SYRIA IN CONTEXT

 

                                                                         

This is the first in a series of articles meant to help anyone struggling to understand the underlying logic behind global crises that seem chaotic and disconnected. 

 
Starting with the fall of the Syrian government, these essays will explain the basics of US foreign policy through examining world events since the turn of this century. They will explore how these events are related to stated and unstated goals of those who determine what is euphemistically referred to as U.S. “national security” policy. 
 
I strive to make my observations concise, so parts of it may be a challenge for the novice. If you don’t understand a reference that does not have a hyperlink with more details, don’t worry. It will almost certainly be explained later.  
 
I have also tried to provide nuggets of information and analysis for those who have a fair grasp of the U.S. role in manipulating world events. If you fall in that category, I hope the way that ideas and events are put together will also be illuminating to you.  

 

The fall of Syria has elicited cheers from a lot of people you might assume would know better, most notably some Palestine solidarity activists. This likely reflects the fact that most of those Palestinian supporters celebrating Assad’s departure are new to the study of geopolitics and U.S. foreign policy.   

  
The most basic fact they have missed is that Syria is the linchpin of a weapons pipeline that has until now run through the so-called Shia Crescent from Iran to Lebanon. This is the route by which Iran has been sending most of the weapons that Hezbollah has used to resist Israeli aggression in Lebanon and to support Palestinian resistance to genocide. Without access to resupply of weapons from Iran, Hezbollah will be unable to resume pressure on Israel to cease its operations in Gaza by making the north of Israel uninhabitable. 
 
Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah have often been referred to as the Axis of Resistance. This term has generally been used to refer to the resistance against Israeli occupation, ethnic cleansing and expansionism. However, it could also be said that Syria was holding back the expansion of the U.S. empire itself between 2011 and 2012, when Hezbollah fighters entered in force from Lebanon.  
 
For many years, and against overwhelming odds, Syria held its ground against the relentless juggernaut of U.S. military aggression that started in the wake of 9/11. It is for that reason that its fall is especially tragic. It had given hope to millions who had feared the U.S. Empire could not be stopped. Syria later began receiving critical help from Iranian-backed militias and in 2015, Russian airpower but throughout the struggle, the Syrian Arab Army had been fighting not just for Syria, but for everyone in the world wanting to see the end of America's bloody march to global military domination. 

 

Iraqi militias and the Yemeni resistance group Ansar Allah (aka the Houthis) have become integral parts of the resistance since October 7. Their roles following the collapse of the Syrian Army and likely withdrawal of Russian forces may become critical to protecting Iran from attack following this devastating blow to its influence with the collapse of the Syrian government.  
 
With Hezbollah largely out of the fight, Iraqi militias will likely further step up their attacks on U.S. military illegally occupying parts of Syria. However, with Israel flush with victory and under no restraints, it is free to attack Iraq. In that event, Iran may choose to enter the conflict with Israel directly, with disastrous and unpredictable results that could include use of nuclear weapons.  

 

Ansar Allah, on the other hand, has nothing to lose and no apparent fear of retaliation. It has proven very hard to attack or defend against and will undoubtedly continue to do its part by shutting down Red Sea traffic for the foreseeable future. This is an important contribution to the serious economic pain that Israeli officials and their fanatic supporters have been ignoring in pursuit of their goal of the ethnic cleansing of all of historic Palestine to establish a Greater Israel. 
 
It is this economic damage that may be the greatest hope for the resistance, if global outrage over the genocide continues to give momentum to the BDS movement. Although the mainstream media has largely ignored the issue, it may eventually make it difficult for American politicians to continue to give Israel a blank check to make up for all they have lost and will continue to lose. 
 
The consensus among analysts seems to be that Syria will come to resemble Afghanistan, with a repressive Islamist government that rules with an iron fist. Since it is doubtful that Syria's new nominal leader can control rival forces, it is more likely it will resemble Libya, a failed state thanks to NATO “saving” it from Gaddafi.  
 
As in Syria, the “liberal interventionists” in the Democratic Party joined forces with Republican neocons in 2010 to destabilize Libya by removing Gaddafi from power. In that case, they used the lie that the popular leader intended to commit genocide. The National Security establishment then used this manufactured threat to justify killing 10,000 Libyan civilians with U.S. firepower. The goal was to assist the largely foreign terrorists who eventually defeated Gaddafi.  
 
