Maybe you would prefer to believe a plucky band of heroic freedom fighters bravely overthrew an evil supervillain dictator all on their own like some Hollywood movie, says Caitlin Johnstone.
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
By Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlin’s Newsletter
Bashar al-Assad has fled Syria to Moscow, where he has reportedly been granted asylum by Russia. The al-Qaeda affiliates who drove him out have declared victory for the “mujahideen” in Damascus.
Both Biden and Netanyahu have publicly taken credit for assisting in the regime change, and of course Turkey’s Erdogan deserves a heavy share of credit as well.
And yet there’s still a bit of a taboo in mainstream western discourse around calling this a regime change operation backed by the U.S. and its allies. We’re all meant to pretend this was a 100 percent organic uprising driven solely and exclusively by the people of Syria despite years and years of evidence to the contrary.
We are meant to pretend this is the case even after we just watched the U.S. power alliance crush Syria using proxy warfare, starvation sanctions, constant bombing operations, and a military occupation explicitly designed to cut Syria off from oil and wheat in order to prevent its reconstruction after the western-backed civil war.
People get mad at you if say this, but it’s true. It’s just a fact that major world events do not occur independently of the actions of the major world powers who have a vested interest in their outcomes. If my saying this makes you feel uncomfortable, that discomfort is called cognitive dissonance. It’s what being wrong feels like.
Maybe it bothers you when people point out the involvement of the U.S. power alliance in Syria, and maybe you would prefer to believe that a plucky band of heroic freedom fighters bravely overthrew an evil supervillain dictator all on their own like some Hollywood movie.
But real life doesn’t move in accordance with your preferences. In real life, the globe-spanning empire that is centralized around the United States will reliably be deeply involved in such events.
When I say this you may want to believe I am “denying the agency of Syrians,” and that “denying agency” is the worst sin a person can possibly commit. But nothing I’m saying actually contradicts the idea that Syrians have their own agency.
Obviously there were many Syrians who wanted Assad gone, and obviously there were many people who had their own reasons for fighting him which had nothing to do with the U.S. empire.
There is no contradiction between this obvious fact and the well-documented reality that the U.S.-centralized power structure has been balls deep in Syria from the very beginning of the violence in 2011, and that its involvement led to the events we are seeing today.
The claim isn’t that the U.S. empire controlled the minds of Syrians and forced them to turn against their government with no agency of their own. The claim is that the empire put a big fat thumb on the scale to ensure that one group of Syrians got their way instead of a different group.
You can argue that western regime change interventionism will lead to positive results this time (so long as you’re prepared to ignore mountains of historical evidence consistently demonstrating the opposite), but what you cannot do on any rational basis is deny that western regime change interventionism occurred in Syria.
Western liberalism is funny in that its adherents lean heavily on their ability to psychologically compartmentalize away from the actions of the western empire, and indeed away from the very existence of that empire.
The western liberal lives in an imaginary alternate universe where western powers pretty much mind their own business and western leaders passively watch violence and destruction unfold around the world whilst pleading for peace and diplomacy from their podiums.
They pretend the empire does not exist, and that it is only by pure coincidence that conflicts, coups and uprisings keep occurring in ways which favor the strategic interests of Washington.
In reality it is impossible to understand what’s going on in the world unless you understand that the U.S. is the hub of an undeclared empire which has been working tirelessly to bring the global population under a single power umbrella over which it presides.
The few countries who have successfully resisted being absorbed into this imperial blob are the Official Bad Guys we westerners are all trained to hate: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and a few socialist states in Latin America.
I used to include Syria in this list, but that’s over now. Syria has been absorbed into the blob of the empire.
And tomorrow the imperial blob will move its crosshairs on to the next unabsorbed nation. That’s the underlying dynamic behind all the major conflicts on earth.
This dynamic gets redacted from the mainstream western worldview with the assistance of the western propaganda services known as the mass media, as well as the western indoctrination system known as schooling.
This dynamic is redacted from our worldview and hidden from our attention by the plutocrats and empire managers who work to manipulate our information systems, because otherwise we would realize that the U.S. empire is the most tyrannical and abusive power structure on this planet today.
And it unquestionably is. No other power structure has spent the 21st century killing people by the millions in wars of aggression while circling the planet with hundreds of military bases and working continuously to crush any group which opposes its dictates anywhere on earth.
