Exclusive: Official Washington’s many false narratives about Russia and Syria have gotten so tangled that they have become a danger to the struggle against Sunni jihadist terrorism and conceivably a threat to the future of the planet, a risk that Robert Parry explores.
By Robert Parry
One way to view Official Washington is to envision a giant bubble that serves as a hothouse for growing genetically modified “group thinks.” Most inhabitants of the bubble praise these creations as glorious and beyond reproach, but a few dissenters note how strange and dangerous these products are. Those critics, however, are then banished from the bubble, leaving behind an evermore concentrated consensus.
This process could be almost comical as the many armchair warriors repeat What Everyone Knows to Be True as self-justifying proof that more and more wars and confrontations are needed but the United States is the most powerful nation on earth and its fallacious “group thinks” are spreading a widening arc of chaos and death around the globe.
President Barack Obama meets with his national security advisors in the Situation Room of the White House, Aug. 7, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
We even have presidential candidates, especially among the Republicans but including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, competing to out-bellicose each other, treating an invasion of Syria as the least one can do and some even bragging about how they might like to shoot down a few Russian warplanes.
Though President Barack Obama has dragged his heels regarding some of the more extreme proposals, he still falls in line with the “group think,” continuing to insist on “regime change” in Syria (President Bashar al-Assad “must go”), permitting the supply of sophisticated weapons to Sunni jihadists (including TOW anti-tank missiles to Ahrar ash-Sham, a jihadist group founded by Al Qaeda veterans and fighting alongside Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front), and allowing his staff to personally insult Russian President Vladimir Putin (having White House spokesman Josh Earnest in September demean Putin’s posture for sitting with his legs apart during a Kremlin meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Sept. 21, 2015.
Not surprisingly, I guess, Earnest’s prissy disapproval of what is commonly called “man spread” didn’t extend to Netanyahu who adopted the same open-leg posture in the meeting with Putin on Sept. 21 and again in last week’s meeting with Obama, who it should be noted sat with his legs primly crossed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House on Nov. 9, 2015. (Photo credit: Raphael Ahren/Times of Israel)
This combination of tough talk, crude insults and reckless support of Al Qaeda-connected jihadis (“our guys”) apparently has become de rigueur in Official Washington, which remains dominated by the foreign policy ideology of neoconservatives, who established the goal of “regime change” in Iraq, Syria and Iran as early as 1996 and haven’t changed course since. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “How Neocons Destabilized Europe.”]
Shaping Narratives
Despite the catastrophic Iraq War based on neocon-driven falsehoods about WMD and the complicit unthinking “group think” the neocons retained their influence largely through an alliance with “liberal interventionists” and their combined domination of major Washington think tanks, from the American Enterprise Institute to the Brookings Institution, and the mainstream U.S. news media, including The Washington Post and The New York Times.
This power base has allowed the neocons to continue shaping Official Washington’s narratives regardless of what the actual facts are. For instance, a Post editorial on Thursday repeated the claim that Assad’s “atrocities” included use of chemical weapons, an apparent reference to the now largely discredited claim that Assad’s forces were responsible for a sarin gas attack outside Damascus on Aug. 21, 2013.
After the attack, there was a rush to judgment by the U.S. State Department blaming Assad’s troops and leading Secretary of State John Kerry to threaten retaliatory strikes against the Syrian military. But U.S. intelligence analysts refused to sign on to the hasty conclusions, contributing to President Obama’s last-minute decision to hold off on a bombing campaign and to accept Putin’s help in negotiating Assad’s surrender of all Syrian chemical weapons (though Assad still denied a role in the sarin attack).
Subsequently, much of the slapdash case for bombing Syria fell apart. As more evidence became available, it increasingly appeared that the sarin attack was a provocation by Sunni jihadists, possibly aided by Turkish intelligence, to trick the United States into destroying Assad’s military and thus clearing the way for a Sunni jihadist victory.
We now know that the likely beneficiaries of such a U.S. attack would have been Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front and the spinoff known as the Islamic State (also called ISIS, ISIL or Daesh). But the Obama administration never formally retracted its spurious sarin claims, thus allowing irresponsible media outlets, such as The Washington Post, to continue citing the outdated “group think.”
The same Post editorial denounced Assad for using “barrel bombs” against the Sunni rebels who are seeking to overthrow his secular government, which is viewed as the protector of Syria’s minorities including Christians, Alawites and Shiites who could face genocide if the Sunni extremists prevail.
Though this “barrel bomb” theme has become a favorite talking point of both the neocons and liberal “human rights” groups, it’s never been clear how these homemade explosive devices shoved out of helicopters are any more inhumane than the massive volumes of “shock and awe” ordnance, including 500-pound bombs, deployed by the U.S. military across the Middle East, killing not only targeted fighters but innocent civilians.
Nevertheless, the refrain “barrel bombs” is accepted across Official Washington as a worthy argument for launching devastating airstrikes against Syrian government targets, even if such attacks clear the way for Al Qaeda’s allies and offshoots gaining control of Damascus and unleashing even a worse humanitarian cataclysm. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Obama’s Ludicrous ‘Barrel Bomb’ Theme.”]
False-Narrative Knots
But it is now almost impossible for Official Washington to disentangle itself from all the false narratives that the neocons and the liberal hawks have spun in support of their various “regime change” strategies. Plus, there are few people left inside the bubble who even recognize how false these narratives are.
So, the American people are left with the mainstream U.S. news media endlessly repeating storylines that are either completely false or highly exaggerated. For instance, we hear again and again that the Russians intervened in the Syrian conflict promising to strike only ISIS but then broke their word by attacking Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front and “our guys” in Sunni jihadist forces armed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and the CIA.
Though you hear this narrative everywhere in Official Washington, no one ever actually quotes Putin or another senior Russian official promising to strike only at ISIS. In all the quotes that I’ve seen, the Russians refer to attacking “terrorists,” including but not limited to ISIS.
