(Japanese)
September 1, 2013
The Obama administration of the United States is going to intervene into the Syrian Civil War. They say that the Syrian government forces, in the 21st August attacks against the rebel, used chemical weapons, which caused some 1500 deaths including many civilians. The Americans, they say, are going to attack the government forces in order to punish the regime and protect Syrian people from their brutal oppressor.
We are totally opposed to the US intervention into the civil war.
First, it is still unknown who used what kinds of chemical weapons for what purposes. Finding the facts about this matter is the mission assigned to the UN inspecting team which has recently operated in the area where the alleged attack happened. Why cannot the Americans wait until the commission’s report is published?
Second, the military attacks against the Syrian government forces by missiles, bombers and so on will not help Syrian ordinary people who have suffered from the prolonged internal conflict, whether the allegation on the chemical weapons is true or not.
The international community is nowadays very much suspicious of what the US claims for military interventions. We know the Bush II administration started the Iraq War ten years ago using the pretext that Iraq at the time had stockpiled mass destruction weapons. Nowadays, most of the people in the world know their excuse was totally a lie. Mr. Obama, you yourself was the person that won the Presidential race criticizing that dirty war. You must, at least, wait to see the findings by the UN commission before you judge on this matter.
We are entirely opposed to the US military intervention into Syria even if it turned out true that the government forces have used chemical weapons. For, the US intervention will have nothing to do with protecting Syrian people from their suffering. It will just prolong the devastating civil war and cause more misery. The prolonged civil war will cause fragmentation of Syria where various armed groups will fight each other like they did Lebanese civil war before the Ta’if agreement.
Look at Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya after the US and others’ military intervention in this century. What did happen after the central government collapsed with the US intervention? We know those Middle Eastern regimes toppled down due to the US intervention were neither democratic nor humanitarian. We do not deny that. And we do not think the Syrian regime of today is democratic and humanitarian at all. But, the facts show that the US and Western Powers cannot bring those countries democracy, peace, stability and betterment of the people’s lives there by force. The intended intervention into Syria will only create another war-torn country in the region, bringing endless armed conflict and misery. The impact of destabilization of Syria will be tremendous, and it may cause turmoil in the whole Middle East. And it may threaten the whole world.
We condemn every party who violates the international humanitarian laws, including the use of chemical weapons, in the internal war in Syria. This is one thing. But, outsiders’ military intervention into the conflict is another.
We, the undersigned, are totally opposed to the planned military intervention by the US and others. We also strongly urge Japanese government not to support nor “understand” the military attack by the US and others.
Al-Jisr The Bridge (Japan)
Midan: Dialogue for Palestine (Japan)
Palestine Forum Japan (Japan)
Palestine Olive (Japan)