I have been asked to remove this interview of Assad of Syria. The reason is that it purportedly makes WAMM look like we support Assad. WAMM does not support Assad. WAMM also does not support the foreign “rebels” who are fighting in Syria. We are Women Against Military Madness.
The interview was first posted by Russia Today and picked up by Global Research and posted thus:
By Russia Today  Global Research, November 09, 2012
Region: Middle East & North Africa  Theme: US NATO War Agenda
In-depth Report: SYRIA: NATO’S NEXT WAR?
I posted it on WAMMToday with that heading.
As you can see, this posting is old. Quite a bit has happened in Syria since it was posted in November of 2012.
WAMM above all does not support U.S. or U.S./NATO intervention in Syria, as has been pointed out on this blog and also on the WAMMToday Facebook page by posting the statement of the Middle East Committee, which represents WAMM’s position. Unfortunately one person, a person who repeatedly attacked WAMM on the WAMMToday Facebook page until she was blocked, has been the cause of the friction over this posting.

No US intervention in Syria> Statement by The Middle East Committee of Women Against Military Madness

There is a clear danger of yet another war in the Middle East. The United States is turning its attention to Syria, with the intention of engineering regime change in its favor.
The Middle East Committee of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) fully supports the right of the people in all the countries of the Middle East to determine their own future and assert democratic rights. We are therefore firmly opposed to any external intervention, and this includes military intervention in Syria.

Map of Syria
NATO is already maneuvering to weaken Syria through sanctions, which have never been an alternative to war as much as a prelude to it, acclimatizing public opinion to the inevitability” of war. It is also interfering politically, trying to ensure that the Assad regime is replaced by one with an orientation favorable to what is always described as “our interests”—e.g., the pursuit of energy resources with trade agreements and geopolitical positioning that benefit US multi-national corporations.
The Middle East Committee believes the Syrian people should assert their own democratic rights and determine their own system of government without the kind of external interference which has proved so disastrous in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world.
We therefore oppose all US-led attempts to create an unrepresentative “government-in-exile,” which would have no purpose beyond further legitimizing the case for military intervention.
The Middle East Committee of WAMM therefore opposes all US-sponsored and supported military intervention in Syria.
WAMM Middle East Committee
Political map of the Middle East
Map of the Middle East showing the relationship of countries to each other.
See also William Boardman’s article:
WILLIAM BOARDMAN> OUR SYRIAN WAR
Finally, here is the disclaimer that has appeared on WAMMToday from the first day the first blog was posted.
The contents of this blog do not necessarily reflect the opinions of WAMM and/or the WAMM Media Committee.

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By Published On: November 10th, 20124 Comments on

4 Comments

  1. wammtoday March 28, 2013 at 11:01 PM

    WAMMToday endorses the WAMM Middle East Committee statement on Syria: http://wp.me/pXTjb-63Z
    No US intervention in Syria> Statement by The Middle East Committee of Women Against Military Madness
    There is a clear danger of yet another war in the Middle East. The United States is turning its attention to Syria, with the intention of engineering regime change in its favor.
    The Middle East Committee of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) fully supports the right of the people in all the countries of the Middle East to determine their own future and assert democratic rights. We are therefore firmly opposed to any external intervention, and this includes military intervention in Syria.
    Map of Syria
    NATO is already maneuvering to weaken Syria through sanctions, which have never been an alternative to war as much as a prelude to it, acclimatizing public opinion to the inevitability” of war. It is also interfering politically, trying to ensure that the Assad regime is replaced by one with an orientation favorable to what is always described as “our interests”—e.g., the pursuit of energy resources with trade agreements and geopolitical positioning that benefit US multi-national corporations.
    The Middle East Committee believes the Syrian people should assert their own democratic rights and determine their own system of government without the kind of external interference which has proved so disastrous in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world.
    We therefore oppose all US-led attempts to create an unrepresentative “government-in-exile,” which would have no purpose beyond further legitimizing the case for military intervention.
    The Middle East Committee of WAMM therefore opposes all US-sponsored and supported military intervention in Syria.
    WAMM Middle East Committee
    Map of the Middle East showing the relationship of countries to each other.

