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The latest big lies are a series of charges made by the former Syrian ambassador to Iraq, who defected to that bastion of freedom Qatar a couple days ago. Even the propaganda arm of U.S. puppy dog Britain finds Nawaf al-Fares to be a joke:
“The regime now is using al-Qaeda to strike the Syrian people.” [al-Fares says]
He offers no proof of this, and I counter that this makes no sense as al-Qaeda has always condemned Bashar’s rule, with al-Qaeda leader Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri calling him an apostate and urging jihadists to fight against him.
Al-Fares, by the way — and as might be expected looking at his defection, his activities in Iraq, and the Sunni-dominated character of the rebellion in Syria — is a Sunni Muslim.
To al-Fares’s credit, though, he did supply aid to Sunni rebels killing U.S. and other foreign troops who were illegally and sadistically occupying Iraq. To his discredit, though, he supplied aid to Sunni rebels killing fellow Iraqis who might otherwise have been powerful allies in the anti-occupation resistance but just happened to be Shiite.
Just asking, but can you discern any pattern in this man’s words and actions?
As for the “Whose side is Al Qaeda on?” propaganda silliness, check out the following four sources, the final three of which have been around for several months:
In other words, the notion that Al Qaeda is allied with the Syrian government is a joke. However, the assertive promotion of that lie teaches us just how much the propagandists of empire feel they can get away with these days. In a U.S. mainstream media space completely devoid (despite its broad popularity) of a common-sense anti-interventionist and anti-imperialist point of view (partly a result of a two-party system in which both parties strongly support corporate globalism and a U.S.-led economic and military crusade for that cause) I say go for it propagandists! ;-> People have been stupidified enough to believe any damn thing.
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What is most essential to realize about the Middle East – we have so over extended our “credit” line with Iran, that they have told us we cannot have any more of their oil.
So we have to keep conflating the evil of people in this region. What politician from either party wants to be in headlines of NYT’s stating that we are insolvent as a nation. Far better for the American people to believe that the evil evil people of the Middle East have Nukes that will kill us all. That they harbor deadly Al Queda.
There is, however, one unequivocal fact. A Syrian diplomat has broken with Assad.
Accusations that al Quaeda are involved are thinly veiled attempts to stampede US policy. Gadhafi made the same allegations trying to get the rest of the world to back off. And Hugo Chavez’s propaganda machine continues the allegations despite the fact that the Libyan elections definitively outvoted the Islamists.
Syria’s troubles are primarily an internal situation that Assad badly mishandled a year ago.
Too much oil leads to insanity.
Yes, there are quite a few people in this country who have been almost irreversibly dumbed-down.
“Oil” is but a “gateway” drug, once it was land, and ever it is a perceived “resource”, be it slaves, be it tea, be it sugar or spice, yet it is the money-drug which drives the greater addiction to madness and the malignant insanity of conquest, hegemony, and empire.
Superb diary, fairleft, thank you.
Recommended to the consideration of everyone in the USA, and for that matter, in the world … for we are all equally affected by the madness and insanity.
DW
Here’s a great round up on the characters behind the mics…
The Syrian opposition: who’s doing the talking?
…It’s a tale about some of the most quoted members of the Syrian opposition and their connection to the Anglo-American opposition creation business. The mainstream news media have, in the main, been remarkably passive when it comes to Syrian sources: billing them simply as “official spokesmen” or “pro-democracy campaigners” without, for the most part, scrutinising their statements, their backgrounds or their political connections…
Syria’s current troubles involve a war primarily by and for the strategic interests of the U.S. and its Persian Gulf allies. What is past, the sincere democratic struggle to escape an Assad dictatorship, is just nostalgic fodder for a U.S./Saudi/Qatari war to impose a Sunni extremist government on a multi-faith country.
Of course Al Qaeda — as much as that group and its militatnt affiliates can be defined — was much involved in the Libyan civil war and is much involved in the Syrian one. That they are electorally unpopular is irrelevant, they’re never popular but somehow they keep receiving lots of money and arms from the usual suspects, Sunni-extremism supporters like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and, sometimes when it’s in our interest, the U.S.
Read this to get a sense of how active ‘Al Qaeda’ is throughout the greater Middle East, especially in Syria.
