– Pauline Easton, TML Monthly Supplement –
The events which have unfolded in Syria make it clear for all to see that with the U.S. putting the known CIA terrorists Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in charge of regime change in Damascus and their leader Ahmad al-Sharaa (aka Mohammed al-Julani) in charge of fighting terrorism, the U.S. global “war on terror” has bitten the dust in that country.
Whatever credence the U.S. hoped to have in international circles and institutions that it is the indispensable nation to uphold democracy and fight terrorism is finished. Just as whatever credence it thought it still had about championing human rights bit the dust with its commission of genocide in Gaza, so too, it is now openly championing terrorists which puts a decisive end to its “war on terror.”
It is important in this situation to take stock of what is pertinent and what is not. For instance, it is important to emphasize that there is a worldwide consciousness that genocide is a red line that cannot be crossed. The same is the case with terrorism. It is a red line that cannot be crossed. You cannot be for genocide and say you are for democracy. You cannot be for terrorism and say you are for democracy.
Since the end of World War II, the U.S. has committed endless crimes against the peoples of the world and its own people in the name of democracy and human rights. It has presented itself as the champion of freedom and peace. It has imposed its dictate and given itself a position of dominance within the international community of nations, always acting in a self-serving manner to put itself in control.
Throughout the Cold War, the U.S. called the former Soviet Union the evil totalitarian empire. The truth of what was taking place there was never spoken about. The same is the case today with the developments in any part of the world the U.S. and its appeasers do not want the peoples of the world to know about.
In the case of the former Soviet Union, its stunning achievements after World War II were questioned by asking, “At What Cost?” This was the reference used based on the anti-communist stereotype propagated about “gulags,” enslaved labour, lack of personal freedom, police powers in positions of authority and so on. The aim was to deprive the peoples of an outlook of their own on the basis of which they could orient themselves to provide solutions to the problems they and humanity face.
The fall of the former Soviet Union was supposed to eliminate the blight of communism from the face of the earth. It was the chance for all the blessings of U.S. democracy to shine. Of course, this did not happen. The rich got richer and richer and richer, and poverty increased in quantity and quality, encompassing after 30 years entire countries languishing in famine, starvation, destitution.
So, the U.S. introduced a new mantra about “war on terror” to justify its striving to control the entire world. Throughout this period the peoples of the world have been protesting against the actions of the U.S., Canada and countries of the G7 (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.S.) and their U.S./NATO-led coalitions and cartels, carried out in the name of the “war on terror.” This “war on terror” carried out the brutal annihilation of human beings and acts of state terrorism, especially U.S. state terrorism. Associated measures included deadly sanctions, torture, suspension of human rights and crimes committed under the guise of fighting for human rights and democracy.
All of these actions are anathema to most of humanity whose consciousness is a continuation of the collective consciousness developed worldwide in the fight against fascism during World War II. At that time, politics and political power were defined by excluding fascism. One could not be fascist or for fascism and for democracy.
During and after World War II, peoples worldwide stood against fascism in all its expressions — German Nazism, Italian fascism, and Japanese militarism. The peoples in many countries secured laws banning fascist organizations and promotion of fascism. After World War II, the people of Japan, as their contribution to end fascism and militarism, secured in their constitution a clause outlawing the use of Japanese troops abroad. So too the German post-war constitution prohibited the deployment of German troops abroad. This was consistent with the verdict rendered by WWII. In various countries it was understood that racist and fascists had no right to speak or organize.
One Cannot Support Terrorism and Be for Democracy
Today, even though the situation is no different in as much as one cannot at once support genocide and terrorism and be for democracy, the use of Cold War disinformation has created such a crisis of world thought that there is a notable lack of a way to talk about the situation.
The peoples of the world have been put in a situation of watching acts of genocide, unspeakable cruelty and acts of terror committed with impunity. This has created an overwhelming state of trauma. Trauma is like a bad dream in which one is standing outside of horrendous unfolding events, watching helplessly. It is how people feel as a result of the current situation. More often than not, they do not see the positive developments taking place, such as the growing resistance and its achievements. Instead of establishing a vantage point of our own, where we recognize that it is the people who are decisive and the makers of history, we are supposed to focus on all the victims and being victimized. What type of arguments to give within the situation escapes people.
When former President George W. Bush declared this “war on terror,” he pronounced, “You are either with us or with the terrorists.” It was a statement saying the U.S. would decide who is and is not a terrorist. According to the U.S., Syria shows that a force can be terrorist one day and, so long as they take actions in support of the U.S. — “are with us” — then they are not terrorist the next.
Since 2017, the leader of the HTS has had a $10 million bounty on his head as a terrorist. But now, since he has promised that “terrorists will not be a threat” in Syria, it has been removed.
The whitewashing of al-Julani was initiated back in February 2021. PBS — U.S. a public station — carried an interview on its program Frontline with this HTS leader. Despite the fact that al-Julani was a long-time al-Qaeda terrorist, this set the stage for promoting and legitimizing him and his organization. CNN more recently followed suit. Now the U.S. says this terrorist leader must be “given a chance” to show “in deeds” that he is a democratic persona which, in U.S. parlance, means he will continue to submit to U.S. demands.
For appearances sake, the U.S. has declared that it will only support HTS and its leader, and the various other armed factions, if they submit to the U.S./Israeli demands concerning a transition government. This includes the demand that the U.S. will lift the sanctions imposed on Syria only if it breaks relations with Iran.
