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LEAGUE FOR THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL

STATEMENT

4 OCTOBER 2014

STOP NEW IMPERIALIST

WAR IN IRAQ & SYRIA
On September 10 US President
All US, UK & Nato forces out of the Middle East
Barack Obama launched a full-scale
aerial war in Iraq and Syria against
Weapons for the Kurdish resistance
the forces of ISIS, the Islamic State,
Victory to the Syrian revolution
which overran large parts of Iraq and
northern Syria in August and September. France and Britain have now background, is a direct result of the
Wests wars and occupations, its
joined the US war.
blockades and embargoes and its
The claim that the objective is to save support for reactionary regimes in
the Yazidis or Christians fleeing the pursuit of control and exploitation of
ISIS advance, let alone the Kurds of the oil wealth of the region whilst the
Koban or Erbil, is a gigantic fraud. ordinary people live in misery.
US bombing around Koban, supposedly to protect the 200,000 Kurds Socialists and anti-imperialists, espewho face genocide at the hands of cially those living in the belly of the
ISIS, has been largely cosmetic and beast, must recognise that, ultra-redone little to slow the ISIS advance. actionary as forces like ISIS and alLike the expansion of Nato into East- Qaeda are, the main enemy is at
ern Europe and the clash with Russia home. We must rebuild a dynamic
over Ukraine, this new war is part of anti-war movement to oppose the
the US and its closest European al- war drive and demand that the
lies reassertion of their world domi- bombing ceases and all air, land and
sea forces are withdrawn from the
nation.
Middle East.
It is aimed at proving that in the Middle East, as in Eastern Europe and While we must reject the West's husub-Saharan Africa, their peoples manitarian claims as a mere pretext,
cannot do without the protection of we must support wholeheartedly
the global sheriff and his British and struggles of the genuinely progresFrench deputies. Yet it is this protec- sive democratic and national liberation racket that has stimulated the tion forces, like the Kurds or the
growth of such movements as ISIS, Syrian revolutionaries against ISIS.
never mind the funding they received We wish to see them defeat their brufrom Americas allies in the Gulf. The tal caliphate and recognise their right
growth of reactionary sectarian to take arms from the imperialist powforces, whether from a Sunni or Shia ers in order to achieve this victory.
FIFTHINTERNATIONAL.ORG

However, support for those struggles

must not be confused with support for
the war waged by the Western imperialist powers. Victory for them would
mean the imposition of their rule over
all the peoples and resources of the
region; therefore we wish to see them
defeated in this war.

So far, in Europe and North America,

opposition to this new war has been
muted and small scale, a far cry from
the huge mobilisations against the
2003 Iraq war. Then the imperialists'
predatory aims were as clear as their
pretext was flimsy. The lie - Saddam's
supposed possession of weapons
of mass destruction rather than
Iraqs huge oil wealth - was easily
seen through by millions.

Moreover, unlike almost any other

opponent, ISIS positively wants and
needs an imperialist intervention. Its
leaders calculate, correctly, that this
will not only bring them international
recruits but also consolidate their
leadership of the Jihadist forces
already Al-Nusra has agreed to cooperation. That is why they have
used every opportunity to publicise
the barbarity of their own tactics.
Widespread revulsion has limited opposition to the war, thereby playing
into the hands of both ISIS and
Washington.

The strategy of the takfiri-jihadi reactionaries behind ISIS and the AlNusra Front is based on the knowledge that, when the Americans and
their allies unleash their F16s,
drones, Tomahawk cruise missiles
and UK Tornados, they will kill hundreds, even thousands, of innocent
civilians and this will ensure that the
masses of the entire region hate the
western humanitarian bombers
even more than they already do.

Added to this is the virulent Islamophobia of the western media and police forces at home, pumped up by
fear of suicide bombers. This will further alienate Muslim youth and radicalise more to join the jihad. Already,
some see the ISIS caliphate as the
only means to unite the region
against the crusaders - just as earlier generations saw Arab nationalism
as the unifier against US imperialism
and its Zionist ally.

Obama and his Defence Secretary,

Chuck Hagel, claim that there will be
no US boots on the ground. This is
a brazen lie. It is inconceivable that
US Special Forces are not already
acting as spotters for the air attacks,
embedded with the Iraqi forces and
the Kurdish peshmerga. In addition,
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chair of the
US Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that in
Syria We need 12,000 to 15,000 to
reclaim lost territory.

It is impossible that all of these will be

Kurdish fighters from Rojava or the
Free Syrian Army even if these do
accept the suicidal role of becoming
foot soldiers of US imperialism. If this
is to be a long war, lasting years, as
Obama, Hagel, Cameron and Hollande have all said, it is inevitable that
US and European ground forces will
be drawn into it, with all the disastrous
consequences of the wars and occupations of 2001-2010.

The USA is now trying to create an

alliance of regional forces to rein in, if
not destroy, ISIS. This stretches from
thethe Iranian regime to the Turkish
government of Erdogan, the Saudi
Kingdom and the Gulf emirates; from
the Kurdish PKK and KDP fighters to
the Free Syrian Army and Hezbollah.

committed and this in part accounts

for ISIS support in this region. If the
political leaders of the Kurds, either in
Iraq or in Rojava, and the FSA in
Syria, identify themselves with the
US and its allies, they will increasingly
be seen as tools of hated foreign imperialism and, as minorities in the region, could find themselves even
It has also led to a tacit understanding more the victims of genocide.
with the Syrian regime. It includes
Sunni governments that have al- Meanwhile, in Europe and North
lowed ISIS fighters to travel to Syria America the large Muslim communiand Iraq and in many cases also ties, as in previous wars, will find
armed them. Similarly, Turkey has re- themselves the target of Islamophopeatedly closed its borders to Kurdish bic propaganda from the media and
refugees and attacked Kurdish fight- harassment by the police and the seers wanting to join the defence of cret services. In all these countries,
Koban while allowing jihadis to enter the labour movements must rally to
Syria.
their defence.
The mutual hatreds and bloody
atrocities that marked relations between many of these forces in the
past, mean that this alliance, even if
it can be put together, is unlikely to be
effective in achieving the strategic objectives defined by the US. For example, Turkey is likely to oppose the
arming of Kurdish forces and may
even militarily occupy Kurdish regions of Syria itself on the pretext of
protecting the Kurds. Equally, the
Saudi regime will oppose anything
that could conceivably strengthen
Iran. When the alliance fails, this will
no doubt be used as justification for
a full-scale intervention by US and
possibly British and French forces
too.

It is the duty of the revolutionary organisations in these countries to solidarise in particular with the Muslim
youth in their anger at events in the
Middle East. That anger is totally justified, as is their hatred of the US,
Britain and Frances exploitation and
domination of what, for many, is their
families original homeland.

They are justified in seeing the need

for the most radical policies against
imperialism. However, the radicalism
of the takfiri, that is the adoption of
sectarian hatreds and religious bigotry, can only lead to their social isolation. A mass anti-war movement
that clearly opposes all imperialist aggression in the Middle East and
draws in those youth can be a real
ISIS has shown that its 30,000 fight- force where Obama and Cameron
ers are more steeled and effective most fear it - at home.
than either the ramshackle and corrupt Iraqi army or the peshmerga
Stop the bombing Now!
whose military efficacy has been
talked up by western politicians and
journalists. The Iraqi Shia militias are
Withdraw all imperialist forces
feared and hated in the Sunni north
and bases from the Middle
of the country for the atrocities they

East!

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