In my last post on Syria, I commented that “Short of widespread popular unrest, on issues like this, the will of the people counts for nothing against the exigencies of imperialism and Zionism, as understood by the American political elite,” that “there would be no challenging debate in the US Congress like that in the British Parliament,” and that “a combination of domestic political pressure that, along with international reluctance, [which would] create an effective pushback against Obama’s momentum towards war” was “not likely.” I was 100% certain of, and would have bet heavily on, a strike on Syria within a few days.
I am surprised and happy to see that I would have lost that
bet. Indeed, there is substantially more than a glimmer of pushback on a number
of fronts. The British parliament’s
rejection of a military attack on Syria turned out to be a wedge blow that
opened crucial cracks in the hitherto seemingly-impervious American imperial
edifice. It pushed Obama into going to Congress for a vote, which bought time
in which the American people could think about the case and not just follow the
leader, and in which the media would have to open the window of information and
analysis at least a bit more than usual.
