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Recent
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April
10, 2003
Zoltan
Grossman
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the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
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The Telltale Signs of Empire
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Bush and Rummy's Drunken Drive-by
David Krieger
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Robert
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The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
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Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
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Guthrie
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Nately's Old Man
Steve
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of the Day
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April
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America's Sovereign Right to Do
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April
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April
3, 2003
Uri
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Can You Hear the Silence?
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April 15,
2003
Aiming at Syria
Stop Them Before
They Kill Again
by
RON JACOBS
It wasn't but three or four hours after the statue
of Saddam Hussein was pulled down by the US Marines (and a few
dozen Iraqi extras) in the center of Baghdad before the maddest
man on the Potomac, Donald Rumsfeld, issued a warning to the
nation of Syria. In effect, Rumsfeld told Syria that its fate
would be the same as the Iraqis unless it did his bidding. Further
remarks from Rumsfeld and Colin Powell have clarified this threat
while simultaneously ratcheting it up.
According to the words of the Bush Imperium,
Syria is harboring former members of Saddam's government, has
chemical weapons, and aided the old Iraqi military in its ill-fated
battle with the US Army, Air Force and Marines. Nobody in the
ruling oligarchy down in Washington, D.C. has presented one
shred of evidence for these accusations, nor does it seem likely
that they plan on doing so any time soon. One can safely assume
(based on their presentation of "evidence" against
Hussein's Iraq) that they haven't manufactured the evidence
they need yet.
Meanwhile, Damascus insists that it has
no chemical weapons and has no intention of developing them,
and that it has not knowingly harbored any former members of
Saddam Hussein's government. It does acknowledge that some may
have fled to Syria and may be hiding there, but has stated repeatedly
that these Iraqis are in Syria (if they are in Syria) of their
own volition and without the help of the government in Damascus.
Interestingly, the Yemeni government provided asylum to a former
Iraqi diplomat on April 13th without a single comment from Washington.
When it comes to providing asylum to
government officials who are wanted for crimes against their
own people, the United States has certainly compiled a stellar
list of its own in this category. Ask the people of Vietnam
where the torturers trained by the CIA went. Or how about the
former head of the Saigon government, Nguyen Van Thieu, who
fled with millions of dollars worth of gold and moved to California.
Maybe we could ask the Iranian people about the American puppet
and torture chief, Shah Reza Pahlavi? If Washington hadn't been
so insistent on helping him flee justice in Iran, it is quite
likely that the Embassy hostages would never have been taken
and US-Iranian relations would be on a friendlier basis. Indeed,
I would probably not be writing this piece. Unfortunately, we
can't rewrite history.
Syria is an urbane and fairly advanced
technological society. Its civilization is older than the Bible.
Like Iraq, its major source of revenue is oil, although its
resources are considerably smaller than other Middle Eastern
nations. Its economy is socialistic in nature, although in
recent years it has adopted some free market reforms. After
World War One and the defeat of the Ottomans by the British
and other allied forces, it was an independent nation for a
brief time. In 1920, it was made a French mandate, much in the
same manner that Iraq was made a British one. To put it simply,
when the victors of the First World War divided the spoils,
Syria went to France. After the Second World War, it became
an independent nation that merged with Egypt and Yemen in 1958
to form the short-lived United Arab Republic under the tutelage
of the Arab nationalist Gamal Abdel- Nasser. Upon the breakup
of the Republic, Syria once again became a separate country.
Since that time, it has fought two wars
with Israel, taken part in peacekeeping operations in Lebanon,
supported the US-Kuwaiti position during the first Gulf War
(even providing 20,000 troops to the effort) and agreed to various
US proposals for peace with Israel that began in 1991. Those
peace talks broke off in 1996 and resumed in December 1999.
After what appeared to be initial progress, the negotiations
stalled in January 2000, when a secret draft treaty with Syrian
concessions was published in Israel, leading to a public hardening
of Syria's position with respect to the Israeli-occupied Golan
Heights. The Golan is Syrian land that was captured by Israel
in the 1967 war. It is part of the territory that the UN has
ordered Israel to return under Resolution 242 and is currently
the site of several illegal Israeli settlements. In 2000, Hafez
al-Assad, the leader of Syria, died and was replaced by his
son, Ba'ashar.
Since the 1967 war and the Israeli occupation
of the Golan (along with the West Bank and Gaza), Syria has
helped a number of Palestinian resistance groups by providing
them with office space and a place to train. Foremost among
these groups is the popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP). This assistance has kept Syria near the top of Israel's
enemies list. Consequently, it has also remained near the top
of Washington's list, as well. If Israel and Washington have
their way, there is nothing Damascus can do or say short of
surrender that would prevent a war. This is exactly the same
scenario the world saw unfold in Iraq. Since it worked so well
there, one can project that Washington will use it again.
Already, suggestions are emanating from
the Pentagon and US State Department that sanctions be levied
against Syria. As the world knows, this has become a step towards
war. In what should probably be perceived as an attempt to head
off armed conflict, spokespeople for the Syrian government have
already suggested that they would open up their weapons production
and stockpiles to any UN inspections regime. Indeed, as we learned
in Iraq, this is another step on the way to war. In Washington's
mind, sanctions and inspections are merely the opening forays
in a process that will weaken a government to the point where
it will either forsake its sovereignty and surrender, or it
will go to war no matter what the odds. In short, sanctions
and inspections are the first shots fired across the bow. They
are no longer a prelude to war, they are part of war itself.
If the global antiwar movement does not
want to see another exercise in mass murder and imperial destruction,
it must insist that no sanctions be levied against Syria. Ideally,
it should also insist that any inspections of Syrian WMD capabilities
be accompanied by comparable inspections in the United States,
Israel and every other country that supports the US actions
against Damascus. This is not a question of supporting the past
totalitarian excesses of the government of Syria, nor does it
even mean supporting the current regime. It only means, and
this is most important, that we oppose the unwarranted threats
and unfounded accusations against Syria. They are nothing but
a pretext for a war that should not occur. As the past few weeks
have proven, the primary threat to peace in the Middle East
is not Syria or Iran, it is the United States.
Ron Jacobs
is author of The
Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground.
He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu
Yesterday's
Features
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
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