According to the leaders of USA, France, and UK, killing people by chemical or biological weapons was crossing a red line and had to be punished. Yet despite claims of acting out of humanitarian concern for innocent civilians, the military strikes against Syria (14 – 4 – 18), were far from acts with a humanist purpose. Indeed, how could they have such a purpose, authorised as they were by a trio of schizophrenic Christians such as Trump, Macron and May? These three, self-appointed Crusaders of the west, acted without consulting those millions of humans who elected them – nor the political representatives they also voted for.

Moreover, despite the previous negative lessons of elite meddling in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lybia and Yemen, they arrogantly decided it was in the world’s best interests to bomb selected targets in Syria. Like typical bourgeois heads of state, they assumed they needn’t ask any of their citizens permission before utilising extremely expensive, tax-payer funded, weapons systems. Nor did they care what intended or unintended consequences might ensue for those Syrians they claimed to be aiding. Bringing the world closer to another international war may not have been probable, but other dire outcomes certainly are.

The ‘crossing red lines’ message delivered to the dictatorial Assad regime (and the many other authoritarians who are undoubtedly watching and listening) is clear; ‘you can carry on killing and maiming whoever you wish, so long as you don’t use chemical – based weapons’. And we can be sure they will. Assad, in particular, has made abundantly clear, that he too cares little or nothing, for ordinary working people, who have been tortured, barrel-bombed and subjected to phosphorus munitions, since they dared to challenge his rule during the Arab Spring. And despite the ‘mission accomplished’ claim, by Trump, nothing substantial has really changed in Syria! Not the well established pattern of death and destruction or even the potential future use of chemical weapons there and elsewhere. Conveniently, the representatives of Trump and his two European political groupies telegraphed their intention days, if not weeks in advance. Clearly the Syrian regime (along with the Russian troops) had plenty of time to move themselves and anything they didn’t want destroyed. So a few more collapsed empty buildings are hardly a competent deterrent to those who are already hell bent on destroying towns and cities in order to cling onto power.

So Politics, trump’s (!) humanity.

The claims of concern for suffering humanity along with the assertion that it was in the national interests of the countries carrying out the strikes are both bogus.The ongoing suffering of working class humanity in Africa, Asia, Middle East and South America under dictatorial forms of elite rule is universally tolerated by these self-appointed Western guardians (sic) of ‘humanity’ – so long as they can reach profitable business and trade agreements. During the lead up to this action in Syria, (and after) dozens of peaceful protesters in Gaza were being killed and seriously injured also on a daily basis, with no concern being shown by Trump, Macron and May for protecting this long-suffering section of humanity.

So whose interests did the strikes actually serve? To work this out just consider the social structure of America, France and Britain. They comprise of three basic classes; the working class, the middle class and the ruling pro-capitalist class. Bombing Syrian targets did not serve the interests of the working or middle-classes whose current round of taxes (and more) will now be used to re-supply the military with the super-weapons they have now exploded in Syria. Nor did this billion dollar offensive serve the interests of most of the pro-capitalist classes of these three countries. The industrial, commercial and financial sectors will gain no extra sales or services in Syria on the back of this aggressive action. If we keep our heads clear of the rhetoric and propaganda, it is not hard to see that the bombing of Syria actually only served the interests of two very small groups; some ruling politicians along with some arms manufacturers.

With these considerations in mind it is not difficult to conclude that this ‘Trumped up’ troika’s bombing of Syria is not really about concern for human life there, nor was it in the interests of the bulk of their own citizens. It’s motive was predominantly political and the action itself was one of opportunist political posturing. It is obvious that these three politicians are administering countries which are in decline economically, financially, socially and ethically. Trump, Macron and May personify the latest effort at national governance during the crisis riddled decline of the bourgeois mode of production in the west. They are as conscious as we are, of their impotence in the economic, financial and social spheres of their respective countries and they are floundering around for positive approval. The gap between their rhetoric and the reality experienced by their citizens is daily widening and they fear the political consequences. It is a well known fact that they are increasingly disliked by large numbers of their citizen and therefore they had reason to hope to re-establish their voter appeal by appearing dynamic, tough and decisive. Macron, for example, even tried to claim recruiting Donald Trump to continued military activity in Syria.

And that’s not all. The anticipated chorus of applause for their audacity from most of the international political and military elite also served to lift their self-esteem among their elite peers and hangers on. This action also opens up more possibilities, if not probabilities, for future employment when they are ultimately rejected in future elections. It is common knowledge that the revolving door between politics and business for favoured political elites has many lucrative openings. Just look how well Tony Blair did – not too long after being instrumental in supporting the fabricated, grossly inaccurate dossier and costly and fatal decision to invade Iraq.

But Economics also underpins Politics.

