for one right now. Neither corporate-funded group can bring itself to denounce this pending war in no uncertain terms; that would upset their benefactors & curtail philanthropic largesse (otherwise known as hush money).
Amnesty issued a six-point manifesto on the Syrian intervention chiding the bellicose nations to take it easy on civilians. The statement will have you in tears as they beat the war drums against Assad--& you wonder why they haven’t long-since done the same for Iraq, Afghanistan, & elsewhere. HRW issued a statement saying they don’t take a position for or against intervention but you wouldn’t know that from their statement which also blisters Assad without mentioning US-NATO occupations. HRW cautions bellicose nations to “adhere to the laws of war” & discriminate between civilians & combatants. Does HRW have its head stuck up its ass? Can it think of a single war in human history where civilians weren’t the primary targets & victims!? Or is it covering for US-NATO aggression?
The only possible principled position is “No US-NATO intervention in Syria!” War against Syria would only replace the tyranny of Assad with the barbarism of US-NATO occupation. There are no humanitarian interventions, at least by US-NATO armies.
Hands off Syria! No covert intervention & no military invasion! It needn't be said that opposition to war does no good sitting in people's heads but can be actively expressed in antiwar protests & rallies.
(Photo of Syrian refugees & littlest civilians near border between Syria & Turkey taken in March by Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)
This is Israel's war! They bombed Syria in May killing 42 Syrian troops! This is all about their security! But as usual, Washington has draped its predatory policy in the false banner of humanitarian intervention.
ReplyDeleteUSrael = Fake WMD Intelligence & Orwellian Double-speak