Syria today, Iraq 21 years ago

Heralding the fall of Assad as a ‘victory,’ as Western-backed terrorists take over the country is a betrayal of the lessons of Iraq and Libya

Over the past two weeks, social media has been abound with posts claiming “Free Syria” to celebrate the end of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. American President Joe Biden stated, “The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice,” with other leaders echoing similar calls. As people lauded the end of al-Assad family rule, the IOF began invading southern Syria reaching 20 km from Damascus and has bombed Syria at least 500 times since Assad’s departure. Heralding the fall of Assad as a “victory,” as Western-backed terrorists take over the country is a complete misinterpretation of history, let alone the events of the past 20 years.

Labelling many of us as “Assadist” for questioning the rebranding of these terrorists as the new leadership in Syria is redundant and ignores the lessons of Iraq and Libya. Whether you like Assad or hate him, celebrating the events in Syria as a “revolution” betrays what decades have shown us: No liberation backed by the West should be considered a victory.

For the past 14 years, the United States, Israel and other regional actors like Turkey have sought to remove Assad not because they care about democracy or human rights but because Syria and its alliances in the region pose a threat to the American-Zionist agenda in the Middle East. The US and its vassals have provided money and arms to Al Qaeda and ISIS to terrorize Syria for over a decade (look up Timber Sycamore). The recent “liberation” of Syria must be seen as part of the CIA-orchestrated regime-change wars that result in destruction, occupation, theft, and mass suffering.

The immediate effects of the so-called “victory”

In the immediate aftermath of the departure of Bashar al-Assad and his family on December 8, this is what has happened:

• “Israel” invaded southern Syria and began issuing evacuation orders for five towns including Quneitra.

• Israel has expanded its illegal occupation of Syrian land, already stealing 600 km² of land along the Syrian Lebanese border

• The IOF is 25 km away from Damascus city

• The United States and Israel bombed Syria more than 500 times since Assad’s fall

• Israel has systematically targeted and destroyed the capabilities of the Syrian army including the destruction of weapon depots, air-defense systems, aircraft hangers, naval bases, etc

• The mass exodus of Syrians from Damascus, specifically religious minorities including Alawites and Christians

• The beheadings and slaughter of Syrian people from different faiths and backgrounds including Alawites, Assyrians, Shias and Kurds. (Note: Under Assad, albeit not perfect, Syria was a pluralist country which hosted many religious and ethnic minorities who coexisted peacefully).

• The descent into chaos including the looting of public institutions and theft from shops and markets

This is not a liberation but a regime-change operation backed by the West and facilitated by mercenaries that hail from Uzbekistan, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Turkey, and now Ukraine. These are not Syrians so how can this be considered a liberation? Assad may be removed but now Syria is not only occupied by Turkey and the United States, but by Israel as well. The events in Syria are not coincidental nor grassroots. They are part and parcel of the attempt by the United States and its vassals to destroy Syria not only for economic geopolitical gain but for Syria’s opposition against American and Zionist dominance in the region. If posing such questions deem us as “Assadist,” let us look to Iraq for a lesson in history.

Learning from the events of the illegal US invasion of Iraq

On March 19, 2003, the United States illegally invaded Iraq on several fabricated lies such as Saddam Hussein’s arsenal of weapons of “mass destruction.” The occupation was absurdly dubbed “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” in which the United States, the United Kingdom and its vassals dropped 30,000 bombs on the country in the first month of their invasion. A month later, on April 9, American forces with the help of PR firm Rendon Group entered Firdous Square to drape the American flag and topple Saddam Hussein’s statue, the conditions of this ‘liberation’ quickly revealed themselves.

US soldier drapes American flag on the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square on April 9, 2003. Image from New Arab, available here.

The only thing the United States “protected” were Iraq’s oil reserves which in 2002 were listed at 112.5 billion barrels, about 11% of the world total. The US proceeded to loot Iraq’s oil reserves, and in May 2003 essentially removed Iraqi control over its oil by funneling all revenues from Iraq’s oil sales to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The United States also proceeded to maintain its petrodollar hegemony by allowing Western oil companies like ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell, to exploit Iraqi oil.

In the eight years of the American occupation, what else did the United States do to help “liberate” Iraq? The list of crimes that the US and its allies perpetrated is extensive, including the detention and abuse of Iraqis in torture centers like Abu Ghraib and the use of illegal weapons like white phosphorous and depleted uranium. Many massacres from Fallujah to Nisour Square were committed by Western mercenaries and American soldiers, and no one was held liable. America’s export of “peace” and “democracy” resulted in the murder of over 1 million Iraqis and over 4 million internally displaced.

Iraq underwent the direct destabilization that we are currently witnessing in Syria. In June 2003, Saddam Hussein’s regime was replaced by the American Coalition Provisional Authority, led by Paul Bremer who pushed a series of measures intended to ultimately destroy Iraq. Bremer disbanded the Iraqi army, resulting in hundreds of thousands of former soldiers becoming unemployed, leaving Iraq undefended while justifying American presence for “security.” Then, under the guise of ‘de-Ba’athification,’ Bremer fired 100,000 Iraqi nurses, doctors, professors, and journalists, resulting in a collapse of institutions and the fragmentation of Iraqi society. The additional murder of Iraqi academics, scientists, teachers and artists underpinned the American agenda to destroy and erase the foundations of society, as we have seen in occupied Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and beyond.

