The corporate media has once again become complicit in promoting the
propaganda and disinformation put out by the US government. Like all good propaganda, success is defined partly by framing and limiting the debate to questions which, at the outset, prevent the most
important truths from ever being revealed.
The current debate is being framed as "should the US intervene to help the Syrian people?" This presupposes that we are not already involved and that the current 'civil war' is purely a Syrian affair.
The Western funding, arming and training of the resistance is part of a deliberate strategy to topple the Assad regime and weaken Iran, which is the
next target of the United States' imperial strategy for control of the region. However, this proxy war, by all accounts has failed thus far, and this has led the US and its allies to become increasingly desperate to turn the tide of the war. A military strike is always the last resort when covert operations fail, and so now we are seeing the
flimsiest of evidence based on an arbitrary red line used as a pretext for 'humanitarian intervention.'
This background context is amply documented
here,
here and
here.
So the question "should the US intervene?" needs to be replaced by the knowledge that the US has already intervened in morally criminal ways, and this imperial strategy must be stopped at once.
On top of
not bombing Syria in the coming weeks, we should also be fully demanding that the US and its regional allies stop supporting the Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels while initiating legitimate peace actions. This includes throwing our support behind the
non-violent resistance to Assad's regime, which is being
drowned out of the current discussion.
"Here’s what should be done instead: Pressure Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and Turkey to stop arming one side, while pressuring Russia and Iran to stop arming the other. Insist on a cease-fire. Support U.N. inspections of the evidence of crimes by both sides. Provide humanitarian aid to Syria, Syrian refugees (now fleeing in greater numbers as the U.S. threatens to attack), and others suffering in the region. Support nonviolent democracy movements.
And why stop there? End the occupation of Afghanistan, which we think of as “ending” but which is still twice as large as when President Obama was elected. Stop arming brutal dictatorships and calling the weapons “aid.” Close Guantanamo and other lawless prison sites. Halt U.S. drone and other missile strikes worldwide. Bring U.S. troops home from 175 nations. Spend 10% of the U.S. military budget providing the world with clean drinking water, food, and assistance in sustainable agriculture and energy.
Our options are not to do nothing or to bomb Syria into the sort of disaster created in Iraq. There is an alternative that benefits Syrians, makes us safer, and costs less in money, lives, and morality."
Now is the time more than ever for every single one of us to turn our Facebook profiles and Twitter pages into a platform for spreading independent news links that can shift the debate on Syria and inform people of what is really going on.
Deceptive narratives must be replaced by
honest ones.
You may only have a few hundred friends in your network, but if everyone reading this starts regularly sharing hard-hitting independent news several times a day, ever day, we can reach millions of people and reshape the debate and overcome the echo effect of the corporate media.
TAKE ACTION
Sign the
Roots Action petition. Sign the
Credo Mobile petition.
Let the world hear from you now.
Links:
Copyright, Films For Action. You may republish with attribution.
Activism
War & Peace