At long last, US imperialism and its surrogate in the Middle East, Israel, have, at least temporarily, achieved their long-held dream of overthrowing the Syrian government headed by Bashar al-Assad. In the latest instalment of the conflict between Syria and the US-Israel combine, events unfolded in a way, and with a speed, no-one had expected.
The jihadi head-chopping, throat-slitting, heart-eating serial rapists and torturers broke out of their haven in the province of Idlib and launched their assault on 27 November, capturing within a week Aleppo (the second largest city in Syria), Hama (the third largest), followed by Homs and the capital Damascus on the 8th of December.
The fall of Damascus within 12 days and the flight of Assad to Moscow, where he and his family have been granted asylum, was greeted by imperialist and Zionist leaders and media with delirious joy, accompanied, on the one hand, by demonisation of Assad as a ‘brutal dictator’, ‘serial killer’ and ‘criminal boss’, and on the other hand by the re-branding of the jihadis, hitherto characterised as terrorists, as ‘liberation fighters’. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is the biggest and dominant outfit among those who have managed to overthrow the Syrian government. Headed by Abu Mohammad Jolani, the jihadis were able to capture Damascus and force the country’s president to flee to Moscow to secure sanctuary.
Accompanying the jihadi forces were the White Helmets, a British intelligence creation, working in close cooperation with the terrorists while pretending to be a humanitarian organisation, albeit one funded by imperialism to the tune of millions of dollars.
HTS has been designated by the UN, the US and many other countries as a terrorist organisation but is now in the process of having the terrorist label removed by imperialism and being re-branded as a liberation organisation. The US, doubtless to be followed by many other imperialist countries, is considering removing the crippling economic sanctions which contributed to the fall of the Syrian government.
The leader of HTS, Jolani, was born Ahmed Hussein al-Shara in Saudi Arabia to Syrian exiles. In the 1980s his family moved back to Syria. In 2003 he travelled to Iraq to join Al-Qaeda (AQ) to join the fight against the US occupation and spent several years in an American prison in Iraq. At the beginning of the Syrian conflict he returned to Syria, founded Jabhat al-Nusra and took the nom-de-guerre of Jolani. HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – Organ for Liberation of the Levant) is an offshoot of Jabhat al-Nusra – a Salafist jihadist group spawned by Al Qaeda.
He fought with ISIS, was its deputy head, and had a $10 million US bounty on his head. Yet the US is now greeting with open arms the very same jihadis whom it claims to be behind the 9/11 attack in which close to 3,000 Americans died. While claiming to be fighting terrorism, the US has long been in bed with terrorists as a means of maintaining its hegemony.
Jolani is now presented as an “urbane pragmatist” after he was interviewed by CNN, appearing with a trimmed beard and in Western dress. Speaking softly, he pledged not to harm minority communities. All this was for public relations to convey the impression that he and his HTS cut-throats had undergone a drastic reform for the better.
Leaving aside imperialism’s earlier attempts to overthrow the Syrian government, the present war began in 2011 when, taking advantage of what has come to be called the Arab Spring, the US decided upon regime change in Syria. In February 2012, Jake Sullivan, now Joe Biden’s National Security adviser, who back then was working for Hillary Clinton, Obama’s Secretary of State, told her in an email: “Al-Qaeda is on our side”. The US picked up a lot of weapons in Libya and sent them to Turkey which in turn handed them over to the jihadis in Syria (see Wikileaks).
In 2013, President Obama, the darling of the liberal ‘left’, declared: “Assad must go”, while hypocritically professing support for democracy, human rights and the rule of law! Thereafter Saudi money and arms from imperialist quarters flowed in vast quantities to support the jihadi cut-throat mercenaries. These hailed from dozens of foreign countries, along with home-bred Syrian fundamentalists. At the same time, intensified imperialist propaganda demonised the Syrian government while portraying the jihadi bandits and thugs as the ‘moderate’ opposition.
