Since its entry into the Syrian war in September 2014, the US government has served to prop up the Assad regime, rehabilitate it internationally, undermine the mainstream Syrian resistance and increase the suffering and killing of the Syrian people.

The US government has coordinated intelligence and airstrikes with the Syrian regime [1], whilst blockading the supply of heavy weaponry by pro-rebel regional states such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, notably including the complete ban on the supply of anti-aircraft missiles [2]. The Syrian regime’s use of an airforce within its own borders between 2012-2016 (5 years) has been unprecedented in the Middle East history, with the regime airforce’s daily blitzkriegs eclipsing that of Spain’s infamous General Franco during the Spanish war. Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, has become the modern-day Guernica and now holds the “record” of being the most aerially bombarded city in the world since the Second World War.

The United States is directly complicit in this “record-breaking”. The US government continues to blockade measures by regional countries to end this unprecedented reality. Not only this, in 2014 the US airforce entered Syrian airspace on the same side of the fascist genocidal Syrian regime, coordinating intelligence with it and even supporting its ground forces in certain offensives [3]. Syrian residents have routinely sardonically remarked that they were be bombed by the regime airforce during the day and the US airforce at night [4]. As a symbol of the extent of the US government’s complicity with Assad’s unparalleled blitzkriegs, the US has even refused to grant early radar warnings of incoming regime airstrikes to rescue workers of the Syrian Civil Defence (“White Helmets”), which would simply allow them to try and evacuate civilian areas before destruction hits [5]. Up to (and potentially more than) 1,500 civilians have been killed by the US-led “International Coalition” campaign in Syria and Iraq [6], to add to the thousands killed every month by the fascist regime and its allies.

Furthermore, the US has repeatedly launched airstrikes on mainstream rebel factions [7], whilst simultaneously not only completely ignoring the forces of the “sovereign” Syrian government (zero airstrikes to date), but also various non-governmental foreign militias present illegally on Syrian territory. All of these militias have come to Syria through Western-backed allies, such as Iraq and Lebanon. The declaredly pro-Assad Iraqi government sponsors tens of thousands of sectarian militiamen travelling to Syria to fight for Assad, whilst the Lebanese government is effectively controlled by Hezbollah and could not or would not stop Hezbollah’s invasion of Syria launched from its “sovereign” territory, or even demand its withdrawal.

Indeed, many sectarian Iraqi militias which have entered into Syria (not recently but since 2013) have been armed by the US [8]. The sectarian Iraqi militias (estimated to number 30,000 men distributed over 30+ militias) are estimated now to constitute the single biggest fighting component of Assadist loyalist forces, outnumbering Hezbollah and the remaining fighting elements of the so-called “Syrian Arab Army” [9].

Yet despite the free entry of Iraqi and Lebanese militias into Syria, militias which have changed the balance of forces in the conflict (with the manpower depletion of the minority-based so-called “Syrian Arab Army”) and helped to reinstate the “stalemate equilibrium” which has been US policy of the Syrian war, the United States has not only refused to decrease (or sanction) aid for the Iraqi and Lebanese governments but has actually increased it [10]. It has, furthermore, concealed from public knowledge the reality of these pro-Assad militias which is barely reported in coverage of the conflict.

The US, furthermore, also arms the Egyptian regime of Abdul Fatah al-Sisi which has also provided military support to the Assad regime [11]. The US also directly arms the pro-Assad tribal militia, the Jaish al-Sanadeed, as part of the “Syrian Democratic Forces” [12].

