Tag: Syria

Syria Saga Continues

Before I go any further I need to make it clear that if there is undeniable evidence that Syria used CWs on a civilian population then it should have been punished….my problem is that the US and its lap dog allies rushed to judgment without that proof of which I speak….

The NATO goons attacked without positive proof and now they let inspectors into the region to determine whether these weapons were used or not….(a little late)……

In the 1980’s, Scott Ritter was a commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps, specializing in intelligence. In 1987, Ritter was assigned to the On-Site Inspection Agency, which was put together to go into the Soviet Union and oversee the implementation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty. This was the first time that on-site inspection had been used as part of a disarmament verification process.

Ritter was one of the groundbreakers in developing on-site inspection techniques and methodologies. With this unique experience behind him, Ritter was asked in 1991, at the end of the Gulf War, to join the United Nations Special Commission, which was tasked by the Security Council to oversee the disarmament of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. From 1991 to 1998, Ritter served as a chief weapons inspector and led a number of teams into Iraq.

According to Ritter, in the following Flashpoints Radio interview with Dennis Bernstein conducted on April 23rd, US, British and French claims that the Syrian Government used chemical weapons against civilians last month appear to be totally bogus.

http://theantimedia.com/scott-ritter-syrian-gas-attack/

There have been others that have given reason why the Syrian government may not have been behind the attacks…..but so far the Western media will go with the “official” story of the culprit to the attack……

The response from the US, UK and France to a briefing on Thursday at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Hague was perverse, to say the least. Russia had brought 17 witnesses from Douma who stated that there had been no chemical weapons attack there earlier this month – the pretext for an illegal air strike on Syria by the three western states.

The witnesses, a mix of victims and the doctors who treated them, told accounts that confirmed a report provided last week from Douma by British reporter Robert Fisk – a report, it should be noted, that has been almost entirely blanked by the western media. According to the testimony provided at the OPCW, the victims shown in a video from the site of the alleged attack were actually suffering from the effects of inhaling dust after a bombing raid, not gas.

https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2018-04-28/the-west-closes-its-ears-to-douma-testimony/

What will happen if there is proof that the Syrians were not behind this attack?  Will there be a “oops my bad”?  Better yet will we, as Americans, ever know the truth about this attack?

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Withdraw?….We Gonna Stay!

The perfect description of Trump international policies.

A couple of days ago….or was it weeks…..who knows for sure…..crap flies around so much it is hard to keep up with when it all began…anyway awhile back Trump made some comment about the future of American troops in Syria….

He stated that troops would be withdrawn from the country soon….and then he changed his mind…..

Despite the US’s insistence that it intends to pull troops out of Syria (at some point, possibly in the distant future), local media report that the US has set up a new military facility in Eastern Deir ez-Zor – not far from ISIS’s last major stronghold in Syria, which was crushed by the Syrian Army back in November shortly before they declared victory against ISIS. The region is also known for being rich in oil.

According to the reports, the new base is located in the al-Tanak oilfield, which is controlled by Kurdish forces. Form their new outpost, American personnel have been ferrying new supplies to the front from the town of Khasham, in southeastern Deir ez-Zor, to the city of Hosseinieh, situated northeast of the Deir ez-Zor region.

http://theantimedia.com/new-us-military-base-isis-stronghold-syria/

A new base?  Does that mean an increase of American troops deployed to Syria?

What Of Syria? (Updated)(Again)

Many of us foreign policy wonks have been asking some serious questions for years now.  What is our intent in Syria?  Can someone actually define our goals for Syria? Many other questions too numerous to list but those are the two most important questions that need answering.

After all do we want another extended war like Afghanistan?

This is an article that was first published in neocon paper, National Interests”……I say that because I do not agree with the praise on Pres. Trump but there are other parts that hold some validity ….at least with me…..

Give credit to Donald Trump for a moral clarity that eluded his predecessor about the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons on innocent civilians. The president stood by his word and didn’t tolerate the Syrian dictator’s use of weapons of mass destruction. But while the recent strike on Syria was important and necessary—it was far from sufficient. The consolidation of Iranian and Russian military bases there is disastrous for the security of the U.S. and its allies. And the ongoing conflict, which Assad will not end anytime soon, fuels the global jihadi movement more than any other single factor.

It pays to review the origins of the conflict: In the full winds of the Arab Spring, the people of Syria stood up against one of the most brutal and oppressive Arab dictatorships with peaceful demonstrations. The Assad regime, however, chose a course of violence, suspecting rightly that without a decisive response it might go the way of Muammar el-Qaddafi’s rule in Libya. In the ensuing civil war, outside sponsors and Salafi-jihadi groups made their way to the Syrian battleground. Assad himself, deliberately fueled the increase of jihadists in order to discredit the entire rebellion and hold the West hostage to his own survival. He released Al Qaeda members from Syrian prison and replaced them with peaceful protestors.

http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/way-forward-syria

I am waiting for someone in the government to step forward and give a full explanation of what of Syria.

