[News] Syria’s Fall and Anti-Imperialist Lessons

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Syria’s Fall and Anti-Imperialist Lessons
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/syrias-fall-and-anti-imperialist-lessons>

<https://www.blackagendareport.com/syrias-fall-and-anti-imperialist-lessons>
Essam Elkorghli <https://www.blackagendareport.com/author/Essam Elkorghli>
18 Dec 2024

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[image: Syria]
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/sites/default/files/2024-12/1%20845x400_0.png>
A defaced portrait of Bashar al-Assad on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria.
[Photo: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images]

*Similar to a predator realizing it is losing a fight and is reaching its
end, the U.S. is lashing out and attempting to deepen its claws into
subjugated nations like Syria, which just experienced a coup. The fall of
Syria was a serious strike against the Axis of Resistance, but all is not
lost. There are lessons to take away from these events in the fight against
imperialism.*

The fast-paced unfolding of events that took place in Syria shook everyone,
including the regime change and color revolution enthusiasts who hoped to
destroy Syria only to deliver it on a golden plate to the Zionist entity to
annex massive swaths of lands. The forceful overthrow of the government in
Syria represents a colossal defeat to the Pan-Arabists in the region and
those who center the Palestinian national liberation cause. This is not a
rhetorical exaggeration; the demise of Syria will have direct consequences
on the Axis of Resistance — given that the land bridge
(Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon) has been undermined — and the interconnected
struggle against imperialist zionism. While the fog of the color revolution
has not settled, there are plenty of lessons to learn from the destruction
of Syria and how imperialism is still capable of launching deadly blows as
we witness the demise of its hegemony.

*Syria and the Imperialist Cordon Sanitaire *

Any reader of non-mainstream media that is not kowtowing to imperialism and
Zionism will know that anyone who questions the usual narratives about
Syria will be framed as an Assad apologist
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/relative-peace-chaos-first-phase-new-war-returns-syria>.
This framing dilutes any contestation of what western media and liberal
mouthpieces have produced in terms of defamation and lies about Syria’s
government <https://www.blackagendareport.com/war-propaganda-and-fall-syria>
as merely bloodthirsty, dictator-loving, and campist. These mouthpieces of
liberal imperialism never look at how those critical of imperialism center
the notion of contradiction in the materialist dialectic tradition,
especially espoused in anti-western Marxism. Leftists and western Marxists
alike, alongside the liberal imperialists, have been constantly referring
to Syria as a dictatorship that needs a regime change. Meanwhile, those
critical of imperialism understand the notion of contradiction that
situates people into a system mired with imperfections. The Syrian
government has historically oppressed, imprisoned, and prosecuted
dissidents — both right and left-wing. Further, as a state, it promoted
neoliberalism since Bashar Al-Assad took over in 2000. Denying these facts
would be an injustice to the history and analysis of this conjuncture and
would not provide sufficient grounding to understand how western
imperialism aided in the mobilization of the many Syrians for a regime
change since 2011. While most of the mainstream news and literature will
focus on how much blood has been spilled by the war on Syria since 2011,
pinning the blame solely on the government, the people who challenge such
narrative have been constantly sidelined and the critical literature they
produce is being equated as regime propagandists.

The work of Ali Kadri, particularly *Imperialism with Reference to Syria *and
The *Cordon Sanitaire: **A Single Law Governing Development in East Asia
and the Arab World,* are arguably the best suited books to understand
imperialism and how it operates globally with cases of Eastern Asia and
Western Asia — the very places Mao had warned the Arabs about half a
century ago when he orated
<https://www.jstor.org/stable/2535952?typeAccessWorkflow=login>:
"Imperialism is afraid of China and of the Arabs. Israel and Formosa
[Taiwan] are bases of imperialism in Asia. You are the front gate of the
great continent, and we are the rear. Their goal is the same. . . Asia is
the biggest continent in the world, and the West wants to continue
exploiting it. The West does not like us, and we must understand this fact.
The Arab battle against the West is the battle against Israel. So boycott
Europe and America, O’ Arabs!”.

