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workers.org Aug. 27, 201

By John Catalinotto

Aug. 27 Without presenting even ahint o proo o Washingtons allegationsthat Syria has used poison gas, Secretary oState John Kerry has announced that a rock-et attack on the sovereign state o Syria rom

our U.S. destroyers in the eastern Mediter-ranean is imminent.

Each destroyer deploys 90 cruise missiles,so even a time-limited attack would causeenormous damage.

Tis blatant and illegal threat, supportedonly by Washingtons co-criminals in Lon-don and Paris the ormer colonial powersin the Middle East drew an immediateangry reaction rom anti-war organizationsaround the world and in the U.S. itsel.

Te International Action Center, theUnited National Antiwar Coalition and the

Answer Coalition issued statements con-demning U.S. war moves and calling orprotest demonstrations to stop the missileattack, plus others to be held on the dayo or day aer the attack. Te AntiwarCommittee in Chicago, Arab Americans orSyria in LA, Syrian American Forum o NewJersey, Women Against Military Madness inMinneapolis, are moving.

Code Pink has called a protest duringObamas MLK Aug. 28 speech, gatheringat 10 a.m. at 12th & Constitution. Protestshave already been set or New York, Chica-go, Los Angeles, Dearborn, Mich. and someFlorida cities.

Kerrys announcement sounded likewords o the Queen in Alice in Wonder-land: sentence rst, verdict aerwards. Hecompletely dismissed the Syrian govern-ments cooperation with the United Nationsinvestigation team on the ground there thatwas proceeding to examine the acts, saying

it was too little, too late.o the anti-war orces in the U.S., Kerrys

haste is just another sign that the imperialistpowers had already decided to wage war onSyria. Last weeks alleged nerve gas attackon the outskirts o Damascus gives every in-dication o being an operation by the impe-rialists and their agents in the Syrian oppo-sition. President Barack Obamas statementa year ago that a nerve gas attack would bea red line in the sand or a U.S. interven-tion made it clear what those looking or apretext or intervention had to do.

Few believe the imperialists

Despite the imperialist medias knee-jerkreaction o rallying around the fag, a ma-

jority o the U.S. population 60 percentin a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll opposesintervention in Syria and 89 percent oppos-es arming the rebels. Tere is even somedebate among imperialist analysts. In ad-dition, Russia, Iran, China and other coun-tries governments have spoken out againsta new aggressive attack. Tis one doesnt

even have the acquiescence o the UnitedNations Security Council.

Te anti-war groups in the U.S. say theare certain that the imperialist establishment is again lying. Why? Because thehave lied so oen beore and have beecaught at it. (See editorial, page 6.)

For the 1999 air war on Yugoslavia, th2003 invasion o Iraq and the 2011 air w

on Libya, wild charges o genocide anweapons o mass destruction all lateproved alse were raised as pretexts oimperialist intervention, say the war opponents.

Instead o quietly accepting yet anotheU.S. aggression in the interests o the prohungry corporations and banks, the IACSolidarity Center in Baltimore has callea meeting to plan protest actions in Baltmore, Columbia and Frederick, Md., ana regional demonstration in WashingtoD.C.

Follow developments in the D.C. regionon Facebook at tinyurl.com/l876rel.

In New York, the IAC has called ademonstration for imes Square at 6 p.m.on Tursday, Aug. 29.

Follow the IAC at iacenter.org.Follow UNAC at unacpeace.org

for a listing of all actions.

STOP U.S. war on SYRIA

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Labor Donated

WORKERS WORLD EDITORIAL August 25 201

Aug. 25 Beore we discuss any o the

details o the latest Big Lie, Workers Worlddenounces any missile or air attack onSyria as an international war crime. Wecall upon all anti-war orces in the UnitedStates to stand up to say No! to this act oaggression.

U.S. imperialism is poised to openanother war. Tis one, the latest in a longseries o aggressive wars, would targetSyria. As we write, our U.S. destroyers,each with 90 cruise missiles, are movinginto place in the eastern Mediterranean tobe able to launch these death-dealers at the

Syrian people.As with earlier major U.S. aggressions

against Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya, Wash-ington has presented a Big Lie to try to

justiy an unwarranted and illegal assaulton the Syrian people.

With Yugoslavia, the claim, shown laterto be alse, was that the Serbian govern-ment was committing genocide againstAlbanian-ethnic people in Kosovo. InLibya, Moammar Gadhas governmentwas alleged to be on the verge o commit-ting a bloodbath in Benghazi anotherBig Lie invented by U.S.-NAO orces.And we all know that no weapons o massdestruction were ound in Iraq.

Tere is certainly a horrible war in Syria.

But the orces engaged in armed struggleagainst the Syrian government have beenarmed and nanced by Saudi Arabia, othergul monarchies, urkey and other NAOpowers all allied with U.S. imperialism.Tey are responsible or the 100,000 deathsand millions o reugees rom this confict.

Te Syrian government has categoricallydenied using poison gas. We have no prob-lem joining with the hundreds o millions,i not billions, o people around the worldwho believe Damascus, rather than theincurable liars in the imperialist camp. U.S.

imperialism has a track record o inventingany pretext to justiy its own aggression.Its lies are meant to cover its track recordo spending trillions o dollars on the mostmassive engine o destruction in historywhile ailing to do anything helpul or themasses o people in the world.

Videos have been shown around theworld that show many dead civilians. Teimperialist media disseminate these withthe hope o justiying an imperialist inter-

vention on behal o the criminal gangsghting the Syrian government.

Stop U.S. aggression on Syria!Do these videos really show victims o

sarin nerve gas? No experts are conrmingthis charge. And i they do, does that provethe Syrian government is responsible? TeRussian Foreign Ministry argues that thereal source o these killings is the rebelsthemselves ultra-reactionary, anti-gov-ernment orces who have been known tomurder Syrian civilians belonging to a di-erent religion or sect. It charges they are thones who have used sarin in an attempt toblame the Bashar al-Assad government andprovoke direct imperialist intervention.

Te timing o this crisis also makes it

highly suspect. Te rebels have had astring o military deeats and armed con-fict among themselves. Tey have ailedto create a central command. Moreover, aUnited Nations inspection team had justarrived in Damascus. Why would the Syr-ian government choose this time to do the

very thing that the U.S. said would cause itto intervene?

Only the rebels, or as Damascus rightlcalls them, the terrorists, could gain romthis.

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