When the puppet regime in Kabul fell on August 15, 2021, I expressed relief at the defeat of United States imperialism and, at the same time, horror at what awaits the women of Afghanistan at the hands of the jihadist Taliban.
The American liberal-imperialist lobby immediately attacked me because - I celebrate the victory of the Taliban. To the lackeys of imperialism, if you don't support US imperialism, that means you are a supporter of the jihadists who opposed US imperialism. The imperialist mindset is unable to see the obvious: we had a duty to oppose, equally fiercely, both American imperialism and the jihadists that American imperialism has strengthened with its brutality. They could not see that the US imperialist invasion only strengthened the jihadists intent on subjecting the women of Afghanistan to gender apartheid.
Last week, Bashar al-Assad's regime fell and jihadists captured Damascus. And this time I expressed relief that the tyrannical regime had fallen, noting: "Syrians have suffered enough. Now we need to ensure that this suffering ends, unlike in Iraq and Libya after the fall of the dictators there. To that end, foreign powers, both Western and non-Western, should be kept at bay."
Like after the fall of Kabul, I was immediately attacked because - I celebrate the victory of the jihadists. This time it was opponents of American imperialism. To them, if you don't support Assad, you must be a supporter of the jihadists who opposed Assad, and their American-Israeli supporters. It is the same logic as the supporters of American imperialism: "If you are not with us, then you are against us". My anti-imperialist detractors are unable to see that the Assad regime, with its tyranny, only strengthened the jihadists who eventually ousted Assad.
So here's my message to anti-imperialists who think it's smart to support tyrants like Assad (or, before him, Saddam) because he's the enemy of our imperialist enemy: to wage a long-term fight against imperialism and win, we must win the hearts and minds of the people . And we will not achieve this by supporting tyrants whom the people hate, just because they are the enemies of our enemies.
But wasn't it better in Iraq, some ask, before Saddam was overthrown by the American army? Of course it is. Wasn't Libya better off before the West overthrew Muammar Gaddafi? Of course it is. Isn't there a danger of even worse bloodshed in Syria after the fall of Assad, just like what happened in Iraq and Libya? Of course there is. But that is no reason to treat Saddam, Gaddafi or Assad as a "solution", as an antidote to imperialism. Their tyrannical regimes alienated their own people and eventually collapsed - proving themselves incapable of resisting imperialism. The fact that for a while they may have been enemies of the main imperialist, the US, does not make them friends of the anti-imperialists.
In short, anti-imperialism will only be successful if anti-imperialists adhere to some minimal ethical standards. It is our strongest weapon, not Kalashnikovs or anti-aircraft missiles.
Because if we stick to minimum ethical standards, we can win over the masses around the world who, in the end, value a principled humanistic attitude. We will also more easily expose the hypocrisy of the Western media, which shamelessly went from (a) justifying the two-decade occupation of Afghanistan as essential in the fight to prevent jihadists from taking Kabul, to (b) celebrating the entry of jihadists into Damascus.
If we do not adhere to minimal ethical standards and instead support tyrants who oppose our enemies, our resistance to our enemy's favorite tyrants will be as hypocritical as the Western press. And that, believe me, would be the greatest gift to the Western press, imperialism, tyranny. Because, at that moment, everything comes down to a simple competition between their "tyrants" and ours.
To conclude, there is nothing confusing about the simultaneous condemnation of both Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush's criminal invasion of Iraq. Or in the simultaneous condemnation of Slobodan Milošević and the NATO bombing of Serbian civilians. Or in the simultaneous condemnation of the Taliban and the American invasion of Afghanistan. Or in the simultaneous condemnation of the Assad regime and the jihadists who overthrew him and who are supported by the US. Not only is there no contradiction, but it is the only correct and effective way of anti-imperialism. Not only is it not neutral, but it is the only correct and effective way to side with the many and not the few.
We need to turn to what is really important today: after the fall of the Assad regime, the Western press is full of lyrical poems about the birth of a new Syria, without a single word about the American and Israeli bombs falling from the sky all over that new Syria - or about Israeli incursions into its territory .
Also, have you noticed that no one is talking about the current genocide in Gaza? It's a major victory for Netanyahu, his US guardians and their genocidal EU supporters.
So, comrades, let us adhere to minimum ethical standards in the fight against imperialism. And let's keep talking about Palestine!
(DiEM; Peščanik.net, translation: Đ. Tomić)
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