Now, we are constantly hearing the Zionist entity as expanding and forming
buffer zones to supplant any actors from launching attacks against the
entity, a cordon sanitaire. Kadri situates this term within the imperialist
system to understand imperialism and anti-imperialism, development and
de-development of the regions. He *essentially *notes that imperialism
implants allied regimes and transfers industrial technology to them so that
they develop but within subservient status to the US-led imperialism while
remaining as a military outpost that protects US hegemony: “There is also a
remarkable similarity between these regions [Eastern and Western Asia].
Rich countries in both regions are closely allied with US-led imperialism.
In particular, the developed Asian countries serve as part of a Cordon
Sanitaire hedging the advance of China …  Accordingly, one may deduce that
to develop as such or to grow wealthy and sustain a pro-imperialist
working-class consciousness, a given country has to supplement US-led
imperialist hegemony.” Liberals will often bring the example of the
economic development of the Zionist entity and the so-called ‘Asian tigers’
without a reference to US-led imperialism and how it enabled such economic
transformation of those gates to Asia. In their advocacy for such
developmental models, they forgo imperialism as a world system and how much
geopolitical autonomy these countries have (i.e. just a fortnight ago,
South Korea declared martial law, fearing parliamentary budget disputes and
sending alarming message to the more than 28,000 American soldiers
<https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11388> housed in that
satellite state). These satellite regimes, whether in Western Asia or
Eastern Asia, have a strategic role in defending US hegemony, and in
return, the US protects the regimes sitting there from actual revolutionary
change, like what we saw in Bahrain in 2011
<https://books.google.tn/books/about/Arab_Spring_Libyan_Winter.html?id=ZnlL0Udge4kC&redir_esc=y>
and the Zionist entity when Iran retaliated against it in October and April
of this year
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/axis-resistance-exposing-functionaries-imperialism>.
The enabling of subservient development of those entities serves the
interest of the US to create its own imperialist buffer zone*. *

Libya, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran have been countries that hampered the
hegemony of this ever-expanding buffer zone by training, housing, funding
and arming the Palestinian resistance, and for that reason, color
revolutions have been instigated to allow for the Zionist entity to enjoy
its expansionist project unabashedly with the help of the Zionist Arabs and
the NATO proxies in the region. In recent days, people have been resharing
the video of the war hawk, retired U.S. general Wesley Clark
<https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-09-11/America-s-plan-after-9-11-Taking-out-seven-countries-in-five-years-1n18olzDYfm/index.html>,
where he spoke about performing a regime change in seven countries,
particularly the aforementioned ones to protect US strategic interests in
the region. But it is not about just regime change. It is about dependent
development and how to transform the economies of these countries into
consumer hubs as opposed to sovereign production localities outside of the
orbit of imperialism, so they purchase the excess productions of the
imperialist core. Clark, who was spearheading the bombing campaign against
Yugoslavia, has infamously said <http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/migil.htm>
“demolish, destroy, devastate, degrade, and ultimately eliminate the
essential infrastructure of [Yugoslavia],” where it is clearly to
demobilize the infrastructural development of the country to make it docile
and economically subservient to the imperialist system — nothing about
democracy and popular rule by the masses. While Iraq and Libya have been
destroyed, de-developed and deindustrialized alongside the introduction of
a market-oriented economy, Syria is awaiting the same fate as its ‘moderate
rebels’ want to transform the economy into free-market
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syrias-new-rulers-back-shift-free-market-economy-business-leader-says-2024-12-10/>
.

*Anti-imperialist Lessons Following a Devastating Defeat Worse than '67*

The loss of Syria is a grand defeat for the Axis because Lebanon’s land
bridge has been cut off by these Zionist ‘moderate’ rebels who took power
in Syria and vowed to stifle the presence of Shia in the country, namely
Iran, Iraq and Lebanon — the very powers that are actually sacrificing
their limbs and livelihood for Palestine’s liberation and the resistance in
Gaza. The end of Syria is a loss for the Arabs that the region has not
experienced anything like it since 1967 when the Zionist entity took over
the Golan Heights and swiftly annexed the Sinai Peninsula. In my view, it
is even worse because not only is Syria being destroyed here, but people
are celebrating it as a revolution and liberation of Syria, and it is done
by *mostly* indigenous hands as opposed to foreign entities inflicting this
loss upon us, like what the region witnessed in 1967.

