Stop Bombing Syria

WAMM STAND

WAMM Statement on the February 25, 2021 U.S. military bombing of Syria

Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) denounces in the strongest possible terms the illegal and deadly bombing of Syria on the border with Iraq on February 25, 2021. The airstrike, which was conducted inside a sovereign nation and without Congressional approval, took place only 37 days into the Biden administration. The outrageous attack saw 35,000 pounds of bombs dropped and as many as 22 people have been reported killed.

What happened to Biden’s promise to engage the world in decency and diplomacy?

We regard this bombing as an egregious affront to us and a source of national disgrace and shame. We did not want another immoral and illegal act of war.

In the midst of a global pandemic that has brought the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, the U.S. has managed to find the money to bomb another country while failing to eliminate food and housing insecurity and provide adequate healthcare and student debt forgiveness for its own citizens.

The airstrike was reportedly an act of retaliation for the shelling of U.S. military installations inside Iraq, resulting in the death of one military contractor. Although the militia killed in Thursday’s bombing of Syria were Iraqi nationals, the establishment narrative tells us that the Iraqis are mere proxies and Iran is solely responsible.

A more likely reason for the U.S. bombing is that the Biden administration wants to coerce Iran into resuming talks on the Iran nuclear deal [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCOPA)], which the U.S. pulled out of; this recent show of U.S. fire power is based on the presumption that it would lead the Iranian government to agree to terms favorable to U.S. interests, at the expense of Iran. The airstrike was launched on the same day that U.S. diplomats circulated a document demanding that Iran cooperate in full with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors even though it is the U.S., not Iran, who walked out of the JCOPA on May 12, 2018.

More than one million people were killed in Iraq during the U.S. invasion and occupation, and countless others became refugees. Iranians have been deprived and have died due to sanctions, which, with some exceptions, have not been lifted under the U.S. tactic of “maximum pressure.” U.S. troops have established themselves in the oil-rich region of Syria. The U.S. has no right to be in Iraq, Syria, or any other country to occupy, bomb, or levee sanctions.

We demand the U.S. leave the Middle East now! #End the bombing of Syria #Troops out of Iraq #US out of the Middle East #End Sanctions on Iran