August 27, 2013
Counterpunch

Obama's Syria Moment: Another Western War Crime In The Making

by Paul Craig Roberts

Washington and its British and French puppet governments are poised to yet again reveal their criminality. The image of the West as War Criminal is not a propaganda image created by the West's enemies, but the portrait that the West has painted of itself.

The UK Independent reports that over this past week-end Obama, Cameron, and Hollande agreed to launch cruise missile attacks against the Syrian government within two weeks despite the lack of any authorization from the UN and despite the absence of any evidence in behalf of Washington's claim that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against the Washington-backed "rebels", largely US supported external forces, seeking to overthrow the Syrian government.

Indeed, one reason for the rush to war is to prevent the UN inspection that Washington knows would disprove its claim and possibly implicate Washington in the false flag attack by the "rebels," . . .

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The UN High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change defined terrorism as any action intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organisation to do, or abstain from, any act.

[If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.--Noam Chomsky, "If the Nuremberg Laws Were Applied...," chomsky.info, 1990]

"Fallujah: All the Makings of a War Crime," The Wisdom Fund, November 6, 2004

"Iraq War: 'Supreme International Crime'," The Wisdom Fund, June 29, 2005

VIDEO: Sigfrido Ranucci, "Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre," RAI (Italy), November 8, 2005 [US used chemical weapons]

" ["This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran."--Wesley Clark, "Seven Countries in Five Years," Democracy Now, March 2, 2007]

"The Attack on Libya is Illegal, Unjust," The Wisdom Fund, March 28, 2011 [The legal and just war arguments apply to Syria also.]

Enver Masud, "With 30,000 Dead, What Do Faith Leaders and Human Rights Activists Who Pushed For War on Libya Say Now?," The Wisdom Fund, October 30, 2011

"Syria Regime-Change Project: An Ugly Stalemate," The Wisdom Fund, September 12, 2012

Syriangirl Partisan, YouTube, December 17, 2012

Robert Fisk, "Syria and Sarin Gas: US Claims Have a Very Familiar Ring," Independent, April 28, 2013

[The Obama administration should thus allow the Syrian civil war to run its course--Ernesto J. Sanchez, "Washington's Long History in Syria," Independent, July 12, 2013]

[According to John Mueller at Foreign Affairs, "The notion that killing with gas is more reprehensible than killing with bullets or shrapnel came out of World War I," mostly as a result of British propaganda against the Germans.--John Glaser, "Chemical weapons use in Syria is irrelevant," washingtontimes.com, August 22, 2013]

Oliver Wright, "Syria: Britain and US pledge to use force within two weeks as UN weapons inspectors prepare to visit alleged chemical weapons attack site," independent.co.uk, August 25, 2013 [The Independent has replaced this article with another -- the original may exist at other websites.]

[The liberal warhawks are groping around for a pretext they can call "legal" for waging war against Syria, and have come up with the 1999 "Kosovo war".--Diana Johnstone, "Justifying the Unjustifiable: US Uses Past Crimes to Legalize Future Ones," counterpunch.org, August 26, 2013]

Shane Harris and Mathew M Aid, "Exclusive: CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran," foreignpolicy.com, August 26, 2013

Robert Fisk, "Does Obama know he's fighting on al-Qa'ida's side?," independent.co.uk, August 27, 2013

William J Broad, "Not Easy to Hide a Chemical Attack, Experts Say," nytimes.com, August 27, 2013

"Israeli intelligence seen as central to US case against Syria," timesofisrael.com, August 27, 2013

Patrick J. Buchanan, "Congress Should Veto Obama's War," antiwar.com, August 27, 2013

[From cluster bombs to depleted uranium to napalm, recent history of U.S. warfare shows a trail of weapons leaving long-lasting civilian harm.

. . . U.S. dropped cluster bombs on Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Albania, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Napalm was not only widely used by the U.S. during the years of the Vietnam War but also in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq, though it only admitted to having used it in Iraq after irrefutable evidence was out.