  2. Suzan Koch November 10, 2012 at 3:29 PM

    Providing a one sided view of the war raging in Syria is not helpful. I believe it is absolutely true that the US and others are assisting and financing foreign mercenaries/terrorists to fight in Syria. I also believe that the US would like to have a strong hand in choosing the next government to replace Asssad, Hillary Clinton states so openly. I also do not see a good outcome for the Syrian people because of their geopolitical position in the MidEast, among other reasons.
    On the other hand, there is much more to the conflict/war and the causes of this war/conflict, than is being provided by the current selection of articles by WAMM Today about this war/conflict, which only provide the Assad viewpoint, directly, as in the article above, or indirectly through proxies. Not acknowledging the economic, religious, social and political complexity of the circumstances which led up to the protests and crackdown by Assad, leaves readers devoid of any historical or recent context in which to understand what is happening there at this time (a constantly changing and devolving reality.)
    WAMM Today has consistently presented articles and opinions which claim that there never was a legitimate protest movement in Syria, or that Assad’s regime ever responded with violence, including torture of young teens, when the protests grew in size. Rather, the articles put up on this page have portrayed the protests and violent response to these protests as being a complete fiction, facilitated by a mainstream media and comprised only of staged burning tires and explosions arranged by those trying to convince the world that there was a peaceful protest movement that turned to violence in response to and in revenge of the violence unleashed by the Assad regime, to give an excuse for the US to invade.
    Further these articles portray Syria as a semi-socialist and secular country. This is not accurate. Syria underwent the neoliberalization/privatization of it’s economy, just as much of world has also been forced into these circumstances, by the US and the West, when the Soviet Union and it’s financial support of allies collapsed, and subsequently the enacting of Free Trade Agreements and global economic pressues. Assad did reinstitute some price supports and assistance to the population in 2011, in response to the uprising, in order to quell the protests. This description of the economic situation in Syria is minimal and shorthand, and readers would gain much from reading Syria: from ‘authoritarian upgrading’ to revolution? by Raymond Hinnebusch, which is an 18 page document published by International Affairs 2012@the Royal Institue of International Affairs. It touches only briefly on the actual conflict, but instead provides detailed information on Syria from the time of the ending of the colonial period, independence, the assumption to power by Bashar al-Asad’s father, Hafiz al-Asad and what that was like in terms of political, economic, social and religious realities – and the paper goes on from there, into the Bashar Asad’s regime and what has occurred in all these spheres since he stepped in to run the country at the death of his father in 2000.
    I further disagree with the analysis that the US intended and implemented a phoney protest movement in Syria in order to invade and control Syria, at this time. some of these phoney stagins have occurred, however. Although, I agree that the US is perfectly capable and willing to do this, given the right moment in time, as shown by it’s actions with NATO, in regards to Libya, if one looks at the reality of Syria’s relationship to the US and Israel and the practical application of these relationships, one can see that it is obvious that Syria only gave lip service to support for the Palestinians and instead provided an impoartant bulwark for Israel and the US.
    Please go to the September 2012 issue of Zine Magazine to read Phyllis Bennis’s article, which delineates some of the important functions Syria has provided, in helping Israel maintain it’s stranglehold on the Palestinians.
    I am not writing in an attempt to make any claim whatsoever, that the US and it’s MidEast Allies did not become deeply involved in the Syrian crisis, once it was apparent that Assad was not going to easily and quickly suppress dissent, or that we should in any way support the US War Crime Regime and all of the dictatorships/monarchies which are involved in working against the Assad regime with weapons and men, plus propaganda.
    I am in no way trying to refute the fact that the US is openly stating that they have sent in the CIA (I am sure it was already there!), or that they are providing the funding for Qatar and Saudia Arabia to send weapons to the foreign and domestic fighters- although how much they ever supplied weapons to the original Syrian domestic rebels is highly debatable.
    Nor am I trying to say that the rebels and others, besides the Assad forces, have not committed atrosities or that by turning to armed self-defense they have helped out the people of Syria.
    I am trying to say, that there were legitimate and vital economic and political grievances, along with the corruption and violence of the Assad regime, which brought people into the streets to join the general “Arab Spring” uprising, and which crossed party and religious lines to create a broad movement.
    Once arms were taken up by some men, and they placed themselves in the centers of cities and towns and the Assad forces responded with shelling and bombing, the people have been forced to flee, with their homes and family members destroyed, detained, tortured and dead. This is a tragedy of monumental proportions and one the US cares not one whit about, except to make sure they control the outcome to it’s and Israel’s advantage.
    I ask readers to search out and read about this complex situation and become more completely informed as to it’s reality based political, economic, social and religious context and to not totally dismiss as fabricated, the very real circimstances that provided the impetus to the mass protests and the current situation in Syria, as best as can be determined, among the swirl of competing media descriptions/deceptions, based on the national and political tendencies from which these conflicting and confusing portraits of what is happening in Syria today, originate.
    If we are to purport to know what is happening in Syria and in response to this crisis, then we need to have a more substantial base of knowledge and a more sophisticated analysis.
    On the other hand, and more importantly, we need only to understand that the people of Syria had/have legitimate grievances and difficult circumstances, and that the US and it’s MidEast allies want to create a Syria to their liking at the expense of the Syrian people as a consequence, rather than allowing the Syrians to ever establish a true democracy without outside intervention and control. And further, we need not understand the intricacies of what is happening in Syria, to stand by our principles and demand that the US stop interferring in Syria, providing weapons, or to try to create a “no fly zone” or that there be any occupation of any kind by any foreign nation.
    We need to call for peace and negotiations which benefit the Syrian people. Suzan Koch

