US and NATO are huddling to discuss an “official” US military invasion of Syria to bring down Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
Obama announced the possibility of a direct attack on Syria at Monday night's press conference.
Johannes Stern of wsws writes:
Senior US officials said that contingency plans for US intervention in Syria include scenarios requiring tens of thousands of American troops.
NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
Obama’s words at the WH press conference:
“I have indicated repeatedly that President al-Assad has lost legitimacy, that he needs to step down. So far, he hasn’t gotten the message, and instead has double downed in violence on his own people. The international community has sent a clear message that rather than drag his country into civil war he should move in the direction of a political transition. But at this point, the likelihood of a soft landing seems pretty distant.”
Obama speaking on behalf of the INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY. That's rich. I wonder if the REAL INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY really wants the US to send troops and escalate the bloodbath already happening in Syria thanks to US/NATO/Israel enabling no longer freedom fighters but terrorists struggling now to bring down the Assad regime.
The US, NATO, Israel, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, etc. are not acting out of humanitarian concern (since they don't have substantial respect for their own citizens, and tragically that includes the US at this point) about the Syrians' legitimate hunger for a more benign and responsive government, but instead are acting out of the self-interests of the corporate profiteers and military war addicts.
What is so incredible, so cynical, is that our CIA has been enabling terrorists like Al Qaeda in Syria to weaken the Assad regime. And during Obama’s press conference he asserts that alleged Syrian stockpiles of chemical weapons (think Iraq and WMDs playbook and watch how NYT's David Sanger is helping the fear-mongering justification for invasion just as the NYT did to help launch the Iraq War) may fall into the “wrong hands” like Al Qaeda’s. Like the Al Qaeda whom we have been enabling with weaponry and intelligence to get the upper hand against the Assad regime on behalf of the anti-Iran group of nations? The supposed "western good guys" faux-spreaders of democracy and faux-supporters of the Arab Spring have been promoting in cynical but realpolitik terms "DEATH SQUAD DIPLOMACY" -- terrorism for imperialism. Now the rationalization to enter the scene because of the terrorism we catalyzed is so shameless and hypocritical it is hard to wrap one's mind around it all.
This is how Johannes Stern presents it:
A US war against Syria would be the next step in an ongoing campaign by US imperialism to deepen its hegemony over the energy-rich and geo-strategically vital regions of the Persian Gulf and Central Asia.
snip
The cynicism with which Obama is seeking to justify the next US imperialist aggression in the Middle East is staggering. The main groups in Syria who could seize chemical weapons from Syrian government stockpiles are Al Qaeda forces promoted by the US and its allies as shock troops against Assad. (See also: “"Washington’s proxy in Syria: Al Qaeda")
Having armed Al Qaeda-linked groups and sent them into Syria to carry out bombings and assassinations, the US and its allies now plan to justify their invasion of Syria by citing the need to protect the world’s population from Al Qaeda’s terrorist atrocities!
The Obama administration advances its arguments today with total disregard for the fact that they clash with the lies used until now to justify its support for Sunni anti-Assad “rebels.”
For months it maintained the pretense that it would not directly attack Syria, and that the Syrian regime’s statements that it was fighting US-backed terrorists were “propaganda.” Now, the White House is admitting that terrorist groups play a major role in the anti-Assad forces, and citing this as a pretext for war.
By proceeding in this fashion, the Obama administration demonstrates its complete contempt for the American electorate, which voted him into office in 2008 in large part based on hopes he would stop the US military aggressions against countries in the Middle East. Today, as during the 2003 invasion of Syria’s neighbor, Iraq, Washington is preparing to invade a country based on cynical lies about weapons of mass destruction.
A US invasion of Syria would be a crime of historic proportions, like the war in Iraq—a country whose population is only slightly larger than Syria’s. This war led to the deaths of over a million Iraqis and thousands of US and allied soldiers. Iraq became a battleground for US occupation forces, as well as Sunni and Shiite death squads that carried out sectarian bombings and massacres.
A US invasion would threaten similar carnage inside Syria, which is already being torn apart by sectarian fighting in which Washington is working with right-wing regimes in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to back Sunni Islamist forces against Syria’s Alawite regime. However, the far greater tensions in a region already destabilized by a decade of US and Israeli wars in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and Libya now threaten to spread the violence over the entire Middle East.
