by Editor, Workers World
May 29, 2013
Recent U.S. threats against Iran, Syria and, yes, Venezuela show that this time of capitalist economic crisis brings with it the danger of new imperialist wars and interventions.
In late May — in news that got more publicity in the Israeli media than in the U.S. — the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a resolution backing up Israel if it launches an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. The Senate, in other words, told the Obama administration it was not being aggressive enough.
While President Barack Obama and his team have aimed to protect and expand U.S. imperialist interests using economics, diplomacy and military threats, some in the U.S. ruling class apparently want more muscle. Sen. John McCain, for example, made a surprise visit May 27 to the “Free Syrian Army” to underline what his faction sees as the need to send even more arms to kill Syrians. Some European imperialists agree, and the European Union has now removed its official embargo on weapons to the opposition against Bashir al-Assad’s government.
We put the “Free Syrian Army” in quotes as there is nothing “free” about this collection of pro-imperialist reactionaries. They represent foreign imperialist interests more than Syrian ones, and rather than an army, they are a collection of terrorist gangs with conflicting interests.
The Obama faction may be trying — using their own evaluation of how to advance U.S. imperialism — to avoid another draining war in West Asia. Whether that is true or not, however, it is using Washington’s economic, diplomatic and the potential of its military power to remove the rightfully elected Bolivarian government of Venezuela.
In that country, U.S. strategy, now that the unifying and charismatic Hugo Chávez has died, is to wear away support for the progressive government led by newly elected President Nicolás Maduro. At this point the Venezuelan oligarchs and their political representatives — especially presidential loser Henrique Capriles Radonski — are following the U.S. lead.
Just after the election — which Capriles and the U.S. have refused to recognize, even after recounts and international verification — Capriles’ fascist forces rioted and murdered 11 people. This move failed. Capriles’ Movement of Democratic Unity (MUD) also failed to rally the Organization of American States to attack Maduro. And the more independent Latin American regional organizations backed the legitimate Venezuelan government.
Capriles, with complete U.S. backing, developed an economic offensive to erode support for the government.This was done successfully and brutally against the 1970s Salvador Allende government in Chile. In Venezuela now, supermarket chains belonging to opposition millionaires are artificially causing shortages in everything from food to toilet paper. The media, owned by the viciously anti-Bolivarian and anti-poor millionaires, spread rumors and speculation to help keep the country in a climate of permanent tension.
Just as the progressive and anti-war movement here in the center of world imperialism must demand “Hands off Syria” and “No attack on Iran,” so must we rally to strengthen solidarity with Bolivarian Venezuela under serious attack from imperialism and its local oligarchy.
Articles copyright 1995-2013 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
see
Top 10 Western ‘Hits’ on Syria by Finian Cunningham
US Makes Syria an ‘Offer it Can’t Refuse’ – Again by Finian Cunningham
Dandelion Salad 
Pingback: Mark Weisbrot: What’s Going On In Venezuela? | Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Western Emperors Have No Clothes by Finian Cunningham | Dandelion Salad
Pingback: France’s Chemical Pre-action to Propaganda Defeat at Qusair by Finian Cunningham | Dandelion Salad
Pingback: The Russian Are Coming… Hooray! by Finian Cunningham | Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Erdogan’s Intrigues Against Syria Biting the Dust by Finian Cunningham | Dandelion Salad
Short and to the point.
“Freedom and democracy” is an infantile slogan that rings hollower and more obviously venal by the day. It should be replaced by “war war whatever the costs!”
Those who dissent are marching to a different drummer but marching all the same. So long as ideological dichotomies persist, we shall never achieve enduring parity and proportion. I say, break ranks, confuse the strategists…then reform in unexpected configurations.
Any leadership, unless blatantly tyrannic, must be accountable; so the non-biodegradeable-zillion-dollar question remains ~ “how?” What are the proper legal mechanisms and ethical means that can render governance both representative and transparent? Noam Chomsky spoke recently about Magna Carta as a foundational precedent..
Do we need a biospheric charter of inter-species rights? If so, what should be the proper organizational function of such a system of governance “ab ovo?” How should society envisage itself, from within or from without? If our best idea of “Nature” is by its very implicit nature, self-organizing, then all our previous notions appear redundant ~ in practical, but not necessarily in moral contexts of course.
Great points, David.
Thanks Lo, at 4:06 in the morning..!
Yep, I’m a night person for the most part. Less distractions at night while working. Now it’s 5:44 AM. 🙂
Pingback: Western States: A Gang of Arsonists Setting Countries on Fire by Finian Cunningham | Dandelion Salad