UK Vote on Syria: Democracy Can Win

Surprisingly for some, on August 29, 2013 the House of Commons voted for the United Kingdom not to get involved in military action in Syria. This government defeat was momentous in terms of recent history. David Cameron, who had recalled parliament from its summer recess especially for the debate and vote, was forced to chew the cud of despondency and defeat while presenting a brave face of respect for the democratic process. It was not what he would have chosen. Neither does it mean he has abandoned the idea of military involvement.

At first it appeared Cameron had Ed Miliband on board, but the opposition leader did a U-turn due to pressure from the Members of Parliament (MPs) and their constituents. As soon as Cameron announced a proposed intervention in Syria, due to the unproven claim that the Assad used chemical weapons against his people, many UK citizens recognized this ploy as being almost the same argument that took us into an illegal war with Iraq, on the basis of a “dodgy dossier” and spurious intelligence provided by the likes of Ahmed Chalabi, the consequences of which have been devastating for the Iraqi people, and very lucrative for western mineral and banking interests. People in the UK wrote to or e-mailed their MPs, especially those who had supported the War in Iraq, warning them not to make the same mistake again. It worked. It was a rare victory for the democratic process and a rare defeat for the government of the day.

The most important aspect of this defeat means that for the first time in decades the UK has not got its feet in the air the very moment its US masters have issued the command to jump. Although Cameron gave a tongue-in-cheek compliance with the parliamentary vote, already efforts are being made behind the scenes to reverse that decision. Heads have started to roll. Jesse Norman, MP, a former adviser to the government was sacked for abstaining from the vote. The BBC and mainstream media have continued to press for action by the tone of their presentations and by virtually only interviewing “experts” who are convinced that Assad used chemical weapons against his own people. The one-sided presentation has been nauseating most of the time, with only very occasional references to an alternative argument.

Nevertheless, and despite this barrage of media fodder, the UK public made a decision then informed their MPs of that decision, after which the MPs passed the message on to the prime minister. In essence we banged home the argument in the House of Commons that we do not believe the chemical weapons story. Our victory demonstrates that people still have some power, albeit diminished. That goes for people in the United States, France, in fact everywhere. The power of people to change the course of history has always been in the hands of the majority. Great inspirers of people like Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi and Karl Marx have demonstrated where the power really rests: that is, with you. Students too have played a crucial part in changing history. The US might still be dropping chemical weapons on Vietnam were it not for the peace movement and students at Kent State University and other universities and colleges. Student protests in Tiananmen Square, on the streets of Budapest in 1956, and the streets of Prague in 1968 all show where the power really lies: in the hands of the people. Writing to your representative in Congress is not asking much if it can change bad decisions.

There is a photograph circulating the web, and picked up by some UK newspapers, of John Kerry and his wife sharing a meal with President Bashar Assad and his wife. The significance is a bit like that of Tony Blair hugging Muammar Gaddafi in that famous photograph which, when exhibited in the war crimes of the century gallery, will probably be entitled “The Judas Kiss.” How fickle are politicians and how things change! The sworn enemy of the US is al Qaeda. At least that was what we were led to believe until recently. In its efforts to overthrow Assad and take a strategic stranglehold in Syria, al Qaeda appears to have suddenly become an ally of the US. The truth is: there are no real enemies, just minerals and strategic influence. The US wants the lot. This is why so few people outside America still see the US as a great power for good. In fact quite the contrary: most people outside of the US see it as a force for wickedness and crimes against humanity.

Because the UK parliament has decided against military intervention, France, a former imperialist power in Syria, and the US are the remaining two members of the United Nations Security Council who are still actively pursuing this imperialist war. The other two permanent members, Russia and China, are disposed towards dialogue based on the findings of UN inspectors. Russia has brokered a deal with Syria to lay open to UN control any chemical weapons the Syrian government may have at its disposal. The timing was crucial: just as the US Senate was about to sit in judgment over military action, this rather took the wind out of the hawks’ sails. President Barack Obama had planned five televised presentations to sell this war despite the American (and French) people not being in favor of military intervention.

United States President Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry, whom Russian President Vladimir Putin has blatantly called a liar, are the spokesmen for those who want this war: the bankers. Unfortunately this is part of an ultimate plan for what was originally called the New World Order. Syria and Iran are the only two countries in which the US has not taken military action in a list of countries which Wesley Clarke divulged eleven years ago as targets for the US to attack and control. This alone, if the US is ever going to restore its good name internationally, is why people resident in North America must write to their congressmen and congresswomen imploring them to oppose military action: to restore the good name of Uncle Sam.

There are financial reasons why big bankers, the Rothschild and Rockefeller families, need to control the Middle East and create a United States of Israel. Iran is one of a handful of countries without a Rothschild central bank. The Rothschild family who already control most of the world financially want total and absolute control because the US debt is growing exponentially and can never ever be paid off. When the recession hits the world the next time, it will be crippling for most families who are already finding it hard in these times of plenty. When the US dollar collapses, it will take with it all the western countries that have bought US government bonds (those bonds are shares in the US national debt). The bankers’ god is money and there are no depths to which financial controllers will not sink to pay homage to this false god. War and misery for other people is never a consideration for the banking hierarchy. There is however no reason why the bankers should have it all their own way. They have had it their own way for too long. When the recession comes, remember who caused it. Remember too what Percy Bysshe Shelley advised at the end of his great rousing poem, The Mask of Anarchy:

“Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number – …
Ye are many – they are few.”

Editor’s Note: Photographs four and seven by Asterix611, and photographs two, three, five and six by Freedom House.