The War in Syria Cannot Be Won. But It Can Be Ended.

[rug]

The left is profoundly divided over the conflict, but we should at least agree on a set of principles to end it.



Syrian-Americans demonstrate near the United Nations to demand a cease-fire in Syria, New York, May 1, 2016. (Sipa via AP Images)

By Phyllis Bennis
YESTERDAY 12:29 PM

We need a powerful movement demanding an end to the war in Syria. The United States and to some extent the global antiwar movements remain largely paralyzed. There are some campaigns responding to specific congressional and other war moves, with some particularly good work against US support for Saudi Arabia. But as a movement, we seem unable to sort through the complexity of the multi-layered wars raging across Syria, and unable to respond to our internal divisions to create the kind of powerful movement we need to challenge the escalating conflict.

It was easier during earlier wars. Transforming public consciousness, changing US policy—those were all hard. But understanding the wars, building movements based on that understanding, that was easier. Our job was to oppose US military interventions, and to support anti-colonial, anti-imperialist challenges to those wars and interventions.

In Vietnam, and later during the Central American wars, that meant we all understood that it was the US side that was wrong, that the proxy armies and militias Washington supported were wrong, and that we wanted US troops and warplanes and Special Forces out. In all those wars, within the core of our movement, many of us not only wanted US troops out but we supported the social program of the other side—we wanted the Vietnamese, led by the North Vietnamese government and the National Liberation Front in the South, to win. In Nicaragua and El Salvador, we wanted US troops and advisers out and also victory for, respectively, the Sandinistas and the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front). In South Africa we wanted an end to US support for apartheid and we also wanted the African National Congress to win.

The solidarity part got much harder in Afghanistan and especially in the Iraq wars. We stood in solidarity with ordinary Afghans and Iraqis suffering through US sanctions and wars, and some of our organizations built powerful ties with counterparts, such as US Labor Against the War’s links with the Iraqi oil workers union. And we recognized the right under international law for an invaded and occupied people to resist. But as to the various militias actually fighting against the United States, there were none we affirmatively supported, no political-military force whose social program we wanted to see victorious. So it was more complicated. Some things remained clear, however—the US war was still wrong and illegal, we still recognized the role of racism and imperialism in those wars, we still demanded that US troops get out.

https://www.thenation.com/article/the-war-in-syria-cannot-be-won-but-it-can-be-ended/

[hack89]

1. The war will end once Assad has driven the core of his opposition out of Syria

They will be driven out never to return. That is his solution and so far it appears to be working.

[FrodosPet]

2. Russia is the only nation both strong enough and ruthless enough to do the job

Let them have the mess. Perhaps if they focus all their resources on Syria and Ukraine, they will not have the "need" nor ability to invade the Baltic states, and we can avoid an otherwise inevitable global nuclear catastrophe.

[hack89]

3. It won't be their mess

Iran and Hezbollah will be adequate to keep Assad in power once Russia is finished. They will be emboldened- which should make the Baltics very nervous.

[Victor_c3]

4. It's a huge mess

With so many different players fighting for different levels and purposes of influence, it'll be hard for the fighting to stop until most of the external powers can get on the same side.

I was a young kid and joined the army in 1997 thinking I would be a part of military involvement to make the works a better place, but I quickly learned I was a fool to believe that after serving in Iraq as an infantryman. I quickly realized war for any reason is nasty business.

To be honest, I don't believe there is hardly any reason where war is justified unless we are directly attacked or there is a seriously outwardly belligerent nation like Germany in WWII.

I am firmly very isolationist in what I believe we as a nation should do. Sadam Hussein killed a lot of his own people, but did we really help anybody by destabilizing that country and allowing for more people to be killed as a result.

Foreign intervention overall doesn't work, makes the situation worse for the people we are trying to help, and wastes American blood and treasure.