The U.S. in in Syria: Why does it matter?

This week saw the announcement that U.S. Marines have been deployed to northern Syria to assist “US-backed local forces”.

Today Syrian president Bashar al-Assad called the US troops “invaders” because they were operating in the country without the permission of the government.

The deployment of Marines is just an official confirmation of what has been obvious for a while: the U.S. wants control of Syria, or at the very least, carved into pieces it can manipulate.

Syria has been the conflict that has shown the true face of U.S. imperialism – for those paying attention.

In Syria, the U.S. has openly supported the Al-Qaeda branch in Syria (now called Al Nusra Front). Remember when “fighting Al-Qaeda” was the single obsession of the American news media, with every terror attack in the world always branded as having been committed by “Al-Qaeda affiliates”? It wasn’t that long ago.

Now, the American government calls Al-Qaeda “moderate rebels” without a peep from the cowardly and compliant news media owned by billionaires.

And in January, a recording leaked of former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry saying the American government deliberately allowed ISIL to grow in strength  in hopes it would help overthrow Assad.

If you are a working American, you might be thinking something like: ‘Why should I care? Assad’s the bad guy.’

By now you should have realized, imperialism doesn’t help you, the working person. It only helps the ultra-rich. They send people like YOU to go and die so they can have access to greater resources for themselves.

Is your life better after the U.S. invasion of Iraq? How many Americans who went to Iraq are now homeless or suffering from PTSD?

This is even aside from the fact that everyone should be in revolt over the open admission the U.S. is supporting Al-Qaeda and isn’t even embarrassed about it.

Imperialism is wrong, it doesn’t help you and it should be opposed by everyone – especially folks who have to struggle to make it every day.

Those of us who have to work for a living should come together and oppose it in every way we can.