Syria

30.12.2019 Author: Tony Cartalucci

Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem recently described the US as using the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” (ISIS) as “a scarecrow” the US uses to menace targeted nations all while secretly encouraging, protecting, and helping them “move from one area to another.”

Maullum’s comments perfectly encapsulate the twenty-plus year so-called “War on Terror” the US has used to expand itself across the globe militarily and to serve as a stand-in for legitimate economic and political development both within the United States and between the United States and the international community.

Maullum’s comments come at a time when – despite Washington’s collapsing machinations in Syria – the US is still working to undermine, divide, and destroy the Syrian nation by aiding its enemies while using all political, economic, and military options available to pressure Syria itself.

Muallem was also quoted as saying:

All nations that were victimized by this system need to join forces and resist those sanctions.

In many ways, this is already happening. Russia’s intervention in Syria from 2015 onward is part of growing international momentum working against US special interests, their collective hegemony, and the toxic impact it has had not only on international relations and development, but also on the US itself.

From Convincing Pretext to Obvious State-Sponsored Terrorism

Following the events of September 11, 2001 the United States embarked on a multi-decade “War on Terror.” Its invasion of Afghanistan was seen and supported by many nations and their respective populations as a necessary and justified means of combating the scourge that allegedly carried out the deadly attacks on 9/11.

By 2003 – after a time of reflection and in the face of an America eager to spread its “War on Terror” across the globe – it became clear that this “War on Terror” was merely a stand-in to continue America’s hegemonic designs pursued during the now concluded Cold War. This included a pretext for NATO’s continued existence and the alliance’s use by Washington as a means of exerting control over Europe as well as using Europe, its people, and resources to exert influence and control across Africa and Eurasia.

By 2011 and the US interventions in Libya and Syria – it was abundantly clear that not only was the “War on Terror” a false pretext, but it was one artificially created and deliberately perpetuated by Washington itself.

This included revelations that the US had been arming and directing the very Al Qaeda terror network and its affiliates allegedly responsible for the 9/11 attacks – using them as a virtual mercenary force to target nations the US sought regime change within.

The so-called “rebels” in Libya were little more than Al Qaeda affiliates – poorly dressed as freedom fighters seeking “democracy.” These same literal terrorists the US armed and aided in overthrowing the Libyan government in 2011 would be shipped to Syria where the US sought to replicate its “success” in Libya against Damascus.

The war in Syria however failed to produce Washington’s desired results – and as the conflict dragged on – through the growth and influence of alternative media – the true nature of America’s “War on Terror” emerged.

It is now common knowledge that the United States and its Saudi, Turkish, and Qatari allies deliberately armed Al Qaeda militants and their affiliates in a bid to destabilize and overthrow the Syrian government. It is now also common knowledge that when this bid failed – the US and its allies created ISIS to serve as both an additional pressure point against Damascus as well as a pretext for direct US military intervention.

Today, the US “War on Terror” exists as a mostly empty narrative long-since exposed. Washington’s continued efforts against Syria have resulted in even its own allies during the early stages of the war abandoning them – including Turkey – a key NATO member – which now is working closer with Russia and increasingly pursuing a foreign policy independently of Washington.

What Lies in the Future

For Washington – a lack of of a better alternative and its insistence on doubling down on a now exposed and impotent narrative reveals to the world a circle of special interests that are desperately and dangerously spiraling out of control.

Nations eager to do business with the United States as a nation are increasingly frustrated by the handful of special interests occupying Wall Street and Washington – preferring to create an alternative global order that either excludes the US or at the very least – leaves it behind as the rest of the world moves on without it.

For nations like Syria – their decision to stand by their allies – including Russia and Iran – has paid off. And because it has – other nations facing similar threats from Washington’s belligerent foreign policy are faced with the easy choice of likewise building ties with reemerging powers like Russia or rising powers like China rather than continuing to capitulate to US pressure.

Growing global momentum means that not only will current US foreign policy continue to fail to produce positive results for the interests directing it – it will fail at an increasingly expotential rate.

For nations like Russia and China who serve as alternative focal points of global power – their success owed to a different forumla of creating and brokering a global balance of power should serve as encouragement to continue in a multipolar direction rather than cave in to the temptation of seizing a hegemonic position as the US did both after the conclusion of World War 2 and again at the end of the Cold War.

