For the last several years, the Left in the West has been rent asunder by a debate over what to do in regards to the war in Syria. On the one hand, it would be problematic to acclaim Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a freedom fighter, particularly in considering his punitive policies. On the other hand, the events in Iraq and Libya after America ousted their governments is the augury of a disturbing trend in Western regime change policies that would have dire consequences for the entire region.

Here again to help us hash through these issues and develop a principled vision of solidarity with the people now under siege by empire is Eric Draitser. He is a policy analyst and author whose work can be found on RT and CounterPunch.

[Comments and responses are welcome.]

Accepting Syrian refugees into the United States is an emotional issue. People are suffering and dying in Syria and throughout the broader Middle East. The grotesque nature of the situation is very real. Innocent Christians, Jews, women, homosexuals and children are being killed, sold as sex slaves and brutalized. Nobody in America wants that. Nor, however,…

It is worth noting here that these geo-political concerns are not perfect but they do stand as tenable strategies. There are essentially two choices in this case. Either one accedes to the destructive imperial behavior of the American-led NATO bloc, which has produced nothing but war since the end of the Cold War that every America supports daily with their taxes, or one shows solidarity with the geopolitical effort working to counter this. Is it perfect? Of course not. But the history of solidarity movements which have been successful always included an alternative and viable power structure, be it supporting the North Vietnamese or the Sandinistas or the Second Spanish Republic. And the instance in recent memory where a power vacuum did in fact exist, as was the case in Cambodia, terrible things can and do happen. Geopolitics is not morality, it is power relationships and being forced to choose between the least awful of choices. And in understanding the way that the Western imperial project and its weaponized debt programs under the auspices of foreign aide have pillaged country after country, one quickly grasps the dynamics of this question.

As ‘lone wolf’ terrorism will likely rise, how will we relate to Muslims? Should we escalate wars in Muslim countries?

Samaritans, who share religious roots with Muslims, utterly rejected Jesus and his disciples. So the disciples proposed Holy War. Jesus rebuked them.

Samaritans and Jews detested each other: As to religion, Jews cursed Samaritans in their synagogues; as to race, Jews called Samaritans half-breeds; as to foreigners, Jews walked 40 additional miles when traveling north just to avoid Samaria.

Americans mimic this hatred by reviling Muslims: 56 percent recently polled stated Islam is not consistent with American values. This ignores three million Muslim-Americans, most born here, who cherish this nation.

Enter Donald Trump. He hysterically whips up fears of Muslims and Mexicans. He even retweets that whites are killed by blacks 81 percent of the time—with a black man’s image pointing a gun. The truth: Whites killed by blacks total 14 percent.

Though many differ, some prominent Republicans denounce Trump’s exclusion of Muslims as fascism, or declare he violates American values. RI Republican Party Chair Brandon Bell calls Trump’s proposal “un-Republican, un-American and unconstitutional.”

Sadly, I must also conclude Trump is a white supremacist. The evidence: Trump hates and fears people for their religion (Muslims) and their race (blacks) as well as foreigners (Mexicans).

Trump dismisses Jesus’ teaching to love people whose religion, race or nation is different. Jesus’ parable of The Good Samaritan—not The Good Israelite—was scandalous. Today, instead of The Good American, Jesus would scandalize Trump’s followers with the parable of The Good Muslim.

Actually, Christian extremists have killed and maimed far more Americans in recent years than Muslim extremists. Anti-abortion bombers and “Christian” mass shooters are terrorists. Indeed, the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies 142 neo-Nazi and 72 Ku Klux Klan groups. Christian identity and sovereign citizen groups have also increased.

Still, can we imagine discriminating against Christians as Trump discriminates against 1.5 billion Muslims? Imagine a “total and complete shutdown” of Christians entering this country. Imagine registering our nation’s Christians. Imagine surveying and closing churches.

Hatred and fear of all Muslims is no more justified than for Christians.

The U.S. is not a theocracy. We are not a “Christian nation.” We cannot favor one religion, but must affirm America’s religious freedom for all.

Jesus taught we must take the log out of our own eye before removing the speck in our neighbor’s eye. So consider the 3,000 who died on 9/11 as well as the fourteen in San Bernardino. How horrendous these attacks were for our nation! Now consider the half million Iraqis who died. That’s 166 days of 9/11 attacks.

American deaths from 9/11 are one per 100,000; Iraqi deaths are one per 75. Four million Iraqis—one in ten—are refugees. Iraq is decimated.

We rightly condemn jihad, a Holy War. But our politicians’ moral justifications for Iraq’s invasion begat a vastly more destructive Holy War than 9/11.