Most egregious of Bremer’s measures was the neoliberal reconstruction of Iraq, which sweepingly privatised state-owned companies while allowing the complete foreign ownership of Iraqi assets and firms. Benefitting from their wanton destruction of Iraq, the US created a corrupt multi-billion-dollar industry in contracting under the guise of “reconstructing” Iraq’s physical infrastructure, health, education and transport systems. What resulted: corruption, theft, embezzlement and fraud that did not benefit the Iraqi people or state but filled the pockets of the neoconservative imperialists in Washington and their cronies elsewhere.

What have we seen in Syria?

The events occurring in Syria today cannot be separated from the events of the last 13 years and more broadly, the last eight decades (if not since Sykes-Picot?). In the 1980s, an article published in the Hebrew Journal Kivunim titled The Oded Yinon Plan advocated for the weakening and fragmentation of Arab states in the region to prevent a unified political or military threat against ‘Israel.’ The plan sought to sow and exploit ethnic and religious divisions to achieve this end. The fragmentation of these neighbouring Arab states ultimately aids the Zionist plans to create a “Greater Israel,” that would occupy and control the lands of these countries.

The Oded Yinon Plan emulated the vision of the neoconservatives in the United States who sought to create a Project for the New American Century (PNAC). These agendas should not be seen as different but a continuation of Western imperialism in the region. Both PNAC and the Oded Yinon Plan emphasize intervention and regime change as a strategy to achieve the destabilization and fragmentation of neighbouring Arab states. PNAC’s plan was to achieve American military dominance in the region, which fundamentally serves the Zionist implantation in Palestine.

Following 9/11, and only revealed later, the United States drew up a plan to invade and destroy seven countries in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran. What resulted?

The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 on false pretenses, leading to the removal of Saddam Hussein and the collapse of Iraq, resulting in mass death, destruction, oppression, theft, and violence. Let’s not forget Netanyahu’s cheerleading for the invasion of Iraq, and regurgitation of Washington’s lies and propaganda.

This blueprint is not out of a core desire to spread “democracy,” secure human rights in the region or prevent terrorism. The plan is to ensure Israel’s safety as a military outpost for US interests but also for “Israel” to expand its complete occupation of Palestine. In a 1996 report called Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, the Neocons and their Israeli vassals formalised the “New Middle East,” defining Israel’s strategy and relations with Arab states in the region. What did the plan entail?

The plan emphasized that Israel would require regional assistance in “weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria” while focusing on “removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.” Netanyahu was a big cheerleader for the illegal American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Then, the document goes on to plan that Israel would work to “wean the south Lebanese Shia away from Hizballah, Iran, and Syria.”

Syria has long been a target of Israel for its support of resistance movements in the region and serving as an integral supply route for military aid from Iran to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. In 2003, following the illegal invasion of Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell met with President Bashar to pressure him in shutting down the offices of the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance in Syria, which he refused.

From its plan as outlined in the Clean Break report, Israel has been directly involved in harbouring and funding the terrorists that currently hold power in Damascus. During the proxy-war on Syria, the Syrian “opposition” fighters consisting of terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Al-Nusra Front were treated in Israeli field hospitals in the occupied Golan Heights. Israel also covertly provided weapons and paid the salaries for many of these mercenaries. It is no coincidence that ISIS or Al-Qaeda have never attacked Israel.

The United States, the West, and regional actors don’t care about Syrian human rights or democracy and that’s well documented in the 14-year war on Syria. Over the last 14 years, the collective West enforced barbaric sanctions on the Syrian people, invaded their lands, and forced mass internal and external displacement and infrastructural destruction. Syrians were deprived of fuel, water, medicine, and food while the United States and NATO-backed forces looted Syria’s factories, burned Syria’s wheat and stole Syria’s natural resources (i.e., oil and gas). By 2022, around 80% off Syria’s daily oil production was looted and stolen by American forces, who smuggled the oil into American bases in Turkey or Iraq (look up al Mahmoudiya crossing). Syria has been used as a battleground for the West and regional actors like Israel and Turkey to achieve its agenda in the region.

Whether you like Bashar al-Assad or not, it is integral to realize his role in maintaining Syria’s integrity and political independence against Western colonialism and imperialism. While this is not a deliberation on Assad’s domestic policies, it is crucial to realize that Syria’s relations with Iran - which has established a network of state and non-state alliances - challenges American, and ultimately Israeli supremacy in the region.

The rhetoric of the so-called “liberators” of Syria led by Mohammad al-Jolani has shown that they are carrying out America and Israel’s bidding. These signs are evident in their rhetoric by claiming that once they “liberate” Damascus, they will go to Lebanon to fight Hezbollah. Coincidence? Their silence on Israel’s illegal invasion of Syria and their demands that Palestinian resistance groups in Syria disarm show precisely that they are simply tools of imperialism, carrying out their allegiances to the US, Israel, Turkey and several Gulf monarchies.

For over a decade, the US and its vassals have sought to bomb Syria into submission. America’s crony Israel has bombed Syria nearly every week in the last three years and at least 1000 times in the last five years. The call for reform is not comparable to Syria’s occupation and fragmentation by the US, Israel, the West, Turkey and the Gulf monarchies. While the West frames al-Jolani as this moderate (the CIA ironically since removing the $10M bounty off his head), it is a betrayal to the Syrian people, to Middle Eastern history and the collective anti-colonialist movement to label these terrorist groups as “liberators.”

The Zionist entity and Western colonialism remain the main enemy in the region. Their support for terrorism and fundamentalism is the fight of many people from Iraq to Syria to Libya and that shouldn’t be forgotten. Syria, like Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, and elsewhere has long suffered under the weight of Western imperialism and these lessons should not be forgotten. We must continue to resist and oppose Zionist and Western imperialism and remember that the war-mongering terrorist-harbouring West will never be on the side of justice. True liberation will always come from the people and will never cower to the enemy.