IAWM PRESS RELEASE – 10 SEPTEMBER 2013
• REMEMBER IRAQ – DON’T ATTACK SYRIA!
• IAWM PROTEST AGAINST MILITARY STRIKE ON SYRIA AT US EMBASSY, TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER, 5.30-7.00pm
• SPEAKERS: RICHARD BOYD BARRETT TD, JOE HIGGINS TD, ROGER COLE (PANA), GLENDA CIMINO (US CITIZEN) and others
• 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 a statement today announcing a protest at the US Embassy this evening 10 September from 5.30pm against the looming attack by the US military on Syria.
The statement noted that the US, Israeli and other western governments wish 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 that could ignite the whole Middle East in violent conflagration and lead to serious military confrontation between the world’s so-called superpowers.
The IAWM statement acknowledged 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 but noted that the US and other western powers bombing the country is no solution. The US Government has no moral authority to call for military action against Syria.
The statement also noted that those Syrians who protested in March 2011 have somehow been erased out of the equation by both the regional and imperial powers edging for dominance, and by much of the mainstream media.
Jim Roche, PRO of the IAWM said:
IAWM PRESS RELEASE – 10 SEPTEMBER 2013
• REMEMBER IRAQ – DON’T ATTACK SYRIA!
• IAWM PROTEST AGAINST MILITARY STRIKE ON SYRIA AT US EMBASSY, TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER, 5.30-7.00pm
• SPEAKERS: RICHARD BOYD BARRETT TD, JOE HIGGINS TD, ROGER COLE (PANA), GLENDA CIMINO (US CITIZEN) and others
• 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 a statement today announcing a protest at the US Embassy this evening 10 September from 5.30pm against the looming attack by the US military on Syria.
The statement noted that the US, Israeli and other western governments wish 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 that could ignite the whole Middle East in violent conflagration and lead to serious military confrontation between the world’s so-called superpowers.
The IAWM statement acknowledged 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 but noted that the US and other western powers bombing the country is no solution. The US Government has no moral authority to call for military action against Syria.
The statement also noted that those Syrians who protested in March 2011 have somehow been erased out of the equation by both the regional and imperial powers edging for dominance, and by much of the mainstream media.
Jim Roche, PRO of the IAWM said:
“It is almost Kafkaesque that, on the anniversary of 9/11 with our thoughts of the victims of those terror attacks and of all the victims of the war crimes by the US, Britain and NATO that followed in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are having to organize more protests against these planned new Military strikes by the US on another country in the middle-east. If such attacks are authorised by President Obama they will be reckless and opportunistic actions that reek of hypocrisy.”
He continued:
“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.”
He concluded by noting:
“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 world into another futile war.”
Memet Uludag from the IAWM Steering Committee said:
"Whatever the situation in Syria might be, considering all complexities in the country and in the region, the last thing the world needs is a military intervention by the West. Today, if you were a civilian in Syria, you would constantly remember the horrors of the Iraq invasion and you would fear for your life and for your future even more with the possibility of an attack.
We need to move away from the repeatedly imposed formula that whenever there is a crisis, revolution or suffering somewhere around the world, the western military powers can intervene at will.
The only reasons the Western intervention is pushed as an option is because of their powerful war machine and their interests in the region, not because they have a higher moral code or a clean CV full of humanitarian interventions. The US and the West cannot be the suppliers of weapons and supporters of oppressive regimes, and in each case the judge, jury, prosecutor and the hangman all at the same time.
We need to repeatedly show our opposition to any military intervention in Syria, not for the sake of but despite the Assad regime."
END
For more information:
Jim Roche, PRO Steering Committee IAWM, Tel. 087 647 2737
Memet Uludag, Steering Committee IAWM, Tel. 087 791 9307
John Molyneux, Steering Committee IAWM, Tel. 085 735 6424
Glenda Cimino, Steering Committee IAWM, Tel. 086 124 9456
Website – www.irishantiwar.org
@IrishAntiWarMvt <https://twitter.com/#!/IrishAntiWarMvt>
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