After the brutal chemical attack carried out by Bashar al-Assad in Douma, the US president, Donald Trump, made a series of hypocrite “humanitarian” statements.
By Daniel Sugasti.
The leader of a coalition that, since 2014, killed thousands of civilians, is suddenly horrified because of the “barbarianism” of his Syrian counterpart. “What happened is barbaric and inadmissible. We are studying the response. Nothing is discarded so far,”[1] he said. Then, he announced “important decisions” in the next “24 to 48 hours.” There is a concrete threat of a military attack on a bigger scale than the current one – characterized by some analysts like “imminent.”
From the IWL-FI, we repudiate any type of military intervention by imperialism against Syria. That is not the solution to oppression and to the atrocities of al-Assad’s regime. In the Syrian case, [an intervention] will always pursue to defeat the revolutionary process, not the dictator. Washington uses its missiles serving a policy: better conditions to control the country in a future political “transition”. He does not care about the lives or aspirations of the Syrian people.
As it is known, the US and its imperialist allies are intervening in Syria and Iraq since 2014. The coalition confirmed the number of 29,070 attacks between Agost 2014 and January 2018. It also admitted having killed between 6,137 and 9,444 people until midst February, plus 5000 people not counted here.[2] The truth is that the US airstrikes targetted civilians and the so-called Islamic State, not the Syrian regime.
However, as cynically as possible, Trump now shows himself horrified by Assad’s atrocities and promises a “strong and joint” action. Paris and Londres –as always- supported Washington in the UN. “France is willing to everything, with its allies,”[3] said the French ambassador. “All options are on the table,”[4] reinforced the British.
It is not possible to measure the reach of this new threats. It might be nothing more than a threat, but it might also be a “surgical” attack, like the one carried out one year ago, also responding to a chemical attack in Damasco. Back then, the US launched 59 missiles Tomahawk against the aerial base Shayrat, in Homs only.
Despite its war rhetoric, it is improbable that the US increases the field troops to guarantee a new “invasion” of Syria. Not long ago, Trump himself acknowledged that there are 2000 soldiers in the country, and he showed himself favorable to a repatriation, as soon as possible.
The chemical attack on Douma changed his speech, but it hardly changed his strategic plan. Thus, it might be a hard blow, but always looking forward to a “negotiated solution” in the best possible conditions, with the Syrian regime and its protector, Putin.
The Syrian people have lost too much blood already, confronting Assad’s dictatorship. A victorious imperialist military intervention, even under the hypothesis of overthrowing Assad’s regime, will be nothing but a new dictatorship, for the people. It would be the dictatorship of imperialism, the greater genocide of human history. So it is necessary to fight them both, the axis Assad-Russia-Iran-Hezbollah, and the “democratic” axis US-France-UK-UN.
The democratic and economic demands of the Syrian people, for which they have been fighting and dying over the past 7 years, can only be guaranteed with the defeat of both counter-revolutionary factions and the triumph of the revolution.
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[1] Our translation. Original in Spanish. Source: https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/04/09/estados_unidos/1523292948_799013.html
[2]http://es.euronews.com/2018/02/27/mas-de-5-000-victimas-civiles-sin-contabilizar-por-ataques-de-eeuu-en-irak-y-siria
[3]Our translation. Original in Spanish. Source: https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/04/09/estados_unidos/1523292948_799013.html
[4] Ibidem.
