Listening to Western “governments” - otherwise known as criminal regimes led by war criminals - pontificating and pronouncing on Syria is like riding a rollercoaster of hilarity, absurdity and downright lies.
A selection of the “best”, that is, the worst, of these Western talking points has been compiled below into a top 10 Western ‘hits’.
This list is by no means complete or in order of importance. Press TV readers are invited to add more in the comments section below this column.
It has to be said, however, that this is no laughing matter; more a heart-crying shame, given the massive unnecessary human suffering that these criminal Western regimes are inflicting on a sovereign people and country over the past two years, with a total death toll of nearly 80,000 and counting - most of them civilians, men, women and children.
The rollercoaster of depravity seems to be gathering dizzying speed as the so-called international peace conference in Geneva looms sometime over the next few weeks. This is the political confabulation allegedly aimed at finding a negotiated peace settlement between the government of President Bashar al-Assad and members of the Syrian so-called “opposition”.
Supported by Iran, Russia and China, these aforementioned governments can be appraised as honest brokers in trying to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis. This is because their collective position is eminently reasonable, making no preconditions on the outcome and promoting a genuine dialogue between the Syrian people.
However, the same cannot be said for that other sponsor of the Geneva event, the United States, and its NATO allies, Britain and France, along with their regional Turk, Arab and Israeli puppets.
Here follows a recent selection of their dubious credentials and duplicities - a top 10 - which taken together does not augur well for a successful peace settlement to end Syria’s torment.
1. US, Britain and France arming up for peace
All three rogue states are now openly saying that they will escalate the supply of weapons to their proxy mercenary army of “rebels” in Syria if the Syrian government does not “get serious” about negotiating a “peaceful settlement”. The more relevant question is: are these Western regimes “serious about peace”?
It rather sounds like the Western powers are trying to hold a gun to Damascus’ head and demanding that it sign up to Western terms for “political transition”, that is, regime change. Note that US Secretary of State John Kerry is now backing Britain and France in their attempt to scrap the European Union’s embargo on weapons sales to Syria.
That embargo is, of course, a ridiculous charade anyway, as all of the three above Western regimes have been funneling “non-lethal” weapons and other military support to their proxy mercenaries via the conduits of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. But what the latest thinly veiled threat of aggression from the US, Britain and France portends is that if the Geneva summit does not go according to their geopolitical objectives of regime change in Damascus, they will then flood Syria with even more killing power. Perhaps also “no-fly zones” and Western boots on the ground.
The British Guardian newspaper quotes UK foreign minister William Hague’s spellbinding cynicism: “We have to be open to every way of strengthening moderates and saving lives.” So, in Hague’s warped world, giving anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to the Western-backed terrorists running amok in Syria will lead to peace and save lives.
Hague, Kerry and their French counterpart Laurent Fabius should be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against peace, indicted on their own words, instead of being indulged as statesmen.
2. Western unelected minions make demands on sovereign Syrian government
As it turns out, Syria’s government has quickly responded to declare its willing participation in the Geneva peace summit next month. The Assad administration has even nominated possible negotiators, including the Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi. Meanwhile, the Western and Arab patronized exile group, the so-called Syrian National Coalition, with their American-educated accents and predilection for luxurious Qatari hotel suites, are pooh-poohing whether to even attend the Geneva conference. The SNC leader Ghassan Hitto, a Texan-based Syrian businessman, is being groomed as “premier-in-waiting”, but like many of his exile cronies, he has no popular base or mandate from the Syrian people. This is the same offshore foreign party that is demanding that President Assad abandons his office forthwith and takes refuge in some overseas land.
This Western political excrescence imposed on Syria is distinct from the genuine internal political opposition within Syria. There are legitimate voices for political reforms within Syria, whom the Damascus government has recognized as necessary for a national dialogue to advance Syrian society. But this legitimate opposition is ignored by the Western regimes. Wonder why?
3. EU funds al-Qaeda
This shocker follows the news that the European 27-nation bloc is to end its embargo on the sale of oil from Syria that is under the control of the mercenaries. It is a deliberate and stated EU policy to help boost the war chest for the militants. So who are these “deserving rebels”?
