How The American people Stopped A US war On Syria :
Notes Of A Third World Traveller Of The United States Of America
By Karthik Ramanathan
17 September, 2013
Countercurrents.org
I write this article as the US war machinery that geared up once again to hammer another poor country with deadly military blows in the name of achieving humanitarian goals, has been stopped for the moment in its bloody tracks. This is a unique and historical occasion and would like to accordingly make some observations including very personal ones about the protests and marches against war – a very important factor in making the administration realize that they were facing defeat in the US Congress - that I was a part of. I'm a Citizen of India - a country with many positive attributes, but a poor country, a third world country – and I have called the United States of America home for more than a decade. I'm sending this letter initially to people who I have met over the duration of my sojourn in America, that has by now taken me across the length of this beautiful country. Some of you maybe my former teachers who have taught me my professional trade, some of you the occasional acquaintance, the friend I met at a coffee shop, a family member or even a person I worked with in the Software industry. I hope you will read this letter in its entirety, and consider the matter somewhat urgent as it has to do with the future of your grandchildren and their children. I hope you also share it with your friends and colleagues particularly those living within the borders of the United States.
Luckily for humanity, the US government's threat of war on Syria triggered massive protests from broad sectors of the American public from DC to California, who came out on the streets in short notice, to demand an end to the US threat of war, not on the narrow ground of expedience but on principled grounds of International law and human morality. Here is the part I saw and concluded of these protests, and the response of the US establishment.
Overnight Encampment outside the home of Senator Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco
A day of marching organized by activists of Codepink and Veterans For Peace on Saturday September 7, 2013 takes a varied number of us marching across the city of San Francisco. Marching and speaking over bull horns through the financial district, and a range of actions, including chants, distributing fliers, making peace trees outside Nancy Pelosi's home, a light show on the Golden Gate Bridge by very down-to-earth Mike and Teresa – who drove here many hours from Fresno – then leads us to our overnight encampment on the courtyard of Senator Dianne Feinstein's almost fortress like mansion. No one was hoping for a positive gesture from the Senator. Feinstein I'm told is a well-known war mongerer and is clearly demonstrated by her instinctive support for the Syrian strike proposal. But protesting here would be a good way to attract the attention of the local media and people. As dinner and conversations wind down, and the anti-war banners are laid to rest, the sheets are spread and people begin to rest and cover themselves in blankets. I have to thank Toby Blome, my new friend and longtime codepink member who decided to share her blanket with me since I didn't have one– my decision to join the overnight protest being an impromptu one. To my right were sleeping many members of codepink. To my left happened to be sleeping a homeless man, interestingly a homeless man from India who decided it was worth the long walk to throw venom at the war makers Feinstein and Pelosi (and maybe also get dinner). That is interesting to me because I have never seen a homeless Indian man in America. Many in India for sure, but first time I'm seeing one in America.
Husbands soon joined their wives in our temporary mass bedding arrangement and I could hear the American accented “Goodnights” and soft kisses that preceded them sometimes, and sometimes after. At that moment, somehow looking into the sky from the grand courtyard, as the cold wind blew across my face, I felt somewhat shaken. I'm not sure what it was. Was it that I had just realized that I was both alone in a strange land – alone in love, alone in thoughts – and yet not alone at the same time, unmistakably not alone with so many Citizens of the United States next to me, sharing and sacrificing and even teaching me about the struggle for peace and justice in the world. Or was it the realization that despite being an Engineer, hard nosed and not easily given to emotion, that a lot of love, caring by family, by teachers, by friends, and even luck and the incidental support of concerned strangers in the years past are what went into separating my destiny from that of the Indian homeless man to my left. For the first time in many years, my eyes welled up with a gush of tears I could not control. I let myself be for I didn't want the people next to me to find out.
US concerns over Chemical weapons use.