The U.S. also used white phosphorus on Iraq and Afghanistan.--Andrea Germanos, "Hypocrisy and Legacy of Death Linger as US Claims Moral Authority in Syria," commondreams.org, August 27, 2013]

Elias Groll, "State Dept Admits It Doesn't Know Who Ordered Syria's Chemical Strike," foreignpolicy.com, August 28, 2013

George Galloway, August 29, 2013

[a Reuters/Ipsos poll . . . shows just 9 percent of U.S. citizens support an armed response--Ali Watkins, "Missing in Syria debate: Weighing the ethics of war," mcclatchydc.com, August 29, 2013]

Patty Culhane, "Questions Obama isn't being asked on Syria," aljazeera.com, August 29, 2013

[Assad refused to sign a proposed agreement with Qatar that would run a pipeline from the latter's North field, contiguous with Iran's South Pars field, through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and on to Turkey, with a view to supply European markets - albeit crucially bypassing Russia. Assad's rationale was "to protect the interests of [his] Russian ally, which is Europe's top supplier of natural gas."--Nafeez Ahmed, "Why Syria Intervention Plan Is Being Pushed by Oil Interests, Not Concern About Chemical Weapons," alternet.org, August 30, 2013]

[Iran is Israel's enemy. Iran is therefore, naturally, America's enemy. So fire the missiles at Iran's only Arab ally.--Robert Fisk, "Iran, Not Syria, Is the West's Real Target," independent.co.uk, August 30, 2013]

James R. Holmes, "Chemical Weapons are NOT WMDs," thediplomat.com, August 31, 2013

Dale Gavlak and Yahya Ababneh, "Syrians in Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack," antiwar.com, August 31, 2013

Saptarshi Ray and agencies, "Syria: Putin rubbishes chemical attack claims," theguardian.com, August 31, 2013

"Yes, the Syrian Rebels DO Have Access to Chemical Weapons'," washingtonsblog.com, September 2, 2013

"Bashar al-Assad interview: 'Show me the proof of regime chemical attack'," Le Figaro, September 2, 2013

[The United States . . . has deployed its CBW arsenal against the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Haitian boat people and Canada--Jeffrey St. Clair, "Germ War: the US Record," counterpunch.org, September 3, 2013]

[The American people do not want US armed forces to get involved in the civil war in Syria. The United Nations will not back US bombing of Syria. The British Parliament does not want to get involved in bombing Syria. World public opinion is opposed to US bombing Syria. Not even NATO wants to take part in bombing Syria. So who wants the United States to bomb Syria?

The same people who brought us the war in Iraq, that's who.--Diana Johnstone, "No War for Bernard Henri Levy -- France's Philosopher Bombardier," theatlantic.com, September 3, 2013]

Gareth Porter, "How Intelligence Was Twisted to Support an Attack on Syria," truth-out.org, September 3, 2013

Conor Friedersdorf, "The Press and the Syria Debate: Neither Neutral Nor Balanced," theatlantic.com, September 3, 2013

[The "end-game" would require not just coercing support among WTO members but taking down those countries refusing to join.--Ellen Brown, "Making the World Safe for Banksters: Syria in the Cross-hairs," webofdebt.wordpress.com, September 4, 2013]

Nicole Winfield, "Vatican Ramps up Opposition to Syria Strikes," Associated Press, September 4, 2013

"An Attack on Syria Neither Lawful Nor Just," The Wisdom Fund, September 7, 2013

Gareth Porter, "Obama's Case for Syria Didn't Reflect Intel Consensus," ipsnews.net, September 10, 2013

John Pilger, "The silent military coup that took over Washington," theguardian.com, September 10, 2013

George Monbiot, "Obama's Rogue State Tramples Over Every Law It Demands Others Uphold," theguardian.com, September 10, 2013

Steve Gutterman, "Syria accepts Russian chemical weapons proposal," reuters.com, September 10, 2013

["It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation," Putin wrote--"Vladimir Putin Warns Against U.S. Military Intervention," huffingtonpost.com, September 11, 2013]

[US intends to crush the last independent states in the Middle East: Syria first, then Iran.--John Pilger, "The enemy whose name we dare not speak," atimes.com, September 12, 2013]

Jean Bricmont and Diana Johnstone, "No More War for Israel? The People Against the 800 Pound Gorilla," bbc.co.uk, September 13, 2013

"Syria hails US-Russia deal on chemical weapons," bbc.co.uk, September 15, 2013

"UN Report Details Sarin Gas Use in Syria, but Doesn't Assign Blame," theatlanticwire.com, September 16, 2013

John Glaser, "Most Reported Deaths in Syria Have Not Been Committed by Assad Forces," antiwar.com, September 18, 2013

"Syria chemical weapons: UN adopts binding resolution," bbc.co.uk, September 28, 2013

[Notoriously, the House of Saud's "policy" on Syria is regime change, period. This is non-negotiable in terms of dealing a blow to those "apostates" in Tehran and imprinting Saudi will on Syria, Iraq, in fact the whole, mostly Sunni Levant.--Pepe Escobar, "Fear and loathing in House of Saud," atimes.com, October 11, 2013]

"Syria's chemical weapons production facilities destroyed, says watchdog," theguardian.com, October 31, 2013

Yifa Yaakov, "Israel 'furious' with White House for leak on Syria strike," timesofisrael.com, November 1, 2013

