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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Here is a good article by Kevin Zeese and Dr. Margaret Flowers, which has a good description of the governance structure of the YPG Syrian Kurds. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>US Out Of Syria And The Middle East<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>October 20, 2019 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>| <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter/"><span style='color:blue'>Newsletter</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Above: US Out of the Middle East, Los Angeles protest against bombing in Syria from ABC7.com.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Stop The Turkish Invasion Of Syria<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The crisis in Syria has taken a new direction with the Turkish invasion into the Northeast ostensibly to push the Kurdish peoples out. The US has added to this crisis by its green light to Turkey to attack after using the Kurds as a proxy force in the battle against ISIS.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The US’ role in Syria and in the greater Middle East has been destructive throughout this century. The invasion and occupation of Iraq have left destruction and chaos. The illegal bombing of Libya and the brutal murder of its prime minister, Muammar al-Gaddafi, have created a failed state. The US’ alliance with Saudi Arabia in the war against Yemen has resulted in mass murder and destruction. The ongoing conflicts with Iran through illegal unilateral coercive measures (sanctions), regime change attempts, threats of war and military skirmishes have created more instability in the region. And, the US’ ‘special relationship’ with Israel has allowed continued ethnic cleansing and land theft from the Palestinians and has been a tool for instability in the region. The never-ending war in Afghanistan continues to cause destruction as the US remains even though it has been defeated.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>These actions have resulted in more than a million deaths and <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=343524b7ac&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>mass migration,</span></a> which has not only impacted the region but also Europe, causing political instability and the advance of right-wing, anti-immigrant forces. The Middle East was better off, more stable and wealthier before the disastrous US actions of this century. The illegal wars have cost the US trillions of dollars with no benefit. US policy has not served any positive purposes but has caused instability, conflict, and destruction. It is time for the US to get out of Syria and out of the Middle East.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><a href="https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/12/mobilization-against-war-protest-against-war-against-syria.-vancouver.-e1547401201836.jpg"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=1019 height=456 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D58833.7566D200" alt="https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/12/mobilization-against-war-protest-against-war-against-syria.-vancouver.-e1547401201836.jpg"></span></a><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Mobilization against war protest in Vancouver, Canada.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Syria: A Major Defeat for the US and a Geopolitical Game Changer</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The bi-partisans in Washington, DC and the foreign policy establishment are furious at Donald Trump for pulling out of the Kurdish region of Syria and allowing Turkey to invade. These groups were united when the US’ goal was removing President Assad from power, but with the culmination of this failed policy, there is political division.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=5d4251cd5d&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Pepe Escobar describes Syria</span></a> as the biggest defeat for the CIA since Vietnam. It is a significant defeat, but US losses in Iraq and Afghanistan are in the running for the worst defeat since Vietnam. Escobar describes the failure “as a massive geopolitical game-changer” that strengthens Assad as he <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=ba47347786&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>retakes control of Northeast Syria.</span></a> Russia benefits as a guarantor for Syria and key player in the victory over US regime change. The losers are the United States and Kurds.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The US’ contribution to the current chaos and destruction precedes Trump. While the brutal attacks by Turkey in Syria are being blamed on Trump, in reality, they go back to President Obama. <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=0b0d3106f2&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Max Blumenthal reports</span></a> in The Grayzone that “many [of the Turkish fighters] were former members of the Free Syrian Army, the force once armed by the CIA and Pentagon and branded as ‘moderate rebels.’” Blumenthal cites a <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=1d49bcc5bd&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>research paper</span></a> published this October by the pro-government Turkish think tank, SETA: “Out of the 28 factions [in the Turkish mercenary force], 21 were previously supported by the United States, three of them via the Pentagon’s program to combat DAESH. Eighteen of these factions were supplied by the CIA ….” Further, the leader of this force is Salim Idriss, who hosted John McCain when the late senator made his infamous 2013 incursion into Syria.