Friday 14 October 2016

Syrian War Now an ‘Existential Contest’ Between US and Russia



[ Ed. note – The RT reporter in the above video poses reasonable, rational questions to John Kirby–the same State Department spokesperson who recently spoke of Russians leaving Syria in “body bags”–and gets a response from him that borders upon rudeness and belligerence. Think about what that means.
We obviously are seeing a full-scale propaganda war raging. How long before the full-scale propaganda war becomes a full-scale shooting war? Maybe not right away. Maybe not until after the new president takes office. Maybe not even then, or at least not right away. But it’s unlikely things can or will go on indefinitely in their current state. One can pound a fist upon a table only so long before the teacups in their saucers begin to crack or turn over.
RT’s original report about the front line in Aleppo, alluded to in the above report, can be found here. It’s worth a look if you haven’t seen it. People living in the government controlled area–but near the line of demarcation–are in a particularly tense situation. The camera pans at one point to show a number of apartment buildings, all with their windows covered by sheets. The reporter informs us that the sheets have been put up by residents so as to reduce the chances of being hit by terrorist snipers–snipers that the US is supporting and trying to protect by calling for a no-fly zone.
The US policy of destroying one country after another has created an unmitigated hell in the Middle East, and the implications of this have spread far beyond that region. So much is this the case that the US and Russia are now locked in an “existential conflict” with each other–or that is the view expressed in the article below, and it’s probably not an over exaggeration.  Moreover, I would suggest that both the leaders of Russia and the US have come to see it that way as well–as an existential contest. Russia sees its existence threatened by US actions in Syria as well as at Russia’s own borders; the US, in turn, sees Russia’s actions in Syria as a threat to its existence as global empire, this particularly with regard to the way the Russians have pulled back the curtain and revealed the truth about US claims to be fighting terrorism. Overall this has been a major blow to the US and it probably makes the likelihood of war all that much greater. ]
***
Syria Conflict: Where Does it End?
Posted at Bandicoot
A friend who has spent many years in the Middle East, reporting, researching and writing, sends this report. It is his view, not Bandicoot’s, but Bandicoot endorses it. 
The propaganda war over Iraq seemed unsurpassable. More than a quarter of a million people died, about three million were displaced, inside their own country or in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and yet not one “weapon of mass destruction” was discovered.
This war was a second bite at Iraq. It followed the aerial onslaught of 1991 and the sanctions from 1990-2003, which killed or displaced millions and were described by UN officials as genocidal. Saddam brought the first war on his country (by invading Kuwait), but not the second. Only too late, for the Iraqi people certainly, did we the people realize we had been sucker-punched by the false claims being made by the American, British and Australian governments.
Then came Libya; more propaganda followed by the destruction of the most developed country in Africa during a seven-month aerial onslaught by American, French and British planes. This campaign ended in the hideous murder of Muammar al Qadhafi. “We came, we saw, he died,” cackled Hillary Clinton. Libya was destroyed and turned into another home base for the Islamic State.
Now we have Syria, where 300,000 people are estimated to have died since 2011 and half the country’s population of 22 million people have been displaced internally or externally, fleeing to Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon, and beyond.
This is not a civil war but a campaign launched by the US and its “western” and regional allies to destroy another Arab government. You were told violence only followed months of oppression, when in fact the armed groups were ready to go and killed scores of police and soldiers in the first week of the “uprising” in 2011.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

No comments: