After a ten-hour debate in Parliament, the British Government has just voted to join the USA and France in their bombing of Syria. Amid popular and widespread anti-war protests and fierce pro-war propaganda from the press, the vote was tipped to be a close call- but David Cameron has won by a majority of 179. The Prime Minister spent today’s debate spouting fear-mongering war rhetoric and daring to call his anti-war opponents “terrorist sympathisers.”
This verbal abuse spectacularly backfired on Cameron after angry Brits took to social media to point out public opinion polls aren’t on his side. The country is divided on this issue, but the number of those in favour of attacking Syria has fallen from 56% to 48% in recent weeks. Still, Cameron refused to apologise.
Many in the UK are wary. We remember the lies over Saddam Hussein’s WMD, and due to Cameron’s unpopularity, we trust his reasons for going to ‘war’ even less than we trusted Tony Blair’s. Even in the post-apocalyptic fear generated by the Paris attacks, many people simply aren’t falling for the same tired old line (if we want to stay safe, we must engage in pre-emptive strikes against the bad guys). Fourteen years after the ‘War on Terror’ began, most of us with a rational mind can clearly see what a dismal and bloody failure it has been.
The UK Stop the War campaign group has listed 6 reasons why attacking Syria is a terrible idea. Please share them with anyone who still believes that bombs equal peace.
1. Bombs kill civilians
‘There is no such thing as a bomb so smart that it always hits its target, even supposing the target is legitimately, legally and correctly identified,’ John Rees writes on stopwar.org.uk.
Ignore the mainstream media’s subtle choice of words: The fact that innocent women, children and babies die in airstrikes is not a matter of ’could’ or ‘might’. No: civilians will die. Fact.
2. It will increase the flow of refugees
It’s strange how so many people who oppose immigration are the first to stand up and demand we bomb the countries they are fleeing. The irrationality of the right wing is reflected in this statistic, reported by Rees.
‘Over the last year of US bombing the number of Syrian refugees has rocketed from about 2.7 million to over 4 million.’
3. Bombing is the best recruiter IS could wish for.
The dead civilians mentioned above will certainly radicalize more young men to join the very beast we’re supposed to be destroying. As Rees points out:
‘The IS recruited more than 6,000 new fighters in the first month of US bombing in Syria last September, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.’
He quotes Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, which reported: ‘A number of rebel commanders who oppose IS while continuing to fight the regime of Syrian president Bashar Assad have warned that the strikes are increasing local support for the jihadists’.
4. It won’t work.
Rees reports that the US made over 1,600 bombing runs in less than year in Syria.’ Did it change anything? No. It didn’t.
5. It will prolong the war on both sides.
Here’s where it gets confusing. Rees writes: ’In 2013 Cameron lost a vote to bomb Syria…but then he wanted to bomb Assad. That would have benefited the Islamic State. Now he wants to bomb the IS, but that is bound to help Assad.’
Forgotten exactly who the enemy is? You’re not the only one.
6. More Western bombing will mean more Russian support for Assad.
Rees expresses concern that since the US and UK want to cut Putin out of peace plans (and the subsequent carving-up of the oil reserves, no doubt): ‘Any UK bombing will mean another twist to the arms race in the Middle East.’ Let’s think about this: we are all supposedly fighting against IS, but the Turkish downing of a Russian jet was a senseless act of war by the allied forces against Putin. If the UK joins its American and French allies against Russia, we run the serious risk of a third World War.
And nobody- no matter what their political persuasion- wants that.
Human emotion isn’t as complex as we like to believe. When someone hurts us, we want revenge. We feel anger and hatred. We want to make those who have humiliated and scorned us suffer. We might think we’re over all that. We might, as individuals, make a conscious decision to avoid conflict in our lives, we might try (at least) to forgive, to take the moral high ground by not fighting fire with fire. Everyone knows an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, right?
But when the suffering is not ours alone, but a shared trauma- one that bonds us with other human beings we’ve never even met- all of these wise and compassionate ideas are tossed aside. On Friday, Paris was subjected to another barbaric terrorist attack, the second in less than a year. ISIS have allegedly claimed responsibility for the brutal murder of 120 innocent people, although as usual no evidence for this has been offered to the public.
As I write, French jets are attacking the city of Raqqah. They have dropped at least 20 bombs so far, and no doubt many more will be launched before the night is through. “We are going to lead a war which will be pitiless,” French President Francois Hollande has promised. But let’s take a step back from the strong emotions that terrorist attacks inevitably cause. Is all-out war really the only reaction? Is it the the moral reaction? Is it a reaction which will lead to a more peaceful world? Surely not, since Islamic extremists claim to be conducting their own revenge attack for French involvement in the bombing of Syria.
Today’s French airstrike, which was coordinated with the United States, was carried out simultaneously from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. According to the French government, fighter jets have taken out an ISIS command and control center, a training camp and a munitions warehouse. Great, says the internet. They f***g deserve it, man.
