PRIME MINISTER Cameron and Foreign Secretary Hague, despite the fact that the Tory cabinet and party are split on the issue, yesterday gave their full support to President Obama’s assertion that Syria had used poisoned gas on its citizens.
Obama maintained that a ‘red line’ had been crossed, meaning that the US is now going to step up the arming of its counter-revolutionary bands in Syria, as a first step to reversing the series of defeats that its Islamist allies have suffered, and securing the removal of the Syrian government no matter how many corpses this requires.
Behind the scenes, the US is already planning to establish a no-fly zone over Syria and to destroy its air defences with a massive air and cruise missile assault.
In fact, the US ruling class is now seeking to re-run the Iraq War, when lies that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction were used to launch a massive attack, destroying Iraq’s economy and slaughtering hundreds of thousands of its people.
This is the scenario that the US ruling class is seeking to replicate in Syria today. They are so concerned about the deaths of thousands of Syrians that they are going to turn the numbers of corpses into millions!
US intentions have already been revealed by the new Clinton-Republican (McCain) alliance, that is seeking to accelerate Obama’s plans.
Former US President Clinton has said Washington’s failure to intervene in the conflict would be ‘a bad mistake’.
Speaking in a question-and-answer session with Republican Senator John McCain in Manhattan on Tuesday, the former Democratic president said any US commander-in-chief would risk sounding like a ‘total fool’ if they let public opinion get in the way of intervening in a crisis abroad. So much for democracy!
‘I agree with you about this,’ Clinton told McCain.
McCain has asked the White House to arm the militants with missiles. ‘We could use our stand-off weapons, such as cruise missiles, to target Assad’s aircraft and ballistic missile launchers on the ground,’ said McCain.
Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian lower house of parliament’s international affairs committee, yesterday dismissed the Obama allegations as a fabrication.
He said: ‘Information about the usage of chemical weapons by Assad is fabricated in the same way as were the lies about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.’
However, the Russian government, still dominated by the Stalinist outlook of ‘Russia first’, has refused to supply Syria immediately with the S-300 missiles that could make the US and the UK ruling classes pay a very heavy price for any attempt to establish a no-fly zone, as they did in Iraq and Libya.
The Stalinist Putin sees the defence of Russia as a diplomatic and military question – not as a revolutionary question, ie that of supporting the oppressed in their struggle to defeat imperialism, weakening it and preparing the way for its overthrow, while at the same time keeping it as far away from Russia as possible. He remains at the level of not wishing to ‘upset the balance of power’.
Obama is pushing ahead with a no-fly zone because he is convinced that the Putin leadership will not give the Syrians the weapons that they need to combat an air assault.
The UK working class cannot afford the luxury of standing by, as any UK ruling class spending of billions on foreign wars will be recouped by completely destroying the NHS and the Welfare State at home.
We are in the same trench as the Syrian masses. Their enemy is our enemy. Their victory will be ours, as will any defeat! Any attempt by Hague and Cameron to drag the UK into an assault on Syria must be met with a general strike by the trade unions, to bring down the government and bring in a workers’ government and socialism.
