RUSSIA will take all political, diplomatic and military retaliatory measures if necessary should the United States deliver a strike on Syria, Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Defence Committee Chairman and former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Airborne Troops Vladimir Shamanov said yesterday.
‘The politics of double standards have hit rock bottom. And here the United Russia party conscientiously states that all political, diplomatic and military measures if necessary will be taken. No illegal action will remain unanswered,’ Shamanov vowed at a plenary meeting of the State Duma.
The senior MP was indignant over US President Donald Trump’s statement about a response from Washington within 48 hours, saying: ‘They should not pin their hopes on their naval task forces and their deceptions. We are a sovereign country and we have allies and guarantors for those events taking place in Syria. We won’t let the Americans hammer nails on someone else’s anvil.’ He added: ‘Today military chemists have confirmed in the presence of members of Syria’s administration that no traces were found in the hospital where these fakes were made, and no victims have been confirmed and discovered.’
The ex-military official’s remarks were made with Eastern Ghouta 100% in the hands of the Syrian government and with the war very clearly won by the Syrian people. This victory has given renewed power to the mass movement of the Palestinian people to defeat Israel and win their own state, and also shown millions of Arabs that the imperialist powers can and will be driven out of the Middle East.
The imperialist answer to this defeat is to enlarge the war! This war drive is the source of the fake chemical attack on Douma, which took place at a time when the Eastern Ghouta rebels were already defeated and being relocated. Its purpose was to provide the backdrop for a massive air strike against Syria.
The first into the breach were the Israelis with their bombing raid on Homs airbase. This was a state terrorist strike, launched without notifying Russia through the agreed channels of the Russian General Staff or the Foreign Ministry. This attack is to be followed by a massive US-led air strike, as announced by Trump, which is to include UK and French aircraft.
Already, the Tory press is baying at PM May that she must not make the ‘same mistake’ that the then Tory Foreign Minister Hague made in 2013, when he allowed parliament a vote on whether the UK should attack Syria along with the USA – and lost the vote. In fact, there are already British troops in Syria, without any parliamentary vote!
Now the UK ruling class want to impose a dictatorship, and go to war with Syria, and risk war with Russia – a war that could cost the lives of many millions of people if it develops into a nuclear exchange – all without even a vote in parliament. The people of the UK are to be dragged into a suicidal military adventure to seek to rescue the fortunes of the UK and US ruling classes!
Millions of British workers marched against the Iraq war and were proved right when its illegal status based on a lie, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, was proven. However, this proof came too late for the hundreds of thousands of innocent people who had been slaughtered. Now we are poised on the brink once again. This is a time when the trade unions must show real leadership.
There must be an emergency meeting of the TUC General Council and it must tell the government that if it seeks to join Trump’s crusade against the Syrian people, either with or without parliamentary approval (the illegal Iraq war crime was voted for by the House of Commons!), then it will call a general strike to bring down the May government and bring in a workers government and socialism. This government will stand for the freedom of the people of the world.
It will withdraw all British troops from the Middle East, shut down the new Bahrain naval base, recognise the Assad government and help to rebuild war damaged Syria, recognise the Palestinian state and give it all the assistance it requires. Socialist revolutions to disarm the imperialist powers and overthrow them is the real way forward for the whole of the human race!
