THE STRIKE AGAINST SYRIA COULD BE A REPETITION OF US DEADLY OPERATIONS IN THE MIDEAST

THE US MILITARY STRIKE AGAINST SYRIA COULD BE A REPETITION OF US-LED MILITARY ADVENTURES IN THE MIDDLE EAST SUCH AS IN AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ AND LIBYA THAT CAUSED TERRIBLE HUMAN TRAGEDY AND DESTRUCTION

by Syarif Hidayat*

The US, the renowned World Preacher of Human Rights and Democracy, is gearing up its war (human killing) machines for a punitive (deadly) action against the Syrian regime in what the people in the corridors of power in Washington said “to convey the message that it would not tolerate the use of chemical weapons.”

If it happen, I think and I am fairly sure that it could be a repetition of Iraq adventure : hunting for fake (CIA imaginary) Iraqi WMDs using the real deadly American WMDs against Iraq that killed millions of innocent Iraqis including old men, women, children and babies as well as destroyed almost all Iraqi important infrastructures!!!

Also Read: India and Pakistan: Military Powers with Nuclear Capabilities

This time the chemical weapons are the real chemical weapons, but who have used them are still unclear as both sides are still exchanging accusations!!

Israel provides terrorist groups with chemical weapons

A British parliamentarian from Britain’s Respect Party for Bradford West, George Galloway said Israel has been giving out chemical arms to the anti-Syria government in Syria civil war.

George Galloway said Israel provided terrorist groups linked with al-Qaeda with chemical weapons. “If there’s been any use of nerve gas, it’s the rebels that used it…If there has been use of chemical weapons, it was Al Qaeda who used the chemical weapons”, Galloway said.

Also Read: Hajj: A Strategic Pathway Toward Indonesia’s Golden Vision 2045

“Who gave al-Qaeda the chemical weapons? Here’s my theory: Israel gave them the chemical weapons”, Galloway MP added.

Meanwhile, media reports had it that Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV and Reuters news agency published the news of massacre in East Ghouta, Damascus “one day” before the massacre happened.

According to the reports tens of videos were uploaded before foreign-backed army announced and accused the Syrian government of conducting chemical attacks on its own people.

Those evidences show the massacred, including women and children, then recorded and uploaded the scenes to deceive the world’s public opinion, but they did so hurriedly and gave themselves up.

Also Read: More Than Just a Piece of Paper: The History and Controversy of Educational Certificates

The question here is why the Syrian government and its army should have committed such a heinous mass murder using chemical weapons when the United Nations inspectors are visiting the country to investigate the use of such weapons?

The foreign-backed army and mercenaries hired by certain regional countries are making up those allegations against the popular government of President Bashar al Assad to invoke a foreign armed intervention in Syria the same as what they did in Libya.

Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV published the news of the alleged chemical weapons attack by the Syrian army, citing unknown activists as its source.

A website also uploaded videos of the alleged attacks and wrote that “Baath Regime used chemical weapons in East Ghouta, Damascus, Jobar, Ain Tarma, Zamalka, Western Ghouta, Muaddamiyah around 03: 30 am.”

Also Read: Commemorating 70 Years of the Asian-African Conference: Honoring Palestine’s Role in Indonesia’s Independence

At the same time, one of Youtube account ‘SHAMSNN’ swiftly uploaded tens of videos between 03: 00 and 04: 00 am, 20 August. The same people behind all these scenarios accused the government of Syria and its army of carrying out chemical attacks on 21 August.

Now, even if the chemical attacks had happened at 03:30 on 20 August, it’s not possible to film the scenes and upload tens of videos of these heinous crimes with the best quality pictures.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi highlighted certain countries’ hostile stance towards his country telling the world that a media and political campaign of lies is being circulated by certain Arab and foreign media outlets including al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, Sky News and others which are involved in the shedding of Syrian blood and supporting opposition, with the objective of distracting the UN committee of inspectors of its mission to investigate which party to the conflict has used chemical weapons.

“The cries of terrorists and their calls for aid accompany the fact that the Armed Forces are advancing on the ground, and also accompany the fabricated campaign waged by some channels in desperate bid to imbue false morale in the armed terrorist groups,” he said.