Unless Official Washington no longer regards Al Qaeda as a terrorist organization a trial balloon that some neocons have floated then the Putin-lied narrative makes no sense, even though every Important Person Knows It to Be True, including Obama’s neocon-leaning Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.
The U.S. political and media big shots also mock the current Russian-Iranian proposal for first stabilizing Syria and then letting the Syrian people decide their own leadership through internationally observed democratic elections.
Okay, you might say, what’s wrong with letting the Syrian people go to the polls and pick their own leaders? But that just shows that you’re a Russian-Iranian “apologist” who doesn’t belong inside the bubble. The Right Answer is that “Assad Must Go!” whatever the Syrian people might think.
Or, as the snarky neocon editors of The Washington Post wrote on Thursday, “Mr. Putin duly dispatched his foreign minister to talks in Vienna last weekend on a Syrian political settlement. But Moscow and Tehran continue to push for terms that would leave Mr. Assad in power for 18 months or longer, while, in theory, a new constitution is drafted and elections organized. Even a U.S. proposal that Mr. Assad be excluded from the eventual elections was rejected, according to Iranian officials.”
In other words, the U.S. government doesn’t want the Syrian people to decide whether Assad should be kicked out, an odd and contradictory stance since President Obama keeps insisting that the vast majority of Syrians hate Assad. If that’s indeed the case, why not let free-and-fair elections prove the point? Or is Obama so enthralled by the neocon insistence of “regime change” for governments on Israel’s “hit list” that he doesn’t want to take the chance of the Syrian voters getting in the way?
Reality Tied Down
But truth and reality have become in Official Washington something like Gulliver being tied down by the Lilliputians. There are so many strands of lies and distortions that it’s impossible for sanity to rise up.
Another major factor in America’s crisis of false narratives relates to the demonizing of Russia and Putin, a process that dates back in earnest to 2013 when Putin helped Obama sidetrack the neocon dream of bombing Syria and then Putin compounded his offense by assisting Obama in getting Iran to constrain its nuclear program, which derailed another neocon dream to bomb-bomb-bomb Iran.
It became ominously clear to the neocons that this collaboration between the two presidents might even lead to joint pressure on Israel to finally reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians, a possibility that struck too close to the heart of neocon thinking which, for the past two decades, has favored using “regime change” in nearby countries to isolate and starve Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestinian groups, giving Israel a free hand to do whatever it wished.
So, this Obama-Putin relationship had to be blown up and the point of detonation was Ukraine on Russia’s border. Official Washington’s false narratives around the Ukraine crisis are now also central to neocon/liberal-hawk efforts to prevent meaningful coordination between Obama and Putin in countering ISIS and Al Qaeda in Syria and Iraq.
Inside Official Washington’s bubble, the crisis in Ukraine is routinely described as a simple case of Russian “aggression” against Ukraine, including an “invasion” of Crimea.
If you relied on The New York Times or The Washington Post or the major networks that repeat what the big newspapers say, you wouldn’t know there was a U.S.-backed coup in February 2014 that overthrew the elected Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych, even after he agreed to a European compromise in which he surrendered many powers and accepted early elections.
Instead of letting that agreement go forward, right-wing ultra-nationalists, including neo-Nazis operating inside the Maidan protests, overran government buildings in Kiev on Feb. 22, 2014, causing Yanukovych and other leaders to flee for their lives.
Behind the scenes, U.S. officials, such as neocon Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, had collaborated in the coup plans and celebrated the victory by Nuland’s handpicked leaders, including the post-coup Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, whom she referred to in an earlier intercepted phone call as “Yats is the guy.”
Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, who pushed for the Ukraine coup and helped pick the post-coup leaders.
Nor would you know that the people of Crimea had voted overwhelmingly for President Yanukovych and after the coup voted overwhelmingly to get out of the failed Ukrainian state and reunify with Russia.
The major U.S. news media twists that reality into a Russian “invasion” of Crimea even though it was the strangest “invasion” ever because there were no photos of Russian troops landing on the beaches or parachuting from the skies. What the Post and the Times routinely ignored was that Russian troops were already stationed inside Crimea as part of a basing agreement for the Russian fleet at Sevastopol. They didn’t need to “invade.”
And Crimea’s referendum showing 96 percent approval for reunification with Russia though hastily arranged was not the “sham” that the U.S. mainstream media claimed. Indeed, the outcome has been reinforced by various polls conducted by Western agencies since then.
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses a crowd on May 9, 2014, celebrating the 69th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Crimean port city of Sevastopol from the Nazis. (Russian government photo)
The MH-17 Case
The demonization of Putin reached new heights after the July 17, 2014 shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine killing all 298 people onboard. Although substantial evidence and logic point to elements of the Ukrainian military as responsible, Official Washington’s rush to judgment blamed ethnic Russian rebels for firing the missile and Putin for supposedly giving them a powerful Buk anti-aircraft missile system.
That twisted narrative often relied on restating the irrelevant point that the Buks are “Russian-made,” which was used to implicate Moscow but was meaningless since the Ukrainian military also possessed Buk missiles. The real question was who fired the missiles, not where they were made.
But the editors of the Post, the Times and the rest of the mainstream media think you are very stupid, so they keep emphasizing that the Buks are “Russian-made.” The more salient point is that U.S. intelligence with all its satellite and other capabilities was unable both before and after the shoot-down to find evidence that the Russians had given Buks to the rebels.
Since the Buk missiles are 16-feet-long and hauled around by slow-moving trucks, it is hard to believe that U.S. intelligence would not have spotted them given the intense surveillance then in effect over eastern Ukraine.
A more likely scenario of the MH-17 shoot-down was that Ukraine moved several of its Buk batteries to the frontlines, possibly fearing a Russian airstrike, and the operators were on edge after a Ukrainian warplane was shot down along the border on July 16, 2014, by an air-to-air missile presumably fired by a Russian plane.
