by Danny Haiphong
There are no international laws or principles US imperialism is bound to respect. US imperialism’s “coalition of the willing” is waging war with ISIS, a war Washington admits is really a war on Syria. ISIS, the jihadist network of US imperialism’s own creation, is being bombarded by coalition airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.
The imperialist coalition of Gulf monarchs, NATO countries, and Israel know that airstrikes will not eliminate the terrorist force that has grown fat from the trough of billions worth of intelligence and military support. Such knowledge only matters if the coalition was interested in getting rid of ISIS, which it certainly is not. The coalition’s real aim is to trap Syria in between airstrikes and mercenaries in hopes of toppling the independent Syrian government.
The Latin American nation of Venezuela is a staunch ally of Syria, especially since the Arab nation became embattled with imperialism’s proxy war in 2011. With Venezuela due for a seat on the UN Security Council in 2015, Washington’s corporate media has come out swinging to prevent the erection of another barrier to imperialism’s agenda in the Middle East. In a piece titled “Venezuela Doesn’t Deserve a Seat on the UN Security Council,” the Washington Post called Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro an “economically illiterate former bus driver.”
The piece demanded that the Obama Administration persuade voting nations to deny Venezuela from the seat on the Security Council. Additionally, the New York Times denounced Venezuela for its “human rights abuses” and called Maduro a “more divisive and dangerous” leader than his wildly popular predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
Despite the impeccable timing between the corporate media slander of Venezuela and the UN General Assembly meeting in New York City, a US congressional aide reported that Washington has resigned to the potential of Venezuela being voted into the UN Security Council. However, this naively suggests that Washington is taking a passive position on Venezuela’s possible UN seat. The reality is that Washington has little choice but to accept Venezuela into the international community. President Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution have overwhelming regional support from Latin American and Caribbean nations.
When imperialism loses, the corporate media attempts to control the narrative by acting as a mouthpiece for Washington’s imperial policy. So it should come as no surprise that this round of anti-Venezuela propaganda arose during the UN General Assembly of Nations. The major corporate news outlets are the first line of defense for current and future US imperialist interventions.
The New York Times and Washington Post attacked Venezuela despite the fact that the nation would not have veto power if elected into the UN Security Council. Still, Venezuela’s bid places much at stake for US imperialism and its “coalition of the willing” currently bombing Syria. For one, Turkey is also up for a vote on the Security Council. Turkey has been a willing participant in the proxy war against Syria, Iraq, and the entire region.
The Turkish ruling party led by Tayyip Erdogan supplies ISIS jihadists with military and intelligence support on the Turkish-Syria border in exchange for looted oil. Furthermore, Venezuela, unlike Turkey, would undoubtedly use the UN platform to strengthen the resistance axis opposing imperialist intervention. Venezuela’s presence in the UN Security Council strengthens the anti-imperialist alliance led by Russia and China. This would further weaken the Washington’s ability to gain permission for military intervention.
In his speech at the UN General Assembly, Maduro made it clear that imperialism has reason to fear the Bolivarian Revolution’s anti-imperialist position. The Venezuelan President pledged solidarity with Syria, stating “it’s President Bashar Al-Assad and the Syrian government which have stopped the terrorists.” He added to this by condemning the US and West for the creation of the Islamic State (ISIS). Maduro insisted that “only an alliance that respects these nations’ (Syria and Iraq) sovereignty and the assistance of their governments, peoples, and armed forces can truly defeat . . . all of the terrorist forces that have emerged like a Frankenstein, a monster nursed by the West itself.”
Maduro’s presentation to the UN is a clear indication that Venezuela aligns itself with Russia, China, Iran, and Syria’s resistance to US imperial proxy war. US imperial airstrikes are increasingly burdening Syria with civilian deaths. Covert support of ISIS and overt military intervention is plunging the region into economic crisis and pressuring the axis of resistance into military conflict. The imperialist coalition thus hopes to weaken the resistance axis before the potential for a regional military conflict becomes a reality. Venezuela’s bid for a UN Security Council seat is a direct challenge to these plans of the ever more desperate imperial powers.
Of course, Venezuela presents more concerns to imperialism than its anti-imperialist foreign policy. The Bolivarian Revolution in and of itself is a threat to Washington and its imperialist lackeys. Since 1999, Venezuela has undergone a significant transformation led by the oppressed under Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro, and the PSUV. Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution is in its second decade of building concrete, popular structures which have immensely reduced poverty and increased popular participation in the destiny of the country.
Government programs in the areas of housing, healthcare, and education have brought both power and a higher standard of living to the working class. Despite the fact that the majority of Venezuelans are aligned with the Bolivarian revolution, Washington has financially supported Venezuela’s oligarchy since day one of the Bolivarian Revolution with hopes that Venezuela will once again become a client regime.
Washington’s primary objective in this period is to install client regimes that are compliant with the political, military, and economic rule of imperialism. Both Syria and Venezuela have stood up to imperialism by pursuing independent solutions to the ruinous conditions of US hegemony. Because of this, Syria and Venezuela are struggling to maintain sovereignty from the pressures of Washington’s proxy wars of destabilization. Venezuela was under heightened attack for months in early 2014 from Washington-backed “opposition” protesters, many of which participated in violent acts of political terror and economic sabotage.
In 2015, Syria will be into year four of Washington’s imperial proxy war by way of Jihadi, sectarian terrorism. Venezuela and Syria represent two nations with similar relationships to the imperialist powers and are part and parcel of an emerging axis of resistance that Washington is attempting to strangle at all costs. The challenge is for anti-war and anti-imperialist forces in the US to step up and stand with the axis of resistance and banish the white supremacist and imperial narrative preventing the birth of a US-based anti-imperialist movement.
