Red Flag has pointed out that the struggle of competing capitalists drives events everywhere. The rivalry, of the US vs. Russia, China, and the EU, is not confined to trade wars and sanctions; it leads to major wars.
These wars do not always involve big powers’ armed forces. There are proxy wars in which big powers get others to fight for them. The US CIA tried this; their biggest success was arming the Jihadists fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The CIA’s “Operation Cyclone” trained and armed Afghans, eventually costing the US about $20 billion and producing huge Afghan casualties. The Soviets withdrew; a bloody civil war followed. The US government counted this a big success. US supported Jihadists included close associates of Osama bin Laden and helped form Al Qaeda.
In 2012, the CIA, with the Saudis and others, armed Syrian forces aiming to remove Bashir al Assad’s regime. On the other side, the Russians supported Assad’s regime. At least 500,000 Syrians died in the fighting that created millions of refugees. Let’s trace how this proxy war played out.
The Russians have had a naval base in Syria at Tartus since 1971. Putin met Assad in 2005 and forgave Syria’s multi-billion-dollar debt to Russia. From 2007 through 2010, Russia made big arms sales to Syria. In 2009, the Tartus naval base was dredged for larger vessels.
In March 2011, protests against the Assad regime began in southern Syria and were brutally suppressed. The Russians blocked attempts in the UN to sanction Syria and, in 2012, provided weapons including attack helicopters and anti-aircraft weapons to Syria.
In 2012, Saudi Arabia and the CIA smuggled weapons to Syrian rebel forces. In 2013, the CIA project “Timber Sycamore” operating out of Amman Jordan, provided assault weapons, anti-tank missiles, pickup trucks, etc. CIA paramilitaries trained Syrian fighters. Estimates are that these CIA fighters killed about 100,000 Syrian government troops and allies.
US-backed troops fought alongside and supplied weapons to Al-Qaeda’s Al Nusra front. Many weapons passed quickly into the hands of ISIS.
After anti-regime forces gained ground in September 2015, Russia brought in 48,000 troops and tanks and deployed Russian air defense systems. Russian airstrikes seriously weakened anti-government forces and helped the Syrian government retake Aleppo and Palmyra in 2016. Hezbollah and Iranian troops coordinated attacks with these strikes.
A Russian general claimed 71,000 airstrikes against “the infrastructure of the terrorists.” Russia made cruise missile strikes from submarines in the Mediterranean and ships in the Caspian Sea and air strikes from an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean.
In 2017, the US discontinued Timber Sycamore.
In 2018, Russian sent civilian “contractors” to support the Syrian government. They engaged US troops; US artillery reportedly killed hundreds of “contractors.”
The US intervention failed, and US power in the Middle East was weakened. The Russians gained: they now have a long lease on the Tartus naval base where they can station ships and a long-term presence in the region. Proxy wars can affect imperial powers’ ability to dominate regions.
All capitalists’ wars result in death and misery for the masses.
There is no peaceful capitalism. The masses can make a future only by fighting for communism that has no money, profits, nations, and need to dominate regions and will mobilize masses to meet everyone’s needs. Communist masses will need weapons only to guarantee that capitalists never regain power.
Join ICWP and help make the future that we, the masses, need.
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