But after rushing out a white paper five days after the tragedy pointing the finger at Moscow the U.S. government has refused to provide any evidence or intelligence that might help pinpoint who fired the missile that brought down MH-17.
Despite this remarkable failure by the U.S. government to cooperate with the investigation, the mainstream U.S. media has found nothing suspicious about this dog not barking and continues to cite the MH-17 case as another reason to despise Putin.
How upside-down this “Everything Is Putin’s Fault” can be was displayed in a New York Times “news analysis” by Steven Erlanger and Peter Baker on Thursday when all the “fundamental disagreements” between Obama and Putin were blamed on Putin.
“Dividing them are the Russian annexation of Crimea and its meddling in eastern Ukraine, Moscow’s efforts to demonize Washington and undermine confidence in NATO’s commitment to collective defense, and the Kremlin’s support of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria,” Erlanger and Baker wrote.
Helping ISIS
This tangle of false narratives is now tripping up the prospects of a U.S.-French-Russian-Iranian alliance to take on the Islamic State, Al Qaeda and other Sunni jihadist forces seeking to overthrow Syria’s secular government.
The neocon Washington Post, in particular, has been venomous about this potential collaboration which while possibly the best chance to finally resolve the horrific Syrian conflict would torpedo the neocons’ long-held vision of imposed “regime change” in Syria.
In editorials, the Post’s neocon editors also have displayed a stunning lack of sympathy for the 224 Russian tourists and crew killed in what appears to have been a terrorist bombing of a chartered plane over the Sinai in Egypt.
On Nov. 7, instead of expressing solidarity, the Post’s editors ridiculed Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for not rushing to a judgment that it was an act of terrorism, instead insisting on first analyzing the evidence. The Post also mocked the two leaders for failing to vanquish the terrorists.
Or as the Post’s editors put it: “While Mr. Putin suspended Russian flights on [Nov. 6], his spokesman was still insisting there was no reason to conclude that there had been an act of terrorism. While Western governments worried about protecting their citizens, the Sissi and Putin regimes were focused on defending themselves.
“Both rulers have sold themselves as warriors courageously taking on the Islamic State and its affiliates; both are using that fight as a pretext to accomplish other ends, such as repressing peaceful domestic opponents and distracting attention from declining living standards. On the actual battlefield, both are failing.”
Given the outpouring of sympathy that the United States received after the 9/11 attacks and the condolences that flooded France over the past week, it is hard to imagine a more graceless reaction to a major terrorist attack against innocent Russians.
As for the Russian hesitancy to jump to conclusions earlier this month, that may have been partially wishful thinking but it surely is not an evil trait to await solid evidence before reaching a verdict. Even the Post’s editors admitted that U.S. officials noted that as of Nov. 7 there was “no conclusive evidence that the plane was bombed.”
But the Post couldn’t wait to link the terrorist attack to “Mr. Putin’s Syrian adventure” and hoped that it would inflict on Putin “a potentially grievous political wound.” The Post’s editors also piled on with the gratuitous claim that Russian officials “still deny the overwhelming evidence that a Russian anti-aircraft missile downed a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine last year.” (There it is again, the attempt to dupe Post readers with a reference to “a Russian anti-aircraft missile.”)
The Post seemed to take particular joy in the role of U.S. weapons killing Syrian and Iranian soldiers. On Thursday, the Post wrote, “Syrian and Iranian troops have lost scores of Russian-supplied tanks and armored vehicles to the rebels’ U.S.-made TOW missiles. Having failed to recapture significant territory, the Russian mission appears doomed to quagmire or even defeat in the absence of a diplomatic bailout.”
Upping the Ante
The neocons’ determination to demonize Putin has upped the ante, turning their Mideast obsession with “regime change” into a scheme for destabilizing Russia and forcing “regime change” in Moscow, setting the stage for a potential nuclear showdown that could end all life on the planet.
To listen to the rhetoric from most Republican candidates and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, it is not hard to envision how all the tough talk could take on a life of its own and lead to catastrophe. [See, for instance, Philip Giraldi’s review of the “war with Russia” rhetoric free-flowing on the campaign trail and around Official Washington.]
A nuclear test detonation carried out in Nevada on April 18, 1953.
At this point, it may seem fruitless even naive to suggest ways to pierce the various “group thinks” and the bubble that sustains them. But a counter-argument to the fake narratives is possible if some candidate seized on the principle of an informed electorate as vital to democracy.
An argument for empowering citizens with facts is one that transcends traditional partisan and ideological boundaries. Whether on the right, on the left or in the center, Americans don’t want to be treated like cattle being herded by propaganda or “strategic communication” or whatever the latest euphemism is for deception and manipulation.
So, a candidate could do the right thing and the smart thing by demanding the release of as much U.S. intelligence information to cut this Gordian knot of false narratives as possible. For instance, it is way past time to declassify the 28 pages from the congressional 9/11 report addressing alleged Saudi support for the hijackers. There also are surely more recent intelligence estimates on the funding of Al Qaeda’s affiliates and spin-offs, including ISIS.
If this information embarrasses some “allies” such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey so be it. If this history makes some past or present U.S. president look bad, so be it. American elections are diminished, if not made meaningless, when there is no informed electorate.
A presidential candidate also could press President Obama to disclose what U.S. intelligence knows about other key turning points in the establishment of false narratives, such as what did CIA analysts conclude about the Aug. 21, 2013 sarin attack and what do they know about the July 17, 2014 shoot-down of MH-17.
The pattern of the U.S. government exploiting emotional moments to gain an edge in an “info-war” against some “enemy” and then going silent as more evidence comes in has become a direct threat to American democracy and in regards to nuclear-armed Russia possibly the planet.
