Stop U.S. aggression on Syria!

Aug. 25 — Before we discuss any of the details of the latest Big Lie, Workers World denounces any missile or air attack on Syria as an international war crime. We call upon all anti-war forces in the United States to stand up to say “No!” to this act of aggression.

U.S. imperialism is poised to open another war. This one, the latest in a long series of aggressive wars, would target Syria. As we write, four U.S. destroyers, each with 90 cruise missiles, are moving into place in the eastern Mediterranean to be able to launch these death-dealers at the Syrian people.

As with earlier major U.S. aggressions against Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya, Washington has presented a Big Lie to try to justify an unwarranted and illegal assault on the Syrian people.

With Yugoslavia, the claim, shown later to be false, was that the Serbian government was committing “genocide” against Albanian-ethnic people in Kosovo. In Libya, Moammar Gadhafi’s government was alleged to be on the verge of committing a bloodbath in Benghazi — another Big Lie invented by U.S.-NATO forces. And we all know that no “weapons of mass destruction” were found in Iraq.

There is certainly a horrible civil war in Syria. But the forces engaged in armed struggle against the Syrian government have been armed and financed by Saudi Arabia, other gulf monarchies, Turkey and other NATO powers — all allied with U.S. imperialism. They are responsible for the 100,000 deaths and millions of refugees from this conflict.

The Syrian government has categorically denied using poison gas. We have no problem joining with the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people around the world who believe Damascus, rather than the incurable liars in the imperialist camp. U.S. imperialism has a track record of inventing any pretext to justify its own aggression. Its lies are meant to cover its track record of spending trillions of dollars on the most massive engine of destruction in history while failing to do anything helpful for the masses of people in the world.

Videos have been shown around the world that show many dead civilians. The imperialist media disseminate these with the hope of justifying an imperialist intervention on behalf of the criminal gangs fighting the Syrian government.

Do these videos really show victims of sarin nerve gas? No experts are confirming this charge. And if they do, does that prove the Syrian government is responsible? The Russian Foreign Ministry argues that the real source of these killings is the “rebels” themselves — ultra-reactionary, anti-government forces who have been known to murder Syrian civilians belonging to a different religion or sect. It charges they are the ones who have used sarin in an attempt to blame the Bashar al-Assad government and provoke direct imperialist intervention.

The timing of this crisis also makes it highly suspect. The “rebels” have had a string of military defeats and armed conflict among themselves. They have failed to create a central command. Moreover, a United Nations inspection team had just arrived in Damascus. Why would the Syrian government choose this time to do the very thing that the U.S. said would cause it to intervene?

Only the “rebels,” or as Damascus rightly calls them, the “terrorists,” could gain from this.

The administration in Washington claims it is “reluctant” to intervene directly. But the facts on the ground — and in the nearby seas — point to the possibility of yet another U.S. war in the region. Anyone wishing to stop this assault on the Syrians — and this is also an assault on the living conditions of workers and all poor people in the U.S. itself — must be ready to stand up against any new aggression.

For those interested in the arguments against the official U.S. story, we direct your attention to a video prepared by Press TV. It can be found at tinyurl.com/mfdcsgu.