Also Read: Global Boycott: Major Financial Losses for Companies Affiliated with Zionist Israel

Omran al-Zoubi described the support by some Arabs and the so-called Arab League for these allegations as ridiculous, naïve and illogical.

UN SAYS SYRIAN OPPOSITION MAY HAVE USED SARIN

A United Nations inquiry into human rights abuses in Syria has found evidence that opposition forces may have used chemical weapons, its lead investigator has revealed.

Carla Del Ponte, a member of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said that testimony gathered from casualties and medical staff indicated that the nerve agent sarin was used by opposition fighters.

Also Read: Jewish Hostility Extends to All of Mankind

“Our investigators have been in neighbouring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated,” Ms Del Ponte said in an interview broadcast on Swiss-Italian television.

“This was used on the part of the opposition, not by the government authorities,” she added.

Ms Del Ponte said the inquiry has yet to see any direct evidence suggesting that government forces have used chemical weapons, but said further investigation was required before this possibility could be ruled out.

The UN commission, which is investigating human rights abuses in Syria since the start of the civil war, later released a statement distancing itself from the allegations. It said that investigators had “not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict”.

Also Read: Indonesia Must Do More Than Evacuate, Gaza Needs Us to Act Now

The White House said it was “highly skeptical” of suggestions that Syrian opposition used chemical weapons, Harakah Daily reported .

“We find it highly likely that chemical weapons, if they were in fact used in Syria – and there is certainly evidence that they were – that the Assad regime was responsible,” spokesman Jay Carney said.

The allegations come nearly two weeks after the United States said it had “varying degrees of confidence” that sarin gas had been used by Syria’s government on its people.

President Barack Obama declared that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, would cross a “red line” and change US calculations on whether or not it should intervene in the conflict.

Also Read: Killing by Machine: How AI and Digital Platforms Are Involved in the Gaza Genocide

Calls for the US to launch military action against the Syrian regime have grown stronger since claims that it used chemical weapons first emerged. Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are the most prominent among those calling for a no-fly zone in some parts of the country, similar to the one which was introduced in Libya.

Each side in Syria’s two-year-old conflict has accused the other of using chemical weapons – an action that which would constitute a war crime under international law. Two of the alleged attacks took place in Aleppo in March and Homs in December.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government has agreed to allow UN inspectors to investigate allegations of a suspected chemical weapon attack near Damascus.

Syria, Russia try to prevent US led military action in Syria

Also Read: The Historical Pattern of Zionist Betrayal (By: Imaam Yakhsyallah Mansur)

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has dismissed western claims his regime used chemical weapons as an “insult to common sense”, while Russia has warned the US of the “extremely dangerous consequences” of launching military action against the Syrian regime, the foreign ministry said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to hold an emergency press conference at 4 pm local time (1300 GMT) on Monday (August 26, 2013), with Russian and foreign mass media invited to attend.

Lavrov told US Secretary of State John Kerry in a telephone call on Sunday that Moscow was “deeply alarmed” by comments from US officials indicating a readiness to intervene in Syria in the wake of accusations the regime had used chemical weapons, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Sergei Lavrov drew attention to the extremely dangerous consequences of a possible new military intervention for the whole Middle East and North Africa region,” it added.

Also Read: Indonesian Muslim Community in Japan Shares Kindness During Ramadan

Assad interview

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Western claims his regime used chemical weapons were an “insult to common sense” and warned the United States it faced failure if it attacked, in an interview with Russian newspaper Izvestia published on Monday.

Possibility of military action

On Monday, UN inspectors headed for the Damascus site of last week’s suspected chemical weapons attack which killed hundreds.

They have been granted access by President Assad.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Monday that an international response in Syria was possible without unanimous UN Security Council backing. “Is it possible to respond to chemical weapons without complete unity on the UN Security Council? I would argue yes,” he told the BBC.

On Sunday, Hague had said that any evidence that did exist in the environs of last week’s attack may have been compromised in the intervening days.

Peace talks

Lavrov told Kerry that it appeared certain elements inside the United States wanted to launch military action in Syria outside of the United Nations to undermine joint US-Russia efforts to organise a peace conference.

The Russian minister urged his US counterpart “to refrain from using military pressure against Damascus and not to give into provocations.” The ministry said Kerry promised to “attentively” study the arguments of the Russian side.