The jihadis managed to gain control of large parts of Syrian territory, capturing half (the eastern part) of Aleppo. Facing a dire situation, the Syrian government requested Russian help and, in response to this plea, Russia intervened in 2015, as did the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah. The combined forces of the Syrian army, Hezbollah fighters and the Russian air force, delivered devastating blows to the jihadi puppets of imperialism, freed most of the Syrian territory from them, and captured Aleppo in 2016, pushing the jihadis into Idlib in the north-west of the country. In March 2020, Vladimir Putin and Erdogan – presidents of Russia and Turkey respectively – brokered in Moscow the Idlib ceasefire.
Freed, temporarily it transpired, from the imperialist-backed jihadi menace, the Syrian people began to enjoy the return of peace. It is, however, now clear that the jihadis in Idlib, with the support of Turkey, used this period to re-equip themselves and prepare for a new offensive. They developed a sizeable armaments manufacturing industry, churning out mortar shells, drones and guided missiles on an industrial scale, with the aim of launching a new offensive. This latest offensive began on 27 November 2024, and a mere 12 days later the jihadis took Syria’s capital, Damascus. It is not as though they fought their way into Damascus; they simply walked in as the Syrian army melted away without putting up any resistance.
The jihadis now occupying Damascus may feel that they are victorious, but the real victory belongs to US imperialism and its surrogates – the Zionist regime in Israel, and the Turkish regime. The jihadi success was co-ordinated by US imperialism.
Reasons for the downfall of the Syrian government
The most important factor in the defeat of the Syrian government has been the decades of draconian sanctions applied against Syria by US imperialism and its junior imperialist partners and their flunkeys in the Middle East, as a result of which Syria was cut off from the international system of trading facilities – all aimed at hurting the Syrian masses so as to soften up their resistance and make them blame their government for their privations and the non-availability of essential items for their everyday existence. Combined with these inhumane sanctions is the occupation by 2,000 US troops under the pretext of fighting against ISIS but actually to steal Syrian oil and illegally send it to Israel and elsewhere. The area of Syria which is the repository of Syrian oil is also home to rich wheat- producing soil, so Syria was not only deprived of its energy but also of a vital food source. Shameless and thoroughly immoral, bourgeois political and journalistic spokespersons, who blame the consequences of the scarcity thus produced on mismanagement on the part of the Syrian government, deliberately ‘forget’ about these facts.
Previously, oil accounted for a quarter of Syria’s GDP, which enabled its government to pay its employees and armed forces, fund its education and health facilities and other social services. Denied access to this economically vital material as a result of the US occupation of the areas that give rise to them, the country was brought to its knees. The Syrian government was bereft of the resources it needed to make the life of the population bearable or even to pay its soldiers a living wage, with the average monthly wage being $7-15 per soldier and the generals getting no more than $40 a month. This extreme scarcity makes it only too easy to breed corruption, particularly when seen in the light of jihadi mercenaries being paid from $400-$2,000 a month thanks to the largesse of US imperialism and Turkey. Though at the moment there is no evidence that the Syrian command was bribed, it would come as no surprise if that were indeed the case and that Syrian soldiers were instructed by their officers not to resist.
Also, al-Assad had replaced some generals by men he perceived to be more loyal, which may have led to some resentment.
Secondly, Syria has for years been the target of US and Israeli bombing, especially by the latter, which has weakened its defences and destroyed a lot of its infrastructure.
Third, over the recent period Assad was distancing himself from Iran and coming closer to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the hope of getting some economic assistance and mending relations with the West. He was invited to attend the recently-held BRICS summit in Kazan but did not turn up, the reason for which could be that he did not want to meet with Erdogan, who did go there.