The words of the U.S. State Department as concerns what it calls “the transition process” in Syria — a transition process which does not take into account the Syrian people and what they want — are meaningless and seen as meaningless. They are hollow. “This transition process should lead to credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance that meets international standards of transparency and accountability, consistent with the principles of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254,” the State Department had the affront to say.
“The transition process and new government must also uphold clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance to all in need, prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbours,” the State Department said.
Only the worst reactionaries can be so incoherent as to say that the terrorist base they have established in Syria is not to be used as a base for terrorism. To boot, after deciding everything behind the scenes, only those who think they are immune to the consequences of their actions can say the Syrian people will decide the future of Syria through “an inclusive and transparent process.”
“The Syrian people will decide the future of Syria. All nations should pledge to support an inclusive and transparent process and refrain from external interference. The United States will recognize and fully support a future Syria government that results from this process,” the State Department said.
But the fact is that whatever authority the U.S. might have had in the past is over, finished. No country which tries to ally with it will have any legitimacy whatsoever. Their people will fight for what is right with renewed vigour and determination.
Resistance Shows Face of Humanity Striving to Be Free
Those who do not see the Syrians as a people do so at their peril as has already been proven in the case of those who refuse to see the Palestinian people as a people. They think they can treat peoples as a bunch of conquered individuals that must submit to the leadership of the “true democracy” of the “indispensable nation.”
This is the world order according to the U.S. It is not based on territory, or international rule of law, or collective rights of peoples and human rights by virtue of being human. It is an order based on the image of the U.S. as the world’s truest democracy and its mirror image as the saviour against terrorism.
This “order” can only be upheld with extreme violence and use of force as well as broad impunity, including torture, black ops by the CIA and other private mercenary forces and intelligence agencies, collective punishment in the worst Nazi style and the destruction of countries the U.S. cannot control by using these means.
While these moribund forces may believe the “war on terror” that made torture, detention without charges, wholesale destruction of entire countries “normal” and “acceptable,” the peoples’ resistance forces have shown another face – the face of humanity’s striving to be free, to live dignified lives, to flourish as peoples whose own thought material, culture and being will create societies, and a world order, fit for human beings.
Any attempt going forward at trying to justify more such crimes in the name of the U.S. as indispensable nation to enforce democracy, human rights and the “war on terror,” will have no takers.
The U.S. has also used its “war on terror,” to make determinations of “state sponsors of terrorism.” Syria has been designated as such since 1979. Iran, Cuba, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are also on this list. All have faced brutal sanctions for decades. Now, with the U.S. open declaration that terrorists are democrats, its credence in pursuing sanctions and justifying sanctions is zero. The arguments of advocates of sanctions and allegedly anti-terror measures will be seen as farcical, implausible when it comes to justifying what cannot be justified.
World’s Peoples Are Makers of History
Alongside U.S. state terrorism, a role of the “war on terror” and notions of “indispensable” nation has been to deprive the peoples of an outlook of their own and their own agency as history makers. This was done by dismissing the Resistance as evil and “terrorist,” while the “war on terror” was not to be questioned.
The U.S., its Pentagon and State Department, along with the Israeli Zionists and Genocide Coalition including Canada, refuse to recognize that it is the peoples of the world and their resistance movements that are the makers of history, not the big powers. The year 2024 has shown this to be the case beyond any shadow of a doubt. All the U.S. now has as its strategy is to impose the old notions that it is the indispensable nation which will decide the fate of humankind.
This dictate has held the UN and international institutions in thrall for far too long. The entire world is witness to what the U.S./Zionist forces and their Genocide Coalition are doing in Gaza in their brutal attempt to eliminate the role of the peoples and their striving to create a new world order that serves their interests. And now the world is witness to the kind of regime change the U.S. has imposed on the proud Syrian people. It will be crushed by the force of history. Just as the enemies of the ancient peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and other countries have not succeeded in imposing their reign over them, so too they will fail in Syria.
In this regard, a marked feature of the events which unfolded in 2024 is that the U.S./Zionist and NATO forces have achieved none of the goals they set for themselves because the resistance of the peoples to achieve their own goals of peace, freedom and democracy has been relentless. It is the peoples who are the makers of history, not the U.S. superpower and its Genocide Coalition.
The peoples of the world can see every day before their eyes the brutal crimes the U.S./Zionist and NATO forces are committing against humanity, including genocide, starvation, mass displacement, assassinations, the wiping out of entire families, women and children, elders, journalists, health care workers and professionals, teachers, writers and poets, religious leaders and entire congregations. The consequences of their crimes are etched into the collective memory of humankind.
As a result, the determined and growing Resistance Movements in Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen are also taking hold in all the Arab countries and exist in Syria as well. Along with the support for the Palestinian resistance and opposition to genocide and terror in the U.S., Britain, Canada, and other imperialist heartlands, it is important to emphasize that it is the peoples that are providing a way forward. It is the peoples who persist in taking principled positions which serve to humanize the natural and social environment. They are organizing to change the direction of the economies in their countries and empower themselves to make the decisions which affect their lives. They are opposing the liquidationist paths their governments have embarked on whereby all public authorities are eliminated and police powers in the service of narrow private interests have taken over decision-making functions.
The peoples are responding to the call of history which demands that the peoples themselves be empowered to govern and make decisions which favour their own interests and those of all peoples of the world. This is what the developments in Syria reveal, not the success of the “war on terror,” the U.S. agenda to take over the world or any other such fairy-tales.
The Resistance Lives! Long Live the Resistance!
(Republished from the TML Monthly Supplement original)