Syria: Condemn massacre, but no military intervention

May 30, 2012
Issue 

The Sydney Stop the War Coalition released the statement below on May 29.

* * *

Foreign minister Bob Carr’s decision on May 29 to expel the Syrian Charge d’Affairs is lock step with NATO countries doing the same. It can only be read as the Australian government condoning steps towards overt foreign military intervention in Syria.

Military intervention in Syria has been threatened once again by the US government following the massacre in Houla, Syria, on May 25, in which families in several villages were slaughtered in their homes.

Stop the War Coalition condemns this latest brutal killing — in which 49 children and 34 women were among the 108 people killed. The perpetrators must be brought to justice.

But there needs to be a credible investigation to determine who carried out this massacre.
Whoever is responsible for this latest massacre, we should not allow sympathy for the victims to become the pretext for Western military intervention in Syria.

That has been done before and with disastrous results — Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. These brutal wars — all justified as humanitarian and to restore democracy — have only led to greater numbers of people being killed.

Western military intervention in Syria would result in more bloodshed and it would prevent the Syrian people from exercising their own political will.

Australia’s decision to expel the Syrian diplomats stands in stark contrast to its refusal to condemn Israel’s attack on Gaza during Operation Cast Lead in December 2008. Then it was clear who was doing the killing: the Israeli ground invasion in January 2009 led to the deaths of about 1500 Gazans.

Stop the War Coalition opposes the violence of the Syrian state. We also oppose the covert intervention in Syria by Western powers and Gulf states which are funding and arming mercenaries and agent provocateurs. These have one aim only: externally imposed regime change.

We have to stop the next war in the Middle East before it starts. Syrians alone should decide their future.


Comments

And what if the Syrians want a military intervention?
And how do you propose we stop Assad's war on his own people?

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