Above photo: Syrian rebels, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, in Aleppo on November 30, 2024. Anas Alkharboutli/picture alliance via Getty Images.
It may be no surprise that the “mainstream” corporate news media have turned into advertising agencies for US government policy. But it still surprises that what the CIA called a compatible left – those on the left it deemed compatible with maintaining imperialist rule – celebrates another US successful “regime change,” this time, Syria.
Portside ran an article, Liberation in Syria Is a Victory Worth Embracing, which criticized “some self-styled Western ‘anti-imperialists’” for their lack of enthusiasm for the “victory.” While it does note Israel bombed Syria 220 times up to mid-November this past year, one finds no mention of the long US blockade imposed on Syrians.
Counterpunch has been a compatible left website outspoken in its hostility towards those exposing US coup operations in Syria, calling them “campists” and “tankies.”
On December 10, Counterpunch (CP) highlighted Understanding the Rebellion in Syria which made the outlandish claim “Some on the Left have claimed without foundation that their rebellion was orchestrated by the U.S. and Israel…. Neither the U.S. nor Israel had a hand in these events. In fact, the opposite is the case.” It writes off as “campists” and “tankies” those of us who recognize the obvious, “that this military offensive is led by ‘Al-Qaeda and other terrorists’ and that it is a western-imperialist plot against the Syrian regime intended to weaken the so-called “Axis of Resistance” led by Iran and Hezbollah.…the campists claim that the fall of Assad weakens it and therefore undermines the struggle for the liberation of Palestine.”
December 11, Counterpunch turned to self-described Zionist academic Stephen Zunes for an “exclusive interview” presenting him as a “foreign policy expert” for the left. Zunes, back in 2011, praised the US-NATO destruction of Qaddafi’s Libya in Truthout.
CP has long supported the fake “Syrian revolution.” They refuse to publish anti-imperialist writers such as Ben Norton, who reported, “A bombshell declassified 2012 memo from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reveals that, from the start, ‘The Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria’. AQI is a reference to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which later evolved into ISIS.” Even the New York Times disclosed seven years ago that the CIA already spent more than $1 billion to overthrow Assad, “one of the costliest covert action programs in the history of the C.I.A.”
Why do these “left” websites like Counterpunch cover up major CIA regime change operations?
Truthout on December 11 it ran its own pro-US regime change article, As Assad Regime Falls, Syrians Celebrate — and Brace for an Uncertain Future. It repeats the same apologetics for US imperial rule: “Contrary to common misconceptions, the U.S. and Israel did not aspire to remove Assad after 2013.”
John Feffer of the Institute for Policy Studies published a more sensible article, but one that still covered up the US economic blockade’s destruction of Syria as well as its long regime change operation. Feffer also repeats the US line that the Syrian government used chemical weapons attacks, even though Seymour Hersch and The Grayzone showed the US concocted this story.
None of the compatible left websites mentioned the words of Biden and Netanyahu, who with legitimate reason took credit for the fall of Assad. Netanyahu recognized the Assad government as “a central link in Iran’s axis of evil.” The Axis of Resistance to the Israeli-US anti-Palestinian genocidal bloc includes Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, Assad’s Syria, and Yemen. The Israeli butcher proudly acknowledged the overthrow “is a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, the main supporters of the Assad regime.” Biden likewise: “Neither Russia nor Iran nor Hezbollah could defend this abhorrent regime in Syria. This is a direct result of the blows that Ukraine and Israel have delivered upon their own self-defense with unflagging support of the United States.” Indeed, Israel inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Russia remains tied up combating the US-instigated war in Ukraine.
Some of the compatible left – LA Progressive and Common Dreams, both orbiting the Democratic Party – ran honest articles on the US role. On December 11-12, Common Dreams posted The West Celebrates Assad’s Fall, But What Comes Next May Be Even Worse, and Jeffrey Sacks’ excellent How the US and Israel Destroyed Syria and Called it Peace.
