IN LINE with Obama’s policy of ‘leading from the rear’ (a tactic learnt after receiving some very, very harsh lessons in Iraq and Afghanistan), the US ruling class has unleashed its Israeli ‘mad dog’ to launch its second rocket attack on Syria in a week, risking the outbreak of a major war throughout the Middle East in the process.
Yesterday morning, the outskirts of Damascus were hit by a very heavy rocket bombardment. The explosions hit a scientific research centre in Jamraya, as well as nearby defensive military positions.
This attack follows up the Islamist organised bomb attacks in Central Damascus in the last week, in which the Syrian Prime Minister was the main target.
Sana, the Syrian news agency, has made it clear that Israel is joining the war saying: ‘The new Israeli aggression is a clear attempt to raise the gunmen’s morale after the painful blows they received at the hands of our valiant army in several places and after the achievements which were realised on the ground by our armed forces to restore security and stability to Syria.
‘The new Israeli aggression shows the direct involvement of the Zionist entity in the conspiracy against Syria. This relationship links armed terrorist groups with the hostile schemes of the Israelis, backed by the Western, regional and some Gulf states.’
The attack was made after President Obama gave the starting signal, stating, ‘What I have said in the past and I continue to believe is that the Israelis justifiably have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to resistance movements like Hezbollah,’ in an interview with the Spanish-language network Telemundo in San Jose, Costa Rica.
There was no immediate official comment from Israel, the United States or the UK, although UK Foreign Secretary Hague said that the ‘only solution’ was to increase the aid to the Islamist movements that are doing the US-UK’s regime-change fighting.
Iran has condemned the Israeli airstrikes on Syria and urged regional countries to resist such acts of aggression.
The IRNA news agency quoted the commander of the Iranian army’s ground forces, General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, as saying that Iran was ready to help train the Syrian army, if Syria needed such assistance.
He said: ‘As a Muslim nation, we support Syria, and if there is need for training, we will provide them with training but won’t have any active involvement in the operations.’
The fact of the matter is that the Israeli intervention, now begun, can only intensify, and see Israel joining the war on the ground, not just in Syria, but also against Hezbollah in the Lebanon, and the Palestinian masses in Gaza and the West Bank.
Syria will be forced to hit back against Israel, and China and Russia and Iran will have to make the choice over whether they are going to actively aid the Syrian government and people fighting imperialism and Zionism, or look the other way and hope the imperialists and the Zionists will respect internationally agreed borders in the Middle East, the Gulf and Central Asia.
The issue for the workers of the UK, the EU and the US is that the same crisis that is driving the imperialist powers to attack Syria, the Lebanese, Palestinians and Iranians is also driving them to attack the workers of their own countries, to make them pay for the capitalist crisis.
A victory for the bosses in the Middle East and the Gulf would see them return home doubly determined to smash the resistance of ‘their own’ workers.
This is why workers in the US, the UK and the EU must support the workers of Syria, and be for the defeat of imperialism abroad, and for their removal at home by successful socialist revolutions that will change the world for ever.
Workers in the UK must demand hands off Syria and take action to bring down the coalition to go forward to a workers’ government.