More than 100 militant groups are believed to be operating in Syria, which have come from nearly 30 countries, including Libya, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, the Russian Caucus, Qatar, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, as well as Britain and France. Most of these groups are self-styled Jihadists who claim to be Muslim, but in reality are nothing more than psychopathic terrorists, cutthroats, rapists and opportunistic bandits. The name “Free Syrian Army”, supposedly led by the tin-pot Brigadier General Salim Idriss, is in fact a baseless hologram that the Western sponsors of these proxy terrorists use to create the illusion that the Western, Turk and Arab regimes are supporting “moderates” with a “good cause”. That’s why these “moderates” set off no-warning car bombs to kill and maim “fellow Syrians” or mutilate and cannibalize corpses.
The West’s proxy terrorists have gloated in the most unspeakable cruelties against Syrian civilians and consistent with this vile conduct is their proclaimed affiliation with the Wahhabi al-Qaeda network. This is the clandestine network created and trained by Western military intelligence, funded by Saudi oil money, to carry out global operations of terrorism and destabilization, most notoriously the 9/11 attacks in the US.
Thus while instigating a fake global “war on terror” cover for ruling elites to hijack and ransack democracies, including their own, the US taxpayers have been saddled with $6 trillion in debts from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - just those two criminal genocidal wars alone - according to a recent Harvard University study.
After all this expenditure to “defeat” terrorism, the European Union is proposing to pay these same terrorists for the oil that they can loot from the fields and people of Syria. Meanwhile, the EU maintains economic sanctions on the Syrian government, depriving citizens of badly needed welfare and services. Whoops, the rollercoaster just did a loop-the-loop.
4. Israel provides air force for al-Qaeda
When the Israeli air force hit Damascus earlier this month, the al-Qaeda extremists on the ground were reportedly ecstatic over the attack on an Arab country by the Arab-land-thieving Zionist regime.
The strikes were also in part timed and designed to provide air support for these same mercenaries trying to make military headway against Damascus. This has got to be the apogee of absurdity in the Syrian conflict. The Zionist regime has been telling the world ever since its criminal inception in 1948 that it is living under an existential threat from Arab revenge. Yet this same self-pitying genocidal regime teams up with the most extreme and deformed Arab Wahhabi ideologues and throat-slitters. That really shows that the Western-backed Zionist and Wahhabi despots are one and the same.
5. West goes to war in Africa, but supports same terrorists in Syria
France, supported by the US and Britain, is still conducting a war of conquest in the West African country of Mali. This was justified by President Francois Hollande as an intervention to wrest control of northern Mali from “Islamist extremists”. The French media helped in this duplicity by reporting on “floggings, amputations and prohibitions on civil freedoms” under “Sharia law” imposed by militants in northern Mali before the French invasion. But when reports and video footage emerged this week of similar barbarities being imposed in the self-styled “emirates” of northern Syria by Western-backed Al-Qaeda groups, Hollande and his Western allies had nothing to say about that. Indeed, the Western regimes want to impose “no-fly zones” in those Syrian areas “liberated” by extremists, so that they are more free to extend their reign of terror on Syrian civilians.
6. West accuses Russia of “destabilizing” Syria and the region
Washington’s John Kerry this week castigated Moscow for going ahead with the supply to Syria of the Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft defense system. This followed the same protest from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Russian President Vladimir Putin. These statements have surely got to qualify Western politicians as certifiable for a mental hospital. The destabilization of Syria and the entire region is a verifiable result of institutionalized violence emanating from Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv. Only a few weeks ago, the Zionist regime perpetrated yet another war crime by launching its third air strike on Damascus since January - acts of aggression countenanced by Washington. The Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov displayed charitable patience when he explained to the Western imbeciles the probity, and indeed necessity, of the S-300 batteries. “The system is sent to countries that need to defend themselves from air strikes,” said Lavrov. Don’t count on the Western imbeciles comprehending that simple truth.
Meanwhile, the Americans, British and French are flogging billions-of-dollars-worth of fighter-bombers, tanks and missiles to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the other Persian Gulf dictatorships. Much of this offensive capability is directed at Iran. Talk about Western doublethink and duplicity about who or what is destabilizing the region.