Erdogan had been trying to meet with Assad for quite some time, but Assad refused to meet, which did not exactly help him to mend fences with Erdogan, a vain and arrogant person, and treacherous into the bargain. Double crossing and hypocrisy are second nature to him. He has been making harsh statements criticising Israel for the genocide it is committing in Gaza, but at the same time facilitating that genocide by allowing the flow of oil from Azerbaijan through Turkey to Israel. He had declared that if Israel went into Lebanon, the Turkish army would march there to confront the IDF. Well, Israeli forces did march into Lebanon, but Erdogan did nothing while Lebanon was being flattened by the Israeli air force. While pretending to be a friend of the Palestinian struggle, he was getting the jihadis ready to launch a new offensive against the Syrian government, giving financial and material support and weapons to the HTS and other terrorists in Idlib.
Lastly, the timing was perfect, and the coordination between US imperialism, the Israeli Zionists and Turkey was meticulous. The Zionists had just concluded a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah. Apparently the Iranians had offered to send forces to Syria shortly before the latest events but Assad declined to accept the offer. Both Russia and Iran had suggested that the Syrian army be modernised and reorganised to become more fit to fight against its enemies. Again, no positive response from Syria. As a result, Syria has paid a very heavy price.
US imperialism has been trying for a regime change in Syria for more than half a century, as have been the fundamentalists. In 1982, with the tacit support of the US, the fundamentalists rose in rebellion in the city of Hama but were crushed by the Syrian armed forces and taught a lesson.
This time, however, for the reasons mentioned above, Syria’s position had weakened while that of the jihadis had strengthened. In the circumstances, Turkey gave the green light to the jihadis to start the offensive, while the Zionists bombed the crossings between Iraq and Syria. The jihadi forces this time were not a ragtag of guerrillas but a modern army with tanks and sophisticated weaponry. As it turned out, they did not use them as the Syrian army did not resist to block the jihadi advance.
Thus came to an end the six-decade long Ba’athist regime – the last five decades having been under the Assads – Hafez al-Assad from 1963 to 2000 and following him under his son Bashar. On entering Damascus, the HTS head-choppers have been busy smashing statues of Hafez al-Assad who was the creator of the modern Syrian state in which people of several religious denominations – Muslims, Christians and Jews – lived harmoniously side by side with each other. Syria was a secular state and a place where women were accorded rights and liberties which are characterised by their absence in the Gulf autocracies that are the darlings of imperialism.
Since the demise of the government of Bashar al-Assad, the Israelis have launched a ferocious assault on Syria, with the Israeli air force conducting at least 1,000 sorties, destroying what is left of Syria’s defence capability – its air, naval and land-based defence infrastructure. They have occupied Syrian portions of the buffer zone in the Golan Heights established in 1974 and taken control of Mount Hermon which is positioned strategically. The US, too, has launched close to 100 missile attacks on Syria. The Israeli and US strikes are aimed at depriving any government in the near future of the ability to resist Israeli aggression and to render the country defenceless. They clearly do not trust the new incumbents or the new Sultan of Syria – Erdogan.
The jihadi authorities have not uttered a murmur, let alone put up any resistance against the latest Zionist aggression. They are busy conducting public executions and terrorising minority communities – be they Christians or Shia Muslims – in complete violation of their hypocritical promises of treating well Syria’s minorities and not engaging in acts of vengeance against their opponents. The imperialist media and politicians have maintained a deafening silence in the face of these outrages.
Who gains?
The gainers from the overthrow of the Syrian government are, of course, imperialism, Zionism and Turkey. All of them, not surprisingly have cheered the outcome. The US president, the brain-dead Genocide Joe Biden, has hailed the HTS victory as the inaugural action of a ‘free Syria’ !
So has Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, as well as the leaders of all the other imperialist countries. So much, then, for their much-touted fight against terrorism. While the British police have been detaining, in some cases prosecuting, pro-Palestinian demonstrators under terrorism laws, they shamelessly endorse with zeal the terrorists of the HTS and other such outfits who have now become the new government of Syria.
The imperialist media have, with almost complete unanimity, joined in the celebrations marking the overthrow of the secular anti-imperialist Syrian government and its replacement by the crazed enemies of humanity. Every bourgeois media – from the newspapers to television – forgetting their past fulminations against the jihadis are now singing their praise, while demonising the erstwhile Syrian government.
