[Peace-discuss] US Out Of Syria And The Middle East

[David Johnson]

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. 

 

US Out Of Syria And The Middle East

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance 

October 20, 2019 

|  <https://popularresistance.org/newsletter/> Newsletter

Above: US Out of the Middle East, Los Angeles protest against bombing in
Syria from ABC7.com.

Stop The Turkish Invasion Of Syria

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.

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.

These actions have resulted in more than a million deaths and
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=343524b7ac&e=693db3e940> mass migration, 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.

 
<https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/12/mobiliza
tion-against-war-protest-against-war-against-syria.-vancouver.-e154740120183
6.jpg>
https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/12/mobilizat
ion-against-war-protest-against-war-against-syria.-vancouver.-e1547401201836
.jpg

Mobilization against war protest in Vancouver, Canada.

Syria: A Major Defeat for the US and a Geopolitical Game Changer

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.

 
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=5d4251cd5d&e=693db3e940> Pepe Escobar describes Syria 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
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=ba47347786&e=693db3e940> retakes control of Northeast Syria.
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.

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.
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=0b0d3106f2&e=693db3e940> Max Blumenthal reports 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
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=1d49bcc5bd&e=693db3e940> research paper 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.

The Turkish attack in Syria has been filled with ugly extreme violence that
is causing outrage. Mercenaries are
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=2fd0508133&e=693db3e940> sawing the heads off of Kurdish
fighters they have killed, a Syrian Kurdish legislator was pulled from her
car and
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=6b9c6d0f62&e=693db3e940> executed along with her driver,
unarmed Kurdish captives were filmed as they were
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=c4ec1c4a1d&e=693db3e940> murdered, the corpse of a female
Kurdish fighter
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=4ab614019f&e=693db3e940> was vandalized, ISIS captives were
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=947a2d576c&e=693db3e940> deliberately freed from unguarded
prisons, and in a
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=8f413ff4a4&e=693db3e940> video message, one of the invading
fighters promised mass ethnic cleansing if Kurds in the area refused to
convert to his Wahhabi strain of Sunni Islam.

 
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=8502b20926&e=693db3e940> Ajamu Baraka points out 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."

                             Listen to our interview with Ajamu Baraka on
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=d73dcad670&e=693db3e940> Clearing the FOG (available Monday).

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."

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.
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=89f76887c9&e=693db3e940> Timber Sycamore, the regime change
project of the Obama administration, 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
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=87524138d6&e=693db3e940> "The Management of Savagery".

When Obama's regime change strategy failed, the
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=cce27e00c2&e=693db3e940> US switched to occupying one-third of
Syria, including the oil region in the Northeast. In January, Secretary of
State
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=f20768dc38&e=693db3e940> T
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=db2e132723&e=693db3e940> illerson announced the US was
creating a de facto Kurdish State there with a 30,000-strong Syrian Defense
Force (SDF) troop, US air support, and
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=a3a0eaeeb3&e=693db3e940> eight new US bases. In April 2018, UN
Ambassador Nikki Haley
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=4950472a98&e=693db3e940> announced the US planned to maintain
its illegal presence in Syria.

Obama's effort to dominate Syria was
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=05355bcf49&e=693db3e940> rooted in the Bush-era. In 2001,
former NATO commander Wesley Clark was on record stating that
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=561940009a&e=693db3e940> Syria was on a list of targeted
nations to be toppled by the US. In 2002, former Secretary of State John
Bolton said, in a
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=7a562971c6&e=693db3e940> speech titled "Beyond the Axis of
Evil", 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
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=3636a0d80b&e=693db3e940> Muslim Brotherhood assets were in
place to snipe at both police and protesters when the demonstrations broke
out and
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=338dbc014e&e=693db3e940> Saudia Arabia provided weapons to aid
regime change.

Caitlan Johnstone points to
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=1ee8a20a43&e=693db3e940> more evidence that Syria was not an
organic uprising but a foreign regime change effort from the beginning:

"The former Prime Minister of Qatar
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=a3750f9de8&e=693db3e940> said on television that the US and
its allies were involved in the Syrian conflict from the very beginning. A
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=58ed96e214&e=693db3e940> WikiLeaks cable and a
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=626fada48e&e=693db3e940> declassified CIA memo 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
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=cc5744ce3d&e=693db3e940> Roland Dumas stated that he was
informed that the UK was engineering an uprising in Syria two years before
the violence erupted."

