DiEM25 strongly condemns last night’s US-led strikes in Syria. We condemn bombing as a cowardly, ineffectual move that will most certainly make the situation in Syria worse, not better. If chemical weapons were used by the Assad regime, the West’s bombs will not help the victims, nor avert further use of misanthropic weapons and methods by Assad or other combatants in Syria.
“But we must do something, mustn’t we?”, cry out the Establishment – like they cried out in 2003 when supporting the invasion of Iraq – which led to Syria’s tragedy.

• They want us to forget that doing the wrong thing is worse than doing nothing.
• While fully supporting the Saudi Arabian regime and its lethal war against the people of Yemen, they want to perpetuate the myth of liberal imperialism and regime change.

DiEM25 does believe that we must do something. But first we must recall that:

• Over 400,000 people have died in Syria and across the region since 2011. Continued bombing has only worsened the situation. Foreign military intervention in Syria has been a key driver of the refugee crisis and the instability in that region.
• Almost thirty years of continuous military operations in the region underscore the West’s total failure in creating the conditions for peace, while increasing the danger of wider war.
• A transnational political settlement is the only long-term solution to the problems of the Middle East. This is not easy to achieve but it is our duty as Europeans to lead the effort. This, like any other conflict, must be resolved in accordance with international law, respect to human rights and the UN Charter.

DiEM25 believes that, at long last, the West must do the right thing by the people of Syria and other countries ravaged by the repercussions of Western imperialism:

• Establish an objective international inquiry on the use of chemical weapons under the auspices of the UN
• Bomb no one and stop arming anyone who is bombing other people or their own
• Desist from seeking militaristic solutions to problems that militarism created
• Any decision to deploy armed forces against a sovereign nation must be sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council.

Last night’s bombing was a hideous substitute for doing the right thing by the people of Syria. DiEM25 believes that if we want to ease the suffering of the Syrian people, European democrats must first confront our governments’ tendency to embrace militarism.

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