Russia underlined the necessity of an objective UN investigation into the claimed chemical attack and repeated its doubts that the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad was to blame.

“There is mounting evidence that the incident was a pretence set up by the rebel opposition with the aim of accusing the Damascus government of everything,” the statement said..

Chemical weapons claims are “nonsense”, says Assad “The comments (accusing the regime of using chemical weapons) made by politicians in the West and other countries are an insult to common sense… It is nonsense,” Assad said.

Assad accused the United States of first making the accusations that his regime used chemical weapons in an attack outside Damascus that activists say killed hundreds, and only later starting to look for proof.

He said the frontline in the area where the incident took place was not clear and the Syrian regime would have risked killing its own army forces if it used chemical weapons.

“This contradicts elementary logic,” Assad said. “Such accusations are completely political and the reason for them is a number of victories by the government forces against the terrorists.”

He said it is “not us but our enemies who are using chemical weapons.”

Assad urges governments to listen to their people. With calls mounting for military action against Syria, Assad warned western states to stop interfering in the affairs of other countries and instead “listen to the opinion of the people”.

If someone is dreaming of making Syria a puppet of the West, then this will not happen. “We are an independent state, we will fight against terrorism and we will build relations with whom we want for the good of the Syrian people.”

US war record

He warned the United States against attacking Syria and argued Washington’s previous military campaigns in recent years had always fallen short of their aims. “The United States faces failure just like in all the previous wars they waged, starting with Vietnam and up to our days,” he said.

“America has taken part in many wars but could not once achieve its political goals for which the wars were started. Yes, it is true, the great powers can wage wars but can they win them?” he asked.

Contracts

Asked about Russia’s contract to deliver Damascus with S-300 missile systems, Assad said that “all contracts agreed with Russia are being fulfilled.” “Russia is supplying Syria with what is needed to protect Syria and its people,” he said.

Assad said Qatar was a “sponsor of terrorists” while Turkey “trains and provides corridors for them”.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, was a country “which only has money and someone who has just money cannot create a civilised society,” Assad said.

Asked about the chances of organising the so-called Geneva-2 peace conference backed by Russia and the United States, Assad replied: “We cannot start a political dialogue until the support from abroad for terrorism is halted.”

The US hegemony

Under the guise of hypocritical declarations of “war of Liberation” to liberate Iraq from the West so-called Dictator Saddam Hussein that turned out to be the killing of millions of Iraqi people indiscriminately, “war to hunt for Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and Talibans” in Afghanistan that turned out to be the killing of hundreds of thousands of Afghan people indiscriminately and the “humanitarian” war to “save” the Libyan people from the West so-called Dictator Gaddafi that turned out to be the killing of hundreds of Libyan people indiscriminately and the Zionist and US-led imperialists covert operation in Syria, the U.S-led western civilization regimes were in fact aiming to occupy Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and gain control of the world oil reserves and international oil trade as well as dominate the whole Middle East and Africa by their military powers (and ultimately the whole world).

Either Syria or Iran could be the next!

THE TRUE FACE OF THE HUMAN RIGHT PREACHER

The people in the corridors of Power in Washington and the US-led western civilization regimes leaders are awfully silent about millions of innocent people including old men, women, children and babies who were and are being killed by their war machines in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Somalia in their so-called War on Terror as well as in their covert operations in Syria … and the worst thing is that they merely call those innocent victims as collateral damages.
The US-led western regimes “War on Terror” (THAT IS ACTUALLY THE US WAR FOR OIL AND HEGEMONY IN THE WORLD as well as The Smoke Screen for War against Islam and Muslims) buries all presumption of innocent. This could mean that the US-led western regimes forces have been and are killing many innocent people including old men, women, children and babies in the Muslim countries freely at will!

But when a few of their men killed, they would make noises around the world including forcing the UN to make a resolution to apply a severe punitive economic sanction or launch an allied western military action against the country where the accident took place or against the alleged culprits by deploying all kind of deadly war machines to terrorize the people of that country and hunt the culprits. If they couldn’t find the real culprits, it is almost certain they would produce scapegoats and send them to the infamous US Guantanamo Torture camp.

