Half a million deaths, seven million refugees, and one country-turned-wasteland later, Russia and the U.S. are reportedly discussing a deal with the Aleppo rebels in Syria. These U.S.-backed, Al Qaeda-aligned forces have proven unable to defeat the Russia-backed government of President Bashar al-Assad. But Assad and his murderous regime were never what the cataclysmic war in Syria was primarily about. The real conflict is over oil and imperialist dominance.
U.S. and Russia at War
What does the U.S. want from Syria?
The U.S. wants to install a puppet regime in Damascus [Syria’s capital]…[to] secure pipeline corridors in the East, oversee the transport of vital energy reserves from Qatar to the EU, and make sure those reserves continue to be denominated in U.S. Dollars that are recycled into U.S. Treasuries and U.S. financial assets. This is the basic recipe for maintaining U.S. dominance in the Middle East and for extending America’s imperial grip on global power into the future (Counterpunch, 9/16).
The Russian oil bosses, of course, have a different agenda. The proxy war in Syria is not the first to be fought over pipelines. The TAPI pipeline triggered the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan—and the death and displacement of hundreds of thousands of workers. The proposed Qatar-Turkey pipeline, rejected by Assad in 2009, would have challenged Russia’s domination. Shortly thereafter, CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria.
Russians, who sell 70 percent of their gas exports to Europe, viewed the Qatar/Turkey pipeline as an existential threat. In Putin’s view, the Qatar pipeline is a NATO plot to…deprive Russia of its only foothold in the Middle East, strangle the Russian economy and end Russian leverage in the European energy market…
—Ecowatch, (2/25)
Imperialists Dig their Own Graves
The bosses’ media has used anti-Muslim and Anti-Arab racism to paint Syria as another endless conflict between Muslim sects. To protect their profits, the imperialists use sectarian politics to commit racist and sexist horrors against the working class. As in Afghanistan, the U.S. strategy to fund Islamic nationalist groups in Syria is backfiring. One capitalist solution births the next capitalist crisis—in this case, ISIS.
The only solution is communism, a world without profit, war, and religious divisions. The working class is fighting back in Syria, Afghanistan, and throughout the Middle East. Progressive Labor Party is seeking to grow in these critical areas, and to turn the guns around for an egalitarian world.