I want to welcome you again to this webinar sponsored by the United National Antiwar Coalition. As we saw the events developing in Syria, we put out a statement. You can find that on the UNAC website, which is at UNACpeace.org.
Joe Lombardo, UNAC. WW Photo
Some people have tried to say that the U.S. was not really involved in the recent events in Syria, but it’s exactly the opposite. This was a U.S. project. I just read in the British paper, The Telegraph — a paper which I generally don’t encourage people to read — an article called, “U.S. prepared Syrian rebel group to help topple Bashar al-Assad.”
In the article they interviewed a bunch of the rebels in Syria. They were very open about their role, where they got their commands from, where they got their money from and where they got their weapons. It was the U.S.
The fall of Syria, of the Syrian government, is a blow. It’s a blow to the Syrian people; it’s a blow to the Palestinian people; and it’s a blow for the movement for peace and justice.
Syria was part of the Axis of Resistance, composed of the main forces outside of the Palestinians themselves that were supporting the Palestinian struggle, and that’s one of the reasons that the U.S. went after Syria and why Israel went after Syria.
The U.S. didn’t take credit for regime change in Syria, but the Telegraph article says they took a lot of credit for what happened. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, on the other hand, did take credit and has been, along with the United States, continually bombing. In fact, there is some chatter on Twitter about a gigantic bomb that Israel dropped today in Syria.
The Western propaganda media tries to portray the events in Syria as a popular uprising, but it wasn’t. It was a prolonged military, economic and political attack on the country carried out in ways that included some of the most egregious sanctions that have ever been placed on any country, along with a protracted war that’s been going on since 2011, along with an occupation of about a third of the country that includes the oil-producing area and most of the arable land.
These resources were taken out of the reach of the Syrian government. These resources were necessary to keep the government going. And so, as the so-called rebels were making good money — they were mercenaries — the Syrian military made about $30 a month, when they could get that. So, when the war flared up again, it was too much for many, and the military collapsed.
‘They are losing their empire’
Although it was a setback, what happened in Syria should be seen in the context of what’s going on in the world and the desperation of U.S. imperialism, the desperation of NATO and the European imperialist powers. They are losing their empire.
In Ukraine, they thought that their sanctions were going to bring down Russia and divide it into five pieces on their way to destroying China. They were going to overextend Russia, which is probably part of what they were trying to do in Syria, and Russia at this point was not able to give more aid and save the Syrian government.
But Ukraine didn’t work out the way they wanted. Despite the weapons and the training the U.S. and NATO provided, which brought the Ukrainian military up from one of the smallest militaries in Europe to by far the largest, they are losing.
This has shown countries and people all around the world that the United States is not invincible; it can be defeated. Additionally, what we see going on in Palestine has shown to people that the United States and Zionism are not what they say. They are horrific, and what they are doing is a genocide, and it is evil.
This has awakened the consciousness of millions of people around the world. It’s brought us out in the streets in the millions, in numbers that we haven’t seen in decades. This reflects an increasing awareness.
Without that consciousness we will never change the world, and we are on a march to change the world. We see Western imperialism collapsing; we see a political crisis in the United States; we see a political crisis in European countries; we see it in NATO.
Their world is collapsing, and new structures, new economic structures are being built to replace the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank. And the so-called invincible armies of the imperialist powers are failing, and the imperialists are desperate. That’s why they are doing what they’re doing — bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war, trying to bring down the governments that won’t follow their dictates. But they are losing, and as they lose, the people of the world are winning.
So, during this period we go forward. Syria was a defeat, but we need to understand it as a time to redouble our efforts to join with organizations like UNAC. If your organization is not a member of UNAC, go to that website UNACpeace.org and join. Come together in unity, and we will win.
In the beginning of the bombing in Syria, UNAC called for demonstrations around the country, and in more than 100 places in the United States, demonstrations were held. Today, with the new mass movement that is developing, we can be stronger. Let’s redouble our efforts and build our movement for the sake of the Syrians, the Palestinians and all the people of the world.