UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson spoke up yesterday to attack Jeremy Corbyn and to announce that it will be very difficult for the UK to refuse the US if it asks for support for another military strike on Syria.
For good measure, he added that MPs would not necessarily have a vote on any proposed joint attack on Syria, since the orders of President Trump must be obeyed by the UK parliament without question.
Johnson wants a pro-war diktat to be in operation. This is right on the eve of the general election called by PM May for June 8 in order to have at her disposal a parliamentary majority to allow her to proceed with impunity with attacks on workers’ rights and the NHS at home. Now, her Foreign Secretary has revealed her Tory war scenario against Syria and her contempt for parliament.
The US recently fired 59 Cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase, after Syria was blamed for a terrorist poison gas outrage carried out by either the Nusra Front or Al-Qaeda. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad completely denied his forces were responsible and said that such an attack was completely opposed to the interests of Syria and the safety and the security of its citizens.
Now, US President Donald Trump has just given the Pentagon authority to make the decisions about the numbers of US forces that will be assigned to duty in both Iraq and Syria and the operations that they will engage in.
The Pentagon is now in charge of operations with military commanders able to make battlefield decisions and order rapid increases in troop levels. The new Defence Secretary Mattis is the one that will now be taking the decisions about the Force Management Level, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White.
In fact, James Mattis, known during his army service as General ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, will be in charge and the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is already dancing to his tune, not even prepared to wait for a Tory-dominated House of Commons to vote over whether to attack Syria, or even worse, prepared to authorise an attack on Syria with parliament in recess!
The US leadership is now awaiting another ‘outrage’ carried out by the Nusra Front, ISIS or Al-Qaeda to create the conditions for an Anglo-US military intervention into Syria. Since the Iraq war, MPs have had a vote on military action, but with Parliament dissolved ahead of a general election, the opportunity will be there for the US and the UK to launch an action against Syria with parliament not involved.
This is the reason for Johnson’s continuing attacks on Labour leader Corbyn who has been highly critical of the latest US missile strike against Syria, saying it should not have acted without United Nations backing.
Johnson told the Today programme: ‘I do think there is a slight risk that people won’t detect the threat that is hidden behind this innocent air of Islingtonian herbivorousness. There is a real risk that the government of a very great country could be handed over to a guy who has been hostile to NATO all his political career … who would disarm us of nuclear weapons, and a guy who has said he would not advocate a shoot-to-kill policy in the event of an Islamist terrorist putting innocent people’s lives at risk.’
Johnson added: ‘And if they come to us and ask for our support – whether it’s with submarine-based cruise missiles in the Med … in my view – and I know it’s also the view of the prime minister – it would be difficult for us to say “no”.’ Asked if the House of Commons would need to be consulted ahead of any military strike, Johnson commented: ‘I think that needs to be tested.’
The attacks on Corbyn are to prepare the way for a new imperialist attack on Syria, to be ignited when ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis decides the time is right, perhaps even before June 8th. If this happens, the trade unions must call a general strike to bring down the government to go forward to a workers’ government.
Voting Labour on June 8, to throw out the Tories, is vital not just for the defence of the NHS, jobs and workers’ rights and benefits, it is vital to stop another imperialist slaughter in the Middle East, that will be even worse than the slaughter in Iraq.
In fact, Labour must at once condemn Johnson’s and Mattis’ war plans and insist that a Labour government will carry out socialist policies and will adopt as its main policy, disarming British imperialism.
