Syria: Obama Threatens U.S. Military Intervention

President Barack Obama on Aug. 18 demanded that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down, saying that the Syrian leader’s days are numbered. The governments of Britain, France and Germany joined in this demand. This statement is ablatant imperialist interference in Syria’s internal affairs. Morethan that, it is an open threat to intervene militarily in another country in that region, just as the U.S. and its European allies have done already in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Somalia, with rockets and bombs. It is a threat against the Syrian peopleof something like the last five months of slaughter of the Libyan people.

Two weeks earlier, on Aug. 5, Russia's envoy to NATODmitry Rogozin told the media that NATO is planning a military campaign against Syria to overthrow the Assadregime. In an interview with Russia's Izvestia daily newspaper, Rogozin said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is also probably establishing a long-reaching goal of preparing an attack on Iran. (Reported in Xinhua, Aug. 5)

When U.S. imperialism engages in an attack on any government or movement, as it is now on Syria, it is cowardly to be neutral. It is rank betrayal to stand on the same side as the imperialist octopus, which seeks to dominate the world. This has been an ABC for workers’ movements through 150 years of class-conscious struggles. It is the very basis of Marxism. Whatever one’s assessment of the government under attack, any attempt at imperialist intervention, whether through sanctions or through armed attack, must be opposed.

Obama’s double standard
The Obama administration has called out only for the governments of Libya and Syria to resign. You would think there are no other governments that are using the force of the state against a portion of the population.

Look across the Atlantic to Washington’s closest ally, in London. That government just sent 16,000 police against the rebellious people of the capital city. They sent people to jail for four years for sending messages with blackberries. These same police killed 333 civilians in England over the last 13 years. And the state power in Spain fired rubber bullets at demonstrators camped out on Plaza Catalunya in Barcelona. In Greece they repress strikers and demonstrators. AndWashington cheers on the state power in all three allied capitals for punishing these legitimate rebellions.

Even more blatant is the repression in Bahrain, a country of a half-million people where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is stationed. With dozens of protestors killed and hundreds arrested and tortured, the monarchy there has received no criticism from Washington. And that’s even after Saudi troops invaded the island to help put down the uprising.

Syria’s internal situation may be difficult to understand, but in this unfolding struggle clear statements against U.S. destabilization efforts have come from Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon and several exiled leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian organization that was elected by the people of Gaza. These political leaders have experienced first-hand U.S. destabilization campaigns that used corporate media fabrications, externally financed opposition groups, targeted assassinations, “special operations” sabotage and well-trained Internet operatives.

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