Finally, US statements (not just actions) since 2012 have also served to rehabilitate the Syrian regime’s “legitimacy” on the international stage, far more than the Russian government. Since 2012 the US has consistently argued against the military defeat of the fascist Syrian regime forces [see our full statement for further details and references] and the preservation of regime apparatuses including state security forces, indeed even going further to state that Syrian rebels should cooperate with the Syrian Army even before any Assad resignation [13]. The US has also made it clear that is only seeking a negotiated “safe exit” for Assad [14] (the same attempted pacification of the Arab Spring as in Egypt and Yemen) and is against the revolution’s fundamental demand to “bring the downfall of the regime” in its entirety and and its accountability [15]. This is why the US has directly prevented the regime falling at various points and routinely sabotaged various rebel military campaigns throughout the conflict [see our full statement for further details and references].

In “ruling out” (long before the rise of ISIS) rebels bringing down the regime with military force [16], US policy since 2012 has been effectively to “convince” Assad to resign out of his own good will (as precedented in Egypt and Yemen) whilst in the meantime ensuring a “level playing field” which sustains a weakened rebellion, a weakened regime and a “balance” of destruction [17]. The obvious failure of this and the obvious refusal of Assad to take the step of resigning, and yet the nonetheless continued adoption of this pretense policy by the US government has not enamoured it with or fooled the revolutionary Syrian people, who now know beyond doubt that both the US and Russia have prevented the collapse of the Assad regime. The US government has long proven through both word and deed that beyond its compulsory “Assad must resign” statements (as it did with Egypt’s Mubarak and Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh) it would rather the Syrian regime stay in power, even with Assad at its head, than stop interfering to prevent the downfall (or as it calls it, “collapse” [18]) of the regime in its entirety.

Join us to say no to US duplicity in Syria, no to its policy of double-dealing with different sides of the conflict, and no to its policy of “mutual destruction”, genocide appeasement, regime preservation and endless war.

————–

Our Demands:

1. Regarding Proxy Support for the Assad regime:

– The United States must stop arming sectarian Iraqi militias which fight in Syria for the Assad regime.

– The United States must stop arming/sanction the Iraqi government if it does not force the withdrawal of Iraqi militias fighting for Assad. These are extremely crucial to the regime’s survival and are numbered in the tens of thousands.

– The United States must stop arming/sanction the Egyptian regime if it does not stop its military provisions for the Assad regime.

– The United States must stop arming/sanction the Lebanese state if it fails to enforce the withdrawal of Hezbollah from Syria, an invasion launched from its sovereign territory. The United States currently supports the Lebanese army which is effectively under the control of Hezbollah and whose abuses against Syrian refugees have been well-reported.

– The United States must stop arming the tribal militia Jaish al-Sanadeed, the main Arab component of the so-called “Syrian Democratic Forces” and who are declared Assad loyalists.

– The United States must investigate any complicity of their allied Afghani and Pakistani governments, both declaredly pro-Assad, in the recruitment of their citizens in pro-Assad militias (including Fatemeyoon and Zaynebeyoon) [19].

2. Direct Military Involvement: The United States must withdraw its military forces from Syria, an involvement which has only served to prolong the Assad regime’s survival and repeatedly stave off its collapse at various points at its most vulnerable moments (see our statement for more details/references). To that end:

– The United States must stop targeting any sides in the conflict, including the targeting of civilians.

– The United States must stop the sharing of intelligence with the Syrian regime.

– The United States must end its interference and “vetoeing”/blockade of serious military provisions to the Syrian rebels by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which could otherwise in short time tip the balance against the Assad regime. Notably the United States must end the blockade on the arming of local Syrian resistance forces with anti-aircraft missiles. Qatar and Saudi Arabia must be allowed to provide anti-aircraft and anti-tank weaponry to mainstream rebel brigades as necessary and without restriction.

– The United States must withdraw all of its foreign ground forces present on Syrian land, including the so-called “special advisors” currently embedded with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) [20], which Barack Obama had stated would not be deployed [21]. Syrian revolutionaries are more than sufficient in fighting ISIS and fought ISIS long before the US coalition [22].

– The United States must dismantle any military bases it is reported to be building and plans to occupy in Northern Syria [23].