The demise of Syria is a major blow to those who know the weight of Syria
in Arab history and civilization. It is a hub of knowledge production and
ancient civilization, with rich cultural production and art history. Just
like many of Iraq and Libya’s artifacts and heritage are being destroyed
and/or sold to western museums to satiate the gaze of museum goers and
milking profits from entrance fees and orientalized exhibitions, while we
(the people of Libya and Iraq) are left with hollow libraries and museums,
Syria will experience the same. There will be a loss of individual
freedoms, forced assimilation to an Islamist status quo, discrimination
based on sects, and silencing of ideologically anti-imperialist knowledge
production. Surely, Syria’s education textbooks
<https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/Syrian-National-Identity_IMPACT-se_July-2018-.pdf>
that have promoted progressive and peaceful coexistence between the various
sects and ethnicities within the Syrian society will be undermined by the
anti-Kurd, anti-Shia and anti-religious pluralism spearheaded by the
‘reformed’ jihadists running the country. These are not mere speculations
but lessons learned from the destruction of Libya and how Islamist takeover
has reduced the country to being run by reactionary and conservative forces
that furtively seek to normalize relations with Zionism
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/libyas-attempt-normalize-relations-zionist-entity-multilayered-treason>while
the country continues to be under sanctions despite the overthrow of the
Libyan government since 2011.
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/centering-imperialism-libya-implications-african-continent>

Since 2022, many have been cheering the dwindling US hegemony given the
proliferating de-dollarization, the formation and consolidation of BRICS as
an alternative, and the rise of China that presents an alternative
development model outside of the imperialist orbit. But the imperialist
enemy has been detecting its diminishing hegemony and hence, it has passed
in its congress the so-called *Global Fragility Act* — an act that views
the world as changing too fast and too far from the imperialist orbit,
making it a fragile globe, and hence the need to promote stability. This
act was passed in 2019 and is tied to a number of other acts that attempt
to stifle the burgeoning popularity of China
<https://media.defense.gov/2024/May/07/2003458326/-1/-1/1/FEATURE%20-%20LEHMKUHL%20-%20JIPA.PDF>
and Russia
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/7311/text> as
strategic partners for sovereign development for much of the global south.

To claim that imperialism is in decay and incapable of inflicting damage on
the Axis forces would only unjustly serve imperialist goals. Imperialism as
a system that has withered multiple crises is led by smart billionaires who
bankroll numerous functionaries that enable the reproduction of the system
and supplant anti-imperialism through various weapons — media propaganda,
financial sanctions, and militarism. All three were employed in Syria, such
that the mainstream media and the functionaries of imperialism performed
the most bizarre mental gymnastics that involved celebrating jihadists
rolling into Syria’s capital, overthrowing the government, and claiming
liberation while almost half of the country getting annexed by the Zionist
entity (and not forgetting that Turkey occupies part of Syria and the US
has troops stationed in the country’s fertile lands and oil-abundant
region). The inability to question Zionist expansion by the new rulers of
Syria – who promised not to
<https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/article/abu-mohammed-al-jolani-syria-hts-leader-interview-nmbz0xb0v>
make
Syria a launchpad for attacks
<https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/article/abu-mohammed-al-jolani-syria-hts-leader-interview-nmbz0xb0v>
against the Zionist entity – tells us how blinded by imperialist logic
these decadent regime change enthusiasts are.

While surely the Axis of Resistance has received a major blow and needs to
reorganize and restrategize vis-á-vis the proliferation of imperialism in
Syria given the victory of the Zionist Islamists (they literally thanked
the Zionist entity for supporting
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/syria-rebels-appear-to-credit-israeli-strikes-on-hezbollah-with-aiding-shock-advance/>
them in overthrowing the Syrian government), the compass remains Palestine.
The ongoing genocide in Gaza ought to be our compass and standing with —
ideologically and materially — the anti-imperialist forces should be the
prime focus. The enemy is no longer on the other side of the border; the
enemy of Palestinian liberation is within us, and it starts with educating
and mobilizing against the local functionaries of imperialism.

*Essam Elkorghli is a Libyan PhD student at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. He researches Libya’s modern political history and
contemporary imperialism in education. He is a labor organizer with the
Graduate Employees’ Organization, <https://www.uiucgeo.org/> assistant
editor for Middle East Critique Journal
<https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ccri20/current>, member of the Global Pan
African Movement <https://panafricancongress.org/>, and serves on the
international advisory board of Pambazuka News
<https://pz.pambazuka.org/node/100000006>.*
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