Even the Obama era regime change goal needs to be put in the context of over
sixty years of the US
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=6197b73560&e=693db3e940> trying to control Syria. The first
coup attempt by the CIA after it's creation was in
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=26b520d723&e=693db3e940> Syria in 1949. Controlling Syria has
been a consistent policy objective.
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=3619eb1333&e=693db3e940> CIA documents from 1986 describe how
the US could remove the Assad family.

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
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=6c07b63b36&e=693db3e940> Mattis told Congress the US was not
withdrawing 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
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=b5f52bf808&e=693db3e940> firestorm of opposition. He
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=2cc308f78e&e=693db3e940> was outmaneuvered by war hawks in his
administration and Congress.

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.
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=86c09dbd21&e=693db3e940> David Macilwain reports, "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 all of Syria he simply
repeated what he had said -'from Northern Syria.'"

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.

 
<https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2016/12/Decision
MakingRojava.jpg>
https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2016/12/DecisionM
akingRojava.jpg

The Rojava Cantons direct democracy governance without a state. Still from
video

Kurds in Syria Negotiate Their Future With Damascus

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
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=9045787288&e=693db3e940> Kurds in Syria are now working with
Damascus to repel the Turkish invasion and
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=50647b01c2&e=693db3e940> negotiate their future.

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,
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=39226d24db&e=693db3e940> the US funded the Syrian Kurdish
militias 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.

 
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=1a810134f9&e=693db3e940> The Kurdish Rojava cantons are a
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=e037eeaf10&e=693db3e940> liberated area in Syria led by
socialist-feminists and a population that makes decisions through local
councils. Their economy is
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=c3329c41b0&e=693db3e940> based on a cooperative model 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
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=e8e7d561b4&e=693db3e940> basic principle is the participation
of everyone 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."

Their governing model is
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=9ff0a77cf2&e=693db3e940> direct democracy governance without a
state, 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.

Some see Rojava's
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=6bdc3ee304&e=693db3e940> governance without hierarchy,
patriarchy or capitalism as a model for the future of the Middle East
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=484600250c&e=693db3e940> and beyond, and as
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=495db00bf0&e=693db3e940> an antidote to capitalism. It is the
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=8a93f1d28e&e=693db3e940> Communalist Model of Democratic
Confederalism,
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=95565951d6&e=693db3e940> an adaptation of the ideas of the
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=8edfebfe1a&e=693db3e940> Zapatistas in Chiapas and the work of
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=4b67f45d3d&e=693db3e940> Murray Bookchin.

In Turkey, Kurds remain part of Turkey and "
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=4782944e90&e=693db3e940> have formed a political party
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=3a872e87c2&e=693db3e940> (Peoples Democratic Party - HDP),
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.

Turkey is concerned that the Kurds will use the territory they've captured
to establish an independent Kurdish state for the region's
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=ee0a76baf7&e=693db3e940> 25 to 35 million Kurds, roughly
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=78a6ac2520&e=693db3e940> 15 million 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.

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.

 
<https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/10/us-out-o
f-syria-internationalist-protest-in-nyc-internationalist-photo.jpg>
https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/10/us-out-of
-syria-internationalist-protest-in-nyc-internationalist-photo.jpg

US Out of Syria Internationalist protest in NYC (Internationalist photo).

US Out of Syria and Out of the Middle East

We agree with
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=2d4c277001&e=693db3e940> the US Peace Council, which urges
"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!"

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.
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=563a718ac8&e=693db3e940> Reports indicate 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.

On October 11, the US announced it was
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=b32cf156fc&e=693db3e940> sending an additional 1,800 troops to
Saudi Arabia. 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
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=9e93f9af05&e=693db3e940> US is fighting in at least
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=26c202b0fc&e=693db3e940> seven countries in the Middle East
and North Africa: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Niger, Somalia, Syria, and
Yemen.

We must also be in solidarity with the Kurdish people and call for an end to
the Turkish invasion of Syria. The
<https://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7d
d6e71fb413&id=3428a078e1&e=693db3e940> Turkish invasion is already
backfiring and people mobilizing against the invasion will lead to its
retreat.

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.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20191021/6b8e0a96/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 114439 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20191021/6b8e0a96/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 166022 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20191021/6b8e0a96/attachment-0004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 93968 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20191021/6b8e0a96/attachment-0005.jpg>