By the way, you may be the only person on earth who actually believes and doesn’t just pretend to believe that the recent Libyan elections were legitimate.
Syria’s troubles are primarily an internal situation that Assad badly mishandled a year ago.
Just like Qaddafi, Saddam, Ben Ali, the House of Saud, Bahrain, ad nauseum…! 8-(
Passive about scrutinizing ‘opposition’ figures and their wouldn’t-look-good connections but incredibly scrutinous (word?) toward any source that opposes the latest war in the empire’s military crusade.
My sense is that the best fundamental understanding of the now two-decade-long war on the Middle East is that it has two objectives: to eliminate non-neoliberal governments in the region (Iraq under Hussein) and, more specifically, to replace the Iranian government with a corrupt pro-U.S. puppet like what we maintain in Saudi Arabia. What is behind those goals is ‘oil’ of course, but also the neoliberal ‘corporate globalization’ crusade. Anyway, that’s my take fwiw. UPDATE: I suppose I’d throw in the military industrial complex’s simple need to be ‘needed’ into the ‘why’ mix too.
I suspect that is hyperbole on your part. There are a whole bunch of Libyans who apparently believe that they were as well.
Don’t make pressuppositions about my opinions just from one comment.
The Reuters article tells me that there are a lot of folks wanting to pin a brand on opposition movements in order to globalize their context. It also tells me that whoever is active is only one part of a complicated mix with shifting alliances.
I’m sorry that my analysis does not fit your narrative. But your rhetorical question in your title also applies to you as well.
Oil is the cake and the neocon/lib fantasies the frosting.
It’s melting.
Good point, DW. I do wonder how the incipient madness could have been so studiously ignored!! (Well, no.)
After listening to Terrence Deacon explain Evolution inside out, I think the drug metaphor does not grasp the opportunity costs of American Exceptionalism X Money Sequencing.
Where is the fabulous benefit of further self-domestication with those resources?
Gods they are not.
Covering Syria: The information war…
‘West invented Al-Qaeda, monster turned on master’
Oil is the “new coal”. At the turn of the 20th century, the imperial competition was for islands that could serve as coaling stations to coal-powered fleets. In World War I that search turned to oil, not just for the fleet but also armies and then air forces.
The dynamics of the use of war to secure supplies of oil is a vicious circle. You burn immense quantities of oil in fighting the wars that are to secure the oil supply in order to fuel your military which…
There is an imperial struggle for Middle Eastern oil that is the geopolitical framework of what happens in individual countries but not always the proximate cause or a major factor in events. And the US is indeed in the thick of it. But that doesn’t make events in every country a repeat of the coup against Mossadegh or the propping up of Geneal Suharto.
Increasingly the US cannot work its will on other countries. It can no longer incur the waste. Watch this play out in the debate on the automatic budget cuts on military spending.
The only strategic interests in Syria are from both Russia and Israel. And both seek to keep Assad in power. Russia because of the Mediterranean naval base they lease from Syria. Israel because they know they can have a free hand in Palestine with Assad in power.
Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq have security interests in that they don’t want to conflict to spill over into their countries or inflame current internal conflicts. The US interest with respect to Syria is ensuring that it doesn’t spill over into either Turkey, a strategic ally, or Iraq, a player in the oil market and from which the US is disengaging. As the keeper of Mecca, Saudis have an interest in the civil rights of Sunnis in Syria and the influence of Sunni Islam in Syrian politics. The US does not have to prompt Turkey, Saudi Arabia, or Jordan on its policy; the leaderships of those countries are more adept at foreign policy in the region than the US.
The American public will believe anything it hears about Syria, yes–because the American public loves war (especially war with scary Muslim countries it knows nothing about). Always has. That’s how you get away with 10+ years of war in Afghanistan (and nine in Iraq, and the illegal bombing of Libya, and indiscriminate drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen) without anyone even batting an eye.