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The Turkish attack in Syria has been filled with ugly extreme violence that is causing outrage. Mercenaries are <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=2fd0508133&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>sawing the heads</span></a> off of Kurdish fighters they have killed, a Syrian Kurdish legislator was pulled from her car and <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=6b9c6d0f62&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>executed</span></a> along with her driver, unarmed Kurdish captives were filmed as they were <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=c4ec1c4a1d&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>murdered,</span></a> the corpse of a female Kurdish fighter <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=4ab614019f&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>was vandalized</span></a>, ISIS captives were <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=947a2d576c&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>deliberately freed</span></a> from unguarded prisons, and in a <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=8f413ff4a4&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>video message</span></a>, one of the invading fighters promised mass ethnic cleansing if Kurds in the area refused to convert to his Wahhabi strain of Sunni Islam.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=8502b20926&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Ajamu Baraka points out</span></a> that the US created the “Free Syrian Army” (FSA), who were the good guys when they were overthrowing Assad, but have now been turned into the “Turkish supported FSA,” especially after the gruesome graphic videos of the Turkish invasion emerged. In reality, Baraka points out, “many of us knew, along with the CIA and most of the honest foreign policy community, that the FSA was always al-Qaeda’s Syria operation in the form of Jabhat al-Nusra and other jihadist militias.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> Listen to our interview with Ajamu Baraka on <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=d73dcad670&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Clearing the FOG</span></a> (available Monday).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Blumenthal concludes: “Left out of the coverage of these horrors was the fact that none of them would have been possible if Washington had not spent several years and billions of dollars subsidizing Syria’s armed opposition.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>These recent events need to be viewed through the context of sixty years of on-again, off-again coups and regime change campaigns that have failed. <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=89f76887c9&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Timber Sycamore, the regime change project of the Obama administration</span></a>, was a “secret” plan that allowed the CIA to arm terrorists in Syria. Timber Sycamore, which included Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Turkey working with the US, officially began in late 2012 and ended in failure in 2017. The secret program trained future ISIS members as part of covert aid to the insurgents targeting Bashar al-Assad. The US was duplicitous and used terrorism as a tool as documented in the book <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=87524138d6&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>“The Management of Savagery”</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>When Obama’s regime change strategy failed, the <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=cce27e00c2&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>US switched to occupying one-third of Syria,</span></a> including the oil region in the Northeast. In January, Secretary of State <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=f20768dc38&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>T</span></a><a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=db2e132723&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>illerson announced</span></a> the US was creating a de facto Kurdish State there with a 30,000-strong Syrian Defense Force (SDF) troop, US air support, and <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=a3a0eaeeb3&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>eight new US bases</span></a>. In April 2018, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=4950472a98&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>announced</span></a> the US planned to maintain its illegal presence in Syria.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Obama’s effort to dominate Syria was <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=05355bcf49&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>rooted in the Bush-era</span></a>. In 2001, former NATO commander Wesley Clark was on record stating that <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=561940009a&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Syria was on a list of targeted nations</span></a> to be toppled by the US. In 2002, former Secretary of State John Bolton said, in a <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=7a562971c6&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>speech titled “Beyond the Axis of Evil”,</span></a> that Syria was among a handful of nations the US was targeting. The 2011 protests in Syria were quickly manipulated by the US and foreign powers who sought to destabilize Syria. CIA-backed <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=3636a0d80b&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Muslim Brotherhood assets</span></a> were in place to snipe at both police and protesters when the demonstrations broke out and <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=338dbc014e&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Saudia Arabia provided weapons</span></a> to aid regime change.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Caitlan Johnstone points to <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=1ee8a20a43&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>more evidence that Syria was not an organic uprising</span></a> but a foreign regime change effort from the beginning:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“The former Prime Minister of Qatar <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=a3750f9de8&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>said on television</span></a> that the US and its allies were involved in the Syrian conflict from the very beginning. A <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=58ed96e214&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>WikiLeaks cable</span></a> and a <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=626fada48e&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>declassified CIA memo</span></a> both show the US government plotting to provoke an uprising in Syria exactly as it occurred, years before it happened. Former Foreign Minister of France <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=cc5744ce3d&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Roland Dumas stated</span></a> that he was informed that the UK was engineering an uprising in Syria two years before the violence erupted.