The Tragedy of Syria: A Geopolitical Hotspot
Words by Habibah Jaghoori
Syria. A beautiful country, enriched in a culture of beautiful music, food, art and landscapes abided by a hearty people of talent, of wonder and of promise. Or so the story goes. Syria. A geopolitical hotspot. A country ravaged by dirty hands. A country and a people suffering from war. On August 31st in 2013, Barack Obama the then President of the United States announced his plans to launch a military attack in Syria in response to the blame apportioned on the Syrian government for using chemical weapons against its own citizens.
Like many fake promises, Obama assured this wasn’t a regime change tactic or a measure to participate in the so-called ‘sectarian war’ occurring in the country. Because as we all should know, the presidents of the U.S have an immaculate track record of keeping the balance and justice alive.
*cough, cough*
Of course, Obama’s announcement was merely performative, as the U.S empire has been pushing imperialism since its founding and has been on that imperialistic train headed to Syria since 2011.
Fast forward to February 2021. Joe Biden is in his first month of office and surprise surprise, he is bombing Syria. All the headlines came out with the script of “Biden launches attack on Iranian Backed Militias in Syria.” *sigh*
This politically spun narrative has become too old now.
Biden bombed the people that defeated ISIS. Biden bombed these people before he gave stimulus checks to his own people in the face of a crippling pandemic all thanks to tyrannical militaristic capitalism. Biden murdered Arabs before he did anything for climate justice and Texas freezing over as a sign of it, before freezing rent or giving healthcare.
But hey, keep up the tradition eh? As promised by little Joey; nothing will fundamentally change…
The truth is, this destructive hegemony has specific interests in Syria. This is because the country is not only equipped with natural resources they can plunder for their sadistic crony capitalist growth, as former president Trump admitted. The reason the troops are being kept in Syria is not ‘only for the oil,’ but also because geopolitically, a captured Syria is a hotspot. It’s a hotspot to not only further Israel’s imperialist agenda but because it gives way for the US to wage war on Iran. Anybody that has a fair understanding of history, not mentally infiltrated by CIA talking points, will understand why as long as the U.S is outwardly attacking Syria and inwardly backing and funding terrorist groups inside the country, Iran will be actively involved in combating it. If those two entities did not exist, then Iran has little reason to be there and Syria has less reason to work with them.
So HOW is the US still bombing the Middle East?
They use tools such as waging a war of disinformation to sway the opinion in favour of regime change. They fund and arm opposition groups in Syria or the apparently ‘moderate rebels’ who turn out to be openly affiliated with Al Qaeda and all sorts of “Jihadists”. They illegally occupy Syria’s oil fields so they can block the nation’s revenue from being used to actually help it. They burn down Syria’s wheat fields. And now they have turned to sanctions. All in retaliation because their little terrorist lobbyists in the field got smashed.
It’s time to realise the root cause of these murderous wars and it’s well overdue to do something about it.
“Anyone can say, I support universal healthcare and a wage increase. There is nothing brave or controversial about catching up to the rest of the industrialized world. But how many will expose and stand up to American imperialism? Or the Zionist occupation in Palestine? How many will call out the Western-backed coup in Syria? The UK’s theft of Venezuelan gold? A handful, at best.” — Richard Medhurst, independent journalist & political analyst.
Repeating slogans such as “End the Wars’ has never and will never be enough. We have to oppose economic sanctions that brutalises and kills the working class everywhere. Work for defunding the military industrial complex. Talk about and protest police brutality and racial inequality. And ALWAYS, ALWAYS question and critically analyse what the mainstream media tell as news. The mainstream media is another tool of the elites and they will use it to suppress reality.
I long for the day where there is peace in the Middle East. Where the colonial state is dismantled is replaced by a system of equity that advocates for human dignity.
Dear Syria, you will see better days.