Legitimate secrets, such as sources and methods, can be protected without becoming an all-purpose cloak to cover up whatever facts don’t fit with the desired propaganda narrative that is then used to whip the public into some mindless war frenzy.
However, at this point in the presidential campaign, no candidate is making transparency an issue. Yet, after the deceptions of the Iraq War and with the prospects of another war based on misleading or selective information in Syria and potentially a nuclear showdown with Russia it seems to me that the American people would respond positively to someone treating them with the respect deserving of citizens in a democratic Republic.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
Mr. Parry,
You speculate that the MH-17 may have been brought down by a Ukrainian buk missile. But what about the observations of the first eyewitness that the cockpit had been riddled by bullets and allegations that the Ukrainian pilot that shot it down has been identified?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2904460/First-pictures-emerge-Ukrainian-pilot-pro-Russian-rebels-believe-downed-MH17-killing-298-victims-board.html
Robert, thank you so much. You bring clarity. Please meet with and/or write about Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard who on 11/19 introduced a bill to terminate regime change war aimed at Assad. Gabbard is two tour Iraq combat vet and now Vice Chair of Demo Party.
“Both rulers have sold themselves as warriors courageously taking on the Islamic State and its affiliates; both are using that fight as a pretext to accomplish other ends, such as repressing peaceful domestic opponents and distracting attention from declining living standards. On the actual battlefield, both are failing.â€
Wow. Talk about a classic case of projection.
Thank you Dr. Perry for helping some of us who grasp reality retain our sanity and know we are not alone.
American leaders, have been and seem to be, obsessed with power, wealth and a way of life that has left most Americans and the rest of the world disadvantaged.
To created this failed state they routinely use ignorance and arrogance and not infrequently war that has killed millions who never threatened or attacked the failed state.
History is long and vengeance is a powerful motivator. Spending trillions on ‘security’ seems like a foolish way to run a empire. Has it ever worked before?
Tangled – twisted, strained, stressed and frayed.
The following is a quote from a Trappist monk who passed in 1968:
 Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
“There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.â€
This was meant for persons of good will, of fundamental decency, of conscience, of soul.
It says in a general and high philosophical way just what Robert Parry has so thoroughly covered in terms of america’s current state.
Except, despite the self-serving assertions of our masters, america is not idealistic, it does not wish to help everyone in everything, and it has little interest in peace… it wants to help itself in everything. To everything
If over-reach is a detriment and danger to those repulsed by our dominant ideology of blank-you capitalism, what consequences can be expected of the over-reach driving our insatiable system?
Fruitlessness.
Thanks for your comment paul wichmann, I’m a virtual student of Mark Van Doren and Thomas Merton learned much from him at Columbia. I think if Thomas Merton had lived just a few years longer he would have made a significant and positive influence on the very issues being discussed in this forum…
I checked a couple times and nothing, so I ’bout let it go.
I doubted this was the place for a Merton quote, but it hit me so hard, and it fit so well, that I couldn’t help but cast the line. It is almost a blessing, and is a treat, to have some one dig it.
Merton may be gone, but his insights are eternal.
Thank you.
This would all be crazy, if most of it weren’t true.
The chilling aspect of the various contradictory Imperial narratives is the absence of derision to greet such utterances from the various politicians, Secretaries of this and that and unnamed officials. It’s beyond risibility most of it. Funnies is when they cant keep in time and repeat the previous weeks nonsense which quite often in pureOrwellian fashion totally contradicts its successor. The Brits are very guilty of this. They are still wittering on about how the Russians aren’t dealing to ISIS but shooting up “moderates”. when the french and Yanks are well and truly recognising the very significant attacks by Moscow on ISIS with Syrian support. So where’s the laughter?
Please see Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s new bill to end our regime war on Assad. (D-Hawaii)
“An argument for empowering citizens with facts is one that transcends traditional partisan and ideological boundaries. Whether on the right, on the left or in the center, Americans don’t want to be treated like cattle being herded by propaganda or “strategic communication†or whatever the latest euphemism is for deception and manipulation.”
Actually, no. Americans WANT to “be treated like cattle”. They want to live their lives blissfully unaware, content to be lied to, and not required to think.
Otherwise, why would they continue to vote for and support the politicians they do?
Actually it has nothing to do with the vote. The nomination process is where the director’s decision is implemented. The “gate keepers” control the news spin and by the time the general election comes,” the fix is already in.” For example this election is supposed to be Clinton against a Republican neocon.. The vote is designed to be meaningless. It’s an easily manipulated two party system.
They take not only particular joy, but peculiar joy, and even perverse joy at the prospect of US weapons killing Iranian and Syrian soldiers.
AMAZING EXAMPLE IN NYT
You need to do a follow up on how D.C. group think is reinforced by deliberate omission of facts. There is an amazing example in the Thursday, Nov. 19, New York Times. In the front page story, “In Rise of ISIS, Many Strands of Blame,” reporter Ian Fisher mentions the 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency report that Islamic militants in the Syrian civil war could “declare an Islamic state through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria.” The quote is given prominent display. Then an astonishing omission occurs.
The most sensational two sentences in the report, which really explain the rise of ISIS, are never mentioned. Those sentences are: “The Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood and AQI (Al Qaeda in Iraq) are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria”…and then a paragraph or two later, “Western countries, the Gulf States, and Turkey are supporting those efforts.”
So in other words the “moderate Syrian opposition” was a farce, and the west and our allies were helping to create the monster. Even a sensational scoop can’t be reported if it contradicts the party line.
The relevant quote from the DIA report is: “THE SALAFIST [sic], THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, AND AQI ARE THE MAJOR FORCES DRIVING THE INSURGENCY IN SYRIA.
