In the wake of the Anglo-American military victory in Iraq, U.S. officials are now threatening Syria with economic and other sanctions, along with veiled threats of military attack. The pretext for this campaign is Washington’s charge that Damascus has chemical weapons--one of the propaganda themes for justifying the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq.

The targeting of Syria underscores the fact that the U.S.-led war on Iraq is not about freedom or democracy--or even about Iraq alone. It is about which of the competing imperialist powers in the world will control the resources and territory of the Mideast. What is fueling this war drive is not the policy of a particular U.S. president (in fact, it is a bipartisan group in Congress that has introduced a bill to decree sanctions on Syria). Behind imperialism’s march toward war is something much more fundamental: the inherent weaknesses of the capitalist economic system, now mired in a prolonged depression, that increasingly drive Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, and other imperialist powers to fight to divide and redivide the world among themselves.

In recent years the government of Syria has taken a more conciliatory stance toward Washington. But the U.S. rulers don’t consider the Baathist regime there sufficiently beholden to their interests. Damascus aligned itself with Paris, Berlin, and Moscow in the prewar UN debate over Iraq. Emboldened by its success in Iraq, the U.S. government is now pressing further against Syria.

These threats against Syria are also directed against Iran, which is on the imperialists’ "axis of evil" hit list. In the context of the Anglo-American war in the Mideast, the recent U.S. threats against north Korea and Cuba take on more seriousness, too.

Similarly, the deadly shooting by U.S. troops on a crowd of protesters in Mosul shows the true face of the occupiers. The purpose of the new occupation regime is not the "liberation" of the Iraqi people, any more than the British invasion of Baghdad was in 1917. A top priority for the U.S. overseers of Iraq is getting the oil wells running again and laying the basis for putting them under the control of ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and other U.S. companies--at the expense of TotalFinaElf and other European capitalist interests.

The goal of the occupation is also to hold Iraq together under a capitalist regime that can guarantee stability for imperialist interests in the Mideast. That means putting a lid on the struggles of the Kurds, the Shiite Muslims, and other oppressed peoples. The last thing Washington or London wants is for the Kurdish people to win their right to national self-determination--in Iraq, Turkey, or anywhere else.

Despite the patriotic, prowar campaign to justify the imperialist assault on Iraq, many working people and youth are closely following the events in the world and are receptive to a working-class explanation of them. That is especially true of workers engaged in struggles against employer attacks on their wages, jobs, and conditions. There are no limits to the ability to campaign widely to present these facts and communist perspective on the job, at factory gates, on picket lines, in working-class communities, at antiwar and other political demonstrations, on campuses, and among workers and farmers in uniform. We urge you to join other Militant supporters in a working-class campaign to demand: No to the occupation of Iraq! Imperialist forces out of the Mideast! Bring the troops home now! Stop the U.S. threats against Syria!
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. forces consolidate occupation of Iraq
Washington targets Syria with chemical arms charge
Occupation of Iraq deepens imperialist rift  
 
 
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