As the death toll reaches 100,000 in Syria all sides and their allies are pouring arms into the fire and the US industrial/war machine is desperate to start the bombing. The final logic of crisis capitalism is permanent spreading WAR. Now may be our last chance to protest.
Into the abyss of full scale war on Syria with Tony Blair as outrider
- 28 June 2013 Matt Carr
The West’s escalation of the war will not bring peace, but death, chaos and destruction on a scale that will dwarf previous ‘interventions’ in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
Whenever the Quartet’s ‘Peace Envoy’ Tony Blair makes any pronouncement on the great issues in the Middle East, you can always guarantee that the missile silos are being readied for action.
Last week Blair took time out from his unctuous tribute to Shimon Peres to call for the establishment of no-fly zones over Syria in order to avoid ‘catastrophic consequences.’
After months of prevarication and hesitation, the Nobel Peace Laureate has announced that the US is to start sending lethal weapons to the rebels. This follows the EU’s decision to abrogate the arms embargo on weapons to Syria, which was largely due to browbeating from the old colonial powers, Britain and France.The US has justified its decision on the basis of ‘conclusive evidence’ that Assad’s forces used Sarin on at least four occasions, killing between 100 and 150 people. Naturally, Cameron has weighed in, declaring that Assad has used it twice, before upping the figure to ten. 
The specifics don’t really matter – it could just as easily have been three or fifteen, since what we are dealing with – as was the case in Iraq – is another gross fabrication/manipulation designed to deceive the public and provide a trigger for escalation.
Both Cameron and the US have dismissed allegations from the UN Independent Commission on Syria last month that the Syrian rebels themselves may have used chemical weapons. But both governments now claim to ‘know’ that Assad has used them.
No credible evidence for these allegations has been provided, nor has either government offered any plausible explanation why Assad would use Sarin gas against the rebels, when he knows that any such use would only give the ‘international community’ a pretext to attack him.
The chemical weapons scam takes place at a time when the Syrian rebels have been suffering military reverses on the ground, and Iran and Hezbollah have been providing direct support to Assad’s regime – support that is clearly intended to protect themselves against the coming offensive that is being prepared against them by the Western states and their Gulf allies that are seeking to bring down Assad.
These efforts have brought new actors into the fray. In Egypt, Mohammed Morsi is authorising jihadist fighters to go to Syria as an act of pan-Sunni solidarity. This is the same Morsi who earlier this year ordered his army to pour sewage into the tunnels at Gaza to show his solidarity with the Palestinians, yet who apparently has no qualms whatsoever about fueling an emerging Shia/Sunni sectarian war with Syria at its epicentre.
Sectarian conflict is a consequence of the geopolitical struggle between the West and its allies on one hand, and the Iranian/Shia bloc on the other, with money, power, energy resources and pipeline routes rather than religion at its core, all of which has transformed Syria into a proxy battleground. Iran and Hezbollah are fighting in Syria because they know that if Assad falls, they will be next.
And the recent actions by the US and its allies now make it clear that they are determined to escalate this confrontation, even if it destroys the country they claim to want to save.
None of this has anything to do with peace, security or saving lives, let alone the ‘positive, democratic and pluralistic Syria’ that Cameron claims to want. The West and its allies want to drop Assad so that they can get at Iran and redress the strategic reverses that took place as a consequence of their bloody incompetence in Iraq.
Blair may talk about preventing ‘catastrophic consequences’, but the dirty and disgusting game that is being played out in Syria now threatens to bring about the most catastrophic military confrontation in the history of the modern Middle East.
It will not bring peace, but death, chaos and destruction on a scale that will dwarf previous ‘interventions’ in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, as it sucks in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Iran, Turkey, and Israel.
To avert this outcome, we need to revitalise the international peace movement that preceded the Iraq war, and find ways to make our leaders behave like statesmen rather than gangsters and jackals. Above all, we need to halt the reckless militarisation that is leading the Middle East – and the world – to disaster.
Our governments must be made to use their power and influence to bring about a ceasefire in Syria, and pressure Assad and his opponents to lay the framework for some kind of political settlement to be decided by Syrians, without interference from any foreign power.
And we need to do this now, because otherwise the ‘Peace Envoy’ and the states whose views he echoes, will get their opportunity to turn the Syrian war into the big war they have been dreaming of, and unleash forces that nobody will be able to stop.
Syria: Ten Reasons Why We Oppose Intervention
1 |
Intervention in Syria will have huge regional and global consequences. The conflict is already spreading to Lebanon and Turkey, and could spark a regional war involving Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq and Iran. As former UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan put it, «Syria is not Libya, it will not implode, it will explode beyond its borders.» |
2 |
Over the last ten years the War on Terror has drastically destabilised the Middle East. The intervention of the United States and its allies brought nothing but blood and destruction to Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no reason think the outcome will be any different in Syria. |
3 |
Foreign intervention will deny the Syrian people the right to determine their own future. It will place the opposition leadership in the hands of the western powers and their allies, who will act in their own interests. |
4 |
Assad’s appalling record on human rights has not worried the western powers in the past. The US sent detainees for interrogation and torture to Syria as part of the «global war on terror.» Syrian warplanes also joined the US in attacking Iraq in 1991. |
5 |
The West’s main allies in the intervention, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have no interest in democracy in the Middle East. They are among the most authoritarian regimes in the region and they have done their best to crush the democracy movement. |
6 |
The US and its allies are already intervening with arms, money and covert action. Early this year President Obama authorised the CIA to support the opposition in trying to topple the Assad regime. This can only inflame what the Red Cross acknowledges is now a civil war. |
7 |
If the US and UK were really concerned about promoting democracy in the region, they would not be supplying weapons to the tyrannies in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. |
8 |
The US has repeatedly undermined diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the conflict. It has for example demanded that the Security Council vote under Chapter 7, which set the stage for military intervention, and refused negotiations that include Iran. |
9 |
The 2011 intervention in Libya begun with a no-fly zone. It dramatically increased the rate of killing; tens of thousands died following it. The same will happen in Syria. |
10 |
An attack on Iran remains the ultimate goal for the US. Intervention in Syria is a stepping stone toward that goal. |
Related articles
- CIA shipping arms to Jordan for Syria rebels (gantdaily.com)
- US set to bomb #Syria with Ridiculous Pretext.
From Boston To Iraq To Syria: Nobody Deserves To Get Blown Up, At Anytime
When Washington Or Their Saudi Puppets Say «Peace» They Speak of War (therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com)
Arming the Syrian opposition will create another Afghanistan (mondediplo.com)
Obama’s risky move in Jordan could open second front in Syrian war (worldtribune.com)
Vali Nasr: Big gains for Russia, Iran (omaha.com)
The Voice Of Pure Evil Speaks – Blair calls for west to intervene in Syria conflict. He has missed all the death and destruction and needs an urgent fix (davidicke.com)
Russia evacuates Tartus, also military, diplomatic personnel from Syria. High war alert in Israel (warsclerotic.wordpress.com) -
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