AQI [Al Qaeda in Iraq, which became ISIS: “ISIS, once called AQIâ€] SUPPORTED THE SYRIAN OPPOSITION FROM THE BEGINNING, BOTH IDEOLOGICALLY AND THROUGH THE MEDIA…
…OPPOSITION FORCES ARE TRYING TO CONTROL THE EASTERN AREAS (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), ADJACENT TO THE WESTERN IRAQI PROVINCES (MOSUL AND ANBAR), IN ADDITION TO NEIGHBORING TURKISH BORDERS. WESTERN COUNTRIES, THE GULF STATES AND TURKEY ARE SUPPORTING THESE EFFORTS.
IF THE SITUATION UNRAVELS THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE SUPPORTING POWERS TO THE OPPOSITION WANT, IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME…”
How to do a deep state reading of a U.S. Defense document:
“If the situation unravels there is the possibility of…” = the PLAN ALL ALONG
Re Etiquette while seated: God gave both sexes pants so that they don’t have to keep their knees pressed tightly together.
Indeed, a supurb essay.
Actually, far from being “ridiculous,” I was impressed with use of the phrase “Sunni terrorism.” It perfectly describes the phenomenon, any other description so charged with hyperbole as to derail any attempt at rational discussion. The embedded URLs are very helpful. Best regards Mr Parry.
This whole saga reminds me of that old joke about the guy who lives in a high rise in Manhattan. He’s convinced his wife is cheating on him, so he goes home early one day and storms into the apartment. Searching, he sees someone going down the fire escape into the alley. So, he moves the refrigerator to the window and pushes it out onto the guy below. Next thing you know, three guys show up at the Pearly Gate, and St. Peter asks each of them how they died. The first guy is pretty bewildered. He says, “Well I was trying to take a short cut down the alley to catch a bus, and out of nowhere, this refrigerator fell on me.” The second guy was a little more evasive. “Well, I needed to move this refrigerator, and I guess I must have had a heart attack”. The third guy says, “I was inside this refrigerator…just minding my own business…”
Assad would be the guy in the alley, who never saw it coming. Saudi Arabia would be the guy pushing the refrigerator out the window. The United States is of course the guy in the refrigerator, “minding his own business”. Putin, China and Iran look like they’re going to be the cops and the ambulance who show up after somebody calls 911.
And Israel? Well, obviously, Israel is the cheating wife, who will collect the insurance and the pension, and live happily ever after. Or will she? The “elephant in the refrigerator” that nobody seems to notice is that the “deep state” actors involved here have no love for Israel, either. From Allen Dulles (who aided in the founding of “Saudi Arabia”) playing footsies with the Nazis, and Frank Wisner importing the Gehlen organization into the USA (keep in mind, Wisner is Sarkozy’s step-father), to the Republican Party and their “Republican Ethnic Outreach Program” which was a front for managing Nazi elements in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Ukraine, the U.S. intelligence services facilitated a hot, shooting war continuation of WWII against USSR which lasted until 1952. The governments with which we are now coordinating in Eastern Europe are not “neo” Nazis but a linear outgrowth of National Socialism. They are all virulently anti-Semitic and unabashedly anti-democratic. Victoria Nuland probably knows this, but the psychotic Neocon fixation with the destruction of Russia has blinded them to the consequences of such folly. Americans are unaware of all this; Putin is not. While American leadership engages in what it thinks is just a “big penis contest”, Putin believes that the fate of civilization is at stake. He does not intend to lose, even if that requires the nuclear option.
Oh, and by the way, I forgot to mention that now, on top of everything else, we are allowing two anti-Castro cryptofascist Reganoid psychotic Republican subversives who are ideological descendants of the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the state-sposored coup d’etat which assasinated John Kennedy to run for president. Yep, America is in good hands…
tangled tales or knotted tails
it’s woe to us as gordian knot
is severed by Manhattan Project
realist? ordained mathematicians
these Close Encounter theorist
explore boundaries of Patterns
and uncover nuclear science
and keys to Total Destruction.
mankind steps into tomorrow
a technocratic era w/ open spaces
some will survive the onslaught of
Elimination Proceedings/Moving On
past interjections of GMOs inserted into
“our daily bread” without resistance.
Adler opens other places& spaces
of cognitive liberty w/Nierenberg
solving problems w/o beneficiaries.
(just for truth) Has truth died?
honesty rejected as irrelevant
in humanity’s post modern world?
the knot tightens & we lose air
breath is fundamental to life
it was Breathed into our nostrils.
The Israel-lovers created their own parallel deep state.
Let’s all hope they don’t manage to “nuke the fridge”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arib8uWMWsM
The “elephant in the refrigerator†that nobody seems to notice is that the “deep state†actors involved here have no love for Israel, either. From Allen Dulles (who aided in the founding of “Saudi Arabiaâ€) playing footsies with the Nazis, and Frank Wisner importing the Gehlen organization into the USA (keep in mind, Wisner is Sarkozy’s step-father), to the Republican Party and their “Republican Ethnic Outreach Program†which was a front for managing Nazi elements in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Ukraine, the U.S. intelligence services facilitated a hot, shooting war continuation of WWII against USSR which lasted until 1952.
Thanks F. G. Sanford for your wit and clarity. I totally agree with your analysis especially after reading “The Devil’s Chessboard” by David Talbot. It seems that one of Alan Dulles’ great talents was story telling, that his “stories” we’re absurd has gone unchallenged until now. Our current imaginative story teller spears to be Zbigniew Brzezinski. Personally I can’t imagine that so many of our “leaders” are so naive that they can be deceived by these stupid theories so I now assume that they are active participants i.e. The new Reich…
The Iran Nuclear Agreement Within the “Grand Chessboardâ€. Decline of American Power
By Jack Dresser
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-iran-nuclear-agreement-within-the-grand-chessboard-decline-of-american-power/5478763
Perfect Abe, thanks so much and another author that I can follow and have some belief in…
This is from that article by Jack Dresser:
“Driven by anxiety and reinforced by its reduction, we are herded along the path chosen by the rulers with only fleeting glimpses of reality. US news reports, invariably immersed in American mythology and disembodied from honest history, remain intentionally disinformative. “
PIVOT?
yesterday NPR (National Public Radio) broadcast a “pivot”
or a possibility of one. Hillary Clinton made a foreign policy
speech (I do not have it entire) in which she said almost
plainly—almost—that Bashar Assad could stay. For now.