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Even the Obama era regime change goal needs to be put in the context of over sixty years of the US <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=6197b73560&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>trying to control Syria</span></a>. The first coup attempt by the CIA after it’s creation was in <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=26b520d723&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Syria in 1949</span></a>. Controlling Syria has been a consistent policy objective. <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=3619eb1333&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>CIA documents from 1986</span></a> describe how the US could remove the Assad family.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Each of Trump’s efforts to get out of Syria has been opposed by bipartisan war hawks. In March 2018, Trump tweeted that the US would soon be withdrawing from Syria. One month later Secretary of Defense <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=6c07b63b36&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Mattis told Congress the US was not withdrawing</span></a> testifying, “We are continuing the fight, we are going to expand it and bring in more regional support.” In January, Trump called for withdrawal from Syria, which was met with a <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=b5f52bf808&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>firestorm of opposition.</span></a> He <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=2cc308f78e&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>was outmaneuvered by war hawks</span></a> in his administration and Congress.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>There continues to be resistance to withdrawal today. The US is not leaving Syria but is merely moving troops from the Northeast to other areas. <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=86c09dbd21&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>David Macilwain reports,</span></a> “The truth of US intentions – to remain in Eastern Syria until they are driven out militarily – has now been emphasized by US Defence secretary Mark Esper. At a press conference where he confirmed the US intention to withdraw 1000 troops from Syria, when asked whether this meant from<i> all</i> of Syria he simply repeated what he had said –’from<i> Northern</i> Syria.’”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>It is past time for the US to leave Syria and end its longterm desire to dominate the country. People in the United States and around the world must insist on the US obeying international law, which means the US must leave Syria as it has no legal grounds for being in that sovereign nation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><a href="https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2016/12/DecisionMakingRojava.jpg"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=720 height=540 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D58833.7566D200" alt="https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2016/12/DecisionMakingRojava.jpg"></span></a><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The Rojava Cantons direct democracy governance without a state. Still from video<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Kurds in Syria Negotiate Their Future With Damascus</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Kurds, who live in Turkey, Syria, Iraq , and Iran, are often regarded as “the largest ethnic group without a state.” With the US withdrawal from Northeast Syria, the <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=9045787288&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Kurds in Syria are now working with Damascus</span></a> to repel the Turkish invasion and <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=50647b01c2&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>negotiate their future</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In mid-2012, Assad’s forces largely withdrew from the Kurdish area, and the battle against ISIS was left to the Kurdish militias: the YPG (People’s Protection Units) and the YPJ (Women’s Defense Forces), the autonomous women’s militias. When the Free Syrian Army failed, <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=39226d24db&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>the US funded the Syrian Kurdish militias</span></a> known as the Peoples Protection Unit using a new name, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Kurdish never targeted the Syrian government but focused on ISIS.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=1a810134f9&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>The Kurdish Rojava cantons</span></a> are a <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=e037eeaf10&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>liberated area</span></a> in Syria led by socialist-feminists and a population that makes decisions through local councils. Their economy is <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=c3329c41b0&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>based on a cooperative model</span></a> with thousands of co-ops, but private businesses are allowed. The co-ops are initiated and controlled by the communes, i.e. the community assembly structures. Their <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=e8e7d561b4&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>basic principle is the participation of everyone</span></a> in production. In the words of a minister of economics: “If a single loaf of bread is manufactured in Rojava, everyone will have contributed to it.