Richmond – The Green Party of Virginia, in accordance with International Law, is categorically opposed to unilateral military intervention in the affairs of any country, whether by the United States, Russia, or any other actor. Military operations directed against or within Syria are plainly illegal and contrary to the cause of peace, unless carried out either with the approval and cooperation of the international community or by invitation of the recognized government of Syria.

The United States in particular is on record as having sought "regime change" in Syria since at least 2011, and therefore has no legitimacy or standing for intervening in that country.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2017

Green Party of Virginia
www.vagreenparty.org

CONTACT:
Tim Cotton, Press Secretary, (540) 219-3599, [email protected]

Indeed, the United States has carried out, sponsored, or materially supported extreme violence in many countries in the region, resulting in the deaths of huge numbers of innocent men, women, and children. The proposition that the United States acts now as a defender of innocent life lacks all credibility. Instead, the actions of the Trump administration in carrying out military attacks within Syria must be viewed as entirely self-serving, part of a broad and well-established pattern of interventions by the U.S. meant to destabilize and control south-west Asia for its own benefit, and not for the benefit of the people of the region. 

GPVA Co-chair B. Sidney Smith said, "War is much too easy for us now. We are insensible to both the moral failure and the existential risks. To escalate this conflict is to take a terrifying risk--one that ordinary Americans may ultimately suffer the full cost of."

Green Party Presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein said, "Today's missile attack in Syria has dragged us into yet another cycle of endless war that has brought us nothing but failed states, mass refugee migrations, and worse terrorist threats than ever before.”

"50 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. warned us about this danger. Just replace Vietnam with Syria and his words ring truer than ever:

"Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in [Syria]. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours."

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