For more details and our full statement, please visit:

– The US government must end support, both proxy and direct, for the genocidal Assad regime –

We hope to see you there

Omar Sabbor (2016)

—

References:

[1]

Sharing of intelligence:

– http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/us-gives-intelligence-assad-targetting-isis-commanders-1462375

– http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-1.615892

– http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/syria-given-information-about-u-s-led-airstrikes-against-isis-n303381

– “West cooperating secretly with Damascus against militants: Assad” –http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-assad-idUSKCN0ZG28G

– http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/west-poised-to-join-forces-with-president-assad-in-face-of-islamic-state-9686666.html

– http://www.rferl.org/content/islamic-state-russia-united-states-syria/26638582.html

Launching of joint airstrikes:

– http://aranews.net/2015/05/u-s-and-syrian-warplanes-launch-simultaneous-strikes-against-isis-in-raqqa/

– http://aranews.net/2014/11/u-s-warplanes-pro-assad-forces-target-isis-locations-hasakah/?utm_source=twitter

– https://en.zamanalwsl.net/news/16357.html

– http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/10/here-s-how-obama-and-assad-team-up-against-isis.html

– http://uk.businessinsider.com/us-sharing-skies-with-syria-and-iran-2014-12

– http://leftfootforward.org/2014/12/raqqa-to-appease-iran-obama-gives-assads-air-force-a-free-pass-for-slaughter/

– https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2014/12/12/as-assad-and-us-play-two-step-bombing-raqqa-assad-demands-us-bomb-more-efficiently/

Syrian regime statements welcoming US intervention:

– http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4576118,00.html

– http://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-crisis-minister-idUSKCN0HJ19S20140924

– http://syriadirect.org/news/syria-direct-news-update-9-24-14/ : “Meanwhile, the pro-government news network Damascus Now hailed the strikes on Wednesday as a historic moment, in which “happiness was etched on the faces of the majority of Syrians, because they found international support towards eradicating a cancer which has been rooted in the diseased Syrian body,” referring to the rebels.”

– http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/28092014

[2] – http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160415/1038088490/us-syria-opposition-manpads.html

– http://uk.businessinsider.com/us-official-describes-nightmare-manpad-scenario-in-syria-2015-10

– http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/saudi-arabian-fm-says-syrian-rebels-should-be-provided-surface-air-missiles-1544958

– http://www.umayya.org/en/publications-en-en/policyanalysis-en/6327

– http://english.aawsat.com/2016/04/article55350042/u-s-veto-arming-syrian-opposition

– http://www.menewsline.com/article-27134-U-S-Jordan-Block-MANPADS-To-Reb.aspx

– http://eldorar.com/node/75179

– http://alasr.me/articles/view/17292

[3]

– https://twitter.com/CENTCOMArabic/status/745624962506100736

– https://twitter.com/hxhassan/status/541138358106193920

– https://twitter.com/usembassysyria/status/540972704741220352

– https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205119461334378&set=a.1574479010108.2070542.1479552245&type=3&theater

– https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2015/09/03/who-has-the-us-bombed-for-in-syria/

– http://syriadirect.org/news/syria-direct-news-update-9-24-14/

– http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/nowhere-retreat-isis-militants-deir-ezzor-syrian-army-intensifies-attacks-west

– https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2014/11/09/syria-homs-rif-intl-coalition-target-the-rif/

– https://twitter.com/HASAKH_NEWS/status/565828914472177664

[4] – http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/09/syria-isis-bashar-al-assad-coalition-air-strikes :

‘…“Syrian warplanes used to shell us two or three times a week but now they target us every day thanks to the coalition forces,” Faris Samir, from Harm in the northern Idlib region, complained on Thursday. “We are losing martyrs and many get injured but no one pays any attention. Now the Syrian [regime] army is taking areas bombed by the coalition forces after the Islamic factions withdraw. I have to say that the coalition military campaign is in the interest of the Syrian regime and against the Syrian people.”’

