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" *Note: We attempted to get this article, plus a shortened version of the same article, published on the DSA blog site as a reply to an article by R.L. Stephens, who is also the editor of that site. So far, the editor has not published it, so we are doing so here.* In the summer of 2017, the US Department of Defense’s Strategic Studies institute published a report called “At Our Own Peril” <https://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pdffiles/PUB1358.pdf> in which they outlined the global threats facing US capitalism. A central feature of those threats as these strategists for US imperialism saw it, involved both the rise of the Islamic State and the threat of the Arab Spring – tendencies which they say emanate from the Arab world but may “metastasize”. In other words, these strategists for US capitalism see the crisis in Syria as being at the center of the political crisis of world capitalism. They may be right. That is why it is crucially important that socialists understand the nature of this crisis. Unfortunately, the article <http://www.dsausa.org/npc_debate>written by R.L. Stephens of the DSA NPC gets it wrong on almost every count..... ..... Like much of the left, R.L. Stephens largely pictures the situation as an inter-imperialist rivalry. He also sees the position of US imperialism as being similar to that in Iraq, as being a position of “regime change”. This is entirely mistaken. *“Regime Change” or Assadism without Assad?*The example of Egypt is instructive: When the Arab Spring first arose, the position of the US regime at first was to support Mubarak. Quite quickly, Obama saw Mubarak as being an obstacle to capitalist stability and called for him to step down. In Syria, things were a little more complex but essentially the same. That was why Obama called for Assad to step down, but what he never ever did was in any way call for “regime change”. In other words, similar to in Egypt, what the US regime wanted was “Assadism” without Assad. They never had any intention of carrying out the sort of regime change purge that they carried out in Iraq." see full article here: https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/05/19/revolution-and-counter-revolution-in-syria-a-reply-to-r-l-stephens/ _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
