IAWM PRESS RELEASE – 06 SEPTEMBER 2013
• IAWM CALLS PROTEST AGAINST MILITARY STRIKE ON SYRIA AT US EMBASSY, TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER, 5.30-7.00pm.
• REMEMBER IRAQ – DON’T ATTACK SYRIA!
• AID FOR THE REFUGEES & PEACEFUL DIALOGUE – NOT MORE WAR
• NO TO THE SYRIAN PEOPLE BEING USED AS PAWNS IN SECTARIAN STRIFE AND IMPERIALIST BRINKMANSHIP
The Irish Anti-war Movement (IAWM) issued the following statement today:
More than 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the Syrian civil war so far, hundreds more were killed in what appears to be a chemical strike recently and over two million refugees have fled the country in what the UN has described as the largest single humanitarian refugee crisis ever.
The popular revolts of the Syrian people of March 2011 were brutally suppressed by the autocratic Assad regime that ultimately led to the civil war. Whatever about the horrific violence of the Assad dictatorship, and indeed of certain rebel elements, with both sides supported by different imperial powers and regional autocratic regimes, the US and other western powers bombing the country is no solution. In fact it will lead to further violence.
There are many Syrian people who still believe in a post-Assad inclusive government but right now what they need is solidarity, peace and security and an end to the horrific violence inflicted on them. Yet the response of certain western governments is to wreak further violence on the Syrian people by threatening military strikes that will probably not weaken the Assad regime, but will only stoke further the sectarian civil war. Such actions could ignite the whole Middle East in violent conflagration and lead to serious military confrontation between the world’s so-called superpowers.
IAWM PRESS RELEASE – 06 SEPTEMBER 2013
• IAWM CALLS PROTEST AGAINST MILITARY STRIKE ON SYRIA AT US EMBASSY, TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER, 5.30-7.00pm.
• REMEMBER IRAQ – DON’T ATTACK SYRIA!
• AID FOR THE REFUGEES & PEACEFUL DIALOGUE – NOT MORE WAR
• NO TO THE SYRIAN PEOPLE BEING USED AS PAWNS IN SECTARIAN STRIFE AND IMPERIALIST BRINKMANSHIP
The Irish Anti-war Movement (IAWM) issued the following statement today:
More than 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the Syrian civil war so far, hundreds more were killed in what appears to be a chemical strike recently and over two million refugees have fled the country in what the UN has described as the largest single humanitarian refugee crisis ever.
The popular revolts of the Syrian people of March 2011 were brutally suppressed by the autocratic Assad regime that ultimately led to the civil war. Whatever about the horrific violence of the Assad dictatorship, and indeed of certain rebel elements, with both sides supported by different imperial powers and regional autocratic regimes, the US and other western powers bombing the country is no solution. In fact it will lead to further violence.
There are many Syrian people who still believe in a post-Assad inclusive government but right now what they need is solidarity, peace and security and an end to the horrific violence inflicted on them. Yet the response of certain western governments is to wreak further violence on the Syrian people by threatening military strikes that will probably not weaken the Assad regime, but will only stoke further the sectarian civil war. Such actions could ignite the whole Middle East in violent conflagration and lead to serious military confrontation between the world’s so-called superpowers.
One observer has noted: “An assault on a scale designed to ‘degrade’ Assad’s military will kill large numbers of innocents. It can only further wrench apart the fault lines in Syria and across the region. There will be immediate retaliation from the regime, possibly from regional supporters, maybe from Russia. Unsurprisingly tension has immediately ratcheted up across the region. Israel and the US have ‘tested’ missiles by firing them towards Damascus, the Russians are sending a warship towards the Eastern Mediterranean.” (Phyllis Bennis, 01 September 2013, Optimism And Fear: President Obama on War in Syria)
Military strikes if authorised by President Obama will be reckless and opportunistic actions that reek of hypocrisy. The arguments being presented refer to ‘red lines’ over the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime against civilians. Use of such weapons is shocking, immoral and should be totally condemned. But 100,000 people have been killed before this event occurred. Western leaders have encouraged this civil war by refusing a peace conference with Assad and arming the rebels. Also western powers, and particularly the US and Israel, have openly used chemical weapons in the recent past, in Fallujah and Gaza, not to mention the horrors of agent orange in Vietnam and the atomic bombs on Japan.
If the US is serious about ending violence it should stop stoking sectarian strife in Syria and stop arming despotic regimes in the region.
We must send a message to Washington that the world will not stand by and let the US plunge the Middle East into a wider war. Please come and protest with us.
REMEMBER IRAQ – NO TO ATTACKS ON SYRIA!
END
For more information:
Jim Roche, PRO Steering Committee IAWM, Tel. 087 647 2737, John Molyneux, Tel. 085 735 6424, Glenda Cimino, Tel. 086 124 9456, Memet Uludag, 087 791 9307, all Steering Committee IAWM.
Website – www.irishantiwar.org
@IrishAntiWarMvt <https://twitter.com/#!/IrishAntiWarMvt>
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