HR 5993 The Syria Non-Intervention Act of 2012

Today we are introducing legislation to prevent the administration from accelerating its plan to overthrow the Syrian government by assisting rebel forces that even the administration admits include violent Islamic extremists. The bill is simple.

The Vision of the Local Coordination Committees on International Protection

John Rees - Stop The War Coalition (UK)

The bloody attack at Houla by the Syrian regime, or militias supporting it, is the latest in a long line of such atrocities.
The deaths at Houla have become the latest opportunity for those who care little for the rights of the Syrian people, British foreign secretary William Hague and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to demand regime change in Damascus.

The Syrian uprising is now more than a year old and blood is still being shed on a daily basis. Over 10,000 have now lost their lives. The government of Bashar al Assad has been unable to crush the movement, but the movement has been unable to overthrow Assad.

But however horrific the events in Syria are we should not allow our sympathy for the victims to carry us into support for Western intervention. Here is why.

We have been here before. The millions of lives lost in the Iraq war were justified as ‘humanitarian intervention’. In fact this is the major imperial ideology of the last 20 years used successively in the Balkans, the First Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

Many years after the massacre of the Kurds at Halabja had actually taken place it was being used as a justification for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Before that, the first Gulf War in 1991 was justified in part by a news report that asserted that Saddam Hussein’s forces were tearing babies out of hospital incubators in Kuwait. Understandable outrage at this act was channelled into support for war by the mainstream media and the government. But, as it turned out, the story was entirely invented.

We know that in Iraq the cost to Iraqis of Western intervention was out of all proportion greater even than the brutality of Saddam’s regime.

In Syria, foreign intervention will only shed more blood

The US and its Gulf allies are already fuelling sectarian conflict in their proxy war with Iran. The fallout could be disastrous

Sami Ramadani - Red Pepper

The democratic, anti-imperialist organisations that led the peaceful protest movement initially in Syria have been eclipsed by Nato-backed forces.

This is a sequel to my June 2011 article, ‘After the spring’, on the upheavals in the Arab world. It is an article that has been painful to write, because it brings bad tidings and offers a pessimistic analysis of the upheavals, at least in the short term, in a number of Arab countries.

The outcomes and potential outcomes of these uprisings have also acquired new, very significant dimensions.

These include a complex entanglement with the accelerated preparations for a possible attack on Iran, and a poisonous, sectarian aspect that could have the consequence of ripping Syria and the Middle East apart.

But I am also relieved to report that it is not all bad news.

The Egyptian people’s uprising is far from over and the workers, students and women activists are still engaged in a relentless struggle to remove military rule and gain genuine democratic rights, despite the Islamic organisations’ efforts to dampen popular anger and demands.

In Tunisia, the trade unions and left organisations are still strong and engaged in political and social struggles on a daily basis. They have also succeeded in securing a significant voice in parliament and are opposed to the pro-Nato direction of the newly elected Islamic government.

In Bahrain, the heroic popular movement is still defying the ruthless royal family and the Saudi tanks. Hundreds of thousands of people in Yemen still control the streets despite Saudi and US efforts to crush the uprising.

Be careful what you wish for: the Friends of Syria are no friends at all

11 April 2012
Lindsey German
Middle East and North Africa

What the hell, let's have another intervention. That is the message from the liberal press which has learnt nothing from its craven support for past wars.
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By Lindsey German
Stop the War Coalition
11 April 2012

Obama's ally for bringing "democracy" to Syria: the King of Saudi Arabia, one of the world's most tyrannical regimes.

The pressure is growing again for outside intervention in Syria despite – or perhaps because of – Kofi Annan's calls for a ceasefire.

While Western politicians have appeared to draw back from full frontal military assault in recent weeks, their policies are being activated through the back door.

Syria's neighbour, Turkey, is talking of invading Syria in order to create 'safe havens' and 'humanitarian corridors' to protect the Syrian opposition.

They are being egged on by the forces who have drummed up war in Iraq and Libya. Hawkish US senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman yesterday visited Syrian refugee camps in Turkey.

They are joined by a chorus of media commentators who are growing more strident in their demands that the US government and its allies 'do something'. Simon Tisdall in today's Guardian berates Barack Obama and David Cameron for shrugging their shoulders over events in Syria and denounces the 'do-nothing Nato crew'.