United National Antiwar Coalition Statement on Syria
Hands off Syria and Iran! End the Drone Wars!
We Need Jobs, Education and Healthcare, Not Endless War!
The ominous signs of impending war with Syria escalate. NATO is massing troops and military equipment on Syria’s borders, and preparing to install missiles aimed at Syria. U.S. warships are stationed off Syria’s coast. “Special operation” units are readied. The U.S. government has been supplying arms and logistical support to a few selected Syrian paramilitary groups favored by the U.S. as “replacements” for Assad. The media bombards us with arguments that support foreign intervention, supposedly for “humanitarian reasons.” Like WMD’s (weapons of mass destruction) in Iraq, alarms are sounded, with no credible evidence, that Assad may unleash chemical weapons, thus establishing a pretext for invasion.
These are the facts that impel us to oppose any military, economic, diplomatic, or covert intervention aimed at controlling the internal affairs of Syria or any other country:
- The Syrian people in their majority, regardless of their political positions regarding the current government, have rejected calling for foreign intervention, such as occurred in Libya.
- Sanctions harm the people of Syria by causing food shortages, power outages, and blocking the distribution of goods.
- The U.S. is directly involved in arming and training a few selected Syrian militias favorable to the U.S., contributing to the escalation of violence, direct foreign military intervention, and total destabilization. The people who always suffer the most are the people not engaged in the armed struggle.
- We see the results of “humanitarian” U.S. wars and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya today, where the people, especially women and children, are worse off than before, with millions dead, injured, and/or displaced, an infrastructure and economy in shambles, and where there is no peace. A country that has a river of Iraqi, Afghan, and Libyan blood on its hands has no right to tell other countries what to do.
- The U.S. government’s goals in Syria are to gain dominance in a part of the world that holds the vast majority of the known oil reserves and to gain strategic advantage as it seeks to isolate and contain competitors like Russia and China. The U.S. has no interest in democracy or the humanitarian well being of a country’s peoples anywhere in the world, especially in areas where the U.S. has economic or strategic interests.
- The U.S. has a long history of thwarting the emerging economies and progressive initiatives of the third world while supporting repressive regimes.
While activists may hold different views of Syria’s internal political system, we must all agree that the U.S. government has no right to impose its will on other countries, especially those formerly colonized and exploited by the West. In all cases, we must support the right of nations to self-determination—that is to be able to decide on and resolve internal conflicts free from any foreign intervention.
The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) demands:
No U.S. or NATO intervention in the internal affairs of Syria!
No War! No Sanctions! No Intervention!
Self-determination for the Syrian people!
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—UNACpeace.org, December 24, 2012