… but I am also very sorry for the fine young American men and women soldiers who are being sent into the wrongful wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the intervention in Libya as well as covert operation in Syria, the wars that seem to benefit only the multiple interests of the Military Industrial Complex and the Zionist corporate world; and not the families of the young men and women soldiers!

“Tailored” strike

US President Barack Obama says his administration has concluded that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in the country and that Washington should conduct a “tailored, limited” strike against Syria to convey the message that it would not tolerate the use of chemical weapons.

“If we are saying in a clear and decisive but very limited way, we send a shot across the bow saying, ‘Stop doing this,’ this can have a positive impact on our national security over the long term,” Obama said.

He made the remarks during an interview with PBS NewsHour before a UN inspector team, which is in Syria at the invitation of Damascus, releases its findings over last week’s deadly chemical weapons attack near the Syrian capital.

Obama said the US military has provided him with several options regarding possible military strikes on Syria but he has not yet made a decision on the issue.

President Obama, however, added that a “direct” US military intervention in Syria, like the one against Iraq, would not be helpful. The US president said that the militants fighting against the government of President Bashar Al Assad could not carry out chemical weapons attacks.

The Syrian government has rejected the allegations as baseless and even accused the Western countries of encouraging the insurgents in the country to use chemical weapons.

“The most dangerous thing is that the United States, Britain and France encourage these terrorists to use chemical weapons. These countries defend them and this has to stop. This means that these terrorists will soon use chemical weapons against Americans and Europeans,” said Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Maqdad.

US finalizing plans for the strike

Two unnamed White House officials told the Associated Press that the Obama administration is still deciding on what Syrian targets will be attacked and to what degree during a military strike that now seems inevitable.

While the strike itself will be conducted only after the White House presents the public with what it believes is “undeniable” proof of chemical weapon use carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, intelligence agencies and policy makers are struggling to decide what goals they hope to achieve by launching an attack.

One of the officials granted anonymity to speak to the AP said, “If there is action taken, it must be clearly defined what the objective is and why” and based on “clear facts.” Meanwhile, another official briefed on a potential strike told the Los Angeles Times that the White House may opt for an attack “just muscular enough not to get mocked,” but one that wouldn’t be severe enough to warrant a response from Syrian allies Iran and Russia.

“They are looking at what is just enough to mean something, just enough to be more than symbolic,” the Times quoted the source as saying.

President Obama said Wednesday evening he has not made a decision on whether to order a strike in Syria, although he said the US has concluded that the Syrian government carried out recent chemical weapons attacks near Damascus.

“We have not yet made a decision, but the international norm against the use of chemical weapons needs to be kept in place,” Obama said in an interview with PBS.

“If we are saying in a clear and decisive but very limited way, we send a shot across the bow saying, stop doing this, that can have a positive impact on our national security over the long term,” he said, stressing a “limited, tailored” approach in Syria to avoid an open-ended conflict.

The US and its allies already have enough resources throughout the region to strike Syria at any moment. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said earlier this week that the American military “was in place to be able to fulfill and comply with whatever option the president wishes to take.” Once Pres. Obama authorizes a strike, he said, US forces were “ready to go, like that.”

Damascus buildings evacuated ahead of reported Western strike

President Bashar al-Assad’s forces appear to have evacuated most personnel from army and security command headquarters in central Damascus in preparation for a Western military strike, residents and opposition sources said on Wednesday, August 28, according to Reuters.

U.S.-led air or missile strikes on Syria look all but certain after the United States and European and Middle Eastern allies blamed a suspected poison gas attack that killed hundreds in the city on Aug 21 on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

Army units stationed near the capital have confiscated several trailer trucks, apparently to transport heavy weaponry to alternative locations, though no significant movement of military hardware has been reported, possibly due to heavy fighting near major highways, one of the sources added.

Among the buildings that have been partially evacuated are the General Staff Command Building on Umayyad Square, the nearby airforce command and the security compounds in the Western Kfar Souseh districts, residents of the area and a Free Syrian Army rebel source said.

Syrian military authorities do not discuss troop movements publicly, and no government spokesman was available for comment.

The General Staff building, one of the top military headquarters in the country, has been operating with reduced staffing since it was attacked by rebel bombs in September 2012. (T/E1/P03)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)