She said that Muslims should solve their own problems
(with Russian, French, US help?) along with Iranians,
Hizbollah Iraq, Russians, French with purpose being
not regime change but the defeat and removal of ISIS
and militant groups. In other words, she followed
the UN Resolution (S/Res/2139(2014), point # 14) of
February 22, (2014), That resolution did not mention
“regime change” but instead support of the Assad
Government. H. Clinton was “bellicose” all the
same but Robert Parry’s article does not address
this change in any way. H. Clinton was adamant in
noting that US “troops on the ground” had been
a failure again and again and mentioned many
recent examples..
With the caveat that a campaign speech is far from
a statement by an elected leader, it would be interesting
to have an evaluation of this apparent (?) change as
well as its feedback.(From “the bubble”.)
The other party leader to advocate action in concert with
the Assad Government was Marie La Peine of the rightwing
French party. The NPR interviewer was seeming rattled
that La Peine took such a position. (Other positions of
La Peine were as might be expected and in contradiction
to this statement. The uneasy NPR interviewer abruptly
brought the interview to a close.
As to “barrel bombs” and other bombs and the incessant
pleadings for the safety of “innocent civilians” as agreed in
international law, it must be pointed out that no recent
war has in reality given much care to any “innocent
civilians” at all. While there may have been so-called “military
targets”, the prime object of contemporary wars has been
the deaths of greater and greater numbers of “innocent
civilians”. This was true of all belligerents in World War Two
even prior to August 6 and the atomic bomb. (See Gabriel
Kolko: POLITICS OF WAR.) Take Dresden for onle example
of many.
Israel’s many attacks on Palestinians are also examples
as are US “shock and awe” attacks in Iraq and elsewhere.
In the case of Israel to the question of “What next?” the
answer has always been the extermination (“transfer” etc.)
of Palestinians and their replacement with (non-Pallastinian)
Israelis.
In the case of calls for war in Syria, there has been no
case made for a result. The Libyan precedent demonstrates
that a US-friendly, so-called “democratic” government is
almost never a result. (Note W.R. Polk’s essay
in yesterday’s Consortium which discusses these points
in greater detail.)
There is no reason to support Hillary Clinton due to her
long history as a neocon especially as regards Israel and
Palestine. However, a deeper consideration of her new (?)
foreign policy statement would make a more complete
analysis.
—-Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
It’s not new at all. She intends to placate the american public with her new revelation as she continues to use our military as a wedge in the door of Syria. She is and always will be a neocon.
Every American and world citizen should read this important and discerning article
Concise, measured, clearly exposing the insanity behind, and motivating US Foreign Policy. Not only do tptb in Washington believe their bosses -we the people- are stupid, but I think they must not understand there is a God watching their treasonous acts. Well, I’ve got current news for them. They will be exposed very very soon. Of course, how soon their incarceration will begin, I can’t say at this time.
For me then, this piece is perfect confirmation of the validity of my own research, having held the very same opinions for every single issue the author raised. That’s pretty good since I’ve never been in the military and/or politics, just a regular, everyday, person who’s on to the game.
All I can say is, if I could figure it out, soon all will know just what type of criminally insane murders are “ruining” our Government. The only possible exception are those making these “wacko” decisions. Wise up Ms. Nuland.(we do know she arraigned 5 billion dollars for the Ukraine coup, right?)
Yes, I’m totally ticked….and will forward this article every place I can. GOOD JOB!!
I was coming up the steps from our basement, when suddenly I had a vision of Saul Alinsky. Saul, (I may refer to him by his first name since he was in my vision) told me, that if good Americans want to honestly make a change, then we should all park our cars on all of the nation’s interstates at one time, then leave them parked there until somebody in D.C. decides to wise up. I mean, when is the right time, to ask ourselves of what have we accomplished with all these wars in the Middle East? Seriously, going back to Desert Storm to today, where is the good to be found? James Risen’s book State of War talks about, how Rumsfeld turned down the State Departments Plan for reconstructing Iraq’s infrastructure, back in 2003. So, maybe the plan for stability never was in the plan, in the first place. We have all heard the mantra, of how Assad must go, but when was the last time, you heard of a suitable replacement to take Assad’s place? This whole Middle East project, of seven nations being conquered within five years, has already exceeded it’s original time frame by ten years (double what it was thought). So, when is the right time going to be, in order for us to start implementing a different plan? Maybe, I should just call Brooking.
“Terror elements like ISIL, of course, stand entirely opposed to our values. But other challenges are more complicated, and given their size and capabilities, potentially more damaging… Some actors appear intent on eroding these principles and undercutting the international order that helps enforce them… Of course, neither Russia nor China can overturn that order. But both present different challenges for it.â€
These are the words of US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. The world should be, and largely is, baffled by the stupidity and arrogance of such statements.
ISIS beheads, tortures, and kidnaps people. It has shocked the world with well publicized, horrendous acts of brutality — such as burning people alive. How exactly can Russia and China to be equated to such forces?
Russia has not invaded any country. Neither has China. Russia and China have not kidnapped anyone. They are not abducting and torturing people. Even if the most extreme allegations from anti-China and anti-Russia fanatics are to be believed, in no way can these two major countries be compared with ISIS.
[…]
The reality is that ISIS is very convenient for his friends in the Pentagon and on Wall Street. Who is ISIS targeting with its terrorism? ISIS has attacked the Syrian Arab Republic, the Shia community in Iraq, and the revolutionary forces of Yemen. Recently, ISIS has begun to clash with Russian forces.