…The dynamics of the use of war to secure supplies of oil is a vicious circle. You burn immense quantities of oil in fighting the wars that are to secure the oil supply in order to fuel your military which…
You’re right, Tarheel, DoD is the single largest consumer of Oil in the World…! Now, ain’t it ironic that Sen. McCain and the Goopers are fighting the effort to ‘green’ the forces…
Changing Cities: Ending Hawaii’s Oil Addiction…
…”Pacific Command accounts for 20 percent of the island’s energy demand, so Hawaii needed Pacific Command to sign on to make the Clean Energy Initiative work,” Joelle Simonpietri senior analyst to U.S. Pacific Command Energy Office joint innovation and experimentation division told ABC News.
The military is using the Hawaiian islands as a test bed for new green tech innovation – everything from algae-based jet fuels and hydrogen fuel cell technology to smart-grids that can resist cyber terror… {…}
The new “Green Fleet” is not without its critics.
Conservative lawmakers came out this month in opposition to the U.S. military’s use of advanced biofuels, claiming that they are concerned about the cost of these new, nonoil fuels. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “I don’t believe we can afford it.”
You can’t fly a drone to work, comrade. And have you forgotten about the domino theory?
Anyway, who has the ten lifetimes it would require to find out the proximate cause of the conmen’s intervention this year?
Interesting…because Hawaii was one of the first of Admiral Mahan’s coaling stations.
McCain is predictable. And a toady for the oil companies.
Move to alternative fuels, foreign expeditions are no longer strategically needed. Separates out the commercial from the strategic reasons for overseas misadventures.
Oh but you can fly a drone to work, comrade. That I believe is its point.
The problem with the domino theory, comrade, is that some of the dominoes stubbornly refuse to fall because they are in no way dependent on each other. Or motivated by a hidden force. This was the fallacy that the US got sucked into in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s. Neither the Soviet Union nor “Communist China” (or as they said then “Red China”) were involved in the insurgencies in the countries of Southeast Asia. The US saw dominoes where there actually were none.
Some folks too caught up in a particular narrative of the current US imperialism make the same mistake.
Thank you fairleft. I recommend this excellent little documentary that asks the question:
Or, shorter “Will You Believe Absolutely Anything You’re Told About Syria?”
http://larouchepac.com/syria
DW–
Spot on.
Mad As Hell
This little piece of evidence should never be forgotten:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSNyPS0fXpU
Pardon. Highly recommended.
Are you a droner? The military’s “fuel economy” comes at a high cost. My point is that the drive for oil would still be there if the fuckers could level any city they wanted with god’s rods.
The domino theory was a pretense of threat for a military presence in SE Asia. USIsrael must have the military presence in the ME, and any old domino theory will do.
Some folks are too eager to outsmart the old hands.
“USIsrael must have the military presence in the ME, and any old domino theory will do.”
Let’s give credit where it’s due:
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2009/3603brit-imps_created_jabotinsky.html
The US is but the glove over the hand of the Empire. It’s an old Empire, not created here, but maintained by Tory allies that the Republic was never able to shake. They’re known as the “Establishment.”
Carry on, comrade.
By the time they finally made the commitment to install their colonial state, oil had been discovered in Iran. The Establishment had an entirely new motive for control.
Say, does LaRouche have anything to say about the Baha’i's?
It’s all the same motive ludwig.
Don’t know about the other question–you’ll have to research that.
Separates out the commercial from the strategic reasons for overseas misadventures…
Therein lies the rub… Do you really think Big Oil wants to eat into their ginormous profit margins, and, have to hire their own security forces…? ;-)
As a Baha’i, I despise the persecution the Iranians have meted out, but, I’m not advocating for war on Iran, or anywhere for that matter…! ;-)
I’d add that the Israelis aren’t too fond of us…! 8-(
Except that Baha’i HQ is in Haifa. Makes you wonder.
Ok. How about opportunity?
Big oil’s profit margins in part have to do with not hiring their own security, but they also have to do with tax breaks and the fact that the US military is their largest customer. More geographically dispersed domestic alternatives to powering the military threatens their commercial interest, but it weans national security off its dependency on them. Of course, they are already using K Street to try to avoid this eventuality–just like the buggy whip manufacturers did. And the suppliers of horses to the cavalry.
Superb analysis, TD.
And ya know that I’m gonna agree with you, I suspect?
Always appreciate your considered perspectives.
