Tuesday, 21 July 2020

Syria Was the Neocon's Swan Song - We Are Now in a New Era

Gunnar Latham (Dissident Mag


Truth and Doubt
It has been said that “the first casualty when war comes is truth.” Former Governor of California Hiram Johnson spoke these wise words into existence decades ago. The U.S.’ role in the Syria Civil War from the Arab Spring up until the writing of this in the Summer of 2020 encapsulates that observation perfectly. Every western-backed media group would dispute this of course, “Assad apologist!” they scream; without even checking the facts. “He gassed his own peepoo!” without examining the available evidence, or more importantly, the lack thereof. But it’s ok, because John McCain said it’s true—he wouldn’t lie…That foolish naivety is mind-numbing and unwarranted. Of course, with the media coverage, it is not naivety but complicity.
In this country our citizens should stand for truth and the unmitigated gravity of its nature, no matter the political or financial implications tied to revealing it. The unyielding pursuit of truth (in any given context) is a keystone principle of which ancient philosophers have ruminated and postulated as being the fertile soil from which great men and societies spring. If one cannot defend truth, then one cannot defend existential dignity. Rigorous examination is the solvent by which skepticism dissolves propaganda and reveals truth. Doubt is what forces the integrity of institutions — because belief requires no further analysis. Examining doubts is more important than examining beliefs. Let us revisit the Syria debacle, a crash course in why skepticism and cynicism should clearly be the default setting in 2020.
Violence is Consent
First, let’s discuss the reasons why the casus belli for the coalition intervention (Operation Inherent Resolve) in the Syrian Civil War against Assad and his Socialist Ba’ath Party under the guise of exterminating ISIS was started illegally and continues illegally to this day. When I say allied, I mean the coalition of the USA, Israel, France, The UK, Turkey, and more importantly their proxies like Al-Nusra and SDF that have caused total mayhem in the Ancient Land. In the interest of brevity and topical relevance let’s focus on the USA. Let’s start with a quote by Pentagon officials from 2018. “The Trump administration has decided that it needs no new legal authority from Congress to indefinitely keep American military forces deployed in Syria and Iraq, even in territory that has been cleared of Islamic State fighters, according to Pentagon and State Department officials.”[1]