The following few lines from a nauseating article written by the despicable lickspittle, Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times, are typical of the stance and standards of bourgeois journalism: “It was perhaps the most brutal government in a region full of ghastly regimes.”
Is that so, Mr Rachman? Not your beloved Israel whose Zionist, racist, anti-semitic and reactionary government is busy perpetrating a genocide on the Palestinian people? Which, combined with racist superiority is, right under the eyes of the people of the world, involved in ethnic cleansing and expulsion of the Palestinian people so that those who have stolen Palestinian land and property may enjoy the fruits of their theft? That in the process of so doing, have already murdered 200,000 Palestinian men women and children, in a fashion that even Hitlerites might have baulked at?
We shall not mention the holocausts committed by your paymasters – Anglo-American imperialism – all over the world.
While Mr Rachman writes with feigned outrage of the “murder and torture” that he alleges characterised Syrian prisons, it does not occur to him ever to mention the well-documented “murder and torture” of thousands of Palestinians languishing in Israeli dungeons, where murder, torture, humiliation, rape and denial of food are everyday occurrences.
Instead of blaming US imperialism for the deaths of half a million Syrians through the war it has been waging against Syria since at least 2011, he blames its victim – the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad; He blames the Assad government instead of pointing the finger at US imperialism, which recruited thousands of head-chopping and paid-for jihadis, not only from Syria but also from other countries, to practise their favourite art, and supplied them with weaponry – all in their endeavour to destroy the Syrian government because it has, over a very long period, supported the Palestinian people in their just struggle for national liberation and freedom from occupation.
US imperialism has been acting in this way in order to strengthen the Zionist state of Israel. Israel is its chief attack dog in the Middle East for maintaining imperialist hegemony over the region, which furnishes it with fabulous riches through the looting of oil (the staple diet of imperialist industry and war machinery), and is a market and an avenue of investment. No wonder Genocide Joe is famous for saying that if Israel did not exist it would have to be invented. Using Israel as its tool is the cheapest option for the US. Imagine the cost of keeping a million-strong – at least – army stationed in the Middle East – if Israel were not there to help the US maintain its hegemony over the region!
Imperialism does not do this for the love of Jews; it could not give a damn for the Jews, for if it did have any regard for the lives of Jews, it would not be supporting the continued existence of Israel, a colonial project that is destined to meet the same fate as all other colonial projects.
Nor is it doing so because of the Zionist lobby in the US which allegedly, even according to some very intelligent and erudite commentators on social media, controls the US government. Far from it. Despite appearances, it is US imperialism that controls the Zionist lobby, which is no less its proxy in the US than is the Zionist Israeli state in the Middle East. That is why the US funds Israel and its war machine to the tune of billions of dollars a year, and especially the wars which that surrogate wages against the Palestinians and other Arab countries. Israel could not survive more than a few months without US military, financial and diplomatic support; it could not wage a single war successfully without such support.
Having characterised the erstwhile Syrian government as “perhaps the most brutal”, Mr Rachman goes on to greet the arrival of the government led by the HTS cut-throats thus:
“The fall of the brutal regime that is aligned to other brutal regimes is a good thing”.
Obviously Mr Rachman’s idea of a brutal regime is any government that opposes the truly brutal, not imaginary, successive US imperialist governments and their junior partners from Canada and Britain, France and Germany (see Gideon Rachman, ‘The West should not succumb to cynical regret ever Syria’, Financial Times, 10 December 2024). You need not worry on that score, Mr Rachman. Your imperialist patrons are no less possessed of lack of decency, hypocrisy, lack of humanity and disregard for human life than you are. Hypocrisy is the defining characteristic of all dying systems; it is the homage, in the words of Norman Finkelstein, that vice pays to virtue.
Losers
Who, then, are the losers, for the moment, of the demise of the Syrian government? They are, first, the Syrian people, who will soon discover the joy of living under a truly brutal jihadi government which, on top of the economic misery that it would heap on the Syrian masses, would subject them to daily infamies of living according to medieval social norms.