The Brookings Institute has weigh in also……

Help local allies in Syria hold their ground.  As Crocker and I argue, this objective may require small deployments of U.S. forces to certain sectors of the country—for specific purposes like being able to call in airstrikes if partners are threatened, or protecting aid workers who are helping reconstruct these areas so refugees can start to return.

and more……

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/04/17/4-essential-elements-of-a-u-s-strategy-on-syria/

This leans kinda heavy on the neocon side….but at least it is some sort plan that we have been waiting for…..

After a quick bit of pulling out of Syria Trump has done what he does best……obfuscate.

(this is the updated part)

Just a month after another brief public flirtation with the idea of withdrawing from Syria, President Trump once again said he wants US troops out of Syria, promising “big decisions” very soon. His first talk of a pullout was scrapped days later. This time, he backtracked almost instantly.

With French President Emmanuel Macron in tow, Trump told reporters that he and his allies are taking a long-term approach to Syria, and that this would involve leaving “a strong and lasting footprint” within Syria. He said talk of the long-term issues in Syria was “a very big part” of his discussions with Macron.

The idea that Macron is driving Trump’s decision-making was a big issue last week. Macron claimed credit for Trump agreeing to stay in Syria, but quickly reversed course, and insisted the two had always agreed on the issue.

http://theantimedia.com/trump-vows-strong-lasting-footprint-syria

I am sure that our war weary troops will be glad for the promise of more and more danger.

And I wait…….and we wait……

Another update……

 In recent weeks the American public has been inundated with reports claiming the U.S., the U.K., and France have conclusive evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reportedly used chemical weapons against his own people. Most of the American, British, and French media have lined up behind the proclamations of their respective political leaders by declaring as fact that the Assad regime is responsible for alleged chemical attacks as far back as 2013. The most recent attack is alleged to have taken place earlier this month in Douma, Syria.

http://theantimedia.com/chemical-attack-syria

Stay tuned I am sure there is more to come…..chuq

Syrian Attack Debrief

Below is a debrief of the attack of a couple weeks ago……yes it is from a Russian source and it does not hold to the lies Trump tells but to be honest the truth will be somewhere in the middle of both accounts…..

https://southfront.org/trumps-smart-missiles-in-syria-summing-up-evidence-and-numbers-provided-by-russia/

We have seen a detailed account from Russia…will we see the same from our government….something other than a lie?

Syria: Post Attack Debrief

After Action Report……..

The US and NATO allies have attacked the country of Syria in response for their use of CWs against civilians…..that attack took place last week…..and now it is time for an IST debrief…..

Our attacks were designed to punishment Assad for the use of CWs…..and yet……

Pentagon officials offered a briefing Thursday saying they believe they have evidence that there were “elements” of sarin nerve gas at the sites that US-led coalition forces bombed on Friday evening. Officials said they hurt Syria’s ability to research chemicals, but probably didn’t eliminate their chemical weapons capacity.

“A perfectly executed strike,” Trump tweeted after U.S., French and British warplanes and ships launched more than 100 missiles nearly unopposed by Syrian air defenses. “Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!”

Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, said the allied airstrikes “took out the heart” of Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal. He said the missiles hit the “sweet spot,” doing the expected level of damage while minimizing the unintentional release of toxic fumes that could be harmful to nearby civilians.

When pressed, he acknowledged that some unspecified portion of Assad’s chemical arms infrastructure was not targeted.

“There is still a residual element of the Syrian program that is out there,” McKenzie said, adding, “I’m not going to say they’re going to be unable to continue to conduct a chemical attack in the future. I suspect, however they’ll think long and hard about it.”

Really?  After all the banter and “Mission Accomplished” and there is some of his Chem program not targeted….WHY?

If Trump was so outraged at the use of CWs against poor Syrian children why leave any of it untouched?

So basically it was about as effective as the airstrikes a year ago right?

One further note about the attack……

The Pentagon is clearly not being forthright on the details of the Friday attack. Officials also claimed Thursday that no civilians were killed, despite images clearly showing one of the strikes doing major damage to an apartment complex near a research facility.

The Pentagon further claimed not a single of the 105 missiles was intercepted Friday. Again, videos showing interceptions were released almost immediately after the attacks. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also claimed 65 of the 105 were intercepted.

(antiwar.com)

I have never seen such support for a war against another nation than this one…..and the media is the biggest cheerleader…..

A survey by FAIR of the top 100 papers in the US by circulation found not a single editorial board opposed to Trump’s April 13 airstrikes on Syria. Twenty supported the strikes, while six were ambiguous as to whether or not the bombing was advisable. The remaining 74 issued no opinion about Trump’s latest escalation of the Syrian war.