Jesus rebuked his disciples’ Holy War “solution” for enemies. Do we agree regarding our wars?

It’s not just Iraq. Many want to escalate war in Syria. Have we learned nothing from our failures? How many more years will we kill and be killed in the Middle East? How many more lone wolf attacks must we endure? Does our unceasing warfare risk another massive attack? Are we really surprised that inflicting great suffering brings retaliation?

The military cannot defeat terrorism. Bombs and bombastic rhetoric continually recruit ISIS fighters.

We must overcome our country’s fears and purge our national prejudices. Recall the aspiration of the Star Spangled Banner’s concluding verse. The opposite occurs, our nation becoming ‘the land of the cruel, and the home of the fearful,’ if we adopt Trump’s dogma instead of Jesus’ teachings.

Dear Governor Raimondo:

As the rhetoric and vitriol surrounding the issue of resettling Syrian refugees in Rhode Island increase, we urge you to demonstrate leadership on this critical humanitarian issue by firmly and publicly denouncing the rising xenophobia we are witnessing.

Yesterday you were quoted as calling it “much ado about nothing,” and saying that you would “take a look at it” if asked by the federal government to help with resettlement. Respectfully, when other public officials in the state are protesting efforts to welcome any Syrian refugees in Rhode Island by holding public rallies and calling for the internment of any refugees that do arrive here, this is anything but a non-issue. Nor is it something to be blithely ignored for now, and only looked at sometime in the indefinite future.

We believe that it is time for you, as Governor of a state that has welcomed immigrants and refugees from its founding, to forcefully affirm the view – in the same manner as some of your Gubernatorial colleagues elsewhere around the country have done – that Rhode Island is prepared to welcome immigrants and refugees fleeing violence from Syria, and that you reject fear-mongering that undermines our state’s strong commitment to non-discrimination against people because of their ethnicity or religious beliefs. To ignore these troubling strains of prejudice is to only give them force.

Sincerely,

Rev. Dr. Don Anderson, Executive Minister
Rhode Island State Council of Churches
100 Niantic Avenue, Suite 101
Providence, RI  02907

Imam Farid Ansari
President
Rhode Island Council for Muslim Advancement
P.O. Box 40535
Providence, RI 02940

Rabbi Sarah Mack
President
Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island
70 Orchard Ave.
Providence, RI 02906

Steven Brown, Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island
128 Dorrance Street, Suite 220
Providence, RI  02903

The response to Obama took place after the Gazan Solidarity Rally, which has been running weekly since Israel’s most recent military siege. As one peace event ended the next seamlessly began. In all about thirty people attended the two events.

The protesters spoke to passersby, handing out flyers that elucidated the similarities between the situation in Gaza under Israeli occupation and conditions in Ferguson, MS in the wake of the shooting death of Mike Brown, an unarmed black man. The list of demands made by the Providence protesters included stopping the war on Gaza, stopping police brutality in communities of color, ending all U.S. aid to Israel, ending U.S. military incursions in the Middle East, ending NSA spying on private citizens, and ending the militarization of the police.

“One reason for our choice of locale,” said Paul Hubbard, spokesperson for the Rhode Island Antiwar Committee, “is that President Obama will be fund-raising among the 1% at a secluded, ocean-front mansion in Newport. The other 99% of his constituents will probably be unable to catch even a glimpse of him, due to the blocked roads and high security surrounding his brief visit. This situation strikingly symbolizes the truth about which groups the U.S. government is really serving.”

Rallies like this seem small and inconsequential when stacked up against $32,000 fund raisers and the corporatization of the military and the militarization of the police, but such rallies offer up another way of thinking about the world and another way of being.

What is being offered is peace, and the courage to embrace it.

Poet and activist Jared Paul read his six-part, “Apartheid Then, Apartheid Now” which you can watch on video below:

Held in Burnside Park (renamed the People’s Park by Occupy Providence during their historic protest) the event was attended by pacifists representing faith and no faith traditions.

Though the situation around Syria seems to have taken an interesting turn for the better since there seems at least a tentative agreement to explore the idea of Assad giving up all his chemical weapons, things are extremely fluid, and it would be a mistake for Pacifists let up on the pressure. It should be pointed out, loudly and without apology that recent developments represent a peaceful diplomatic solution, not a unilateral and violent response on behalf of the United States. The ball is in the United Nation’s court, where it belongs.

Therefore, another antiwar vigil in Burnside Park this weekend is mandatory. Running Saturday, September 14th from 1-3pm, “NO WAR ON SYRIA” is being planned by local activists Lindsay Goss and Ian Georgianna. Responding to a call from the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), local activists can let our government know that use of military force is a relic of humanity’s archaic and a practice best retired permanently.