The current round of oft expressed concerns from President Obama and his lieutenants and the leadership in Congress over Chemical weapons use by the Assad regime, and that being the pretext for US military intervention can be scrutinized further. I would urge you all to take a serious look at the facts. A couple of things should be clear. First, any government serious about Chemical weapons use, should first repudiate its use itself. The US has used Chemical weapons (white phosphorous) in Iraq in the recent past, along with depleted uranium shells [1]. The immediate and long term impacts, including thousands of ongoing birth defects among Iraqi children evoke no concern from our dear President. Secondly, we still don't have clarity on which party was responsible for the use of Chemical weapons. Thirdly, the US government does not have a track record of reliability even when they publicly release Intelligence information as in the case of going to war against Iraq. And now people in America are being asked to make a even bigger leap of faith when all the intelligence they claim in relation to Syria has been classified, and hence there is no reason to think the US has any evidence that can be taken seriously. That all this is not being laughed at by the media who dutifully interview our dear leaders points to an institutional submission to power and a serious commitment to obfuscate facts and deceive the US public. [2]
A geopolitical game over the dead bodies of Syria's Women and Children.
President Obama's waxes eloquent in recent days over concerns about the fate of women and children. But there is good reason to think that none of these features in the public relations effort will be reflected in a future US military assault on Syria. While the peace movements oft expressed chant “Money for Humanitarian Aid, Not for war” well captures the reality of war in our era, that wars invariably kill countless innocent civilians despite claims by governments to the contrary, this is not the only factor at work in Syria. While civilian deaths may result in all wars including the recent US war against Iraq, killing over a million Iraqis and the main reason that so many of us were opposed to it on the first place, Syria is still different from the US strategic perspective. In Iraq, there were military aims of toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein. In Syria, Richard Falk observes US strategic thinking in his valuable article and notes Edward Luttwak write that “it is better for the United States and Israel if the civil war goes on and on, and there are no winners” since both Syrian regime and the rebels who include Al-Qaeda are inimical to US interests [3].
Similar observations are made by Noam Chomsky who also points out there are no moves by Israel, top US ally, to try and relieve pressure on the Syrian rebels, by making simple moves such as moving troops into the Golan heights which would “compel” Assad to move “forces to the South” and away from the rebels. [4]
Given the strategic US objective of keeping the civil war ongoing for as long as possible, as the US does not want a clear outcome in Syria, its a simple corollary about what a US campaign in Syria will be. Statements about concern over civilian life that are repeated to the American Media by its leaders aside, a US bombing in Syria if allowed by Congress, will primarily target Syrian civilians. A purposeful war against Syria's people. It stands to reason then that civilian casualties will be magnified to much greater and more horrific levels than the criminal campaign that caused over a million Iraqi deaths. Assad's forces will largely and purposely be spared by the US bombing effort. Syrian civil war may go on with the big powers of the world including primarily our government “enjoying the spectacle” except with the usual concern for civilian life oft-repeated for public relations purposes.
Our own fallibility and the enemy's humanity
On September 10, 2013, facing a historic defeat for war in the US Congress, President Obama calls off a vote on and military strikes against Syria in a televised address to the nation. The speech while meant to give room for diplomacy, runs for over two thirds of the time justifying US threats of military strikes against Syria. The corporate media misses very simple aspects of Obama's speech which are pointed out by Noam Chomsky in an interview to Democracy Now, such as its attempts to whitewash US role in supporting tyrants and using Chemical weapons including in Iraq and Vietnam, the misrepresentation of the Chemical Weapons Convention to shield Israel which in contravention produces and stores vast quantities of these substances. [5]
If the corporate media and their slavish intellectuals, fail to critically look at the statements of US leaders, then the complete opposite is done by the same group when leaders of official adversaries such as Russia, try to talk to us. When President Putin of Russia took the step of writing his views in the NY Times [6], the massive subsequent attempt to paint Mr. Putin as an anti-American and distort his writing was obvious. CNN and MSNBC while making a caricature of Mr. Putin, both networks failed to report the severe human suffering of People in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan as a result of US intervention that Mr. Putin pointedly refers to in his article. CNN also misreported Mr. Putin as saying a US strike on Syria would "would constitute an act of aggression”. What Mr. Putin actually said was a direct inference from the UN charter and not his own judgement. To quote, “force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression.” Fox News did not bother even a major headline for Mr. Putin's article. [7]
All these would not be the case, if we had real democracy in the United States, rather than what we currently have – a nation that is increasingly owned and managed by concentrated wealth and capital, not the people. Imagine, if the media did report the lies of our dear leaders starting with the President. Would not larger sections of the American people be rightly upset about the government justifications for war if they knew that our adversaries do not necessarily lie all the time, and that our own leaders sincerity for peace ends when the camera is turned off.