None of the top 100 newspapers questioned the US’s legal or moral right to bomb Syria, and all accepted US government claims to be neutral arbiters of “international law.” Many editorials handwrung about a “lack of strategy” or absence of congressional approval, but none so much that they opposed the bombing. Strategy and legal sanction are add-on features—nice but, by all accounts, not essential.

All this is just examples of how deep the corporate media is invested in these wars…..there is NO voice in  opposition…..as long as there is NO opposition then these wars and the future wars will have a clear path and thanx to propaganda support will remain no matter how many Americans die for no good reason.

chuq in debrief…..20Apr18

Syria And The Question Not Asked

Now that the US and NATO has boldly gone where others feared to go…..then there are a few questions that need to be asked….

1. Why couldn’t the military wait for inspectors to do their jobs?

2. How do we know we’re being told the truth?

3.Have strikes like these ever really “punished” a country’s leader – or “sent them a message,” for that matter?

4. Why isn’t the full range of U.S. activity in Syria getting more coverage?

5. Where are the advocates for a smarter national security policy?

6. How can a country uphold international norms by violating international law?

7. Did the airstrikes make Trump “presidential”?

The answers can be found here…..

http://theantimedia.com/7-questions-about-syria-airstrikes/

Personally, I feel these questions should have been asked before throwing missiles at Syria.

Now that the smoke is clearing, in more ways than one, there is a big mess coming Trump’s way.

President Trump celebrated firing more than 100 missiles into Syria by Tweeting, “Mission Accomplished!” They say if you cannot learn from history you are condemned to repeat it. So I guess we are repeating it.

We all remember that “Mission Accomplished” was the banner behind then-President Bush as he gloated aboard a US navy ship that the war in Iraq had been won. After his “victory,” however, some 4,000 US military personnel were killed, perhaps a million Iraqis were killed, and the country’s infrastructure and social fabric were so badly destroyed that they probably can never be repaired.

Actually, there is much about the US attack on Syria that reminds us of Iraq.

http://theantimedia.com/trump-syria-attack/

At least one Trump adviser wanted to do the right thing……Mattis…….

According to the New York Times, US officials said that ahead of Friday’s US-led attack on Syria, Defense Secretary James Mattis urged the president to get Congressional approval first. Trump overruled this, however, and officials say he wanted a “rapid” response.

Officials went on to say that Trump was worried about being seen not to follow through on his “get ready” Tweet about the attack. Mattis argued about the risk of a “wider war” with Russia. The compromise was the Friday attack, which was more limited than some hawks were expecting.

It again shows a divide between Trump and Mattis on key foreign policy issues. It is particularly huge in this case because it reveals an active Defense Secretary wanting Congressional authorization for an overseas strike.

(antiwar.com)

Mattis could be playing with fire as far as his tenure at the Pentagon goes……

I believe that I have shot my wad on this situation…..You may return now to the melodrama or is it Kabuki of the Trump White House……I shall re-visit this topic as events may dictate.

Syria: Is There A Truth Bubble?

The deed is done!  Parts of Syria is a smoldering rubble in retaliation for the alleged chemical attacks on civilians by Assad forces.

It is interesting that a Russian general predicted the chem weapon and the US response about a month before the story began……

Sometimes bizarre claims by foreign governments are so shocking they are dismissed and never thought of again. But what happens when the events predicted occur exactly as described?

A stub of an article published by Reuters on March 13, 2018, almost a month before the purported chemical attack in Ghouta, reads:

“Russia said on Tuesday it had information that the United States planned to bomb the government quarter in Damascus on an invented pretext, and said it would respond militarily if it felt Russian lives were threatened by such an attack.

http://theantimedia.com/russia-predicted-chemical-attack/

After the attack the inspectors have arrived to check out the report….I am wondering why we did not get that report first……some are saying that Trump may have gotten it all wrong……

This is the story of a town called Douma, a ravaged, stinking place of smashed apartment blocks – and of an underground clinic whose images of suffering allowed three of the Western world’s most powerful nations to bomb Syria last week. There’s even a friendly doctor in a green coat who, when I track him down in the very same clinic, cheerfully tells me that the “gas” videotape which horrified the world – despite all the doubters – is perfectly genuine.

War stories, however, have a habit of growing darker. For the same 58-year old senior Syrian doctor then adds something profoundly uncomfortable: the patients, he says, were overcome not by gas but by oxygen starvation in the rubbish-filled tunnels and basements in which they lived, on a night of wind and heavy shelling that stirred up a dust storm.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-chemical-attack-gas-douma-robert-fisk-ghouta-damascus-a8307726.html

I give these articles because the real story may never be known……only the crappy story line that leads to what the masters what to be done to Syria….