All the forces that ISIS is targeting with its terrorism are forces that the United States is also targeting with sanctions, military attacks, and other violations of sovereignty. ISIS presents itself as being a group of Islamic radicals, but it has actually declared, “God has commanded us never to attack Israel.â€
ISIS did not arise from nowhere, but originated among the US-backed forces fighting to depose the Syrian government. ISIS is a direct result, not only of US destruction of Iraq, but of US, Saudi, Jordanian and Turkish cultivation of extremism and terrorism intended to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic.
Ashton Carter speaks as a representative of the rich and powerful forces that control the United States. The Wall Street monopolists are far more threatened by the stability and economic prosperity emerging in the rising anti-imperialist bloc of countries than by the terrorism of ISIS.
Ashton Carter is not insane. His words reflect rational honesty. The plan of the billionaire financial elite is for global chaos to ensure that Wall Street, London, and Tel Aviv can remain unrivaled as centers of economic power. Russia and China, not the bloodthirsty, US-spawned terrorists in ISIS, present a real threat to these plans.
Is Ashton Carter Insane?
By Caleb Maupin
http://journal-neo.org/2015/11/17/is-ashton-carter-insane/
America has the most powerful daycare center on the face of the earth. What’s to stop us from just marching into Syria and Ukraine and ‘straightening out’ those no-good Rooskies? Huh? After all, our post-high school rehabilitation program is the most expensive on the planet. We spend ten times as much as Putin does. Putin is obviously scared shirtless of ‘real men’ like Phil Breedlove and Ash Carter. I think it’s about time they just stepped up to the plate and taught Putin a lesson. I mean…they could do that, couldn’t they? We’d win for sure…right? Wouldn’t we? We are the best and the bavest and the strongest and the smartest…we are! Aren’t we? What’s stopping us?
I think your intelligent writing is fantastic, and your poetic prose is second to none here, but now….with your impersonation of George W….. Wow! F.G., you certainly have outdone yourself this time! How do you do it?
I know it’s sarcasm, but pentagon analysts have determined that the US military is unable to defeat Russia in Europe or Asia.
Thanks for your comment. It’s late in this thread, so I wish I had seen it sooner; maybe it’s pointless to respond by now. You may have read about that Pentagon assessment via ex-CIA Phil Giraldi’s recent article – I regard Giraldi as one of the few sane voices out there – but that’s neither here nor there. The Pentagon asessment was a charitable estimation. Bad news does get reported, but the “warts and moles” are usually airbrushed out of the picture. Sadly, I was not being sarcastic, but quite honestly, I’d be rather afraid to lay out the truth in graphic detail. Let me say this: any well trained, well educated career military officer in any western nation worth his or her salt would recognize a “mercenary force” for what it is and be aware of all its shortcomings. We apparently don’t educate that calibre of officers at our military academies. Russia might not “win”, but we would certainly lose.
When a strategy is built around a lie, then how can anyone expect the out come to even come close to resembling the truth? The U.S. and it’s GCC/NATO/Israeli coalition want the world to believe, that their arming these so called moderate rebels, is all for saving the people of Syria from their nasty bad leader. Assad’s biggest crime, is his being allied to Hazbollah, and Iran. When a nation such as Israel, is allowed to use Hell Fire Missiles, against it’s own captive citizens, who are simple street fighters armed with knifes, and rocks, then tell me who amongst these judging nations can condemn Assad, for how he manages to fight his own country’s civil war. Yet, here we are doing just that. Was Assad the one who fired on the theater going Parisians? Assad didn’t set off the bombs in Ankara killing somewhere around one hundred leftist citizens. ISIS was all to eager to take the blame for the downing of the Russian passenger plane, killing all onboard. Even, if you were to insist how bad Assad is, would you at least not admit, that ISIS is much worst?
Something, the West should keep in mind, and that is Syria invited Russia to come, and defend their Syrian nation from all it’s attackers. It is pretty clear to me, that any rebel group attacking Assad, may expect to fine their rebellious butt’s within the crosshairs of Russia’s gun scopes. In fact, what Russia is doing in Syria, is more legal, than anything so far the U.S. has accomplished with their military presence in that area.
This whole Middle Eastern experience, is nothing more than a rolling out of the Oded Yinon Plan. Colonel Ralph Peters, drafted a very similar plan, as the Yinon Plan. The Brookings Institute talks about all of this inside their Path to Prussia plan. The 2010 DOD document describing how the West should sit back, and allow the ISIS rebels to penetrate Assad’s assets, is now there for all to read. Like I said earlier here, when the strategy is built around a lie, then how can one expect the outcome to resemble the truth?
Lastly, the world should hunt down any and all who have funded, or contracted ISIS, and bring these evil people to justice.
Those who have funded and contracted ISIS can easily be found at any meeting the International Syria Support Group (ISSG). Simply arrest four-fifths of the table.
Let’s arrest the 1/5th too, for aiding and abetting…. Can you bring the cuffs, I must have mislaid mine.
Simply execute 4/5’s of US government and its Shadow Elites and foreign Fifth Columns and 4/5’s of the world’s problems will end.
Some US experts openly admit that the leading US allies in the Middle East are sponsors of terrorism. Experts from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy noted that the Ministry of Finance of the United States recognizes that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are openly sponsoring terrorist groups in Syria. In 2014 the US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David Cohen, announced that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have received millions of dollars from their sponsors in the Persian Gulf, Pakistan and Turkey. Money supporting terrorists is still being raised in Kuwait and Qatar on a daily basis.
[…] Putin had been seeking a compromise with the US for five years in order to find some form of stability in Syria, yet Washington turned him down each time. He also added that should radical Islamists come to power in Syria, it will be a veritable nightmare for Washington.