The world finds itself at yet another critical juncture where the very face of global relations and international order stand to be redefined. This time it is not Washington who gets to decide – but rather those who have long suffered under US hegemony.

Only time will tell if this alternative global order will learn from America’s mistakes – or merely repeat them.

The collapse of America’s “War on Terror” is a microcosm within the greater collapse of American global hegemony in general. It is a collapse that will cost the US as a nation dearly. It should serve as a stark warning and example driving emerging global powers to learn from America’s mistakes rather than repeat them.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine“New Eastern Outlook”.

Published: Thursday, October 31, 2019

In typical carnival barker fashion, Donald Trump was all over the media bragging on himself for the supposed killing of so-called ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. But as with virtually everything else pertaining to America’s phony “war on terror,” this is just continued propaganda. This is Donald Trump’s attempt to upstage Barack Obama’s “killing” of Osama bin Laden.

Tony Cartalucci writes:

As with most every claim the Western media or the US military makes without any sort of evidence, this most recent story cannot or shouldn’t be trusted, especially when there’s little to nothing that can be verified about it.

Timing is Everything

The supposed military operation – unfolding just miles from the Syrian-Turkish border – comes at a time when the prospects of America’s proxy war in Syria have reached all-time lows.

First – US proxy forces jointly armed and aided by Turkey as well as other US allies – have been all but eliminated from the battlefield with their remnants residing in Idlib, increasingly encircled by Syrian forces.

Attempts by the US to intervene in Syria directly to oversee the overthrow of the government in Damascus was also thwarted by Russia’s military intervention beginning in 2015.

US forces have most recently retreated from the Syrian-Turkish border in Syria’s northeast, setting the stage for a joint Russian-Turkish agreement that appears poised to see the disarmament of Kurdish militants or their possible integration into Syria’s security forces. The deal also aims at fully restoring Syria’s territorial integrity – fully derailing Washington’s secondary plans to “Balkanize” Syria.

The Russian-Turkish deal comes at a time when US-Turkish relations are particularly shaky, with Ankara realigning itself within a Middle East emerging out from under decades of US hegemony.

Despite alleged ISIS leader al Baghdadi lurking about Syria and Iraq throughout the duration of Syria’s war – why has the US with all its vast resources only now been able to “find” and “eliminate” him? The timing and location couldn’t have been better for the US if the entire incident was staged.

And regardless of whether the US staged the operation or not – the truth about who truly created and directed ISIS throughout the duration of the Syrian war – resigns al Baghdadi’s death ultimately as theater.

The US Created ISIS to Begin With…

The US has admittedly spent billions of dollars arming militants throughout the duration of the Syrian war.

Articles like Foreign Policy’s “The Pentagon Is Spending $2 Billion Running Soviet-Era Guns to Syrian Rebels” or the New York Times’ “C.I.A. Arms for Syrian Rebels Supplied Black Market, Officials Say” in headlines alone indicate the extensive nature of US efforts to arm militants fighting against the Syrian government from 2011 onward.

If the US and its allies were providing billions in weapons, equipment, and other forms of support to militants claimed to be “moderates,” who was providing even more weapons, equipment, and other forms of support allowing extremist organizations like ISIS to rise to prominence and even supposedly displace or lure over US-backed militants?

The answer is simple – the US – as it has in all of its other wars of aggression – simply lied. There were never any “moderate” militants. The US deliberately misled the public about the nature of its proxy war in Syria. From the beginning – in fact long before the beginning of the Syrian war – the US was knowingly funneling aid into the hands of extremists with ties to groups like Al Qaeda and its various affiliates.

Far from mere speculation, it was the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) itself in a 2012 leaked memo that admitted, “the West, Gulf monarchies, and Turkey” were behind the rise of what at the time was being called a “Salafist principality.”

Thus – at best – a US military operation eliminating the figurehead of ISIS is more akin to liquidating one’s own assets rather than any sort of “victory.” Much more likely still – is that the operation is mere theater – with the US seeking relevance and leverage amid the conflict it itself engineered, triggered, and deliberately perpetuated – but now finds itself being evicted from.

While the world waits for evidence – if any evidence even emerges – analysts and interested parties alike would benefit more from looking at how the US plans to leverage and move onward from this supposed “raid” rather than obsessing over the supposed details of it.

