United National Antiwar Coalition
(November 3, 2019) — The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) stands in solidarity with the long-suffering people of Syria. We oppose all foreign occupation of Syrian territory. Syria belongs to the Syrians.
The current Turkish incursion into northern Syria is in violation of Syrian sovereignty. So is the continued US intervention.
Turkey has been an ally of the US in its regime change program in Syria. Both countries are in Syria against the wishes of the Syria government and have caused great destruction in the region.
The US claim that it is in Syria to fight ISIS, is fiction. Recent US involvement started in 2011 with the CIA program called “Timber Sycamore,” which was geared to overthrow the Syrian government and replace it with a government friendlier to Washington and Wall Street. This program supplied money, weapons and training to internal and external forces fighting the Assad government. ISIS wasn’t formed in Syria till around 2014, years after the US regime change program started. Washington used ISIS as their reason to expand US bombing and destruction.
Syria requested assistance from Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, then from Iran and Russia to aid their resistance to the US orchestrated destruction. This determination defeated US plans.
President Trump in early October tweeted that he would be withdrawing US forces from Northern Syria where they have been working with the Kurdish SDF (Syrian Defense Forces) to maintain the occupation of the northeastern region of Syria, the home of most of Syria’s oil and grain production. Trump claimed to have come to an accommodation with Turkish President Erdogan. Immediately thereafter, Turkish soldiers crossed the border and began to attack the Kurds,
These actions caused a great debate in the US Many politicians, who wanted the US to stay in Syria, claimed that Trump had abandoned the Kurds.
The US is no friend of the Kurds and has betrayed their interests over and over again throughout the last century and was never a protector of their interests.
Syria’s population of 22 million includes Arab, Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Turkoman and Circassian nationalities as well as Sunni, Alawi, Shia, Druze, Yazidi, and Christian religious sects. Based on decades of past US military intervention in the region there are 1.5 million Palestinian and Iraqi refugees in Syria and 5 million Syrian refugees outside of Syria.
The Syrian government is determined to maintain and rebuild Syria as a secular, multi-ethnic, multinational, multi-religious country that respects the identity and culture of every group, free of foreign interference.
US strategists have always tried to maintain dominance in the Middle East by divide and conquer tactics of inflaming sectarian, national, ethnic and religious differences.
We oppose Turkish aggression in the region and demand that Turkish and US forces leave Syrian territory where they never were invited by the Syrian government. As Turkish forces move into Syria, the Kurds have opened negotiations with the Syrian government and the Syrian Arab Army moved todefend the border towns where Kurds live.
It is in the interest of the Kurdish and non-Kurdish Syrian people for the US, Turkey and their supported mercenaries from around the world to leave the country. It is only under these circumstances that the Kurdish people and the Syrian government can work to solve the problems of the Kurds in Syria.
As the Syrian government wins back more and more of their territory from foreign aggressors, it is calling for refugees to come home. They are offering amnesty and assistance for all those returning.
In numerous recent tweets, President Trump confirmed that US will not actually leave Syria. They will refocus on the oil producing area of Syria to supposedly “protect the oil.” “We’re keeping the oil,” “I’ve always said that — keep the oil. We want to keep the oil, $45 million a month. Keep the oil. We’ve secured the oil.” Trump asserts that the US will decide what to do with Syria’s oil in the future. He has implied that maybe Exxon should be given the oil
Clearly the theft of oil is for US corporate profit and to deprive Syria of the means to rebuild.
US and EU Sanctions keep Syria from importing essential supplies to repair and re-build Syria. Sanctions also prevent Syrians from importing or exporting oil. Without oil, the country cannot re-build.
The plan for US troops to occupy the oil fields is to prevent Syria from being energy sufficient, as they were before 2011.
The theft of Syrian oil and the continued sanctions on Syria must be condemned by our movement and by the entire world.
US fuel trucks quietly slipping out of Syria’s oil fields en route to Iraq (Photo: Sputnik)
We Demand:
• US, NATO, Turkey, Israel and all foreign invading forces leave Syria!
• End the sanctions against Syria!
• US stop the theft of Syrian oil!
• Let the Syrian people go home!
Other Statements on the Situation in Syria:
From Margaret Kimberly in Black Agenda Report
From Sara Flounders in Workers World
From Ajamu Baraka in Black Agenda Report
from Jeff Mackler in Couterpunch
Take Action to Stop Sanctions
Sanctions (technically “unilateral coercive measures”) imposed by the United States and its junior partners on countries such as Venezuela violate international laws. On November 14, the United Nations General Assembly’s Second Committee (the Committee on Finances and the Economy) will vote on a resolution introduced by the Group of 77 + China that:
1. Urges the international community to adopt urgent and effective measures to eliminate the use of unilateral economic, financial or trade measures that are not authorized by relevant organs of the United Nations, that are inconsistent with the principles of international law or the Charter of the United Nations …;
2. Calls upon the international community to condemn and reject the imposition of the use of such measures as a means of political and economic coercion against developing countries …;
To read the full text of the draft resolution click here
We are delivering a letter of support for the resolution to the United Nations and will have a delegation present for the vote. Click here to learn more.
* To read the letter and add the name of your organization, please CLICK HERE.
* To read the letter and add your name as an individual, please CLICK HERE.
ADDITIONAL ACTIONS: Free Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning
Julian Assange appeared in a London court on Monday, October 21, 2019 and appeared in a state of physical and mental deterioration. Assange defied the U.S. government and, with the help of Chelsea Manning, revealed war crimes committed by the U.S. military. According the Nils Melzer, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture, Assange displayed the signs of “progressively severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”
Although there are presently no British charges against him, he is being held by the British government for extradition to the U.S. where he faces life in prison for “violation” of the Espionage Act, a law enacted over 100 years ago, which has never been used in this way, and certainly not directed at someone who is not a U.S. citizen.
The charges against Assange and his imprisonment is another attack on the rights of the media and free speech.
The U.S. tried to get information from Chelsea Manning that could be used to imprison Assange and teach a lesson to anyone who attempts to defy the United States but Manning has refused to cooperate with them and therefore been imprisoned in an attempt to get her to cooperate with their frame-up and torture of Julian Assange. Chelsea Manning has proved herself to be a real hero of our movement.
Click here for an article by Craig Murray on the recent court appearance of Julian Assange.
We urge all supporters of civil liberties and human rights to protest the imprisonment and attacks on Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. New York City has been holding weekly vigils. Do one in your city.
ACTION ALERT: Free the Plowshares 7
On October 21, the trial of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 began in Brunswick, Georgia. A year a half before, on April 4, 2018, this group of seven Catholic peace activists had entered the Kings Bay military facility—which stores much of the US government’s Trident nuclear arsenal—in St. Marys, Georgia. They spray-painted messages on walls and sidewalks, spilled small bottles of their own blood, and hammered on the monuments to nuclear weapons that had been erected at the base.
The Kings Bay Plowshare 7 have now been found guilty and face long prison sentences. These people who put their freedom on the line for peace are found guilty but those who conduct wars, order sanctions that kill, attack other countries and order bombing that kills thousands are considered heroes by this imperialist distorted society.
If you would like to help the Kings Bay Plowshare 7 please go to their web site sign the petition, see what you can do to help, and spread the word about this miscarriage of justice.https://kingsbayplowshares7.org/
UNAC’s National Conference in New York City at the People’s Forum: February 21 – 23: Rise Against Militarism, Racism and the Climate Crisis – Building Power Together
To register: https://www.unacconference2020.org/registration/
For more information: UNACpeace@gmail.com