– http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/sharing-skies-assad-america-s-predicament-syria-1105355734 : “The politics don’t matter to the people here, all we see is one type of death – it comes from the sky, whether the Americans are dropping the bombs or Assad, it makes no difference. They are both murdering us. What do you expect any sane person to think here? One day American airplanes and the next Bashar’s, how do they not crash or shoot each other? It is simple, they call each other and say today is my turn to kill the people of Raqqa, please don’t bother me, it will be yours tomorrow”

– http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/10/here-s-how-obama-and-assad-team-up-against-isis.html : “We are seeing coalition warplanes hit targets during the day in Raqqa province and then Syrian warplanes follow-up with more indiscriminate strikes at night,” a commander with the Free Syrian Army told The Daily Beast. “This is not a coincidence—to argue that it is stretches credulity””

– http://www.worldcrunch.com/54d9089fd29b53f0e879ecc81cd99d34/world-affairs/no-the-progressive-syrian-opposition-is-not-dead/protests-raed-fares-activism-assad/c1s17292/#.VEzWuxYxg1J ; “[The U.S.] bombed Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, parts of Homs and Aleppo. But [their] airplanes fly over our city along with the regime air force, which means that they and the regime are coordinating. They say they don’t want to coordinate with the Assad regime, but [U.S.] planes are flying with the regimes in the same air space”

– http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/03/why-does-the-free-syrian-army-hate-us.html : “The American and Syrian warplanes are flying in the same airspace,” he expounds incredulously. “There has to be some communication for them to avoid each other!”

[5] – https://act.thesyriacampaign.org/sign/warn_civilians_of_attacks/

– https://news.vice.com/article/activists-want-the-us-to-warn-syrian-first-responders-about-incoming-barrel-bombs

[6] – https://airwars.org/news/international-airstrikes-and-civilian-casualties-in-iraq-and-syria-december-2015-to-may-2016/

– https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/the-us-led-coalition-bombing-syria-has-killed-more-civilians :

“A witness to the attack in Bir Mahli, a 67-year-old man who goes by the nickname Abu Khaled, described family after family killed in a series of strikes, giving names that match reports from monitoring groups. “They killed whole families,” he said, speaking by phone from southern Turkey. “The Americans will never apologize, and they will keep killing civilians. They could have stopped Assad at the beginning if they cared about human rights.””

[7] – http://eaworldview.com/2014/11/syria-daily-insurgent-leader-us-bombed-us-abort-revolution/

– http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Nov-06/276728-syrias-ahrar-al-sham-says-coalition-strikes-on-it-killed-civilians-statement.ashx

– http://eaworldview.com/2015/08/syria-daily-why-did-us-led-coalition-bomb-rebels-near-turkish-border/

– http://eaworldview.com/2015/08/syria-feature-residents-grieve-as-us-finally-admits-airstrike-on-rebels-near-turkish-border/

– https://twitter.com/joshua_landis/status/516696525049573376

– http://www.aksalser.com/index.php?page=view_articles&id=0c9a0c60f2a055595be113ce9f70ec5e : “After the International Coalition’s bombing of the Justice Brigade, the Free Army’s Joint Staff request a clarification of the concept of “moderate opposition”!”

– https://www.zamanalwsl.net/en/news/6704.html

– http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.marxism.marxmail/190733

– https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2015/09/03/who-has-the-us-bombed-for-in-syria/

– http://sn4hr.org/wp-content/pdf/english/civilian_killed_by_the_international_coalition_forces_en.pdf

– https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/us-goes-to-war-with-jabhat-al-nusra

[8] – http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-backed-militias-using-american-tanks-battle-809449820

– https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-01-08/iranbacked-militias-are-getting-us-weapons-in-iraq

– http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/03/iraqi-shia-militias-show-us-made-equipment-on-road-to-samarra.php

– http://sputniknews.com/military/20160215/1034757495/us-iraqi-shia-turn-assad.html

