Stop the US-led war on Syria! (Updated Sept. 1)

[Below are statements from the left in Asia, from Australia, Malaysia and the Philippines.]

Statement by the Socialist Alliance (Australia)

August 28, 2013 – Socialist Alliance – The Socialist Alliance condemns the threatened US-led Western military assault on Syria. We call on the Australian government to reject this latest imperial aggression, to extract itself from its military alliance with the US and end its involvement in all aggressive multinational military operations.

The Socialist Alliance supports the Syrian people’s democratic uprising against the tyranny of the Bashar al-Assad regime but we reject the interventions of the US and its allies in Syria. The Syrian people should have the right to decide their own future.

The horrendous chemical weapons attack on civilians is being used as the justification for this latest intervention. The use of chemical weapons is a heinous war crime and whoever uses it should be brought to account.

However, whatever the truth is about the exact responsibility for this brutal attack, the US and its imperial allies do not have the moral right to be judge, jury and executioner on the manufacture and use of weapons of mass destruction, chemical and other weapons. These countries have been profiteering from the deadly arms trade (including banned weapons) – and in the process have propped up, and continue to prop up, numerous dictatorial regimes around the world.

The launching of a military attack by the US and its allies in response will result in further civilian casualties.

Whatever justification is offered, a US-NATO war is not in the interest of the people of Syria. The terrible consequences of the Western invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan – consequences that are ongoing and have spilled across many other countries – are proof of this.

Both Iraq and Afghanistan also had brutal tyrants - yet the US-led military interventions made the situation far worse for the peoples of both these countries. Between 1 million and 2 million people have been killed in these two wars and in addition, depleted uranium weapons will continue to cause death and deformities for decades to come.

Don't make Syria another Iraq! Don't attack Syria!

Statement by the Socialist Party of Malaysia

August 30, 2013 – The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) condemns the imminent attack on Syria. The US and UK are planning to launch military strikes, with the backing from their allies like Saudi Arabia, against Syria over the alleged use of chemical weapons near Damascus recently.

While we strongly oppose all use of chemical weapons, the alleged chemical weapon attack in Damascus should not be used as the pretext for military intervention. This is not a new story. We have witnessed before for the last decade how military intervention by the West in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Military intervention had only exaggerated the misery of the people in these countries by bringing more catastrophic bloodshed.

What the US and its allies are doing now is yet again to by-pass the United Nations to launch a military invasion on Syria, making it another Iraq. Military aggression led by western imperialist forces will not help to stop the already bloody civil war and increase the level of destruction of the lives of Syrian people. When former UK prime minister, who is now the special envoy for Middle East Quartet, Tony Blair claimed that by holding back military intervention in Syria could produce a ''nightmare scenario'' for the West, he must have forgotten the “nightmare scenario” created by the US-UK allied forces in Iraq.

From the past experiences of western intervention, such military operation would only breed more terrorism and produce more miseries to the people in country that being attacked.

The latest plan to attack Syria is not meant to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Syria or has anything to do with democracy, but to advance the strategic interests of the West in the Middle East.

Stop the plan to attack Syria! The crisis in Syria needs a political solution not imperialist intervention!

Syria: Stop US big power military intervention, for a political solution to the crisis!

No to Philippine government military agreements with the US!

Statement by the Partido Lakas ng Masa, Philippines (Party of the Labouring Masses)

September 1, 2013 – The Partido Lakas ng Masa is opposed to any military intervention in Syria by the United States and the imperialist coalition powers, whether it is the UK, France and the EU, or Australia. While we condemn the use of chemical weapons and any weapons of mass destruction, that have been responsible for the killing of over tens of thousands of people in the more than two-year-long civil war in Syria, we reject the hypocritical use of this as a pretext by the imperialist powers to intervene militarily in Syria.

US and imperialist military intervention (also referred to as the "international community" by US President Obama) will not solve the crisis in Syria. A political solution is necessary. We believe the consequences of such a military intervention would be disastrous and will substantially worsen the humanitarian crisis faced by the Syrian people.

US and NATO military intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya also led to disastrous consequences for the people and even the destruction of these societies. NATO’s 2011 war against Libya killed tens of thousands, despite not involving a NATO ground invasion. The toll from the Iraq war is estimated at over a million and that in Afghanistan may be higher. The result of all three military interventions was social collapse and the rule of war lords and militias.

The US and its imperialist allies are also some of the biggest profiteers from the manufacture of weapons, including chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. This further exposes the fact that the US and the big powers plan to intervene, not to protect the humanitarian interests of the Syrian people, but to defend their own interests.

In light of these international developments, we further reiterate our opposition to the unequal military agreements and alliances that the Philippine government has negotiated with the US, such as the Visiting Forces Agreement, and the current negotiations underway to give the US “rotational access” or increased access to what is essentially another form of base facilities on Philippine soil.

We condemn these moves by the Philippine government which, instead of securing the interests of our people, undermine our sovereign interests by compromising and even implicating us in US government aggression against those who have never harmed us, such as the people of Syria. We will never forget the use of US bases in Clark and Subic to support the US war of aggression against the people of Vietnam. This shame was imposed upon us by Filipino elite rule and their subservient dependence on the US.

This must not be repeated again.