Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the violence.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Eric Draitser, founder of stopimperialism.com, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Draister, with all these terrorist activities being launched by the Free Syrian Army, the opposition in Syria, it seems that there has been a traffic jam to the crossroad of democracy?

Draister: Yes indeed and I think that it remains to be seen whether democracy is actually the goal here. The reality is that the United States and its clients in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and elsewhere, they have no interest in democracy because democracy means that it stands in opposition to the United States.

Rather what they would like to achieve is either a puppet regime or more likely a chaotic situation where there can be no actual government, there could be no actual democracy and thereby they can maintain hegemony in the region.

Press TV: In a recent interview Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria told RT (Russia Today)that the fate of Syria should be decided at the ballot box. How much has this been portrayed in the Western media?

Draister: Well it has been mentioned I suppose in passing just as the constitutional vote was also mentioned but these things are interpreted by the mainstream media and the ruling class in the United States as merely the window dressing but somehow Assad has no interest in democracy.

The reality however is that a country like Syria which has had democratic elections is in many ways more democratic than what we see here in the United States for instance where we just recently had an election that was deemed to be odious by many international observers.

So the question of democracy, the question of voting and the question of fundamental change at the ballot box, these things are merely serious to the United States.

Press TV: And some say that the West is trying to set up a Libya like scenario in Syria. How much is that so?

Draister: Well I think that it is very true to a certain extent so it is important to remember that Libya and Syria are incredibly different situations. In Libya the United States was able to execute its agenda because it had forces on the ground, the so-called opposition, the various groups, the Libyan Islamic siding groups and all of those other entities that came to be known as the National Transitional Council.

In Syria however you do not have that situation. There is no real enclave of opposition in fact the Syrian opposition as it is called is entirely manufactured.

So the situations are vastly different but it is correct to think of it in those terms because I think that Libya really serves as the model for what the United States wants to do in terms of creation of a failed state.

AHK/HGH