These parties have not only supported the wars in their publications, but also played a direct role in the intelligence operations necessary to organize the war. Early in the Syrian war, the NPA's Gilbert Achcar attended a covert October 2011 conference of the CIA-backed Syrian National Council (SNC) opposition group to advise it on the mechanics of foreign intervention.
These parties have functioned as mouthpieces for various sections of the intelligence community who favor an imperialist overthrow of Assad in alliance with the Islamist opposition.
Thus, a recent article by the NPA's main writer on Syria, Gayath Naà ¯ssà ©, titled "Self-organization in the Syrian people's revolution," praises the opposition militias that control the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, writing that "a democratic dream has been realized in Deir ez-Zor." He enthuses that "a free electoral process "was organized for the first time in forty years" as it was described by Khadr, a member of the local council of the opposition which was elected on Sunday by the inhabitants of the "liberated' areas."
This is a blatant falsification of the political record of far-right, Al Qaeda-linked militias that have seized various Syrian cities with US support, imposing a reign of terror on the population. In Deir ez-Zor itself, they operate death squads that have recorded widely-publicized videos of themselves murdering inhabitants opposed to their policies. More broadly, Islamist opposition militias have become notorious for looting areas that they control -- most notably destroying factories in Aleppo, in order to fund their arms purchases from the United States' allies.
The ISO's latest statement on Syria -- a piece by Michael Karadjis first posted on the Australian pseudo-left site Links -- attacks any opposition to US intervention to back the Syrian opposition. Denouncing "lazy talk of the trickle of light weapons from abroad representing some great 'war on Syria,'" it attacks opponents of the US intervention as people "terribly frightened about the prospect of a trickle of arms reaching the rebels from the wrong people."
The statement adds, "It is not up to socialists within imperialist countries to demand our governments not provide arms just because we understand our government's aims are different to ours and such arming demands a political price from the rebels ... If the US or other imperialist states did decide for their own reasons to provide some arms, we should also not protest against it, robotic-style."
This passage underscores how the ISO functions as a conscious defender of imperialism and war. While acknowledging that the Syrian opposition consists of forces armed by the US government and that therefore act as its stooges, it demands that these pro-US stooges in Syria be armed to the teeth, and that no opposition to such a proxy war be organized.
Such forces are accomplices in the devastation of Syria and ongoing preparations for even broader and bloodier imperialist wars.
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