I would only add that war, for the empire, is an “end” or twisted “value” for its own sake, in and of itself, now that the “profits” are guaranteed “privatized”, and the “display” of force, in drones and mini “bases”, is perceived by the MICC to be an “endless” golden “goose”, of sorts.
DW
Ding! Ding! Ding!
TD, you’ve a string of stellar comments on this thread.
And BP is the largest “supplier” … of the “habit”.
Buggy whips and the “democratic traditions” the political class rode in on …
DW
McInsane and Big Oil had managed to kill a large scale tidal project in Kaneohe Bay, that would’ve powered all of MCB-Kaneohe’s facilities and their on-base housing…!
I’m not assuming anything, it’s just my opinion that only the first two of your sentences in comment 2 are factually accurate:
“Accusations that al Quaeda are involved are thinly veiled attempts to stampede US policy.” So the idea is that fairleft and others with virtually no voice in the U.S. or EU mainstream media, and virtually no representation within their mainstream political parties, are attempting to ‘stampede’ U.S. policy by pointing out the accurate, revealing and uncomfortable fact that Al Qaeda is allied with the U.S. in the struggle to defeat Syria.
“Gadhafi made the same allegations trying to get the rest of the world to back off. And Hugo Chavez’s propaganda machine continues the allegations …” Those allegations were accurate.
“… despite the fact that the Libyan elections definitively outvoted the Islamists.” That fact has no relevance to the allegations. Al Qaeda is a set of well-funded military forces related by Sunni extremist ideology and sometimes by more than that, and it doesn’t prioritize elections and widespread popularity.
“Syria’s troubles are primarily an internal situation that Assad badly mishandled a year ago.” No, the troubles, as in large numbers of citizens dying, being made refugees and living in constant fear, are the result of the U.S./Saudi/Qatari/French/British/Al-Qaeda decision to replace through military force and terrorism the current regime with a regime to their liking. If those forces had decided not to do that, Syria would be at peace today, with a moderately reformed government and an about average amount of repression for the greater Middle East.
DW, my comment 10 was a sort of response to your comment 5 (and ludwig’s comment 3), but for probably my glitchy fault it didn’t recored on myFDL like that. (Damn, there it goes again; this was typed as a response to your comment 5 but it doesn’t show up as that.)
BTW, the other witness to Fares claim that Al Qaeda kept a base on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border with Assad’s assistance?
Uhh, that dude won’t be able to refute the veracity of Fares’s story anytime soon.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl…
Better putin a call to RT and SANA for today’s talking points, looser, oh infantile leftist. Stat, before the “terrorists” shut down yur propaganda factory for good.
Yur boss, Lavrov seems to think the end game is underway in Syria. How would he know that? He had the Syrian opposition in for a visit last week didn’t he? HMMMMM. July 11 meeting between the “Terrorists” and the Russians in Moscow. A week later, out of nowhere, the “decisive battle” suddenly erupts in Damascus.
Maybe yur still missing exactly half the story, as usual.
Of course you are. Neo-liberal, Imperialist Russia has stated quite baldly they no longer have all their bets behind neo-liberal imperialist Assad. Like the smart, cunning global capitalists that they are, they have hedged on the
terroristsopposition.Since you often claim (but seldom do) “follow the money,” here is the money line, buried at the bottom of the story, a surprisingly evenhanded rendition of the meeting (and it wasnt all about the tastiness of the tea and crumpets, bet on it), appearing in RT (of all places):
http://rt.com/politics/syria-r…
Some useful idiots never learn.
Oh, and since I inspired this diary its only fairleft of me to reccommend it.
Them “glitches” got ya … sometimes, my comments just disappear into the ether, never to be seen again.
ALWAYS, it is those comments I have labored over, finding just the right worlds, just the ideal nuance, perfect in every regard …
Poof!!!
Hey! (I ask myself) What the %$%#@*& happened?
(There is no response)
The internet deities have zapped me …
Gah! (I respond, philosophically) what have I done to deserve THIS?
Thank you, fairleft, for the diary and the response.
DW
Gah!!
“finding the right words”
Mind-Finger-Synapse-Collapse, abetted by “aging” vision …
I AM looking for a more rational world, a more humane and just world.
One will suffice.
;~DW