Call your representative and let them know that you stand for peace.

RI SENATOR JACK REED 401-943-3100

RI SENATOR SHELDON WHITEHOUSE 401-453-5294

RI CONGRESSMAN DAVID CICILLINE 401-729-5600

RI CONGRESSMAN JIM LANGEVIN (202) 225-2735

MA SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN 617-565-3170

MA SENATOR EDWARD MARKEY 617-565-8519

Below find pictures from last Saturday’s antiwar protest that took place on the East Side of Providence.

The situation remained highly fluid throughout the afternoon. I was able to talk to staffers of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. James Langevin, and leave a synopsis of my/RIPDA’s position with Sen. Jack Reed’s office. All of the RI Congressional delegation’s offices were very accommodating with their time, very professional and very competent.

Things changed while going from office to office over the span of about three hours. Be that as it may, I think Rep. Langevin’s assistant effectively spoke for all of the RI delegation, indeed probably most all Congressmen, when at the end of the afternoon he said that there was nothing Rep. Langevin had to vote for or against any more, with the UN Security Council still hotly formulating a resolution suiting all.

While this was a bit of a cop-out (Rep. Langevin still might have come out against military action regardless of the final resolution), it certainly had a lot of truth to it, and not much time had passed for the Rep. to determine a new position. Indeed, supposedly the House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on Syria earlier in the day didn’t have a chance to focus much on anything, with the developments occurring as fast as they did.

The overall sentiment here seems to be to conditionally support the Russian proposal, but the international monitoring of Syria’s chemical weapons and the latter’s destruction would have to be quick and verifiable. There is also the sticking point that Russia wants no threat of military action in the resolution, while the US does. Hopefully a compromise will occur.

In other action, Codepink was across the street from the Cannon House Office Building demonstrating against military action (see the picture; that’s Ellen on the  right, yours truly on the left, and a stand-in in the center). They have been there for several days now, nonstop. They have a rally planned for later in the evening, 7 PM, outside the White House. That may have changed, I don’t know, since the President’s address is not due to start until 9 PM ET.

Well, the news will likely still stay interesting over the next few days.

I had the good fortune to talk to Rep. Cicilline staff members in his DC office today about his position on such a strike. The staffers indicated that the Representative is listening to his constituents carefully and intently. This was borne out by their careful consideration of our anti-war thoughts on the Syrian situation. The Representative has yet to make a final decision on a possible US response.

However, Rep. Cicilline’s current thinking is that all possibilities should be explored before any military action is taken, and that such a decision be made with great care and deliberation. Note that in his capacity as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee he has current knowledge on the deliberations in the House, as well as influence on the outcome.

I say “current thinking” with a grain of salt. The situation is quite fluid. Things were developing as we talked. Due to no fault of their own,  and understandably so, I seemed to have more current info than the staffers did, the latest New York Times posting having occurred 4 minutes before our 11:30 AM meeting.

More and more nations and diplomats are lining up behind Russia’s Sec’y Kerry-derived proposal for international monitoring and destruction of Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons. This includes a high-ranking Syrian official; according to an earlier New York Times post:

Another Syrian Official Backs Chemical-Weapons Proposal

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian prime minister, Wael al-Halki, said Tuesday that his country supported a Russian proposal for the Syrian government to give up chemical weapons to avoid a possible military strike by the United States.

Syrian state television quoted Mr. Halki as saying that the government backed the initiative “to spare Syrian blood.”

(Emphasis is mine.)

Right now, 1:30 PM, diplomatic developments are still happening fast and furiously, at the UN, the Congress, and the White House.

I’ll post again later today, as I am able to.

Gus Uht

Meanwhile, the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats sent this letter to the delegation:

The Rhode Island Chapter of PDA is as horrified as the rest of the world by the recent gas attack in Syria against citizens whose only crime was living in a district associated with opposition to the government.

We also deeply regret President Obama’s issuing a ‘red line’ declaration over President Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons. President Obama now appears trapped by his own rhetoric.

We reject the prospect of a unilateral attack by the armed forces of the United States. Adding to the violence in Syria will not resolve the conflict there.

The only way to resolve the conflict by force is by invoking chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. If agreement cannot be secured for a massive intervention on the part of the entire international community, the intervention would not be effective in any case. Therefore we strongly urge you to vote NO on a unilateral intervention.

Thank you for your time and attention,

Ed Benson

On behalf the Executive committee of RIPDA

In the state, legislature so far only Rep Ray Hull has formally opposed military action, though worth noting I think that House GOP Leader Brian Newberry wrote on Facebook that he is opposed to striking Syria.