Sectarian bloodshed is happening not just in poor Syria of course. Stern reports that on Tuesday four people were killed and 60 wounded in “fire fights” between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Alawites in Tripoli, a northern city in Lebanon. The Lebanese government is led by the Shiite organization Hizbollah, a close ally of Syria and Iran. That bloodshed to escalate exponentially assumedly brings craven satisfaction to the imperialist pirates as well.
What is Syria’s reaction to the threat of US intervention and does it matter at all to a cabal of imperialist nations who want non-negotiable REGIME CHANGE to put in their own anti-Iranian puppet leader? "Regime change!" That is the US media war-drumming mantra. Puts the war hawk Liebermans, McCains, Grahams AND Obamas on the same craven imperialist-pirate side in fact!
Stern writes:
The Syrian regime responded to US threats with warnings and proposals for negotiations....
PROPOSALS FOR NEGOTIATIONS???? GOOD!!! But not to be respected sadly in present Obama foreign policy. Diplomacy? What is that?
Stern goes on:
Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil described Obama’s statements about chemical weapons as a pretext for Western intervention in Syria. “The West is looking for an excuse for direct intervention. If this excuse does not work, it will look for another excuse.” He warned that an attack on Syria would turn the conflict into a regional war, saying: “Those who are contemplating this evidently want to see the crisis expand beyond Syria’s borders.”
Jamil announced that the Syrian regime is willing to talk with the opposition to work out a transition, however. He even declared that Assad’s presidency is negotiable, stating: “We are ready to discuss Assad’s resignation—but not as precondition.”
SO THE PRIME MINISTER ACTUALLY SAID THAT ASSAD’S PRESIDENCY IS NEGOTIABLE! “NOT AS PRECONDITION” WHATEVER THAT MEANS BUT, DAMN IT, SIT DOWN AND SINCERELY TALK ABOUT IT. THAT IS CALLED DIPLOMACY!!!! Why doesn't Sanger at the NYT talk about any of this?
Stern speculates on our growing tensions with China and Russia over this. China and Russia who have three times already refused to grant what Stern calls a “psuedo-legal fig leaf” in the UN Security Council against US, Western and Arab allies to gain UN endorsement for US military aggression against Syria.
Stern reveals:
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov spoke at a meeting in Moscow with China’s State Councilor Dai Bingguo, who also met Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top security adviser, Nikolai Patrushev, on Monday. Lavrov said that both Russia and China base their diplomatic cooperation on “the need to strictly adhere to the norms of international law and the principles contained in the U.N. Charter, and not to allow their violation.”
Lavrov said that only the Security Council has the authority to approve the use of external force against Syria, warning against imposing “democracy by bombs.” Russian officials have reportedly stated that they hope to avoid a repetition of the attack on Libya last year. Moscow abstained from the Security Council vote on Libya, and a resolution was passed which was subsequently used by NATO to justify its bombing of the country.
The US stopped adhering to what Russia’s Lavrov calls the “norms of international law and the principles contained in the U.N. Charter” a long time ago. We jumped the shark on abiding by international law in Iraq in 2003, in Libya last year and with Syria now.
I guess if Obama can't get UN permission to invade Syria, he is willing to do it anyway. Law and morality and .... SANITY? Not a priority.
Anybody want to try to stop this? Anybody in America? Russia and China the only ones defending international law?
Our corporate media not inclined to even explore it very much. Invasion of Syria? yadda yadda yadda ...
WTF?
