Syria

The US Expeditionary Kleptocracy

September 3, 2020 By Danny Sjursen, AntiWar.com. Educate! Corruption, Syria, US Empire, Wars and Militarism

Of course, a desperate US military – and its Washington masters – had an expedient solution for the ethno-sectarian strife they’d catalyzed: consider it the Lebanon formula. So America’s orientalist ambassadors – most, staggeringly young Republican stalwarts with no knowledge of the Mideast – imported France’s imperial Levantine blueprint. Essentially, this meant sectarian quotas and preferences for political office: a Kurdish president, Sunni parliamentary speaker, and Shia prime minister. The French have actually added the term for this disastrous recipe – libanisation – to their dictionaries: "A process of state fragmentation, resulting from the clash between various communities of faiths." In Sectarian America, a people divided, distracted, and armed, battle for control of the nation’s streets, whilst their nominal leaders corruptly carve up contracts with the defense industry and in overseas fiefdoms. Washington’s duopoly elites ship their bombs to Saudi Arabia and their sons (well, not their sons) to Syria to secure arms deals and oil fields. And if, as a result, about a 100,000 Yemeni children, and a handful of American soldiers have to die, well – so be it.

Is The US Deliberately Trying To Provoke A Military Crisis With Russia?

September 2, 2020 Ted Galen Carpenter, The American Conservative. Educate! Russia, Syria, US military, Wars and Militarism

There has been a long string of U.S. provocations toward Russia. The first one came in the late 1990s and the initial years of the twenty-first century when Washington violated tacit promises given to Mikhail Gorbachev and other Soviet leaders that if Moscow accepted a united Germany within NATO, the Alliance would not seek to move farther east. Instead of abiding by that bargain, the Clinton and Bush administrations successfully pushed NATO to admit multiple new members from Central and Eastern Europe, bringing that powerful military association directly to Russia’s western border. In addition, the United States initiated “rotational” deployments of its forces to the new members so that the U.S. military presence in those countries became permanent in all but name. Even Robert M. Gates, who served as secretary of defense under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, was uneasy about those deployments and conceded that he should have warned Bush in 2007 that they might be unnecessarily provocative.

US And Russia Collide, While Syrian Tribes Call For US Withdrawal

August 31, 2020 Steven Sahiounie, Middle East Discourse. Educate! Military aggression, Russia, Syria, Wars and Militarism

On August 20, Pres. Trump met with Iraq’s PM, and said the US is leaving Iraq “fairly rapidly” and making decisions on Syria “fairly soon.” The Iraqi Parliament called for the total withdrawal of US troops. A meeting of 5,000 Syrian tribal members in northeast Syria on August 11 demanded the US forces, and their SDF militia partners withdraw from occupation of the area after the SDF assassinated Sheikh Mutashar al-Hafil and his relative Dar Mihlef al-Khalaf, which provoked a wave of protests, and the call of “Yankee Go Home”. “We are calling on the international coalition to transfer control over the province directly to its Arab population, respecting Syria’s territorial integrity, as well as the rights of Syrian citizens“, the tribal elder’s statement said.

Syria: What Actually Happened In Collision Between US And Russian Forces

August 28, 2020 Morgan Artyukhina, Sputnik News. Educate! Russia, Syria, US military, Wars and Militarism

On Tuesday, four US service members were reported injured with concussion-like symptoms in an incident involving Russian forces. However, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Ullyot said on Wednesday that the injuries were the fault of the Russians, and that the US service members withdrew to deescalate - a far different story than that told by video footage of the event. "At approximately 10 a.m. (Syria Time), Aug. 25, a routine Defeat-ISIS Coalition security patrol encountered a Russian military patrol near Dayrick, in northeast Syria. During this interaction, a Russian vehicle struck a Coalition Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) causing injuries to the vehicle's crew," the statement reads.

Lebanon: Inconvenient Truths About Syria, Iran, Hezbollah And The Shia ‘Street’

August 27, 2020 By Danny Sjursen, AntiWar.com. Educate! Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Shia, Syria

There’s been a lot of nonsense passing as truth in post-blast Lebanon reporting. Most centers around alarmism about Hezbollah’s nefarious influence, the West’s "opportunity" to destroy it, and the supposed struggle with Russia, China, and Iran for paternalist-preeminence in a country that isn’t ours (or theirs) to preside over in the first place. There’s little discussion in most mainstream reporting on the minor matter of why Hezbollah gained influence in the first place. Shia Muslims are difficult to provoke and almost impossible to suppress once aroused. Long led by a more "quietist" strand of conservative, apolitical, clerics, these massive Mideast minorities – all 100 million of them – have, since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, emerged as the most effective regional resistors to Israeli expansionism and Western neo-imperialism. They’ve met with meaningful and unexpected success – where nearly all Sunnis states and subgroups have mainly failed – combating Israel, America, and both’s assorted Arab clients for more than 40 years. Indeed, while hardly immaculate, the Shia resistance record is rather impressive.

