I'm looking for some objective articles on this issue. Finding objective
information on Syria is really difficult because the subject has become so very
politicized. There's a book on BARD, a memoir about Syria, The Home That Was
Our Country, that I'm reading. Even that book is somewhat confusing. There's a
history but it becomes less clear as the author's subjectivity begins to take
over.
Miriam
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From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Subject: [blind-democracy] Syrian rulers escalate war against toilers in E.
Ghouta
http://themilitant.com/2018/8210/821002.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 82/No. 10 March 12, 2018
(lead article)
Syrian rulers escalate war against toilers in E. Ghouta
BY TERRY EVANS
The Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, backed by Moscow and Tehran, has
intensified its murderous assault on the 400,000 people in the besieged
Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta.
Mass mobilizations against Assad’s dictatorship shook Syria in 2011. The regime
struck back with military violence, filling its prisons with working people. In
the subsequent civil war, Assad’s forces lost ground, until Moscow intervened
with airstrikes in 2015. Tehran-backed militias and Hezbollah also bolstered
Assad. Today working people in Syria continue to confront obstacles to
advancing their interests — the intervening capitalist powers, the hated Assad
dictatorship and a number of reactionary Islamist forces.
As of Feb. 27, the regime’s recent round of sustained bombardment of eastern
Ghouta has killed more than 500 people. The bombs and artillery have destroyed
hospitals, the main remaining bakery and dairy factory.
Pro-Assad troops, including Tehran-backed militias, are mobilized along the
area’s border. Some Islamist forces within Ghouta have responded by shelling
civilian neighborhoods in Damascus.
Washington and others on the U.N. Security Council secured Moscow’s backing for
a cease-fire resolution over Ghouta by leaving the door open for continued
assaults against “terrorists.” Bombing continued after the motion was adopted
Feb. 24. Syria and its allied militias have massed troops for an assault.
This conflict is unfolding as opposing imperialist and capitalist powers
position themselves to defend their interests in the region. The U.S.
rulers and the Syrian Democratic Forces — the Kurdish-led force that is
Washington’s “ally of convenience” — hold sway over 25 percent of Syria,
including a large chunk of its oil resources.
Tehran’s counterrevolution
To maintain their counterrevolutionary course against working people at home,
Iran’s capitalist rulers are driven to extend their influence across the
region. In combination with its ally Hezbollah based in Lebanon, they have
established military bases and weapons factories in Syria. The effects on
working people in Iran from Tehran’s military intervention in Syria, Iraq and
other parts of the Mideast provoked widespread working-class unrest in December
and January.
Tel Aviv seeks to prevent Tehran from establishing a permanent Syrian presence,
which it sees as an existential threat. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu has met several times with Russian President Vladimir Putin to press
Moscow to limit the presence of Iranian and Hezbollah forces near Israel’s
borders. The Russian rulers want to preserve their growing influence in Syria,
and maintain relations with Tel Aviv.
Moscow and Damascus both say the areas under control of the Syrian Democratic
Forces should be returned to Assad’s control. This includes areas where
Washington has bases and at least 2,000 troops.
The U.S. rulers are the dominant military power in the region, with tens of
thousands of troops and massive air and naval power. They have no intention of
relinquishing any part of Syria they control. Washington responded with massive
firepower against an armed challenge by pro-Assad forces at Deir el-Zour Feb.
7. U.S. air and artillery strikes killed over 200 attackers and prevented them
from retaking oil fields in the area.
Among the dead were Russian mercenaries. Moscow refuses to say how many were
killed and sought to deny any government links, though they were trained on
Moscow’s bases in Syria and survivors were airlifted to Moscow for medical care.
Deutsche Welle said the mercenaries were part of the Wagner group that fought
alongside Russian-backed separatists who seized parts of eastern Ukraine after
the popular Maidan uprising overthrew the Russian-backed regime of Viktor
Yanukovych there.
Putin is wary that his government’s wars could become increasingly unpopular at
home. Protests against Moscow’s assault on Ukrainian sovereignty took place in
several Russian cities in 2014.
Ankara invades Afrin
The Turkish rulers have vowed to remove the Kurdish People’s Protection Units
(YPG) from Afrin, a majority Kurdish canton separated from the larger Kurdish
provinces to the east. They’ve threatened to extend their invasion to sweep
Kurdish forces from the entire border with Turkey. Both Washington and Moscow
acquiesced to Ankara’s assault on Afrin. Turkish army units and its allied Free
Syrian Army forces, backed by Turkish warplanes, have made relatively slow
progress since the invasion Jan. 20.
The YPG asked the Assad government to send its forces to Afrin. Assad sent
militia forces, trained by Tehran to the province.
Ankara seeks to weaken the YPG in Syria as it also drives to deal blows to the
Kurdish national struggle in Turkey. Backed by Washington, the rulers of Iran,
Iraq, Syria and Turkey have denied the Kurdish people a homeland for decades.
Kurds resist these assaults on their national rights.
But without a rise in broader struggles by working people Kurds have limited
allies as they face the region’s rulers, who remain determined to push back the
autonomous area that Kurds have carved out.
The YPG has begun transferring SDF combatants from Aleppo, Deir el-Zour and
elsewhere to buttress its forces in Afrin. It has ceded control of Kurdish
neighborhoods of Aleppo to the Assad regime.
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