IN JUST three weeks Russia’s war on terror has dealt devastating blows
against the reactionary militias that were financed and armed by US
imperialism, Turkey and the feudal kings of Arabia. While Russian jets
pound terrorist positions the Syrian army has launched an offensive on
all fronts against the brutal ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood gunmen who
have spread death and destruction throughout the country over the past
four years. Well over 1,000 have laid down their arms in return for an
amnesty. Thousands more have fled back across the Turkish border.
This week Russian president Vladimir Putin and Syrian president Bashar
al Assad met in the Kremlin to discuss the current situation and future
action. Putin said that the Syrian people have been confronting
terrorists “practically single-handedly” for years, withstanding
considerable casualties but now they have achieved serious and positive
results in this fight.
Assad thanked the Russians for their help stressing that political steps
will follow military action. “The only aim for all of us should be what
the Syrian people want as a future for their country.” Once the
terrorists are defeated, it will take a united effort to rebuild the
country economically and politically and to ensure peaceful coexistence
for all, Assad concluded.
When Russia acted on the Syrian request for air-support we were swamped
by the demands of the war-mongers and their media lackeys on both sides
of the Atlantic for a robust Nato response to halt the Russian
intervention — on the grounds that only Nato has the right to bomb
Syrian terrorists, which in imperialist terms means only gunmen who
don’t do the bidding of Washington and the oil princes. This was echoed
by the “human rights” gang, who said little about four years of
terrorist atrocities in Syria, but soon began bleating on about
“civilian” victims of Russian air-raids and the fear of a direct
Russian-American confrontation over the skies of Syria that could
trigger a much wider conflict.
These days the imperialist media no longer possess the monopoly of
information they once had. Russian, Middle Eastern and independent news
reports can be watched and read by a switch of a TV channel or the click
of a computer keyboard. People are now not so easily fooled by the lies
of the imperialist media and public opinion in Britain and the United
States is broadly behind the Russian intervention.
This has clearly been heeded in the United States. This week, the
Americans signed an agreement with Russia regulating the operations of
the two countries’ air forces in Syria. The deal is aimed at preventing
incidents and providing for the smooth operation of the two nations’
aircraft, and for mutual aid in critical situations.
But clearly not in Britain. The Cameron government is openly considering
sending the RAF into the fray to join the US-led operation in Syria,
shamefully supported by a handful of Blairites in the Parliamentary
Labour Party who hope to embarrass Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, with
their treachery.
US imperialism is using every dirty trick in the book to bring down the
Baathist-led popular front government in Syria which is the last Arab
bastion of resistance to the American plan for total control over the
Middle East and the immense oil reserves that lie beneath its sands.
They’ve been thwarted but they haven’t given up.
The real purpose of the Nato-led operations over Syria is simply to
prevent the Syrian Arab Airforce from attacking major rebel positions
and to pave the way for the “no fly-zones” and “safe-havens” that the
imperialists love to use as a pretence for open invasion and “regime
change”.
The labour and peace movement must stand by Syria to make sure that Britain plays no part in it.New Worker editorial
24th October 2015
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