WASHINGTON, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - The US airstrikes against Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS) targets in Syria are illegal, immoral and counterproductive, and further shred the rule of law while dumping gasoline on a fire of US creation, David Swanson, an American journalist and activist, told RIA Novosti Tuesday.
"This action is illegal under the UN Charter, Kellogg-Briand Pact, and US Constitution," Swanson said, adding that it is also immoral as it fuels violence that needs to be reduced. "This action is knowingly, maddeningly counterproductive, guaranteed to build hostility to the United States, which is already so hated that ISIS openly advocates for a US attack on it."
"This action by this White House is what ISIS wants and what weapons makers want. It is not what the people of Syria or Iraq or the world want," Swanson stressed. "It further shreds the rule of law while dumping gasoline on a fire of US creation."
Swanson went on to say that what's really needed is an arms embargo.
"The US ships 79 percent of the weapons shipped to the Middle East, not counting the weapons of the US military. An arms embargo could be 79 percent successful with just one country participating, and others could certainly be brought to do so," the activist explained.
Besides, he stressed that an actual aid is needed on a massive scale, restitution to the people of the region for the crimes of the US government, as well as diplomacy.
"An aid program sufficient to make the United States beloved rather than hated would cost a lot less money than the missiles and bombs for which price seems to be no concern at all," the journalist emphasized.
"The US government is happy to talk with Syria or Iran or Russia when the object is war. Why can it not talk to them when the object is peace?" he said.
"You can't cure war fever with more war. You can only get to peace through peace," Swanson concluded.
On Tuesday, the United States and a number of its Arab Allies carried out a series of airstrikes against IS insurgents positions across Syria. The Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic in Russia Riyad Haddad said that the United States had informed Damascus of the upcoming airstrikes a few hours before the launch of the operation.
