Syria: U.S. talk of chemical weapons a pretext for war

Bashar al-Assad, the New Lion of Damascus

The following article appeared in Fight Back! News on December 9, 2012. In the last week, the US has made increasingly explicit threats against Syria and the parallels with the build-up to the war in Iraq are striking. Unfettered by the uncertainty of re-election, the Obama administration has fewer obstacles to committing to a Libya-style NATO invasion of Syria to topple the nationalist government of Bashar al-Assad.

Return to the Source stands firmly with President Assad and the Syrian people, unequivocally upholds Syria’s right to self-determination, and demands that the US and Western Europe cease all subversive activity with the foreign-backed rebellion. We hope that the anti-war movement in the US takes a decisively anti-imperialist stand with the Syrian government against all foreign aggression.

Reposting an article does not necessarily constitute an endorsement by Return to the Source.

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Syria: U.S. talk of chemical weapons a pretext for war

By Fight Back! News Staff, December 9, 2012

Almost ten years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, it’s déjà vu all over again.

Last week, the U.S., France and a host of other imperialist governments once again threatened the Syrian Arab Republic with military intervention. Echoing the rhetoric of the Bush administration in the lead-up to the war in Iraq, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at a press conference in Brussels to drum up fear that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would use chemical weapons to end the 21-month-old unrest. Similarly, President Barack Obama ominously spoke of “consequences” for the Assad government if chemical weapons were used. France and Britain have also joined the U.S. in scare-mongering rhetoric designed to build quick and panicked consensus for military intervention in Syria.