Not China. Not Russia. Not Iran. Not Cuba. Not Bashar al-Assad. Only the U.S. empire has been tyrannizing and abusing the world to this extent in modern times.
And now the imperial blob rolls on to absorb its next target, having grown one Syria-sized increment larger after spending years digesting that nation via proxy warfare, sanctions, relentless bombing campaigns from Israel, and a military occupation designed to steal its food and fuel.
Our world cannot know peace as long as we are ruled by an empire that is fueled by endless rivers of human blood. Here’s hoping the end of that empire comes sooner rather than later.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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Nice work, Caitlin
It was plain and obvious enough from the very beginning that the civil war in Syria was, like Ukraine and Russia, provoked and perpetuated by the US, UK, Israel, NATO. Here comes America! Freedom and democracy! Like on the college campuses.
Tov, your comment is SO true.
These are really irreconcilable processes; we can bemoan (rightly so) the details of our political, economic and environmental maladjustments: Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Texas!, ad infinitum, but as long as our numbers are measured in the billions, technologies measure energy uses in the multiple trillions of kilowatts and our general economic and political behavior ignores the biophysical reality of earth’s living surface, these sorts of social/political/power relations will exist with new geographies, new justifications and all the old violent certainties.
Recall:
“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.” General Wesley Clark.
Israel has expanded its borders in Lebenon and now Syria, Greater Israel is on track.
The Sunni muslims are complicit in all this thanks to Saudi’s money and influence.
The USA wants the assets and chaos makes stealing them a lot easier.
Black times for the ME which will have dire repurcussions across the globe.
Israel is an aggressive, malignant cancer in the Middle East – but it will not exist by 2048. It will not exist 100 years as a ‘country’ (which lacks both set borders and a real Constitution).
It all started with a weaponized religion created to occupy the region for the Roman Empire long ago including the defamation of the stolen monotheism that has become a new born again world western religion granted superiority plus absorbing the long ago people after centuries of defamation of other cultures too. the stolen gold and silver even moved with us pivoting to China to destabilize their civilization with excessive wealth. All as a consequence of the silk road being blocked due to another rising religious empire now again in our designs.
“The western liberal lives in an alternative imaginary universe…” Exactly. Change starts from imagining, then creating alternatives, but neolibs are sure, a’ la Thatcher, there are no alternatives. Then add the unholy alliance with neocons. I have yet to find a Dem party loyalist (or their Liberal/Labour equivalents) who admit what their party has become.
Probably starting with the ’71 Powell memo; by the late ’70s neolibs had usurped the D party, dumping the New Deal and abandoning the majority working class. Liberals turn a blind eye to the fact that the Ds did exactly FOR the suffering Rust Belt unemployed as they did TO the Wall St. vultures who caused the ’08 crash–NOTHING! The D party only represents the ~20% admin and professionals who as bureaucrats keep the system going.
The liberal elite is sure as educated people they are far above us ignorant masses. They were upset by PNAC and decried Project 2025 as something the American public should fear. Yet at the same time failing to see that neocons trained by Cheney and/or in on the creation of PNAC were running the Biden Dept. of State. Sure to have been the case with Harris or Cheney would not have endorsed her.
I was a blue collar union rank and file activist for close to 30 years. In the late ’60s, I was trained by people who’d been labor organizers in the 1930s. They said “liberals are the ones who leave the room when the fight starts.” They sure did. To translate this into international terms, they believe they’re peacemakers. Never mind the reality of the many wars and what that costs us. All while assuring us lessers they are the good guys despite all evidence. Or at the very least the lesser of two evils–as if this weren’t in itself an admission of evil.
Nah, Syrian state interests will soon reassert themselves over the particular agendas of HTS. Israel immedeately stepped up its attacks and land grabs on Syria: they (the israelis) just can’t stop themselves. HTS will quickly have to respond to this if they want to retain any credibility in the country. That’s the way things work.
Another great piece from Caity. I agree. Meanwhile in the imperialist propaganda mass media mouthpiece, The Guardian, no mention of the Genocide of Palestine at all. The Genocide does not exist, while at the same time they praise Israel for bombing and occupying Syria. Praising Ukro-Nazis, genocide, racism and increasing likelihood of nuclear war is standard procedure.