7. Blame it all on Iran and Hezbollah
Similar to the Western perverse logic about Russia “destabilizing” the region, US President Barack Obama and others have denounced Iran and Hezbollah for supporting Syria - a country that is besieged by a covert war of aggression instigated by these same Western powers. In a saner world, Iran and Hezbollah should be lauded for their international solidarity and neighborly compassion. And let’s remember that Hezbollah was incited to intervene against the foreign-backed terrorists in Syria after the latter began firing missiles and rockets into Shia villages along the Syrian-Lebanese border in recent months. Under international law of self-defense, Hezbollah is entitled to join forces with the Syrian army to rout these criminals from their havens, as they have done this past week in Qusayr in Homs Province.
John Kerry said: “Active military support to the Assad regime simply exacerbates the sectarian tensions and perpetuates the regime’s campaign of terror against its own people.” Make-believe stuff from the Kerry fairy.
Kerry should be asked about illegal Western active military support for renegade killers attacking a sovereign country? How is that for sectarian tensions?
William Hague added this mental somersault: “It is very clear that Syrian regime is receiving a great deal of support… from outside Syria from Hezbollah and Iran. This is a regime that is increasingly dependent on external support,” added Hague, who apparently cannot see the glaring irony that it is the terrorist mercenaries who are increasingly dependent on external support, that is, American, British, French, Turk, Israeli and the despotic Arab dictatorships of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Jordan.
8. Invisible American, British and Israeli troops
While Western politicians make unfounded allegations against Iran over military assistance to Syria, these same politicians appear to be blind when it comes to the well-founded knowledge that American and British troops are running training camps in terror techniques for the extremists ripping Syrian society apart. These NATO troops have set up camps in neighboring Jordan and Turkey from which the operatives launch into Syria. Video evidence has also emerged of Israeli commandos operating within Syrian territory, as well as violating the ceasefire demarcation line in the Golan Heights. Western mainstream news media have added to this absurdity by reporting that the “Syrian army has fired into Israel” - meaning that Syrian troops have responded to Israeli violations in the territory of Syria that Israel illegally annexed in 1967 and continues to illegally occupy in contravention of international law.
9. Turkey and Jordan appeal for help over refugee crisis… that they themselves created
Up to five million Syrians - 20 per cent of the population - have been burned out or turned out of their formerly safe and comfortable homes to eke a miserable living under tents. Some 1.5 million of these refugees are subsisting in campsites in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. The humanitarian crisis is costing the Turk government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan some $50 million a month, or a total of $1.5 billion over the past two years. That bill is set to skyrocket as the number of Syrian refugees fleeing to Turkey is projected to double to more than 900,000 by the end of this year. Thus Turkey and Jordan are pleading for financial help from the international community. Yet, these countries would not have this refugee and financial problem if Turkey and Jordan did not allow mercenary armies to operate from their territories to maraud, pillage and terrorize Syrian people from their homes. Turkey and Jordan have taken an active part in creating a humanitarian crisis and now they want to the rest of the world to stump the bill. Indeed, so do the US, British and French rogue regimes.
10. Violence ‘spills over from Syria into Iraq’
This is how the Western media report it, but the truth is that violence and mayhem is spilling over from Iraq and Afghanistan into Syria and into many other countries across the region and the world. When the US-led NATO powers embarked on their criminal wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, the world has been living ever since under a Western reign of imperialist terror. The genocidal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost more than 1.5 million lives. Those huge crimes have paved the way for a lawless world where Western regimes feel emboldened to attack and ransack any country they deem. Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Mali are some of the present sites of Western imperialist warmongering. Libya was previously. Iran is probably next. The US-led war on Syria has therefore necessarily to be understood as part of a criminal continuum for global dominance in the service of global capital. And the Western regimes and their leaders should be seen as criminals working hand-in-glove who should be arraigned in a democratic court of justice.
All of the above is but a shortlist of Western regime crimes and duplicity that is most saliently exposed in the terrible conflict being imposed on Syria.
The Syrian people deserve peace and all good people around the world no doubt wish them success in future negotiations. But, given the litany of crimes, lies and deception attributable to the US, Britain and France in particular, the omens leading up to the Geneva summit do not bode well.
That raises the question: should Syria and its allies in Iran, Russia and China even attend this so-called conference in Geneva? Perhaps Iran could convene an alternative summit dedicated solely to the internal Syrian parties, and deliberately excluding the enemies of Syria from the US, Britain, France and their myriad puppets. That alternative peace summit in Tehran could be held under the auspices of the Non-Aligned Movement, of which Iran is currently the presiding chairman.