Hmm. There is no UN resolution that authorizes US forces to be in Syria, and the Assad government explicitly stated their absolute repudiation of the US forces in Syria before the intervention stating: “any action of any kind without the consent of the Syrian government would be an attack on Syria.” The invasion was of course done without the consent of Syria. Also, we were not defending any treaty ally, or UN member (regarding UN article 51). In fact, we were exponentially raising the chances of a direct conflict with a treaty ally with our continued invasion being that Russia was assisting Assad with quelling ISIS with Assad’s sovereign volition while Operation Inherent Resolve was waging war on Assad and helping ISIS by furthering the chaos and destruction.
It raises and interesting question: If Russia is attacking ISIS on behalf of Syria and Assad, and The US is also attacking ISIS on behalf of Syria and Assad, then why would Assad and The US be enemies and diametrically opposed? There was an obvious logical incongruency there that many Americans simply do not want to see or didn’t want to examine because of their ideological blinders coupled with the sheer benighted external propaganda. Because Obama, the “good father and husband” would never do something so blatantly criminal…thus spake the Boomer. “He dances on Ellen! Bomb droppers can’t dance on Ellen!” Ellen Degenerate got a Presidential Medal, but Congress didn’t even get a say in dropping bombs on a sovereign country during a Civil War; and voila! As of 2020, “8,267–13,168 civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria due to Coalition (USA) airstrikes, including 1,755–2,346 children.”[2] Nice.
Shiver Me Timber Sycamore!
The Obama administration apparently believes it had the legal justification to attack ISIS under the resolution that authorized the war on terror in 2001. But that law quite specifically covers “those nations, organizations, or persons” that “planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons.”[3] Using the AUMF, the groups they are fighting must have a nexus link to AL-Qaeda, and considering AQ and ISIS split, the argument is hard to make. Not only that, but Al-Nusra, publicly funded by the USA, works with and for Al-Qaeda.[4]
More skullduggery followed. Obama, with the CIA, covertly created Operation Timber Sycamore. “In 2012 or 2013, it supplied money, weaponry and training to rebel forces fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War. According to US officials, the program was run by the CIA’s Special Activities Division and has trained thousands of rebels President Barack Obama secretly authorized the CIA to begin arming Syria’s embattled rebels in 2013.” Obama first rejected the plan, but Benjamin Netanyahu lobbied him into submission.[5] The CIA funded and trained “moderate rebels”[6] who notably didn’t fight against ISIS, but strictly Assad. Must be another coincidence. That was in 2013, and in 2016, according the Council on Foreign Relations, the USA dropped 24,000+ bombs in Syria,[7] with absolutely no Congressional approval. The knowledge of Timber Sycamore was likely strategically released, as it’s just one of the nesting dolls. It was likely a PR stunt to account for the millions of dollars of heavy weaponry that the US had shipped to Jordan, which inevitably ended up in the hands of ISIS, (on purpose.)
The packing lists[8] were apparently leaked to media by the U.S. Government’s Federal Business Opportunities Website showing contract solicitation by US Firms for shipment of 994 tons of cargo, all heavy weaponry and explosives, headed for Turkey and Jordan. This was just one shipment of many. It was confirmed that ISIS was receiving heavy weaponry, from the pockets of U.S. Taxpayers[9]. Based.
“A study conducted by private company Conflict Armament Research at the behest of the European Union and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit found that external support for anti-Assad Syrian rebels “significantly augmented the quantity and quality of weapons available to [ISIL] forces,” including, in the most rapid case diversion they documented, “anti-tank weapons purchased by the United States that ended up in possession of the Islamic State within two months of leaving the factory.”[10]
In the scope of the investigation, the chain of custody, from export to recovery of thousands of weapons recovered from ISIS is staggering. In another similar case, CAR documented Anti-Tank Missiles on 18 February 2016 in Iraq which had “had been exported to the United States on 12 December 2015 and recovered in Ramadi on 9 February 2016 indicates that diversion took place in a matter of days or weeks (between 1 and 59 days) after its supply.” This is remarkable in that it displays that the U.S. was violating arms treaties as these shipments of weapons to the U. S. were signed with non-re-export clauses, yet, the shipments were diverted and re-routed straight to Turkey and Jordan. Most of these shipments originated in Romania, Bulgaria, and the EU. They were supposed to go the U.S. but were diverted to Turkey and Jordan.
Based off some of these ‘chain of custody’ timelines, it can easily be deduced that vast caches of weapons were transferred to ISIS almost immediately upon arrival in Turkey and Jordan. This would simply mean that these “moderate” rebels were really just facilitators of heavy weapon transfers from the Syrian-Turkish border to ISIS on behalf of the United States.
The Rebels/ISIS/Kurds controlled the whole entirety of Syria’s side of the Syria-Turkey border, which is coincidently where all the trafficking of standard weapons and chemical weapons was coming from, the report states. The report noted how remarkable openness and accessibility of corridors from Turkey into Syria allowing this massive transfer of weaponry. Especially the east-west corridor linking Kobane, Rojava to Mosul, Iraq. Interesting that a town like Kobane, under Kurdish autonomy, who’s military and security officials were working hand in the glove with the U.S. wouldn’t notice the myriad of illicit shipments flowing through Kobane down into ISIS territory like clockwork.
The steady supply chain running through Kurdish territory to ISIS undetected is just unfathomable. The city was also split between ISIS and the Kurds throughout the war  as the front-line oscillated; which is particularly interesting in light of Erdogan’s outrage with the U.S. air-dropping weapons in Kobane when such a complex situation was occurring stating Unfortunately, despite our conversation, [with Obama] they dropped whatever was needed with three C-130’s and half of it landed in ISIS hands. So, who is supplying [ISIL], then?”[11] Kurdish territories Kobane were seemingly used as the conduit for clandestine shipments of all sorts of weaponry.
You mean to tell me, in the good ole USA, under the tutelage of Barack “Democracy, folks” Obama, the venerable “epitome of grace, decency and humility” that a co-opted cabal (military industrial complex) covertly circumvented Congress, teamed up the CIA at the behest of Israel to kill thousands of people by dropping bombs and sending literally billions of dollars of heavy weaponry to “moderate terrorists” in order to extrajudicially destroy one of the most historic countries on the planet in the name of fighting the very people we are indirectly (or directly) supplying, training, giving cover to, and overtly aiding in their purported goal of bloodshed and destruction in a Civil War in a sovereign country?…Yeah. But hey that “Democracy” though, folks. Nice. Seems like Democracy cries out as it air-strikes you.
But was it a mistake to end a program of death, destruction and massive boon to Israel all on the Taxpayer dime? You better believe it was. Robert Baer, former CIA clandestine operative, and naturally, CNN contributor went full Oh Vey Trump’s decision to end Timber Sycamore calling it “a strategic mistake” and “a gift to Putin.” Worry not that it was a covert repudiation of International and Domestic Law, an Israel First Neo Con last stand, a violation of the War Powers act[12], and the constitution itself. More importantly, it sheds light on the degree to which the government is co-opted by rogue groups and can persuade our “Democracy” into committing atrocities to further their international hegemonic gluttony.