Ramy Srour, "Syria's Economy May Be Devastated for 30 Years," ipsnews.net, November 8, 2013

Pat Buchanan, "Intervene? Or End Syrian War?," townhall.com, February 28, 2014

['We now know it was a covert action planned by Erdogan's people to push Obama over the red line,' the former intelligence official said.--Seymour M. Hersh, "Seymour M. Hersh on Obama, Erdogan and the Syrian rebels," lrb.co.uk, April 6, 2014

"The Roots of the Iraq and Syria Wars Go Back More than 60 Years," globalresearch.ca, August 13, 2014

[This attack on Syria, under the guise of striking ISIS, is by definition, a war of aggression. It is a violation of international law.--Dennis J. Kucinich, "The Real Reason We Are Bombing Syria," huffingtonpost.com, September 23, 2014]

[The reports, . . . detail regular contacts held on the border between IDF officers and soldiers and Syrian rebels.--Barak Ravid, "UN Reveals Israeli Links With Syrian Rebels," haaretz.com, December 7, 2014]

[Thus did Cheney and his lads and lasses indulge their sadism by proxy - to the very state whose "interrogation techniques" now outrage the West so much that it is calling for the overthrow of the Syrian regime--Robert Fisk, "Once again language is distorted in order to hide US state wrongdoing," independent.co.uk, December 14, 2014]

Nicola Nasser, "Israeli Role in Syrian Conflict Brought Into the Open," independent.co.uk, December 18, 2014

Anne Barnard, "As Syria's Revolution Sputters, a Chaotic Stalemate," nytimes.com, December 27, 2014

[7,000, is the estimated death count for the Syrian unrest after the Syrian government had crushed the rebel enclave in Homs in February 2012 . . .

193,000 is the death toll since then . . . since the United States, the GCC, Turkey, and their enablers began pumping money, arms, and diplomatic support into the various Syria-based paramilitaries--Peter Lee, "The West's criminal culpability in Syria,"atimes.com, March 13, 2015]

VIDEO: "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on 60 Minutes," cbsnews.com, March 29, 2015

[ . . . a new phase of the Syrian war is commencing, riveted on boosting the capabilities of the extremist groups to violently overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad.--M K Bhadrakumar, "The 'Salman doctrine' will haunt India," rediff.com, April 2, 2015]

Batsheva Sobelman, "Israeli planes strike targets in Syria, Arab media report," latimes.com, April 25, 2015

[Washington Post columnist David Ignatius has detailed the process by which Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar competed with one another to create proxy forces with which to overthrow the Assad regime.--Gareth Porter, "The Media Misses the Point on Proxy War'," antiwar.com, May 6, 2015]

Seumas Milne, "Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq," theguardian.com, June 3, 2015

Conn Hallinan, "The Dark Saudi-Israeli Plot To Tip the Scales in Syria," antiwar.com, June 10, 2015

Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung, "Secret CIA effort in Syria faces large funding cut," washingtonpost.com, June 12, 2015

[The US is fully backing the region's extremists against one of its oldest secular regimes. . . . The plight of some 11 million Syrian refugees huddled in tents, drowning in the Mediterranean, or fleeing for their lives must be laid directly on Washington's doorstep.--Eric Margolis, "Destroying Syria to Make It Safe for American Values," unz.com, July 12, 2015]

Ceylan Yeginsu and Helene Cooper, "U.S. Jets to Use Turkish Bases in War on ISIS," nytimes.com, July 23, 2015

[Deploy US-backed "jihadi" proxies to capture-and-hold vast sections of the country thereby making it impossible for the central government to control the state.--Mike Whitney, "The Brookings Institute Plan to Liquidate Syria," counterpunch.org, August 5, 2015]

[Russia proposed more than three years ago that Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, could step down as part of a peace deal, according to a senior negotiator involved in back-channel discussions at the time.--Peter Lee, "Hidden History of Syria Regime Collapse Strategy Begins to Emerge," counterpunch.org, September 17, 2015]

[But all that complexity is neatly boiled down by American neocons and the mainstream U.S. media as "Russian aggression." Regarding the Syrian civil war, some neocons have even joined with senior Israeli officials in claiming that a victory by Al Qaeda is preferable to the continuation of Assad's secular regime.--Robert Parry, "Are Neocons an Existential Threat?," consortiumnews.com, September 15, 2015]

Gary Leupp, "The Six Most Disastrous Interventions of the 21st Century," counterpunch.org, October 9, 2015

U.S. Congresswoman: CIA Must Stop Illegal, Counterproductive War to Overthrow Assad, October 27, 2015