    • wammtoday November 14, 2012 at 12:25 AM

      I think that the mainstream corporate media supplies more than enough articles about the US government position of attempting to overthrow Assad to gain geopolitical control of Syria, an ally of Iran. The WAMM Middle East Committee and WAMMToday do not support this view (but it is not as if you can’t find it everywhere in the papers, on the news, on the web and on Facebook). It is not our job to present all the different political positions around Syria. We are Women Against Military Madness. We educate about and oppose and challenge all forms of Military Madness, especially those perpetrated by our own government under the auspices of (the myth of) humanitarian intervention.

      • Suzan Koch November 26, 2012 at 11:08 AM

        Yes, WAMM does not need to repeat the lies of the mainstream media, nor present all the different political positions around Syria, but it is also not WAMM’s job to pretend that Assad is a good guy and that the people of Syria did not have legitimate grievances and peaceful protests to start with, and only provide Assad’s propaganda, as the truth. There is a big difference between what you say you are doing, and what is actually being put up for information, claiming to be accurate. Two lies do not make the truth, nor truly defend the Syrian people, and I refuse to pretend they do. I did not repeat the US government positions – quite the contrary – I am a bit confused by your confusing statement. If the “mainstream corporate media is supplying more than enough articles about the US government’s position,of attempting to overthrow Assad and gain geopolitical control of Syria, an ally of Iran”, then they are already doing the job for WAMM, but this is not the case. I do not agree with you, that the mainstream corporate media IS providing the truth, for the most part, about US intentions. Usually they describe our involvement as one of trying to help the people of Syria – which I do not believe is accurate and I know you don’t either. My beef is with the claim that all of the peaceful protests and the description of Assad’s brutal response has been fabricated. It is no more fabricated than the truth about the brutal response by the rulers of Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Yeman when their subjects tried to peacefully protest, or any of the many similar sets of circumstances around the world, by autocratic regimes supported by the US. Telling the truth about a situation does not mean you support US intervention, interference or occupation. One dictator and the allied elite is no better than another, when their power is threatened. The US and it’s allies are promoting and encouraging in every way, the civil war taking place in Syria and we must expose and condemn them for these acts, but lying about Assad does not lend WAMM credibility in carrying out it’s mission of standing against the US empire and military madness/conquests. If this statement and the preceding one by me, does not make my position clear, rather than being read and characterized as giving support to the US Government and it’s MidEast and European Allies, then I think this is either a a lack of comprehension and perhaps not reading what I have written, very carefully, or a deliberate choice to mischaracterize what I am saying. I do not know to whom I am responding, as no name was attached. Suzan Koch

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