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Their governing model is <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=9ff0a77cf2&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>direct democracy governance without a state</span></a>, built on local assemblies. There are multiple levels with neighborhood councils, District Councils and a People’s Council for the entire region. And there is also ‘Democratic Self-Administration,’ which is a more conventional government structure of legislative and executive bodies as well as municipal administration. These bodies are not limited to Kurds but open to all religions and ethnicities. Women hold 40 percent of leadership positions at all levels. Three leftist enclaves make up an area slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Some see Rojava’s <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=6bdc3ee304&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>governance without hierarchy, patriarchy or capitalism</span></a> as a model for the future of the Middle East <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=484600250c&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>and beyond</span></a>, and as <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=495db00bf0&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>an antidote to capitalism</span></a>. It is the <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=8a93f1d28e&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Communalist Model</span></a> of Democratic Confederalism, <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=95565951d6&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>an adaptation of the ideas</span></a> of the <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=8edfebfe1a&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Zapatistas</span></a> in Chiapas and the work of <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=4b67f45d3d&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Murray Bookchin</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In Turkey, Kurds remain part of Turkey and “<a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=4782944e90&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>have formed a political party</span></a> <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=3a872e87c2&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>(Peoples Democratic Party – HDP</span></a>), which unites progressives of all ethnicities. In the 2015 Turkish election, HDP emerged as the third most popular party and stopped Erdogan’s election domination.” The HDP opposes Turkey’s invasion of Syria.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Turkey is concerned that the Kurds will use the territory they’ve captured to establish an independent Kurdish state for the region’s <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=ee0a76baf7&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>25 to 35 million</span></a> Kurds, roughly <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=78a6ac2520&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>15 million </span></a>of whom reside in Turkey. Four percent of Kurds reside in Syria, approximately 1.6 million people. Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in the region after Arabs, Persians, and Turks. After the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I, they were not granted a homeland.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Peace activists and popular movements around the world should be in solidarity with the Kurdish people’s desire for a semi-independent territory. A contiguous Kurdish state is an impossible dream and negotiation will be required by each population in the country where they reside.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><a href="https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/10/us-out-of-syria-internationalist-protest-in-nyc-internationalist-photo.jpg"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=640 height=400 id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D58833.7566D200" alt="https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/10/us-out-of-syria-internationalist-protest-in-nyc-internationalist-photo.jpg"></span></a><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>US Out of Syria Internationalist protest in NYC (Internationalist photo).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>US Out of Syria and Out of the Middle East</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>We agree with <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=2d4c277001&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>the US Peace Council, which urges</span></a> “the US peace movement to organize a united national campaign in support of the Syrian people and demand the total withdrawal of all occupying forces from Syria. Leave Syria to the Syrian People!”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The movement’s first demand must be the US out of Syria and out of the Middle East because the US is not yet leaving Syria or the region. <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=563a718ac8&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Reports indicate</span></a> between 200 and 300 U.S. troops will remain at the southern Syrian outpost of Al-Tanf and 1,000 troops will shift into western Iraq adding to the more than 5,000 US troops in Iraq. US forces may conduct operations in Syria from Iraq.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>On October 11, the US announced it was <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=b32cf156fc&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>sending an additional 1,800 troops to Saudi Arabia</span></a>. An additional 14,000 US troops have been deployed to the Middle East since spring, including more than 6,000 who are part of a naval strike group. The <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=9e93f9af05&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>US is fighting in</span></a> at least <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=26c202b0fc&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>seven countries</span></a> in the Middle East and North Africa: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Niger, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>We must also be in solidarity with the Kurdish people and call for an end to the Turkish invasion of Syria. The <a href="https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=3428a078e1&e=693db3e940" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Turkish invasion is already backfiring</span></a> and people mobilizing against the invasion will lead to its retreat.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>And, we must accept immigrants from Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan where migration crises have been caused by US wars. Rebuilding nations destroyed by the United States is a costly endeavor that the US owes to the region. These countries do not want the US meddling in their efforts so compensation must be made through the United Nations without any strings attached.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>