Then there that neighboring country which owes us so much gratitude: Iraq. Last week, it suffered in one day 29 bombing attacks in 19 cities, killing 111 civilian and wounding another 235. The same day, Syria’s bloodbath consumed about the same number of innocents. But Iraq was ‘down the page’ from Syria, buried ‘below the fold’, as we journalists say; because, of course, we gave freedom to Iraq, Jeffersonian democracy, etc. etc. didn’t we? So this slaughter to the east of Syria didn’t have quite the same impact, did it? Nothing we did in 2003 led to Iraq’s suffering today. Right?
And talking of journalism, who in BBC World News decided that even the preparations for the Olympics should take precedence all last week over Syrian outrages? British newspapers and the BBC in Britain will naturally lead with the Olympics as a local story. But in a lamentable decision, the BBC – broadcasting ‘world’ news to the world – also decided that the passage of the Olympic flame was more important than dying Syrian children, even when it has its own courageous reporter sending his dispatches directly from Aleppo.
Then, of course, there’s us, our dear liberal selves who are so quick to fill the streets of London in protest at the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians. Rightly so, of course. When our political leaders are happy to condemn Arabs for their savagery but too timid to utter a word of the mildest criticism when the Israeli army commits crimes against humanity – or watches its allies do it in Lebanon – ordinary people have to remind the world that they are not as timid as the politicians. But when the scorecard of death in Syria reaches 15,000 or 19,000 – perhaps 14 times as many fatalities as in Israel’s savage 2008-2009 onslaught on Gaza – scarcely a single protester, save for Syrian expatriates abroad, walks the streets to condemn these crimes against humanity. Israel’s crimes have not been on this scale since 1948. Rightly or wrongly, the message that goes out is simple: we demand justice and the right to life for Arabs if they are butchered by the West and its Israeli allies; but not when they are being butchered by their fellow Arabs.
And all the while, we forget the ‘big’ truth. That this is an attempt to crush the Syrian dictatorship not because of our love for Syrians or our hatred of our former friend Bashar al-Assad, or because of our outrage at Russia, whose place in the pantheon of hypocrites is clear when we watch its reaction to all the little Stalingrads across Syria. No, this is all about Iran and our desire to crush the Islamic Republic and its infernal nuclear plans – if they exist – and has nothing to do with human rights or the right to life or the death of Syrian babies. Quelle horreur! Robert Fisk, article Syrian War of Lies and Hypocrisy
President Barack Obama has said the US cannot ‘turn a blind eye’ to the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
He was speaking after returning to the US from a G20 summit in Russia, which failed to produce international agreement on military action in Syria.
The US accuses President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of killing 1,429 people in a poison gas attack on 21 August.
EU foreign ministers say there should be no action before the UN reports back on chemical weapons attacks in Syria. BBC News online article 7th September 2013, ‘Obama: US cannot ignore US chemical weapons’
Had the US bombed Syria last summer, it would’ve likely strengthened the position of various rebel groups pressing for political control. ISIS has emerged as the strongest of these, despite being dismissed as junior varsity by the president (along with other ‘Al-Qaeda affiliates’ like Boko Haram) back in January. Other rebel groups, including ones Congress authorized the US military to arm (an idea the CIA has tried and dismissed), have tried to avoid conflict with ISIS. Several groups reportedly signed a ‘non-aggression’ pact with ISIS (which other groups downplayed or denied), and even the Free Syrian Army, Washington’s favourite rebel outfit, says it refuses to join the anti-ISIS coalition. Ed Krayewski, Four Reasons Bombing ISIS in Syria Isn’t Well Thought-Out, Reason 23 September 2014
We are here faced by fascists. Not just their calculated brutality but their belief that they are superior to every single one of us in this Chamber tonight and all of the people that we represent. They hold us in contempt. They hold our values in contempt. They hold our belief in tolerance and decency in contempt. They hold our democracy, the means by which we will make our decision tonight, in contempt. And what we know about fascists is that they need to be defeated. We must now confront this evil. It is now time for us to do our bit in Syria.
And that is why I ask my colleagues to vote for this motion tonight. Hilary Benn, speech House of Commons
1975: There was a confrontation between two powerful men in Damascus, the capital of Syria. One was Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State. The other was the president of Syria, Hafez al-Assad. Adam Curtis, Hypernormalisation, BBC 2016
President Assad dominated Syria. The country was full of giant images and statues that glorified him. He was brutal and ruthless, killing or imprisoning anyone he suspected of being a threat. ibid.