The first noted the so-called “liberation” was “cheered by U.S. President Joe Biden and other major Western leaders, like French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz..” It asks the obvious question, “why is the West cheering for al Qaeda and its allies?” Indeed, and why are these compatible lefts following suit?
It continues:
“Since the fall of Assad, Israel has already carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria, targeting airports, naval bases, and military infrastructure. And the U.S. Central Command announced that it has struck more than 75 targets, including ISIS leaders, operatives, and camps….
The Obama administration provided support to the anti-Assad forces, primarily to the Free Syrian Army forces and its affiliates, but the CIA began to support other groups as early as 2013 even though they had jihadi orientations. CIA’s covert operation against the Syrian regime, known as Timber Sycamore, was a joint effort with Saudi Arabia that had long ties with radical Islamist groups….
Syria was under imperialist attack for the past 13 years. The U.S. (along with Turkey) backed and funded mercenaries and terrorist forces against Assad’s regime, imposed economic isolation of the country through sanctions, and denied plans that would have contributed to reconstruction even though aid was desperately needed for civilians.”
Jeffrey Sacks (also here and here) pointed out that US destruction of Syria was planned since 1996. General Wesley Clark revealed in an interview clip, probably seen by leftists of all stripes, that back in 2001, after Afghanistan, the US intended to wage war and overthrow seven more states in the Middle East: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. The one now not destroyed is Iran.
The Long US War against Syria
Relying on deadly sanctions, an invisible form of carpet bombing, the US starved the Syrian people and hollowed out the Syrian economy until it collapsed.
Before 2011, Syria, just like Qaddafi’s Libya, was a thriving nation, self-sufficient in energy and food, with free health care, free education and no national debt. Then the US and its NATO and Gulf allies orchestrated a dirty war, funding and arming sectarian terrorists to fragment Syria. These groups were deceitfully presented by many on the compatible left as part of a liberation movement.
Even David Sorenson at the US Air War College recognized, “By 2015, aid to anti-Assad forces became the most expensive US covert action program in history, topping 1 billion USD.” Since 2014, US and Turkish military and proxy forces have occupied about one-third of Syria and appropriate all its oil, gas, and wheat harvest.
Alena Douhan, UN rapporteur on the effect of the US economic blockade against Syria, reported, “The imposed sanctions have shattered the State’s capability to respond to the needs of the population, particularly the most vulnerable, and 90% of the people now live below the poverty line.” They have “limited access to food, water, electricity, shelter, cooking and heating fuel, transportation and healthcare.” The World Food Program states almost 13 million Syrians, half the population, lack sufficient food.
How many died from these measures we do not know, but the similar draconian US blockade on Venezuela killed 40,000 in a year and a half.
Douhan continues, “With more than half of the vital infrastructure either completely destroyed or severely damaged, the imposition of unilateral sanctions on key economic sectors, including oil, gas, electricity, trade, construction and engineering have quashed national income, and undermine efforts towards economic recovery and reconstruction.”
We should wonder who Counterpunch is serving when it publishes, “Neither the U.S. nor Israel had a hand in these events.”
The “campists” or “tankies” Counterpunch refers to run the gamut from Scott Ritter, Ron Paul, Vijay Prashad, Ben Norton, Glenn Greenwald, Colonel Macgregor, Aaron Mate, JD Vance to Sara Flounders. They share opposition to the endless neocon wars advocated by Obama, Hillary, Biden and Cheney. We find, once again, sectors of the compatible left functioning as a conveyor belt for US regime change propaganda broadcast into the progressive and anti-war movement, telling us to celebrate another successful US imperial operation.
Meanwhile, the struggle of the Middle East to free itself from US-Israeli domination has suffered a major defeat, on top of that inflicted on Hezbollah and Gaza. The Palestinians’ situation has worsened, Iran is next on the US hit list, and Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua are not far behind. Our active solidarity is needed more than ever.