But who are they? Just like carpet-bombing Iraq after 9/11, just like hunting for Bin Laden in Afghanistan, this knee-jerk reaction – the need to hurt and maim those responsible- is directed at the wrong people.
Look at the image below. It is a photograph, taken today, of a child in the Syrian city of Raqqah. Should she pay for Paris? This picture, just as sad and shocking as any we’ve seen coming from the carnage in France, was posted on Twitter by @PalmyraPioneer with the caption: ‘To the people & government in #France, #Raqqa City residents are not all #ISIS , we please do not targets at random.’
This terrified child didn’t attack Paris. So why is it OK for France to attack her city?
How many civilians have been killed in the revenge attacks? How many kids? How many mothers and fathers? How many more desperate refugees will this create? How many more young Muslims will be radicalized due to Western attacks on Islamic countries? What kind of a future do our grandchildren face? Will we look back and wish we’d learned to deal with our anger and fear in a different way? I for one hope so, because if not they have no future at all. None of us do.
The war drums are banging again. Paris has provoked widespread anger, hatred and a hunger for revenge in the West. Those of us who truly care about all human beings- not just those white, European, non-Muslim ones, but everyone, including the innocent child pictured above- need to reject the idea of war under any circumstances. We also need to remember the blood on the hands of Bush and Blair, the lies they told to attack Iraq, and realize that revenge will lead us to WW3.
One thing we all have in common is that none of us want that.
In an interview with the BBC’s ‘Panorama’ which aired in Britain this week, Edward Snowden spoke in detail about the spying capabilities of the UK intelligence agency GCHQ. He disclosed that government spies can legally hack into any citizen’s phone to listen in to what’s happening in the room, view files, messages and photos, pinpoint exactly where a person is (to a much more sophisticated level than a normal GPS system), and monitor a person’s every move and every conversation, even when the phone is turned off. These technologies are named after Smurfs, those little blue cartoon characters who had a recent Hollywood makeover. But despite the cute name, these technologies are very disturbing; each one is built to spy on you in a different way:
European governments have turned their backs on the worst humanitarian crisis of our time, and Britain in particular has a huge compassion deficit. It’s time we remembered what caused this mess in the first place
A heartbreaking photograph of a dead Syrian toddler whose lifeless body washed up on a beach in Turkey yesterday added a very real dimension to the so-called European ‘migrant’ crisis. ‘Only by the grace of God is this not your child‘, said many Facebook users who shared the devastating image of this innocent child. ‘The failure of the world in one photo‘, another commented.
His name was Aylan. He was just three years old when he drowned in the Mediterranean sea, along with his five year-old brother Galip. The boys were making the treacherous crossing from Bodrum in Turkey to the Greek island of Kos with their father. They were fleeing violence, oppression and starvation in Kobani, a town in Northern Syria which has long been the scene of fighting between ISIS militants and Kurdish forces. Aylan’s boat capsized 30 minutes into the crossing, and the brothers (who were not wearing lifejackets) didn’t stand a chance. Three other children and a woman were among the 12 who died. The image of Aylan’s limp body went viral within hours, becoming the top trending picture on Twitter under the hashtag #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik (humanity washed ashore).
Last year, over 3000 people died crossing the Mediterranean in a desperate attempt to reach Europe. In 2015, those figures are set to double. The number had already passed 2500 by mid-summer, and increases daily. Most of the people fleeing their homes come from countries in Northern Africa and the Middle East: they are not economic ‘migrants’ but rather asylum seekers who have no choice to risk life and limb in search of survival elsewhere.
AFP/Getty. A man carries a young child into Hungary at the Serbian border as the national right-wing party Jobbik demonstrate against refugees.
Hungary, Macedonia, Greece, Italy and The Czech Republic are the European countries struggling to cope with the sheer number of refugees who are desperate for asylum. Turkey, although not a member of the EU, is also under enormous strain as thousands of families flow into the country to find a way of reaching Europe. Germany, which handles around a quarter of all European asylum claims, has announced it will not turn away Syrian refugees, and Chancellor Merkel has criticized other member states for not doing enough to ease the collective burden.
A BBC graphic shows where refugees come from.A BBC graphic showing the distribution of refugees in Europe
Britain’s David Cameron seems to have conveniently forgotten that starting a brutal civil war in Syria was directly responsible for the crisis we are now witnessing, and he repeated on Wednesday in the wake of Aylan’s tragic viral image hitting the press that the UK would not open its borders. The UK’s mainstream press (in particular the rabid, vile, neo-fascist Daily Mail) prefers to stir up fear and loathing within the public mindset, rather than offering any debate about possible solutions.
It is time for people to understand that they cannot support illegal and immoral military actions in oil-rich countries without acknowledging the obvious consequences of these invasions (which include increased terrorist reprisal attacks in addition to the influx of desperate refugees). Western imperialist nations such as the USA and Britain have a duty and a responsibility to re-home those who lost everything when their troops began bombing the sh*t out of civilian areas in an effort to ‘spread freedom and democracy’. The lie that our troops are ‘liberating’ Syrians/Iraqis/Afghans/Libyans (take your pick) from evil, villainous despot leaders is one which has been repeated by leaders and their poodles in the mainstream media for 14 long years since the false flag attacks of 9/11. How long are we going to swallow this bullshit? Wake up, already!