He [Kissinger] set out to do the very opposite: to fracture the power of the Arab countries by dividing them and breaking their alliances so they would keep each other in check … In reality, the Palestinians were ignored. ibid.
Assad decided get the Americans out of the Middle East, and to do this he made an alliance with the new revolutionary force of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran … Khomeini told his followers that they could destroy themselves in order to save the revolution, providing that in the process they killed as many enemies around them as possible. ibid.
In December 1985 terrorists attacked Rome and Vienna airport simultaneously killing 19 people, including 5 Americans. There was growing pressure on President Reagan to retaliate. President Reagan immediately announced that Colonel Gaddafi was definitely behind the attacks. But the European Security Services who investigated the attacks were convinced that Libya was not involved at all. And that the mastermind behind the attacks was in fact Syria. ibid.
Since the Arab Spring swept Syria in 2011 tens of thousands of people have disappeared in president Assad’s secret prisons. Thousands have died inside. The brutality continues today. Syria’s Disappeared: The Case Against Assad, Channel 4 2017
‘Hospital 601 is really a slaughterhouse, not a hospital.’ ibid. victim
As thousands of Syrians continued to disappear in the network of detention facilities across the country the regime continued to deny the allegations of torture that abounded. ibid.
He escaped from Syria with thousands of photographs … the photographs were a breakthrough. ibid.
This statement from press secretary Sean Spicer out of nowhere saying the United States has identified possible preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime … A bizarre evidence-less statement out of nowhere. The Corbett Report, The White House Prepares Another Chemical Weapon False Flag Attack in Syria, 2017 James Corbett online
All but announcing there is going to be another fake and staged chemical weapons attack. ibid.
Those incidents were not the work of the Syrian government. ibid.
Now we are getting word there’s going to be a chemical attack ... Why on the verge of victory would President Assad use the very types of weapons that are a) militarily useless; b) guaranteed – 100% guaranteed – to get the ire of the entire world to bear down on him and the bombs to start reigning down on him? Why would he do that? The Corbett Report, The Dinosaur Media Learns of Its Own Extinction, James Corbett online 2018
A thorough-going exploration of the chemical weapons attack which is alleged to have occurred in Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on 7th April 2018. The Corbett Report: The Douma Hoax: Anatomy of a False Flag, James Corbett online 2019
A series of demonstrable lies. ibid.
‘The search for truth in the rubble of Douma – and one doctor’s doubts over the chemical attack.’ ibid. Robert Fisk news report 17 April 2018
On April 21st investigators from that fact-finding mission of the OPCW begin collecting evidence and kicking off the nearly year-long process of producing a report on the incident … ‘no organophosphorus nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties’. ibid.
‘Efforts to exclude some investigators from the investigation whilst thwarting their attempts to raise legitimate concerns’. ibid. report Courage Foundation
‘The OPCW and Douma: Chemical Weapons Watchdog Accused of Evidence-Tampering by Its Own Inspectors’. ibid. Jonathan Steele news report
That motherfucker Bashar has us watching the sky constantly. Storyville: Last Men in Aleppo, Khaled, BBC 2017
The peaceful Syrian uprising of 2011 developed into an armed conflict after the Assad regime responded with force. In Aleppo rebels seized control of major parts of the city, while the Assad regime continued to target civilians with barrel bombs and air strikes. Russian warplanes started bombing Aleppo in September 2015, putting the White Helmets at greater risk. As the siege of Aleppo escalated, the volunteers and 250,000 other civilians were stuck inside a small area, with scarce resources and limited choices. Groups of civilians volunteered to save people and serve the local community. In 2013 they created the Syrian Civil Defence, now known to the world as the White Helmets. ibid. captions
Two White Helmets centres have been destroyed. And a third centre was bombed. They lost all their vehicles too. ibid. White Helmet
Nobody cares about anybody any more. ibid.
But shame on the Arab leaders. Just shame. ibid.
For the second time the children’s hospital in Azaz is put out of service … ibid. television news
This is destruction on a massive scale. ibid. Khaled
The people want to overthrow the regime! ibid. protest