Second are the resistance movements in Lebanon and Palestine – for they lost a very good friend, which not only supported them but furnished a conduit for material support from Iran on its way to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the resistance in Palestine. In view of this, it is nothing short of an act of foolishness for Hamas to join the crowd greeting the fall of Bashar al-Assad with entirely misplaced enthusiasm.
Third is the axis of resistance in which Syria played a very important role.
Time will tell how things turn out. Iran and Hezbollah are better placed to recover from this undoubtedly severe setback. The question being asked is why did Iran and Russia not come to the support of the Assad government during the last days of its existence? In view of the collapse of the Syrian army, they must have concluded that there was nothing they could support. If the Syrian army were unwilling or unable to fight for Syrian sovereignty, territorial integrity and honour, Russia and Iran could not do much. In addition, they are fighting their own wars – Russia against Nato’s proxy war using Ukrainian lives as cannon fodder and Iran under constant threat of US imperialism’s proxy war using Zionist forces and Jewish lives.
The future
Even before 9 December, Syria had been partly partitioned, with US imperialism occupying that part of Syria which is rich in oil and a source of wheat production, Turkey occupying Idlib through its jihadi surrogates now forming the government of Syria, the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, in close alliance with US imperialism, occupying the north east. At the same time as the HTS were advancing from Idlib in the north to towns in the south, Kurdish forces seized the city of Deir al-Zov. They may live to regret their anti-Assad US imperialist stance.
Turkey has designs on swathes of Syrian territory and its major preoccupation is to crush the Kurdish movement for an independent state. This will confront the US with the dilemma of either trying to prevent the Turks from crushing the Kurdish US surrogates, whom Turkey considers to be an extremist arm of the PKK; or letting Turkey have a free hand in crushing the Kurds who will soon have to face the consequences of having contributed to the fall of the Assad government.
Then, within the jihadi camp which has captured Damascus, although HTS is the dominant group there are over a dozen other lunatic outfits. Although they were united in bringing down the Assad government, they are by no means united on how Syria should be governed. The likelihood of clashes among them is great.
On top of this comes the question of their relations with the Zionist state of Israel which is busy taking over chunks of Syrian territory. If they resist, they will be confronted with the Zionists backed by US imperialism; and if they don’t, they will correctly be perceived by the Syrian people as the traitors they are and be faced with the opposition of the Syrian masses. The Kurdish SDF has thousands of jihadis in its prisons, including British jihadis who travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIS from 2013 onwards. The SDF could free them and they could form the nucleus of a new Islamic state, unless of course they decided to join HTS. One way or another, the chances of an internecine fight among the jihadis is high.
Finally, there is the Russian naval base at Tartus and an air base in Khmeimim, which serve as staging points for the Mediterranean. At the time of writing, the Russians are negotiating with the new ‘government’. If no agreement is reached, Russia may have to look elsewhere, possibly Iran or Algeria.
In view of the turmoil created by imperialism, the jubilation among its proxies and surrogates is only too likely to be a short-lived affair. In the end, the people of Syria, Palestine and the wider Middle East will rise like a phoenix from the ashes. They will not put up with the subjection imperialism has imposed on them. The laws of history are bound to prove stronger than the laws of artillery.
The ‘Left’
Before concluding this article, just a few words about the imperialist ‘left’ in Britain – from the counter-revolutionary Trotskyites to the revisionist renegades and left social democrats. They have either, with the least sense of decency or shame, joined the jubilation in the imperialist camp, or some faint hearts have simply raised the white flag, regarding the Arabs as a lost cause.
For our part, we shall never desert the forces of resistance against imperialism in spite of the temporary reverses, however severe. Our slogans still are: victory to the Resistance; Death to imperialism; Death to Zionism.
In the context of the present difficult and dark hours that have descended on the Middle East, these slogans may sound empty and be mocked by the Trotskyites, revisionists, ‘left’ social democrats and faint-hearted deserters, but developments along the line will prove their correctness of our stance.
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