The groups supporting a protest in Los Angeles on June 9 released this statement:
No more wars — U.S. out of the Middle East
Take to the streets!
Why we are demonstrating:
- While the White House orders the Pentagon to plan a no-fly zone over Syria and the U.S. has troops at the ready in Jordan, for the past two years the CIA has coordinated massive weapons shipments from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey with the aim of guaranteeing that a pro-U.S. regime comes to power, therefore negating the Syrian people’s right to self-determination.
- Israel, with the backing of the Obama administration which represents U.S. Imperialism, has in recent days carried out major bombings of Syria. Israel receives $4 billion a year from the United States (the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid) and acts as a proxy for and an extension of U.S. military power in the Middle East.
- As with Iraq, where the U.S. war caused the death of 1.5 million people, the lives of Syrians, 80,000 of whom have died to date, are meaningless to the U.S. neocolonial superpower that is now threatening yet another brutal war and occupation in the Middle East.
- As under Bush, the Obama policy is to carry out regime change in this oil-rich region to the advantage of U.S. corporate interests. The invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S.-backed Israeli war in Lebanon in 2006, the 2011 NATO bombing of Libya, the now-escalating war in Syria and the growing threats against Iran are part of a coordinated regional effort by the United States, Britain and France to completely dominate the resources and land of an area that was once considered a prime prize of Western colonial domination and plunder.
- As with all wars of aggression, the imperialist powers have perfected a propaganda cover that ascribes lofty motives to their intervention in the Middle East — “eliminating weapons of mass destruction” or “protecting civilians” or “fighting the war on terror” or “fighting for democracy.”
- The U.S. government cuts basic services and has eliminated hundreds of thousands of public sector workers’ jobs in the last three years because of “budget shortages,” but spends limitless funds in carrying out wars of aggression.
Initial Signers:
United National Antiwar Coalition — L.A.; Arab Americans for Syria (AA4Syria); BAYAN-SOCAL; International Action Center; Unión del Barrio; School of the Americas Watch — L.A.; Puerto Rican Alliance; Union of Progressive Iranians