STOP U.S. war on SYRIA

Coast-to-coast protests

Aug. 27 — Without presenting even a hint of proof of Washington’s allegations that Syria has used poison gas, Secretary of State John Kerry has announced that a rocket attack on the sovereign state of Syria from four U.S. destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean is imminent.

Each destroyer deploys 90 cruise missiles, so even a time-limited attack would cause enormous damage.

This blatant and illegal threat, supported only by Washington’s co-criminals in London and Paris — the former colonial powers in the Middle East — drew an immediate angry reaction from anti-war organizations around the world and in the U.S. itself.

The International Action Center, the United National Antiwar Coalition and the Answer Coalition issued statements condemning U.S. war moves and calling for protest demonstrations to stop the missile attack, plus others to be held on the “day of” or “day after” the attack. The Antiwar Committee in Chicago, Arab Americans for Syria in LA, Syrian American Forum of New Jersey, Women Against Military Madness in Minneapolis, are moving.

Code Pink has called a protest during Obama’s MLK Aug. 28 speech, gathering at 10 a.m. at 12th & Constitution.  Protests have already been set for New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dearborn, Mich. and some Florida cities.

Kerry’s announcement sounded like words of the Queen in “Alice in Wonderland”: sentence first, verdict afterwards. He completely dismissed the Syrian government’s cooperation with the United Nations investigation team on the ground there that was proceeding to examine the facts, saying it was “too little, too late.”

To the anti-war forces in the U.S., Kerry’s haste is just another sign that the imperialist powers had already decided to wage war on Syria. Last week’s alleged “nerve gas” attack on the outskirts of Damascus gives every indication of being an operation by the imperialists and their agents in the Syrian opposition. President Barack Obama’s statement a year ago that a nerve gas attack would be “a red line in the sand” for a U.S. intervention made it clear what those looking for a pretext for intervention had to do.

Few believe the imperialists

Despite the imperialist media’s knee-jerk reaction of rallying around the flag, a majority of the U.S. population — 60 percent in a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll — opposes intervention in Syria and 89 percent opposes arming the “rebels.” There is even some debate among imperialist analysts. In addition, Russia, Iran, China and other countries’ governments have spoken out against a new aggressive attack. This one doesn’t even have the acquiescence of the United Nations Security Council.

The anti-war groups in the U.S. say they are certain that the imperialist establishment is again lying. Why? Because they have lied so often before — and have been caught at it. (See editorial, page 6.)

For the 1999 air war on Yugoslavia, the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the 2011 air war on Libya, wild charges of genocide and weapons of mass destruction — all later proved false — were raised as pretexts for imperialist intervention, say the war opponents.

Instead of quietly accepting yet another U.S. aggression in the interests of the profit-hungry corporations and banks, the IAC-Solidarity Center in Baltimore has called a meeting to plan protest actions in Baltimore, Columbia and Frederick, Md., and a regional demonstration in Washington, D.C.

Follow developments in the D.C. region on Facebook at tinyurl.com/l876rel. In New York, the IAC has called a demonstration for Times Square at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 29. Follow the IAC at www.iacenter.org.

Follow UNAC at unacpeace.org for a listing of all actions.