(BTW, it would be great to see Ben Norton articles cross posted regularly here on CN)
The 1% oligarchy and their MiniTrue lapdog mass media create the discourse (or use content generated from MI6/CIA/Mossad), frame the discourse, and repeat until everyone is in lock-step.
The US has a worsening health care crisis, elder-care crisis, cost of living crisis, housing crisis, infrastructure crisis, environmental crisis. But those things are not important and the US govt. says they have no money for that.
We need to focus on giving more billions in weapons and cash to Ukraine, Israel and mercenary terrorists. Anything that Assad ever did was pale in comparison to what Israel/US/UK (along with vassals like Qatar, KSA and Turkey) did to Syria. This was all due to foreign meddling. We can trace this back to Sykes-Picot and British imperial policy. The empire struck back and the wars continue. Greater Israel and the empire looks to expand further. Will Russia maintain its naval and air bases in Tartus and Latakia (Syria)? Will Israel occupy even more of Syria?
This is all capitalism. Capitalism is antithetical to civilization, truth, sanity, democracy, freedom, education, and peace. All the “regime-changed”, “failed-states” are all the fault of, the results of, and necessary for, the 1%. It is all capitalism. There are some countries that should be “regime-changed”.
Dear, Caitlin Johnstone, though I do not always agree with your views, nevertheless you have my undying respect.
Amazing article.
I agree with Caitlin’s analysis, and I love the image of the ‘plucky band of rebels’ who overcome all obstacles to defeat the ‘evil villain’ Bashar al-Assad. That will definitely be the basis for the Hollywood version when it hits the theater screens next year. Maybe George Clooney will lead the rebel gang.
While it appears to us (via the usual news media) that Syria fell suddenly, it really took 13 years of sanctions, military attacks, sponsored insurrection and direct US occupation to achieve the ouster of Assad. The war to conquer Syria began with the phony ‘Arab Spring’ protests in 2011, then moved to US-backed civil war, and never stopped even though the direct fighting has been at a low level for some years. The US never gave up on crushing Syria. Note that Syria was on the New American Century list of targets from the early 2000s, along with Iraq, Iran, Libya, and North Korea.
And I hate to say this, but if Syria had been armed with nuclear weapons the US could not have broken it. That is the lesson of North Korea. Now Syria is likely to join Libya and Lebanon as a failed state, because the US has zero interest in having any functional states in that region.
Oh it has a great interest in the genocidal zionist state who is taking credit for the Assad regime change.
And yesterday’s enenmies become tomorrow’s friends (for a while, at least …)
UK could consider removing proscription of Syria’s HTS
Senior British minister Pat McFadden said on Monday that the United Kingdom may consider removing the proscribed status of Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)
hxxps://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/uk-could-consider-removing-proscription-of-syria-s-hts
Thank you for this article. I live in Germany and listen to news about “rebels” and “freedom fighters” who ousted the “dictator” and “butcher” Assad, while jihadist fanboys are celebrating on German streets and calling for sharia law. The same jihadist fanboys who demonstrate for a “free Palestine” while at the same time cheering on the thugs that do Netanyahu’s dirty work. Guess they don’t mind throwing Palestine and Lebanon including Hezbollah under the bus as long as they get their head chopper’s paradise.
Sorry for the harsh words, I’m sad today.
No apology necessary. Many of us are sad, too. The cheers of Biden, Starmer and others is nauseating. Do they EVER think of the consequuences for everyday people? Rhetorical. We know the answer.o
The fact that the overthrow of Assad was welcomed by Keir Starmer should make us all stop and think about whether this is a good thing. Humanitarian concerns will certainly not be one of his motives for welcoming this outcome.
I don’t see why any Islamist terror group would fight on the ground to capture a country then just hand that country over to its sponsors instead of ruling it themselves and creating their own totalitarian Islamist state. Then the west would have to fight to take it from them, knowing the west wasn’t prepared to fight to take it last time.
If they just hand Syria over then the west didn’t just sponsor them, they’ve absorbed the Jihadi army to become part of their own. It’s the only thing that would explain any forces handing over a country they’ve just conquered.
“Here’s hoping the end of that empire comes sooner rather than later.”
The end of the Empire had better come soon or there won’t be anyone left alive to celebrate. America’s end game is looking more and more like Armageddon with each passing day (and conquest).
M.A.G.A. – I found your renaming of Trump’s ‘MAGA’ amusing & appropriate. (^^)b