Might Belarus Become The Next Syria?

August 26, 2020 The Saker. Educate! Belarus, Russia, Syria, US Regime Change

There are signs that Russia is intervening in the Belarusian crisis (finally!) First and foremost, we can see a truly radical change in Lukashenko’s policies: if his initial instinct was to unleash brutal repression of both the violent rioters and the peaceful demonstrators, now he has made a 180 and the outcome is quite amazing: on Sunday there were large anti-Lukashenko demonstrations yet not a single person was detained. Not one. Even more amazing is this: the Polish-run Nexta Telagram channel (which is the main medium used by the Empire to overthrow Lukashenko) initially called for a peaceful protest, but at the end of the day a call was made to try to take over the main Presidential building. When the rioters (at this point we are dealing with an illegal, violent, attempt to overthrow the state – so I don’t call these people demonstrators) got to the building they were faced with a real “wall” of riot cops in full gear: this (really scary) sight was enough to stop the rioters who stood for a while and then had to leave.

US Sanctions Are Starving Syria

August 25, 2020 Aaron Maté , The Grayzone Project. Resistance Report Hunger, Syria, US Imperialism, US Sanctions

In June, the US imposed its harshest sanctions on Syria to date, prompting the World Food Programme to warn of “mass starvation or another mass exodus.” The US sanctions law known as the Caesar Act openly states that its strategy is to prevent reconstruction in government-held areas where most Syrians live, in which the Syrian government now controls after defeating a decade-long, devastating proxy war waged by the US and its allies. In a new article for Foreign Affairs, scholar Joshua Landis and former Obama administration official Steve Simon write that the current US sanctions policy, quote, “further immiserates the Syrian people, blocks reconstruction efforts, and strangles the economy that sustains a desperate population during Syria’s growing humanitarian and public health crises.”

On Bombs And Bombings

August 21, 2020 Caitlin Johnstone. Educate! Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Syria, Wars and Militarism

For a full week now the Israeli army has been bombing Gaza, a population that is about to run out of fuel for its only power plant due to a years-long Israeli program of deliberate siege warfare. Yesterday the US ordered an airstrike on Syrian forces, killing one, when they refused to let the illegal occupying force past a checkpoint in northern Syria. In both cases, an arm of the US-centralized empire used wildly disproportionate force against people who stood against a hostile occupation of their own country. In both cases, the more powerful and violent occupiers claimed they were acting in “self-defense”. In both cases dropping explosives from the sky upon human beings barely made the news.

A Company Of Thieves Run By Washington To Steal Syrian Oil

August 12, 2020 By Ruaa al-Jazaeri, SANA. Educate! Oil and Gas, Syria, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Stealing the resources of the Syrian people and plundering their wealth has always been a major goal of the United States in Syria, as it has completed its hostile approach by supporting terrorism there through an agreement between it and Qasad (SDF) militia to pillage the Syrian oil in an aggravated and declared crime that violates the rules of international law. The administration of US President Donald Trump has worked for years on the scheme to plunder the Syrian oil, which was finally embodied in the agreement between Washington and Qasad militia as informed sources revealed to the (CNN) that the agreement grant an American oil company called (Delta Crescent Energy), Which was created to implement the American scheme, broad powers to seize half of the Syrian oil fields and invest in them.

There Is No Political Solution To The Syrian Conflict

August 9, 2020 Steven Sahiounie, Mideast Discourse. Educate! International Law, Sanctions, Syria, US Foreign Policy

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, of the Obama administration, created a mantra for the media: “There is no military solution to Syria.” He said it so many times, he seemed to convince everyone. However, after 9 years of conflict it appears there is neither a military, nor political solution for Syria. Despite the fact that the Syrian government under President Assad, with help from Russia, has regained 70% of the territory, and all the major cities are calm, still there is no possibility for recovery or reconstruction of hospitals, schools, homes and lives due to the US sanctions.

