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EDITORIAL

Syria: Lies and big lies

Published Jun 13, 2012 8:47 PM

This editorial is neither an attack on nor an apology for the Syrian government. Our position has little to do with our evaluation of the Assad government, or whether the charges the imperialists and their hangers-on make against Syria have any truth to them or are completely false. These issues cloud the main dividing line in the worldwide class struggle, which, as a revolutionary workers’ newspaper in the U.S., it is our job to expose.

It is about Syria’s powerful enemies, who are the enemies of 99% of humanity.

It is about the military weapons these destructive forces have provided the Syrian “opposition.”

It is about the even-more-powerful propaganda juggernaut these enemies of humanity have put in motion. The goal of this propaganda is to convince a large section of the population to allow the 1% to act against the interests of the 99% — by going to war against Syria.

Start with the line up of enemies. Following a massacre of civilians — a massacre that has all the classic characteristics of a manufactured incident aimed to provide a pretext for war — Western governments expelled Syrian ambassadors. These governments include Germany, France, Canada, Italy and Spain, while Britain and the U.S. had already closed down diplomatic contacts.

These countries call themselves the “international community” and the “champions of humanitarian intervention” on behalf of “freedom and democracy.”

In reality, they are the former and present colonial powers, all NATO members, that are currently attempting by intrigue and war to reconquer those parts of the world that gained independence in the second half of the 20th century. They are — using current language — the major state powers representing the 1%.

This diplomatic offensive against Syria coincides with the propaganda offensive attempting to blame the Syrian government and army for massacres against civilians.

First of all, this claim is the apex of hypocrisy. These are the military powers that invented the term “collateral damage” to explain away civilians killed during strikes at alleged military targets — like bridges, factories, embassies and television stations during NATO’s 1999 air war against Yugoslavia. This is the U.S. that kills hundreds of civilians monthly with drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere. These are the diplomats that defended Israel’s slaughter of civilians in Lebanon and Gaza.

Second, the imperialists’ standard operating procedure is to use phony “massacres” as pretexts for war. The phony Racak massacre of January 1999 in Kosovo province of Serbia was the pretext for 78 days of bombing Yugoslavia. The phony slaughter of incubator babies in Kuwait was the pretext for the U.S.-led 1991 war on Iraq.

Third, search beyond the vast ocean of disinformation and you will find that the Syrian opposition manipulated the killings in collaboration with imperialist secret agencies. Not only Russian news sources, but the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a conservative German daily newspaper, showed that the opposition army was maneuvering to create “massacres” and blame them on the government.

The imperialist powers as of June 12 are all lined up against the Bashar Assad government. They send heavy weapons, money and intelligence to opposition fighters through Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Were there any doubt of the lineup of forces, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu cleared that up on June 10 by calling for Western military intervention against Syria.

The lesson for progressives?

Stand up against the propaganda onslaught. Refuse to be duped by it. Stand firm against the imperialist military, diplomatic and economic offensive against Syria.

Imperialist hands off Syria!