No Pipeline For You!
I will briefly discuss one of the main schools of thought as to why we would invade Syria. There is course the broader goal of wanting to continue strategic global positioning in key regions such as the Middle East to buttress Israel, and the immutable and magnetic pull of the military industrial complex’s desire to attain that goal. Dovetailed with that is the need to topple any foreign leaders who buck the global hegemony of the dollar, the IMF, World Bank et al.[13] Beyond these broader and overarching notions, in Syria’s case there seems to be a specific and focused reasoning as to why the Syrian War “kicked off.” A pipeline—yes, a pipeline. In July 2011, the governments of Syria, Iran and Iraq signed an historic gas pipeline energy agreement which went largely unnoticed during the NATO-Saudi-Qatari war to remove Assad.
The pipeline, envisioned to cost $10 billion and take three years to complete, would run from the Iranian Port Assalouyeh near the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, to Damascus in Syria via Iraq territory. The agreement would make Syria the center of assembly and production in conjunction with the reserves of Lebanon. This is a geopolitically strategic space that geographically opens for the first time, extending from Iran to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. As Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar put it, “The Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline – if it’s ever built – would solidify predominantly Shi’ite axis through an economic, steel umbilical cord.”[14]

Qatar proposed a similar US-backed pipeline in 2009, and Assad refused, due to his loyalty to Russia. If Qatar got the deal, it would malign Russia’s economy significantly. There were trillions of dollars in Oil and Gas on the line, possibly resulting in hegemonic seismic shifts. The pipeline had to go through Syria, and Assad chose Russia, not the U.S. Among other factors, this is a very plausible reason that the United States fomented the Syrian uprisings and facilitated her subsequent destruction. The somehow simultaneous democratic Arab spring, that just so happened in a kind of unison were in fact not what they seemed as was proven by a very famous WikiLeaks leak, from Megan Healey of Stratfor, an intelligence agency front group for DOD among others.[15] “The Arab Spring is a lesson in Western wishful thinking. The label implies that it was a unanimous rejection of the old social order by Arabs in the street, from Egypt to Syria. In reality it was minorities seeking to topple existing Arab regimes, and not necessarily to replace them with Western-style democracies.”[16]
Go Fund Me: Arab Spring
What she says is only half-true as the “spring” of course was not organic, it was another Saudi-Israel-USA-CIA-Mossad collab. Add this one to the their “Greatest Hits.” It was a subversion ploy to overthrow non-kosher leaders by funding, contriving and organizing protestors and their “development of skills and networking.” That how the NY Times quoted Stephen Mcinerney, Executive Director for The Project on Middle East Democracy who admitted to the funding of the uprising. Also, “protestors” were funded and trained in “programs” by the National Endowment for Democracy, an NGO headed up by Carl Gershman. It is of course another NGO tentacle of the State Department. Don’t fret, though, western groups didn’t explicitly fund the progenitors prior to the uprising, but only funded them subsequent to their uprising with a buncha’ shekels. So, we are supposed to believe that the word planning is actually just an esoteric Aramaic word for spontaneity.
Since it’s been admitted the Arab Spring was carried out by a minority of actual Arab citizens, it’s hard to imagine these real and organic fringe leaders planning their mini mutiny, with little to no resources, knowing full well the violent repression which would follow, would’ve imagined they would be met with any success barring significant international assistance. Even more implausible is the notion that a CIA and State-Department backed cabal operating under the guise of a tax-free NGO committed to “spreading Democracy” is literally a vehicle to subvert the will of sovereign peoples across by the globe, in the name of…Democracy.
Because of course Great Democracies cannot help but share and spread their gleaming adoration of the wonderful ideas which illuminate their doctrine. In fact, Great Democracies won’t accept no as answer. You will be subject to the will of their powerful Democratic values, such as freedom, empowerment, and enfranchisement. Yeah, nothing says political enfranchisement like foreign cabals fomenting coups. Nothing says freedom like subverting the political enfranchisement of an entire nation and then dropping bombs on them and dropping weapons to their assassins.
Former President of the National Endowment for Democracy Allen Weinstein said it best:[17]“A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” At least Russia wised up to this NGlow and banned it, by law, in 2015.[18] Based.