But yet a broad based, but small percentage of people, of whom I was a part, working hard over a couple of weeks across the United States, were able to stop the US strike on Syria. This statement along with the title of this article is a very hopeful one because the US can still find another opportunity in the coming months to bomb Syria. And in the current success, we were helped by the economic crisis in the United States, which made more sectors concerned about expending resources on another war. Nevertheless, its unmistakable a story the world should hear : that principled popular protests against a illegal US intervention played a significant role in stopping a US strike on Syria. But we should set much higher expectations of our Nation than just stop one war or just neutralize Syria's Chemical weapons. At this stage of human history, with so much at stake including the threat of nuclear war and environmental catastrophe, it is incumbent on you, my American friends to work to end the US system of war and control itself. We should also demand that our government start global negotiations to eliminate all nuclear and chemical weapons. The US government should start by making a unilateral reduction of its own nuclear and chemical weapons stocks by 25 % and encourage Israel to also do so, as a good faith gesture of its sincerity and seriousness toward complete elimination of these weapons. It is a difficult task but it must be accomplished. Imagine how other movements for peace around the world can then pressure their governments, for example in India and Pakistan, to move towards peace and away from conflict and destruction. Other powers like China and Russia will then also be forced to follow suit.
But we have to start this effort first in the United States, by far the most powerful country today. If you have not considered these issues, I encourage you to do so. Please give it your all – be it by conversation, by protest or even more importantly with that great American tradition of Civil Disobedience. If you do so then regardless of what happens, your grandchildren and their children can look back at your life with pride that you took those first noble steps towards creating a world without war and disregard for the poor and weak.
Karthik Ramanathan is an Engineer by profession and outside of his work, he has written about and been involved with various political movements against war, third world solidarity and economic justice in the United States . He can be contacted at [email protected]
References:
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4441822.stm
2. http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/09/world/meast/syria-civil-war/
Just one sample interview of Mr. Obama. Notice that the interviewer asks the President if this is Assad's last chance, but does not bother to ask him if he will respect the will of the US people who are overwhelmingly opposed to war. The other interviews paint a similar picture, and will be glad to note if there was any exception to this bended-knee style of reporting. So far, I have not come across any.
3. http://www.zcommunications.org/contra-syria-attack-by-richard-falk.html
5. Noam Chomsky's excellent dissection of the level of deception in Mr. Obama's speech. See interview at : http://www.zcommunications.org/instead-of-illegal-threat-to-syria-u-s-should-back-chemical-weapons-ban-in-all-nations-by-noam-chomsky.html
6. Vladimir Putin, A plea for caution from Russia, NY Times, 09/11/2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
7. 09/12/2013 : Reacting to Mr.Putin's article, CNN and MSNBC headline their reports as “Putin jabs U.S., Obama in op-ed..” and “Putin to America: You’re not special..” respectively. Contrast this with the title of Mr. Putins actual article “A Plea for caution from Russia”. Also there is nothing in the body of his article either that is indicative of a “jab” or an insult towards America. But this truth about our official adversary cannot be reported by the corporate media as it goes against their religion of state worship.
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