[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
-------------------
56 names. 56 traitors who need to be hung by the neck until dead (as already noted by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts) for willfully instigating WWIII and deliberately lying to a sitting American president. Here is a link to the lies they have been feeding president Obama.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32021.htm
Khairi Abaza
Ammar Abdulhamid
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Tony Badran
Paul Berman
Max Boot
Ellen Bork
L. Paul Bremer
Matthew R. J. Brodsky
Elizabeth Cheney
Seth Cropsey
Toby Dershowitz
James Denton
Mark Dubowitz
Nicholas Eberstadt
Eric S. Edelman
Jamie M. Fly
Reuel Marc Gerecht
Abe Greenwald
John P. Hannah
William Inboden
Bruce Pitcairn Jackson
Ash Jain
Kenneth Jensen
Sirwan Kajjo
Lawrence F. Kaplan
Irina Krasovskaya
William Kristol
Michael Ledeen
Tod Lindberg
Herbert I. London
Clifford D. May
Ann Marlowe
Robert C. McFarlane
Joshua Muravchik
Martin Peretz
Danielle Pletka
John Podhoretz
Stephen Rademaker
Karl Rove
Jonathan Schanzer
Randy Scheunemann
Gary J. Schmitt
Daniel S. Senor
Lee Smith
Henry D. Sokolski
Daniel Twining
Peter Wehner
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Leon Wieseltier
R. James Woolsey
Khawla Yusuf
Dov S. Zakheim
Robert Zarate
Radwan Ziadeh
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32021.htm
Khairi Abaza
Ammar Abdulhamid
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Tony Badran
Paul Berman
Max Boot
Ellen Bork
L. Paul Bremer
Matthew R. J. Brodsky
Elizabeth Cheney
Seth Cropsey
Toby Dershowitz
James Denton
Mark Dubowitz
Nicholas Eberstadt
Eric S. Edelman
Jamie M. Fly
Reuel Marc Gerecht
Abe Greenwald
John P. Hannah
William Inboden
Bruce Pitcairn Jackson
Ash Jain
Kenneth Jensen
Sirwan Kajjo
Lawrence F. Kaplan
Irina Krasovskaya
William Kristol
Michael Ledeen
Tod Lindberg
Herbert I. London
Clifford D. May
Ann Marlowe
Robert C. McFarlane
Joshua Muravchik
Martin Peretz
Danielle Pletka
John Podhoretz
Stephen Rademaker
Karl Rove
Jonathan Schanzer
Randy Scheunemann
Gary J. Schmitt
Daniel S. Senor
Lee Smith
Henry D. Sokolski
Daniel Twining
Peter Wehner
Kenneth R. Weinstein
Leon Wieseltier
R. James Woolsey
Khawla Yusuf
Dov S. Zakheim
Robert Zarate
Radwan Ziadeh
Holy crap!
Libby
Just the thing for an election year "Don't change horses in the middle of a stream diversion.."
Just the thing for an election year "Don't change horses in the middle of a stream diversion.."
Libby, I want to thank you for your work, trully. In the university we had some lessons strictly concerning war and diplomacy history and analysis, and they were hard to follow since they required a lot of studying.
Your articles give to all of us all the issues, and I like that you try to be objective, by having both sides presented in here, your view and you give to all of us the chance of actual thinking.
But the sad issue is, that although I agree that war has nothing of a law, of a morality, of a decent cause, and that all must be solved for the best of the most, I am sad, feared that we can not do anything about logic and human rights.
'''Law and morality and .... SANITY? Not a priority.''' And I have just read the description of nowdays politics.
Thank you, let us all wish that Harvad education can do better then war...
Your articles give to all of us all the issues, and I like that you try to be objective, by having both sides presented in here, your view and you give to all of us the chance of actual thinking.
But the sad issue is, that although I agree that war has nothing of a law, of a morality, of a decent cause, and that all must be solved for the best of the most, I am sad, feared that we can not do anything about logic and human rights.
'''Law and morality and .... SANITY? Not a priority.''' And I have just read the description of nowdays politics.
Thank you, let us all wish that Harvad education can do better then war...
"...Al Qaeda forces promoted by the US and its allies as shock troops against Assad." This isn't really anything new, Reagan's CIA promoted Taliban forces and other Afghan War Lords against the Russians during the 1980's. And Eisenhower's CIA promoted coups in Iran and Guatemala during the 1950's. It's all so sad but true.
Keep goring the sacred cattle Libby, who knows, maybe the American people will start paying attention to something beyond the tips of their consumer noses.
Keep goring the sacred cattle Libby, who knows, maybe the American people will start paying attention to something beyond the tips of their consumer noses.
'starting a war as an election ploy. hmm. yes, that'll work.'
I understand doing it for the election, but two questions? Would the American people appreciate, or at least think it is wise to take on another war right now. What price would Obama have to pay to get Russia and China to turn a blind eye? Excellent post, Libby. R
Jack, thanks for that list! Those are neocons who sent a letter to Obama urging war with Syria. I found the Roberts article. I think he is a great commentator! He writes:
"According the the letter signed by 56 neoconservatives, only the Syrian government is responsible for deaths in Syria. The Washington sponsored and armed “rebels” are merely protecting the Syrian people from the Assad government. According to the letter signers, the only way the Syrian people can be saved is if Washington overthrows the Syrian government and installs a puppet state attentive to the needs of Israel and Washington.
snip
"Not a single sentence in the letter is correct. Listen to this one for example: “The Assad regime poses a grave threat to national security interests of the United States.” What utter total absurdity, and the morons who signed the letter pretend to be “security experts.”"