Nevertheless, Washington keeps on pushing for major escalation in Syria, while excusing true state sponsors of terrorism. As it has been announced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia all refused to coordinate their actions in Syria. Following the meeting in Vienna, Lavrov said he invited the representatives of those three countries to coordinate military operations in Syria, as Russia does with Jordan. Cooperation, he said, could be established through a formal agreement on the list of organizations that are to be regarded as terrorist. Lavrov regretted the decision of the above mentioned states not to work together with Russia, while adding that in Amman, Jordanian and Russian military experts will be working together to carry out combat operations against terrorism. Yet, shortly after the meeting, Saudi Minister Of Foreign Affairs , Adel Al Jubeir announced that his country would still be supporting the “moderate oppositionâ€, or in other words, the terrorists. It seems there’s no other way to put it more clearly.
The question as to why Washington occupies such a non-constructive stance in Syria can be partially explained by US opinion polls. The Wall Street Journal has recently published a survey according to which 56% of respondents believe that Syria could become a threat to the United States. Another 23% said Syria is an imminent threat, while Russia is called a long-term military threat by 60% of all respondents.
Apparently, as long as the media in the US is dominated by certain political circles, Washington’s policies in a number of regions, including the Middle East, will not be determined by the best interests of the American people, but only by delusional ideas of those Washington politicians nostalgic of the Cold War who imagine themselves sitting in the trenches awaiting inevitable war.
Who Are the Supporters of International Terrorism?
By Viktor Mikhin
http://journal-neo.org/2015/11/11/who-are-the-supporters-of-international-terrorism/
I think the term “Sunni” in the heading should be changed to possibly sectarian.
This extraordinary article needs to be disseminated to every outlet that portends to advocate for informed reason and truth in public discourse. Mr. Parry’s closing thoughts virtually demand repeating as a clarion “Wake-up Call” to every thinking U.S. citizen!
“Work is love made visible.” KG
As Usual,
EA
Very good point about disseminating this article (and so many others on this site).
This reader has begun to forward articles such as these to his Senators and Congressman- and it is certainly easy enough to set up an email format to target a broader group.
I think the more people who do so will be sending a message to their so-called representatives that these narratives- as opposed to what the power brokers and their media are peddling- are gaining currency, and that deep concern about such issues is more widespread than the MSM would have them believe. And, in this regard, it is better to use factual, but blunt, language with such letters or emails than it is to tread deferentially on eggshells.
While this won’t break the power monopoly of our neocons, neo-liberals and special interests, it is a first step, and easy to do for those past middle age with some time on their hands.
What an amazing quote!
“Love is a verb- it is action, not feelings” is a derivative.
Jesus commands us to love EVERYONE. I am not ashamed to call myself Christian, but I often feel the need to distance myself from many of His (alleged) followers.
What an amazing quote!
“Love is a verb- it is action, not feelings” is a derivative.
Jesus commands us to love EVERYONE. I am not ashamed to call myself Christian, but I often feel the need to distance myself from many of His (alleged) followers.
Not a duplicate.
Mahatma Ghandi said: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” Well said.
That said, check out the ancient Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition for an eye-opener. The real thing, minus the Western variations (Roman Catholic, Reformation Protestant, etc).
What a magnificent piece of writing. CHEERS!
I had thought there would quickly come an understanding of just what the problem is in Libya, Iraq and Syria after the tragedy in France. Evidently I was wrong as yet. Presidents Obama and Hollande need to work with closely President Putin from here and need to give up trying to destroy the Syrian government which is no possible threat to France or the United States. The language coming from Washington though does not yet reflect this understanding. I was terribly disappointed by Secretary Clinton today. There is reason to worry.
This essay is superb.
Agree completely. Please check out Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) on Syria via CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviews. She’s a two combat tour Iraq vet and now Vice Chair of Demo Party. On 11/19 she introduced bill in House to end U.S. regime change war aimed at Assad.
No surprise there. United States leaders and their followers have been talking out of both sides of their mouths since, and before, a bunch of slave owners declared “all men are created with a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Among the latest and more grotesque from the White House Theater of the Absurd: “No one is above the law.”
“Sunni Terrorism”?! What a ridiculous term!! Why don’t you write about American State Terrorism and Israeli State Terrorism. At least that has a meaning and is real. The whole world now knows that Al-Qaida and its offspring called ISIS are creation of the CIA to be used as a cover for Western Intervention to expand the American Empire and build Greater Israel………..America is not going to let what happened to the Shah of Iran happen again to its corrupt Royal Families sitting on top of oil. The whole darn mess in the Middle East since 1980 is geared in that direction. No more Iranian-Style revolutions will be allowed and fragment countries around Israel to build Greater Israel…….is this too hard to understand?!
You failed to mention Saudi state terrorism, Islamic state terrorism, Turkish state terrorism, French state terrorism, British state terrorism, and etc. Terrorism is practiced most effectively by states. What could be more terror inducing than knowing that Hellfire missiles are primed, armed, and aimed at you, and reminders of that fact take place regularly?
Thanks to Dr. Soudy for his accurate assessment of the causes of the Middle East turmoil. U.S. journalists are almost incapable of telling the truth to the American public because the mainstream media is either owned, operated, or controlled by fanatical supporters of Israel. Honest reporters are on a tight leash: either stick to the corporate line or hit the road. And there it is. In this situation, it doesn’t matter if there are a few journalists prepared to tell the truth regardless of the risks they run of being fired, because even the bravest journalist cannot tell the true story if the mainstream neocon media refuse to print their stories! When it comes to the Middle East and Israel, there is no free press, electronic or print, in the U.S. That is a terrifying fact to have to absorb.
How will things turn out? Will the U.S. survive and maintain its sovereignty, or will it be destroyed by its own ignorance and fecklessness? Stay tuned America.
Calling Israel’s terrorist activities “terrorism” is Anti-Semitic! They are fighting for freedom! Only other countries use terrorism- our allies are freedom fighters!