As is the case in Syria, the terrorist groups supported by the U.S. were portrayed as patriotic “rebels.” However, U.S. intervention left Libya in the hands of warring factions that are still fighting for control, leaving the country in the hands of warring factions that are still fighting for control. Similar infighting among competing terrorist groups has already started in Syria, though this has as yet received little if any attention in the mainstream media. 
 
It is important to note that liberal interventionists and neocons share the same goals. The only difference is that Democrats don’t want to be associated with the “crazies in the basement,” as some described neocons during the first Bush administration.  
 
“Liberal” interventionists and neocons both favor throwing out the longstanding foreign policy doctrine of realism, which recognized limits on American power. This was not because of any moral objection to pure power politics. Far from replacing it with a more idealistic foreign policy, they have ushered in a new era of endless war in the cause of extending American hegemony worldwide. 
 
To understand the challenge the antiwar movement faces, one must first abandon the notion that either party has any real interest in peace with America's designated enemies short of a Pax Americana. Everything Israel has done since October 7 in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria has occurred with the full knowledge and support of the Biden administration, despite claims to the contrary. Biden could have forced Israel to negotiate for peace long ago by simply cutting off offensive weapons shipments. Now, Trump has promised to provide even more support to Israel, which he has encouraged to “finish the job.”  
 
Fully comprehending the significance of Syria’s collapse requires knowing the recent history of American Mideast policy. For a richer understanding that may help anticipate coming events, it is also helpful to know a bit about the history of relationships between regional players. Such history is not systematically covered in most articles or videos found in the alternative media. This series is an attempt to provide an analysis of the most essential historical information required to evaluate current events. To understand how to do your own analysis of events, you must start by unlearning what you have been led to believe about foreign affairs

NEXT: Media literacy and resistance

EDUCATING AMERICANS ABOUT US EMPIRE

 

Increasingly, citizens are asking why the U.S. continues to support the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The answer is simple: To our foreign policy establishment, Israel is a critical outpost of the American empire. As President Biden has often said, “If Israel didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it.”  
 
When Biden told ABC interviewer George Stephanopoulos, “I’m running the world,” he was acknowledging the fact that America is a global empire. While some will scoff at the idea, it is too late to deny it. The Empire has no clothes. 
 
It explains why we have over 800 military installations around the world and why the Pentagon budget is more than that of the world’s next 10 largest militaries combined. No nation is such a threat that it justifies spending over $1 trillion dollars per year on “defense”-related costs. 
 
It’s understandable that most Americans don’t realize they live in the heart of an empire. Media figures and politicians carefully avoid the term. We don’t learn this fact in school. Even most history teachers don’t realize it. But we must recognize it. It is the reason our government is complicit in genocide. 
 
We cannot be afraid to say this. Endless war is incompatible with self-rule. A democratic government would not defy the will of the overwhelming majority of its citizens who oppose the genocide. When the U.S. supports violence around the world, it does so in our name. In claiming to be a democracy, we take responsibility. Ask any German citizen.  
 
Martin Luther King, Jr said in 1967, “America is the world’s greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” It’s still true, but we no longer seriously question politicians and pundits who tell us we must support such violence. It’s not for freedom, democracy or self-defense. The actions of the Empire only reflect the wishes of Wall Street investors. What we are told are “American interests” are never those of average citizens.  
 
Let’s hope that U.S. complicity in genocide awakens Americans to the costs 
of Empire.  After all, average Americans are not spared its depredations. As the financial crisis of 2008 proved, we’re not the first priority of the Empire’s managers. Nothing takes priority over the unfettered pursuit of profit. Not Palestinian children. Not American workers. Not even Israelis, who will eventually realize that they, too, are victims of an empire they depend on to continue subjugating the victims of their 100-year project of dispossession. 
 
Though we’re at the highest risk of nuclear war since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, you'd never know it from the lack of public opposition to policies seemingly designed to lead to war with Iran, Russia, North Korea and China at the same time. Those policies only make sense when you realize that the US is trying to forestall the premature end of what neocons call their “Project for a New American Century.”  
 
In 2000, a group of neocons (including Dick Cheney) published a plan for global dominance by imposing what the authors called “Pax Americana,” which called for peace through war. Those plans led to disaster in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and beyond. Their ideological disciples have now set their sights on war with Iran. These are the empire managers. 
 
In the face of the growing climate crisis devastating the US and the world, America cannot afford to send National Guard troops into foreign wars when they are needed to help address disasters at home.  
 
Dismantling the global US Empire is the first step back from the nuclear and ecological brink. Americans must unite now to stop this mad rush to WWIII. Time is running out.