"How do we evaluate the fact that 56 people have no shame whatsoever and will lie to the President of the United States, telling him to his face the most absurd and obvious false things in order to advance their personal agenda at the expense of not merely the lives of Syrians but, by leading to wider war, of life on earth?"
I agree with Roberts and you re the propaganda framing of these people. WWIII does seem to be the path we are going down, especially with China and Russia in the game.
This Syrian war, like the war with Libya, is Iraq deja vu. Libyan war escalated so fast and so slickly. And now with Syria if the vetoes hadn't happened in the Security Council by Russia and China it all would have been farther along, and maybe NATO would be bombing Syria instead of Al Qaeda jihadists terrorizing the citizenry. That style of shock and awe ... all for disaster capitalism and the big chess game to neuter Iran was the route they had to go since they couldn't use the "humanitarian" responsibility to protect, R2P, UN mandate which they exploited in Libya to destroy Gaddafi's regime. Gaddafi was kicking out the international banks and wanted an African currency ( a very SORE point with the international banksters, Hussein considered changing petrodollars from US currency and look what happened to him) and Gaddafi was sharing oil profits with his people. Not a perfect government, Libya, but the quality of life there before the "humanitarian" intervention was the highest in Africa. Now there is chaos and misery and violence. Gaddafi himself was sodomized by a bayonet finally with Hillary tching, tching, watching it live and declaring victory for the freedom fighting rebels. Rebels or terrorists running amok there, too. Kind of chilling and vicious.
best, libby
"According the the letter signed by 56 neoconservatives, only the Syrian government is responsible for deaths in Syria. The Washington sponsored and armed “rebels” are merely protecting the Syrian people from the Assad government. According to the letter signers, the only way the Syrian people can be saved is if Washington overthrows the Syrian government and installs a puppet state attentive to the needs of Israel and Washington.
snip
"Not a single sentence in the letter is correct. Listen to this one for example: “The Assad regime poses a grave threat to national security interests of the United States.” What utter total absurdity, and the morons who signed the letter pretend to be “security experts.”"
"How do we evaluate the fact that 56 people have no shame whatsoever and will lie to the President of the United States, telling him to his face the most absurd and obvious false things in order to advance their personal agenda at the expense of not merely the lives of Syrians but, by leading to wider war, of life on earth?"
I agree with Roberts and you re the propaganda framing of these people. WWIII does seem to be the path we are going down, especially with China and Russia in the game.
This Syrian war, like the war with Libya, is Iraq deja vu. Libyan war escalated so fast and so slickly. And now with Syria if the vetoes hadn't happened in the Security Council by Russia and China it all would have been farther along, and maybe NATO would be bombing Syria instead of Al Qaeda jihadists terrorizing the citizenry. That style of shock and awe ... all for disaster capitalism and the big chess game to neuter Iran was the route they had to go since they couldn't use the "humanitarian" responsibility to protect, R2P, UN mandate which they exploited in Libya to destroy Gaddafi's regime. Gaddafi was kicking out the international banks and wanted an African currency ( a very SORE point with the international banksters, Hussein considered changing petrodollars from US currency and look what happened to him) and Gaddafi was sharing oil profits with his people. Not a perfect government, Libya, but the quality of life there before the "humanitarian" intervention was the highest in Africa. Now there is chaos and misery and violence. Gaddafi himself was sodomized by a bayonet finally with Hillary tching, tching, watching it live and declaring victory for the freedom fighting rebels. Rebels or terrorists running amok there, too. Kind of chilling and vicious.
best, libby
Bernadine, when I went to the wsws website and read that article by Stern that is exactly what I said! Thanks! best, libby
Rudy, al and thoth, re the election, this is really troubling. This Stern article is one of the few, actually, that doesn't bring up the pressure from Israel on the US re action against Syria and thus moving in tighter on Iran.
If Obama does not move against Syria, especially with the fear mongering about the chemical stockpiles or maybe that actually is serious with AQ having such power to run around Syria with weapons and intelligence enabling thanks to our CIA, will Israel via AIPAC and Jewish American voters push the election effectively to Romney who promises to let Bebe Netanyahu set foreign policy it sounds like. Both candidates are so hungry to keep Israel not hostile at them.
Obama didn't seem to think twice about Libya, tragically. Would his administration illegitimately sans UN endorsement invade Syria to win the election via Israel if it is not too late to win its backing? I'm thinking yes.
