Daily Times

The true concern of intellect is to investigate the given truth in its totality and negate the reification of thought based on falsification. Instead, what one comes across is the opposite in its entirety, the imposition of reason whose renunciation will be the greatest service to humankind.

The US invasion of Syria continues. One does not require the prudence of an Einstein to know the irrationality behind this aggression. To be precise fifty-nine Tomahawk scudded through the air to destroy whatever little is left in Syria killing seven civilians including four children; for the US, an insignificant collateral damage.

Each Tomahawk reportedly costs in the range of USD 500,000 to 1.5 million. Thus the cost of this attack runs well into tens of millions. Despite homelessness, severe economic disparity and unemployment at home, keeping the world in awe is important, and for this, an ordinary US citizen is expected to feel grateful to the state.

The most baffling was the stance taken by the media, especially by a leading newspaper, which portrays itself a staunch disciple of neutrality and investigative journalism. It states: “…the attack was ordered by Donald Trump, a volatile narcissist without a coherent worldview, moral compass or significant attention span, who loudly urged Barack Obama not to take action after Mr Assad’s forces used sarin to kill more than 1,000 people at Ghouta in 2013”. The modern façade of liberalism is so judgmental that it readily passed its verdict by stating: “Emboldened by the indifference to his campaign of terror, his (Assad’s) troops now appear to have used sarin again” [Editorial Guardian 7-4-17].

Do these fantastic media-houses care to know that in this “symbolic message that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated”, how many Tomahawk have gone astray and what they did to the ordinary Syrians? It is a matter of common sense that to stop violence, justification of further violence is a recipe for disaster, an expression of outright sadism.

The premise, which interests every thinking human being, is that all this fuss has nothing to do with the contemptible act committed against humanity. It is related to an individual, a “volatile narcissist without a coherent worldview” (who is) responsible for sending a “symbolic message”, albeit the authenticity of the message is beyond doubt. Isn’t it about time that the Nobel committee should begin to gather the broken chips of its morality to award another peace prize to the new American President and if possible the media houses as well?

What makes a heinous act of belligerency carried out by Obama justifiable but somewhat debatable when committed by a ‘narcissist and inconsistent’ President having a flawed nature? What if by giving up his flawed nature he becomes consistent? Would he be able to shed a protracted illness, which refuses to go once it acquires a secondary character?

Where lies the morality in this war, or to be precise, in any other war? If the motives of the imperialist forces are evident, the other side is not fighting to achieve sublimated goals. Assad is most certainly fighting for his survival, and the support he is receiving is not from his former cold war ally, the USSR, but from a capitalist regime led by Putin and the Ayatollahs of Iran. Where do the people of Syria actually stand? They started their own battle against anti-people policies of the neo-liberal state. It was the US, which came to Assad’s rescue, which reflects the continuation of the system. The losers are Syria and her people who stood to overthrow a potential dynasty.

In a highly industrialised society, the dream of socialism can realise itself, but not where the process of primitive accumulation has just started or has to be restarted.

It is time for a movement to initiate within the US itself where the soil is fertile for a fierce class conflict. Media, on behalf of capitalism, would resist any move towards emancipation. However journalism, which according to Oscar Wilde, has attained its terrible force through “prejudice, stupidity, cant and twaddle”, cannot blunt the thought process of the masses that once armed with the weapon of class-consciousness not only become their own leaders but creators of their own dialectical development as well. Only through a revolution, this catastrophe of war will come to its logical conclusion.

The writer has authored books on socialism and history. He blogs at saulatnagi.wordpress.com and can be reached atsaulatnagi@hotmail.com