The evidence that US power has itself been appallingly destructive, especially during the Cold War, is overwhelming: all across the globe, from Vietnam to Indonesia to Iran to Congo to South and Central America and beyond, the record of massive human rights abuses accumulated in the name of fighting Communism is clear. And in the post-Cold War period of the so-called “War on Terror,” American interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq have done nothing to suggest a fundamental national change of heart.

But, America is not central to what has happened in Syria, despite what these people claim. The idea that it somehow is, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, is a by-product of a provincial political culture which insists on both the centrality of US power globally as well as the imperialist right to identify who the “good guys” and the “bad guys” are in any given context.

The ideological alignment of rightwing admirers of Assad with this kind of authoritarian-friendly “leftism” is symptomatic of this, and indicates that the very real and very serious problem lies elsewhere: what to do when a people is as abused by their government as the Syrian people have been, held captive by those who think nothing of torturing, disappearing, and murdering people for even the slightest hint of political opposition to their authority? As many countries move closer and closer to authoritarianism and away from democracy, this seems to us a profoundly urgent political question to which there is yet no answer; and because there is no answer, all across the globe there is growing impunity on the part of the powerful, and growing vulnerability for the powerless.

About this, these “anti-imperialists” have no helpful words. About the profound political violence visited upon the Syrian people by the Assads, the Iranians, the Russians? No words. Forgive us for pointing out that such erasure of Syrian lives and experiences embodies the very essence of imperialist (and racist) privilege. These writers and bloggers have shown no awareness of the Syrians, including signatories to this letter, who risked their lives opposing the regime, who have been incarcerated in the Assads’ torture prisons (some for many years), lost loved ones, had friends and family forcibly disappeared, fled their country – even though many Syrians have been writing and speaking about these experiences for many years.

Collectively, Syrian experiences from the Revolution to the present pose a fundamental challenge to the world as it appears to these people. Syrians who directly opposed the Assad regime, often at great cost, did not do so because of some Western imperialist plot, but because decades of abuse, brutality, and corruption were and remain intolerable. To insist otherwise, and support Assad, is to attempt to strip Syrians of all political agency and endorse the Assads’ longstanding policy of domestic politicide, which has deprived Syrians of any meaningful say in their government and circumstances.

We Syrians and supporters of the Syrian people’s struggle for democracy and human rights take these attempts to “disappear” Syrians from the world of politics, solidarity, and partnership as quite consistent with the character of the regimes these people so evidently admire. This is the “anti-imperialism” and “leftism” of the unprincipled, of the lazy, and of fools, and only reinforces the dysfunctional international gridlock exhibited in the UN Security Council. We hope that readers of this piece will join us in opposing it.

Ahmad Aisha, journalist and translator (Turkey)

Ali Akil, Founder & Spokesperson, Syrian Solidarity New Zealand (Aotearoa/New Zealand)

Amina Masri, Activist/Educator (USA)

Asmae Dachan, Syrian-Italian Journalist (Italy)

Ayaat Yassin-Kassab, Student, University of Oxford (UK)

Aziz Al-Azmeh, University Professor Emeritus, Central European University (Austria)

Bakr Sidki, translator and columnist (Turkey)

Banah el Ghadbanah, University of California, San Diego (USA)

Bisher Ghazal-Aswad, Doctor, NHS (UK)

Dellair Yousef, writer and director, Berlin (Germany)

Dr. Mohammed Zaher Sahloul, President, MedGlobal & Founder, American Relief Coalition for Syria (USA)

Faraj Bayrakdar, poet (Sweden)

Farouk Mardam-Bey, publisher and writer, Paris (France)

Fouad M. Fouad, Professor, American University of Beirut (Lebanon)

Fouad Roueiha, Activist (Italy)

Ghayath Almadhoun, poet (Germany)

Haian Dukhan, Associate Research Fellow, Centre for Syrian Studies, University of St. Andrews (UK)

Haid Haid, Senior Research Fellow, Chatham House (UK)

Hala Alabdalla, Filmmaker (France)

Hassan Nifi, writer (Turkey)

Irène Labeyrie Chaya, Architect & Former Teacher at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Qalamun, Deir Atiya, Syria

Joseph Daher, Syrian/Swiss Academic, University of Lausanne/European University Institute (Switzerland)

Karam Shaar, Senior Analyst, New Zealand Treasury (New Zealand)

Karim Al-Afnan, Journalist (UK)

Lara el Kateb, Member of the Alliance of Middle Eastern and North African Socialists

Leila Al-Shami, Writer/Activist (Scotland)

Lubayed Aljundi, PhD Candidate, SOAS, University of London (UK)

Mahmoud el Wahb, writer (Turkey)

Marcus Halaby, British-Syrian Writer and Labour Party Member (UK)

Mayson Almisri, Syria Civil Defence – White Helmets, co-winner of the Gandhi Peace Award 2021 (Canada)

Miream Salameh, Syrian Artist (Australia)

Mohamed Al Rashi, Actor (France)

Mohamed T. Khairullah, Mayor, Borough of Prospect Park, New Jersey (USA)

Mohammad Al Attar, Writer, Playwright, Berlin (Germany)

Nidal Betare, Journalist (USA)

Nisrine Al Zahre, academic and writer (France)

Noor Ghazal Aswad, Doctoral Candidate, University of Memphis (USA)

Odai Al Zoubi, Writer (Sweden)

Omar Qaddour, novelist and journalist (France)

Orwa Khalifa, writer (Turkey)

Osama Alomar, Writer (USA)

Rahaf Aldoughli, Lecturer in Middle East and North Africa Studies, Lancaster University (UK)

Ramzi Choukair, Actor and Director, Kawalisse Theatre Company (France)

Robin Yassin-Kassab, Writer (Scotland)

Sadek Abd Alrahman, writer (Turkey)

Salam Abbara, Doctor and Activist, Paris (France)

Salam Said, Academic (Germany)

Saleem Albeik, Writer/Journalist, Palestinian/Syrian (France)

Samar Yazbek, novelist (France)

Sami Haddad, Activist (Italy)

Touhama Ma’roof, dentist (Turkey)

Victorios Bayan Shams, Journalist (Brazil)

Wael Khouli, Physician Executive – B E Smith, Michigan (USA)

Yasmine Merei, Writer & Journalist and Head of Women for Common Space, Berlin (Germany)

Yasser Khanger, Poet from the occupied Golan

Yasser Munif, Emerson College (USA)

Yassin al-Haj Saleh, Writer, Former Political Prisoner (Germany)

Yazan Badran, PhD student, Vrije Universiteit and SyriaUntold (Belgium)