U.S., Russia Clash in Syria — Imperialist Rivalry Signals Bigger Wars

The recent airstrikes in Syria by Russian imperialists, their first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since 1979, is a blow to U.S. influence worldwide and brings conflict between the two nuclear powers ever closer. To shore up Syria President Bashar al-Assad, a junior partner of the Russia-Iran alliance, President Vladimir Putin has deployed air and naval forces and is threatening to send in ground troops. In moving to expand its influence in the oil-rich Middle East, Russia is targeting U.S.-backed, anti-Assad rebels like the Free Syrian Army.
For the U.S. ruling class, stakes are high. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter declared that the U.S. would use military force as needed to defend “vital national interests” in the Persian Gulf. Thirty-five years later, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s national security adviser, is pushing for “strategic boldness” against Russia in Syria: “The U.S. has only one real option if it is to protect its wider stakes in the region: to convey to Moscow the demand that it cease and desist from military actions that directly affect American assets” (Financial Times, 10/4/15).
The U.S. bosses’ fundamental problem is that Russia’s bosses have an equal stake in the Middle East—and a far longer history of imperialist conquest in the region. It began in 1772, when forces under Catherine the Great “bombarded, stormed and captured Beirut, a fortress on the coast of Ottoman Syria….Catherine’s successors saw themselves as crusaders, with Russia destined to rule Constantinople and Jerusalem” (New York Times, 10/9/15). Today, though Russia’s regional influence nosedived after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin still banks heavily on Syria and its Mediterranean port of Tartus, Russia’s only naval base beyond its borders.
Even as the Central Intelligence Agency funneled powerful anti-tank weapons to anti-Assad insurgents (NYT, 10/13/15), Barack Obama denied the U.S. rulers’ need to confront Russia militarily: “We’re not going to make Syria into a proxy war.” Obama’s blatant lie points to U.S. unpreparedness for the next broad global conflict; the bosses certainly are willing to kill millions of workers in the name of profit, but they aren’t yet ready. At the moment, they face two obstacles: the resistance of smaller U.S. capitalists (represented by the Koch brothers and the Tea Party) to pay more taxes to support a major invasion, and mass working-class opposition to restoring a military draft.
Whether they live in the U.S. or Russia, in China or India or Pakistan, workers have no stake in inter-imperialist conflicts. Capitalist warfare turns workers into refugees, cannon fodder, or “collateral” civilian casualties—like the dozens of doctors, staff, and patients slaughtered October 3 by the U.S. Air Force bombing of a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. The communist Progressive Labor Party urges all workers to fight on the one side that will fight for them: the international working class.
Russia’s Real Targets
On October 8, the top think tank representing U.S. finance capital, the Council on Foreign Relations, analyzed Russia’s ambitions: “The Russian Navy’s initial firing of twenty-six cruise missiles from ships in the Caspian Sea into Syria yesterday generated little effect on the Syrian battlefield—but that may not be the primary objective” (CFR website). Author Sean Liedman, a Navy captain and CFR “military fellow,” identified the real targets for this show of force:
    *The international community, which now sees clearly that the U.S. monopoly on long-range, precision-strike weapons is over.
    *The U.S. ruling class. The Russian bosses’ show of high-tech force displayed their naval capability and the will to employ it, a clear challenge to their super-power rival.  
    *Europe and NATO. Any fixed target in Europe can be struck by the Russian Navy, which has more freedom to maneuver than an equivalent ground force. Coming after the annexation of Crimea and the Russian rulers’ backing of the separatist rebellion in Ukraine, the attack in Syria signals a growing threat to retake former Soviet states—including current NATO members that the U.S. has vowed to defend by force.
*The working class in Russia. Russian bosses have long used grandiose displays of military might to build reactionary nationalist fervor—and to distract workers from a failing state capitalist economy.
Choking Off Saudi Oil?
Oil Price, an industry insider journal, outlined Moscow’s designs on Persian Gulf energy supplies, the grand prize for global capitalism: “Putin’s moves in the Middle East could …enhance the attractiveness of Russian crude and natural gas supplies” (10/4/15). Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states, the U.S. rulers’ main allies in the region, depend on one of three routes through the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea to ship their oil and liquefied natural gas. All three routes contain a “choke point”: the Suez Canal, the Mandeb Strait, or the Strait of Hormuz. Moreover, the Russian military says it is now flying up to 30 sorties a day from its new airstrip In Latakia, Syria’s main port on the Mediterranean (New York Times, 10/12/15). By adding a forward airbase to its existing naval presence, Russia—in concert with Iran, the Assad regime in Syria, and possibly Iraq—could gain the capability to disrupt shipments from both Persian Gulf and Red Sea terminals.
U.S. rulers face an uphill battle to mobilize the support they need to take on Russia militarily. Their own ranks are in chaos. As the Republican Party flounders to find a new Speaker for the House of Representatives, Obama’s Democrats are divided over the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement designed to counter China’s expanding influence along the Pacific Rim. Meanwhile, disaffected U.S. workers will not easily be won to accept a new draft, an essential element for the next major ground war.
Workers should be aware, however, that U.S. rulers and their competitors will use any means necessary to build their imperialist agendas. Racism, sexism and nationalism are among their main weapons as they battle over the world’s resources. But the bosses’ battles are not ours. The only cause worth fighting for is a revolutionary communist society, led by PLP, to smash war, imperialism, racism and sexism. Join us!