– http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/10/us-weapons-syria-shiites/2503953/

[9] – http://russia-insider.com/en/syrias-army-now-almost-fiction/ri12624

– http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/09/where-are-the-syrians-in-assads-syrian-arab-army/

– https://warisboring.com/whats-left-of-the-syrian-arab-army-eec39485df43#.63k09ekqd

– http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/syrias-embattled-president-admits-manpower-shortage-n398651

– https://informnapalm.org/en/feb21-syria-general-rahal/

– http://uk.businessinsider.com/iran-backed-iraqi-militias-are-pouring-into-syria-2015-10?r=US&IR=T

– http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016

– http://www.mei.edu/content/at/return-iraqi-shi‘i-militias-syria

– http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e1243662-2c67-11e5-acfb-cbd2e1c81cca.html#axzz3geTA9xPT

– http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-shiite-jihad-in-syria-and-its-regional-effects

– https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/PF138Appendices/PF138_Appendix_2.pdf

[10] Iraq: – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/19/iraq-crisis-us-urging-maliki-to-resign-live-updates

– http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-usa-idUSKBN0GF21V20140815

– http://www.wsj.com/articles/with-maliki-out-of-the-picture-u-s-prepares-to-boost-iraq-aid-1408143896

Lebanon: – http://yalibnan.com/2015/10/02/u-s-doubles-its-military-assistance-to-lebanese-army-envoy-says/

– http://yalibnan.com/2016/02/05/us-pledges-an-additional-400-million-to-lebanon-army-in-military-aid/

– http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/saudis-cut-military-aid-lebanon-over-iranhezbollah-support-us

[11] – http://syrianobserver.com/EN/News/29728/Cairo_Strengthens_Ties_With_Assad_Regime_Through_Military_Support

– https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/565813-retired-general-egypt-arming-syria-regime

– http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Amid-Aleppo-bloodshed-former-Iranian-politician-praises-Egypts-support-for-Assad-452867

– http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-egypt-idUKKCN0RX0VZ20151003

– https://eternispring.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/sisis-missiles-are-raining-over-aleppo/

[12] – https://www.alaraby.co.uk/politics/2015/7/2/سورية-النظام-يسترضي-القوات-الكردية-في-الحسكة

– http://all4syria.info/Archive/248959

– http://www.aljazeera.net/news/reportsandinterviews/2015/10/17/المعارضة-السورية-تشكك-بمليشيات-تدعمها-واشنطن : ‘Syrian opposition suspicious about militias supported by Washington’. Article quotes FSA official who states “Based on its foundation statement, we cannot say that the SDF coalesces with the FSA and achieves the goals of the revolution”

– http://al-akhbar.com/node/209385 : Jaish al-Sanadeed leader, “Sheikh” Hameedi al-Jarba “does not see the Syrian Army as an enemy, and does not look to confront it”, also stating “The one who rules Damascus rules Hassakah, for it is an inseperable part of Syria, and the Syrian Government is strong and standing but it is not present in his area, and this difficult circumstance has forced upon us the taking of arms to fill the security vacuum and face dangers”

– http://anbaaonline.com/?p=381206 : ‘Al-Modon [Newspaper] reveals alliance between Washington-Moscow and Syrian Democratic Forces’

– http://syriadirect.org/news/ahead-of-battle-against-islamic-state-in-syria’s-northeast-one-faction-hesitates-to-join-sdf/

– http://www.newroz-syria.com/portal/node/3603 : Claims that Jaish al-Sanadeed trained as part of Syrian Army 154 Corps by Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards

[13] http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2015/12/04/Kerry-Syria-government-rebels-could-cooperate-vs-ISIS-before-Assad-goes.html

[14] http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/255245-kerry-syrias-assad-needs-to-go-off-into-the-sunset

[15] uk.businessinsider.com/john-kerry-regime-change-syria-bashar-assad-2015-12?r=US&IR=T