United States Stealing Syrian Oil

August 4, 2020 By Amberin Zaman, and Joe Snell, Al-Monitor. Educate! Kurds, Oil, Syria, Türkiye, US Imperiaism

The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria has signed an agreement with an American oil company, well-placed sources with close knowledge of the deal told Al-Monitor. One of the sources said the agreement to market oil in territory controlled by the US-backed entity and to develop and modernize existing fields was inked last week “with the knowledge and encouragement of the White House.” The sources named the company as Delta Crescent Energy LLC, a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Delaware. The sources gave no further details about the company but would only say they had been in talks for “a long time” and that it had received an OFAC license to operate in Syria. Oil is a politically radioactive topic, with the central government in Damascus accusing the United States of stealing its oil after Trump declared last year in the wake of Turkey’s October incursion against the SDF that he was keeping some 500 US Special Forces in the Kurdish governed space “for the oil.” Despite steadily tightening sanctions on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the United States has turned a blind eye to ongoing oil trade between the Kurds and Damascus. A fair amount of the oil is also sold at cut-rate prices to the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

US Sanctions Are Part Of A Multi-Front War On Syria

July 21, 2020 By Eva Bartlett, RT. Educate! Sanctions, Syria, US Regime Change, Wars and Militarism

The US is waging multiple fronts of war against Syria, including brutal sanctions while claiming concern over the wellbeing of Syrian civilians – the vast majority of whom are suffering as a direct result of US policies. On June 17, the US implemented the Caesar Act, America’s latest round of draconian sanctions against the Syrian people, to “protect” them, America claims. This, after years of bombing civilians and providing support to anti-government militants, leading to the proliferation of terrorists who kidnap, imprison, torture, maim, and murder the same Syrian civilians. Just weeks after these barbaric sanctions were enforced, cue American crocodile tears about Syrian suffering, and claims that Moscow and Damascus are allegedly preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid. More hot air from American hypocritical talking heads who don’t actually care about Syrians’ wellbeing.

The Return Of The Anti-Antiwar Left

July 5, 2020 By James W. Carden, Counterpunch. Resist! Anti-Imperialism, Anti-war Movement, RussiaGate, Syria

In the writings of Dreyfuss, The New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg, Mother Jones’ David Corn, The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer, New York magazine’s resident dolt Jonathan Chait, and many more besides, we can see the emergence of the anti-anti-Cold War Left, there has also reemerged alongside it the very vocal and ravenously unscrupulous anti-antiwar Left. And it is on the issue of the Syrian war on which the anti-antiwar Left has coalesced, inexplicably arguing for the wholesale takeover of a secular police state by the very same Islamist radicals who, if given the chance, would turn around and immediately kill them on the grounds of apostasy. In Syria, the protests that began in 2011 were quickly overtaken by armed jihadists whose motto was “Christians to Beirut, Alawis to the grave.” Before he was murdered by Syrian rebels, the Jesuit missionary Father Frans vans der Lugt observed that “From the start the protest movements were not purely peaceful. From the start I saw armed demonstrators marching along in the protests, who began to shoot at the police first. Very often the violence of the security forces has been a reaction to the brutal violence of the armed rebels.”

Washington Wants 17 Million Syrians Starved Into Submission

July 3, 2020 Stephen Lendman, Global Research. Educate! Congress, Food Insecurity, Sanctions, Syria

Signed into law by Trump last December, the draconian measure that breaches international law became effective on June 17. It has nothing to do with protecting Syrian civilians, everything to do with starving and otherwise immiserating them into submission to Washington’s imperial boot. The measure threatens sanctions on nations, entities and individuals that maintain legitimate economic, financial, military, and intelligence relations with Damascus — their legal right under international law. Syrian envoy to Russia Riyad Haddad explained that threatened US sanctions under the measure “not only target Syria, they directly or indirectly jeopard(e) all its allies and are also aimed against Persian Gulf countries, so that none of these countries dares to invest in” the Syrian Arab Republic.

The Kurds Unbowed

June 28, 2020 By Dilar Dirik, New Internationalist. Educate! Kurds, Rojavia, Syria, Türkiye, Women's Rights

Despite the odds stacked against it, the women’s movement is determined to continue the struggle. In response to the Turkish invasions, hundreds of thousands of women from the different communities in Northern Syria have taken to the streets. On the International Day against Violence against Women, all the women’s organizations in Northern Syria organized large rallies across the region with the slogan ‘Occupation is Violence’. These local actions were echoed by feminist actions around the world under the campaign ‘Women Defend Rojava’. ‘Day and night, we engage in efforts to struggle against the occupation,’ Evîn says. ‘Our aim is for these areas to be liberated and for our people to see a dignified return. Both things must be led by the organized, free woman.’

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