Furthermore, among the political and commercial background noise in the west, there is also a concern from a few among the elite to slow down or impede the development of rival national political and business elites who are encroaching further on spheres of ‘influence’ normally associated with the west. In the aftermath of this latest strike on Syria, a USA spokeswoman was brazenly candid about the desire to curb Iran’s political ambitions in the middle-east. The west’s military action in Syria, to some extent, serves precisely this purpose but also with a more generally spread effect. The elites in China, Russia and to a lesser extent in Iran, for example, are being reminded by American, French and British elites that the latter are not going to roll over in the ongoing competitive struggle to maintain positions of influence and power.

Of course, there may be various other ancillary reasons in the complex mix of motives (and actors) for the type and scale of meddling in other countries affairs, but the most dominant and persistent one is the constant need of capitalist countries for sources of raw materials and markets. The insatiable economic needs of capital fuelled the original periods of armed colonial and imperial expansion, but these insatiable needs have not gone away. Indeed, they have intensified further. So they are still crucial in the neo-liberal phase of increased capitalist development globally. Shaking hands with oppressive Saudi elites, as May did recently, guarantee the oil supplies industry needs and facilitates arms sales for British Capitalist concerns. Welcoming, genocidal Israeli elites to the White-house, as Trump did not too long ago, ensures not only trade and investments but brings political support and votes at elections. Macrons’ arm has been extended many times since his election for the essentially same reason.

Personal dislike, individual advantage, political posturing and even revenge may be partly motivating factors in creating an urge for military intervention among some of the elite, but political or economic advantage or the lack of it would be the ultimate determining ones. Perhaps it is obvious why the west’s elites do not intervene in China or Russia despite extreme inhuman practices there. These economic rivals are just too big to take on militarily. Saudi, Israel, Egypt and any number of other middle-sized countries, where ordinary people are severely oppressed and exploited are not threatened, bombed or invaded either – for they are favourably disposed to the west. Not so in the case of Syria, whose elite is increasingly allied with Russia. The west’s political elites have nothing important to lose by bombing Syria and as noted above something they hope to gain.

And ‘black ops’ and fabrications are the norm.

The situation in Syria is probably the most confusing of those post Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East, which sprang into being only to be frustrated and channelled into political dead ends or sterile civil wars. Although dissimulation and false flag activities are as old as politics itself, there are now so many black ops around in the 21st century, that it is almost impossible to distinguish rhetoric from reality. Yet the main indisputable fact in Syria is that ordinary citizens are surrounded by rival factions and have become part of the ‘collatoral damage’ as these factions slug it out with every weapon they can get their hands on. The details of practically everything else in this conflict is mainly shrouded by the fog of war or shrouded by propaganda and is therefore the subject of speculation and biased opinion.

Being ‘on the ground’ so to speak may allow a more balanced assessment of what is taking place in any war (civil or military) but even this is no guarantee of impartiality or accuracy in reporting. Take the recent visit of British Christians to Syrian Orthodox Christians as an example of how being on the ground can become the subject of distortion and manipulation by all and sundry. If anyone believes that any armed side (I repeat ANY side) in the conflict in Syria is NOT capable of withholding information, faking incidents or not willing to use any or all types of methods of killing or maiming and blaming others, then they are naive or seriously suffering from confirmation bias. There has yet to appear on planet earth a political group or military elite who are fully open, fully honest and fully humane – even though hopefully a few will make the attempt to be so.

The pattern of sectarian double – dealing, deceitful, dishonest and nasty internicine (and non-internicine) violence has been revealed within anti-capitalist movements claiming to represent the working class and a humane future. (see ‘The Revolutionary Party’ on this blog) How much more culpable in this regard are those groups and movements whose aspirations are merely to seize or keep hold of power for the benefit of an elite. The known history of all nation-state elites is littered with examples of false-flag operations, fake news, clever and convincing forgeries, staged incidents, victim blaming, gagging orders, inhumane treatment, torture and assassination. For those bent on seizing or holding onto power – anything goes.

For this reason any claim or counter-claim by any organised actor in Syrian conflict, as elsewhere, would need to be doubly verified by proven, reliable multiple sources. And if these are lacking then it’s best to avoid simply regurgitating what is presented as plausible or what one is pre-disposed to believe or on reflection would like to believe. Pretending to know, what is accurate and not accurate from afar, or guessing from extremely limited information would be simply a further muddying of already murky waters. This understanding does not mean staying silent or refusing to comment on events in Syria or on other complex situations, but it does suggest a degree of caution in arriving at more than general conclusions until reliable sources and the best forms of verification possible can be established.

And of course working people of all countries need to recognise the fact that sectarians of all shades, both political and religious, frequently engage in life and death struggles against each other, generally poison the intellectual and social atmosphere with their distortions, bitterness and dogma. They invariable repel ordinary working people and will even turn on workers, if the latter are not sufficiently deferential to their dogmatic ideas and vanguardist leadership pretensions. So in Syria, as elsewhere, it is worth keeping in mind that sectarians, as with nation state elite actors, are the least trustworthy in transmitting reliable information and evidence to working people – and that includes our own nation state elites.

R. Ratcliffe (April 2018)