The truth is that Britain and the USA couldn’t care less about freedom or human rights. You only need look at the systematic destruction of civil liberties at home to understand this fact. We need a military presence in the Middle East for reasons which are entirely financial (the arms trade, the oil fields, the rebuilding contracts) and strategic (the region provides a crucial geopolitical foot-hold for them to eventually wage war on Iran, which is no doubt the final target of this Mad Max-style horror we have inflicted on innocent Arabic civilians). The smear campaign against Muslims has been carefully planned from the outset to ensure that by this stage, so many Westerners have developed an acute case of Islamophobia that their compassion levels are close to zero. This dehumanizing of ‘the other’ allows our puppet-masters to roll the dice and keep playing their psychopathic game, with relatively little protest from the average Joe.
While ISIS is usually cited as the main reason for refugees fleeing Syria, we must ask ourselves how this terrorist group was actually created in the first place. Noam Chomsky rightly believes it would never have come into existence if the USA and Britain had not illegally invaded Iraq back in 2003. Stories of ISIS jihadists waging terror with CIA-issued weapons and tanks should not be brushed under the carpet either; they deserve further investigation. To pretend that our military and governments have no part to play in this mess is both short-sighted and naive.
Anadolou images. A mother’s grief at being told she has lost two of her three children, Turkey
Luckily, there is a ray of hope. While our disgraceful leaders turn their backs on the crisis, individual people all over Europe are volunteering to help those in need. One organization doing amazing work is MOAS (the Migrant Offshore Aid Station), which is a registered foundation based on the small island of Malta. It is dedicated to preventing loss of life at sea by providing assistance to refugees who find themselves in distress while crossing the Mediterranean.
Equipped with a 40-meter vessel, two remote piloted aircraft, two inflatable boats and a highly experienced team of rescuers and paramedics, MOAS is able to locate, monitor, and assist boats in distress. With no government funding, the project is financed entirely by private individuals and led by Martin Xuereb, Malta’s former Chief of Defense. Up until now, 9313 lives have been saved by these brave individuals (10,000 in its first year alone).
AP images. A ship carries asylum seekers to Italy
Many of those rescued are babies, pregnant women, and unaccompanied children. When you consider the terror of crossing the ocean as a small child- completely alone, probably orphaned- to go to an unknown place where nobody speaks your language, it seems even more despicable that the general public’s reaction to the crisis is one of apathy. They, along with David Cameron, should hang their heads in shame and hope that they never need suffer the same fate.
In such a turbulent world, we would do well to remember that our own future safety is not guaranteed. We are all part of one global family, connected at a level which is not divisive and does not recognize distinctions of religion, culture, nationality or race. We are one, so let’s start reaching out and showing love and compassion for our fellow human beings. The first step is to pressure our governments to unite once and for all to meet and discuss ways in which the burden of immigration could be fairly shared throughout EU member states and other developed nations.
The video below shows a rescue mission by MOAS in the Mediterranean this summer. A three-week search and rescue program was successful in saving the lives of hundreds of men, women, children and babies who would otherwise have drowned. To continue their urgent work, MOAS need your help. Please consider sharing this article to raise awareness, and donating whatever you can to the team’s rescue efforts by clicking here.
This article was first published on 3 September 2015 here under the original title ‘This could be your son. Where is the love and compassion in the debate about Europe’s refugee crisis?’
American foreign policy is far more dangerous than Socialism…
Credit: Flickr, Riccardo Vásquez. Opposition activists hold signs saying they will fight for Venezuela rather than lose their country, as mediation talks begin.
Body of evidence
Earlier this month, it emerged that the U.S had created a ´Cuban Twitter´ in an attempt to stir social unrest and cause revolution in the communist country from the inside out. Incredibly, this was not a CIA operation, but rather ´a program paid for and run by the U.S Agency for International Development, best known for overseeing billions of dollars in U.S humanitarian aid.´ Aside from the obvious question (why is an aid organization carrying out a top-secret infiltration mission in Cuba?)- this news shouldn´t come as much of a surprise.
As far back as the 1950s, the CIA and British MI6 plotted to overthrow the government of newly-elected Mohamed Mossadegh, who had won a landslide victory in Iran and promised to nationalize the country´s oil, using the money to increase social wellbeing. Mossadegh was arrested for these ideals and replaced by a bloody dictatorship, whose CIA-trained security force would be condemned by Amnesty International in 1976 for having the ´worst human rights records on the planet.´
The Iranian coup d´etat was the first time America had paid so-called ´protesters´ to cause riots on the streets, but it wouldn´t be the last. The USA is the world´s self-styled bad cop: a role which involves disposing of any democratically elected governments which have the audacity to disagree with its neo-liberal capitalist view of the world. This is especially true, it seems, for those who dare to control their own oil and mineral reserves.
Sophie McAdam 