The American people I can't believe want another war, but his press conference was certainly ripening us up for one. And everyone is so confused by the mess in the Middle East and the lack of truth on mainstream media. Our entering the war under the guise of fighting Al Qaeda whom we pushed to do the shock and awe dirty work. That is so manipulative, what has been done. The lives of Syrians are not the priority here.
It is a military chess match it seems to me and the ante is getting seriously higher and higher. War addiction with respect for human life missing! Obama refuses to be a president for peace, which was the reason most of the 80 million Americans chose him over Hillary!
best, libby
If Obama does not move against Syria, especially with the fear mongering about the chemical stockpiles or maybe that actually is serious with AQ having such power to run around Syria with weapons and intelligence enabling thanks to our CIA, will Israel via AIPAC and Jewish American voters push the election effectively to Romney who promises to let Bebe Netanyahu set foreign policy it sounds like. Both candidates are so hungry to keep Israel not hostile at them.
Obama didn't seem to think twice about Libya, tragically. Would his administration illegitimately sans UN endorsement invade Syria to win the election via Israel if it is not too late to win its backing? I'm thinking yes.
The American people I can't believe want another war, but his press conference was certainly ripening us up for one. And everyone is so confused by the mess in the Middle East and the lack of truth on mainstream media. Our entering the war under the guise of fighting Al Qaeda whom we pushed to do the shock and awe dirty work. That is so manipulative, what has been done. The lives of Syrians are not the priority here.
It is a military chess match it seems to me and the ante is getting seriously higher and higher. War addiction with respect for human life missing! Obama refuses to be a president for peace, which was the reason most of the 80 million Americans chose him over Hillary!
best, libby
Stathi, I always appreciate your supportive comments! Thank you so much again. I feel like I am a second stringer when I post here. I find compelling articles with great research done by people on non-mainstream websites and then I paraphrase them here to carry their communications forward. I usually add some of my own emotional framing which may or may not be a good idea, but it adds my voice. :-)
I am not all that objective, but I do try to substantiate with backup facts and details as best I can my position and the article I am supporting and reframing.
A Harvard education does not guarantee emotional intelligence, so to speak, although I know it is not only Obama though after his Cairo speech he has so betrayed the hope of peace in the Middle East and Africa, but it is the military industrial security complex steam roller in a terrible ongoing inertia and stronger and stronger and more amoral transnational corporate overlords working together as a global mafia to economically terrorize countries and steal their resources and establish garrisoning military bases.
Take care!
best, libby
I am not all that objective, but I do try to substantiate with backup facts and details as best I can my position and the article I am supporting and reframing.
A Harvard education does not guarantee emotional intelligence, so to speak, although I know it is not only Obama though after his Cairo speech he has so betrayed the hope of peace in the Middle East and Africa, but it is the military industrial security complex steam roller in a terrible ongoing inertia and stronger and stronger and more amoral transnational corporate overlords working together as a global mafia to economically terrorize countries and steal their resources and establish garrisoning military bases.
Take care!
best, libby
jmac, thanks so much for commenting on this and the way you did.
Yes, this using terrorists for shock and awe is an oft-used playbook. I'm thinking we as citizens should be less naive by now, and after the horror of the Iraq War, would be more vigilant about this craven and shameless lying to the American people.
When the NewsHour doesn't even seriously address the potential for war coming up at us fast, at least with earnestness or critical analysis, we are in big trouble.
And the far left which is communicating about this among themselves and in the know of the ugly realpolitik and engineering of casus belli is disenfranchised and marginalized and neutered effectively, thanks to Obama and the faux-progressive corporate (nevertheless) media appealing to the "pragmatics" and separating them from the "purists", and the purist lefties can not get into the national conversation about another illegitimate and DANGEROUS war.
best, libby
Yes, this using terrorists for shock and awe is an oft-used playbook. I'm thinking we as citizens should be less naive by now, and after the horror of the Iraq War, would be more vigilant about this craven and shameless lying to the American people.
When the NewsHour doesn't even seriously address the potential for war coming up at us fast, at least with earnestness or critical analysis, we are in big trouble.
And the far left which is communicating about this among themselves and in the know of the ugly realpolitik and engineering of casus belli is disenfranchised and marginalized and neutered effectively, thanks to Obama and the faux-progressive corporate (nevertheless) media appealing to the "pragmatics" and separating them from the "purists", and the purist lefties can not get into the national conversation about another illegitimate and DANGEROUS war.
best, libby
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