It seems the Syria conflict was the swan song for the neo-con generation who, with the Clean Break Memo in 1996, engineered the policy vehicle which spread like a toxic wind infecting the likes of Bill Kristol, John McCain, John Bolton et al. The bellicose doctrine which uses the U.S. like a sacrificial proxy army ensured the destruction of vast swaths in the Middle East and Americans. In fact, so prophetic was the Clean Break Essay, it predicted “working with Jordan and Turkey to “roll-back” Syria.”
Mission accomplished, courtesy of filthy Feith and pestilent Perle. Democracy in the Middle East; by hooks and by crooks.
[2] https://airwars.org/conflict/coalition-in-iraq-and-syria/
[4] https://www.rand.org/blog/2017/03/al-qaeda-in-syria-can-change-its-name-but-not-its-stripes.html
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/world/middleeast/cia-syria-rebel-arm-train-trump.html
[6] Gabbard’s “Stop Arming Terrorists Act” challenges for the first time in Congress a U.S. policy toward the conflict in the Syrian civil war that should have set off alarm bells long ago: in 2012-13 the Obama administration helped its Sunni allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar provide arms to Syrian and non-Syrian armed groups to force President Bashar al-Assad out of power. And in 2013 the administration began to provide arms to what the CIA judged to be “relatively moderate” anti-Assad groups—meaning they incorporated various degrees of Islamic extremism.
That policy, ostensibly aimed at helping replace the Assad regime with a more democratic alternative, has actually helped build up al Qaeda’s Syrian franchise al Nusra Front into the dominant threat to Assad. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-america-armed-terrorists-in-syria/
[8] https://web.archive.org/web/20161205081205/http://www.janes.com/article/59374/us-arms-shipment-to-syrian-rebels-detailed
[9] https://www.thenational.ae/world/death-of-a-syrian-arms-salesman-1.144999
[10] https://www.conflictarm.com/reports/weapons-of-the-islamic-state/
[11] http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/01/turkey-kurds-kobani-defeat-turkish-policy.html
[12] Conceptually, the War Powers Resolution can be broken down into several distinct parts. The first part states the policy behind the law, namely to “insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities,” and that the President’s powers as Commander in Chief are exercised only pursuant to a declaration of war, specific statutory authorization from Congress, or a national emergency created by an attack upon the United States (50 USC Sec. 1541).
The second part requires the President to consult with Congress before introducing U.S. armed forces into hostilities or situations where hostilities are imminent, and to continue such consultations as long as U.S. armed forces remain in such situations (50 USC Sec. 1542). The third part sets forth reporting requirements that the President must comply with any time he introduces U.S. armed forces into existing or imminent hostilities (50 USC Sec. 1543); section 1543(a)(1) is particularly significant because it can trigger a 60 day time limit on the use of U.S. forces under section 1544(b). The fourth part of the law concerns Congressional actions and procedures. Of particular interest is Section 1544(b), which requires that U.S. forces be withdrawn from hostilities within 60 days of the time a report is submitted or is required to be submitted under Section 1543(a)(1), unless Congress acts to approve continued military action, or is physically unable to meet as a result of an armed attack upon the United States. Section 1544(c) requires the President to remove U.S. armed forces that are engaged in hostilities “without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization” at any time if Congress so directs by a Concurrent Resolution (50 USC 1544 (external link)). Concurrent Resolutions are not laws and are not presented to the President for signature or veto; as a result the procedure contemplated under Section 1544(c) is known as a “legislative veto” and is constitutionally questionable in light of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983). Further sections set forth expedited Congressional procedures for considering proposed legislation to authorize the use of U.S. armed forces, as well as similar procedures regarding proposed legislation to withdraw U.S. forces under Section 1544(c) (50 U.S. 1545-46a).
[13] Almost all of Iraq’s oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme have been paid in euros since 2001. Around 26 billion euros (£17.4bn) has been paid for 3.3 billion barrels of oil into an escrow account in New York. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/feb/16/iraq.theeuro
[14] https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-secret-stupid-saudi-us-deal-on-syria/5410130
[15] They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods. https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/13/1338974_re-arab-spring-paragraph-.html
[16] https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/13/1338974_re-arab-spring-paragraph-.html

posted by Satish Sharma at 20:27

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