One may hope the US uses it as a spectacular finale before fully withdrawing from Syria – including from its oilfields – and allowing the nation and its people to finally and fully restore order while undertaking the long process of reconstruction.

The proximity to Turkey’s border and recent rhetoric coming out of Washington suggests it may be leveraged to prolong the conflict further. [Emphasis added]

RT.com rightly reports:

This was an episode that called for restraint, as it is not the first time the death of Al Baghdadi has been announced, only to be later proven wrong. The Guardian had him paralyzed with a severe spinal injury after an airstrike in April 2015, Syrian state TV reported him dead in June 2017, Iranian TV said he was “definitely dead” and the Russians claimed as much again, all in the same month.

In July 2017 he was pronounced dead once more, then alive and then, to clear the matter up, a year later, he emerged from obscurity with a new propaganda video.

And, as in the case with the “killing” of bin Laden, Baghdadi’s body was BURIED AT SEA, thus eliminating the potential of an independent examination of the body. In addition, several published Middle Eastern reports (ignored by the western media, of course) have said that Baghdadi was actually a high-level Israeli Mossad operative who—like bin Laden—died several years before his supposed assassination. If true, indications are that Baghdadi likely passed away peacefully in an Israeli hospital with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sitting affectionately by his side.

What can be said with absolute certainty is that U.S. troops did NOT kill Osama bin Laden. They may have killed one of his numerous “look-alikes,” but bin Laden had succumbed to kidney failure years before the faked assassination.

Back before Alex Jones became a toady for Donald Trump and Israel, Infowars.com published a cogent analysis of the bin Laden propaganda show:

Merely a week after President Obama announced the death of Osama Bin Laden, there is literally a deluge of evidence that clearly indicates the whole episode has been manufactured for political gain and to return Americans to a state of post-9/11 intellectual castration so that they can be easily manipulated in the run up to the 2012 election. The Bin Laden fable is a contrived hoax.

Before last Sunday’s raid, every intelligence analyst, geopolitical commentator or head of state worth their salt was on record as stating that Osama Bin Laden was already dead, and that he probably died many years ago, from veteran CIA officer Robert Baer, to former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, to former FBI head of counterterrorism Dale Watson. In addition, back in 2002, Alex Jones was told directly by two separate high level sources that Bin Laden was already dead and that his death would be announced at the most politically opportune moment. Top US government insider Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik, a man who held numerous different influential positions under five different Presidents, serving as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under Nixon, Ford and Carter, told the Alex Jones Show last week that Bin Laden died of marfan syndrome shortly after he was visited by CIA physicians at the American Hospital in Dubai in July 2001.

Whether U.S. forces truly killed Baghdadi is anybody’s guess. But there is no guessing about the fact that Infowars’ assessment that Obama used the theatrics of a bin Laden assassination as a means to advance his re-election efforts of 2012 could be said word-for-word about Donald Trump and Baghdadi. Here is the quote again:

Merely a week after President Obama [President Trump] announced the death of Osama Bin Laden [Baghdadi], there is literally a deluge of evidence that clearly indicates the whole episode has been manufactured for political gain and to return Americans to a state of post-9/11 intellectual castration so that they can be easily manipulated in the run up to the 2012 [2020] election.

Again, “the whole episode has been manufactured for political gain and to return Americans to a state of post-9/11 intellectual castration so that they can be easily manipulated in the run up to the [2020] election.” YES, INDEED!

And Trump’s showmanship over the Baghdadi “killing” demonstrates, once again, the deep-seated character of Donald Trump to manipulate and fabricate virtually everything for his own personal self-aggrandizement. From a scriptural/Christian perspective, Donald Trump is the total and complete OPPOSITE of everything the Holy Spirit of God would place into the heart and soul of a man. Trump is the personification of lust, greed, arrogance, conceit, haughtiness, pride and self-exaltation. Yet Christians continue to hold this reprobate in high esteem. I’ve never seen anything like it. And I will never understand it.

The other thing this episode shows is the way America’s political leaders (from BOTH political parties) continue to use the phony “war on terror” not only for political gain but also for the purpose of propaganda against the American people.

Without a doubt, the “killing” of Baghdadi is being used to resurrect ISIS terrorists in the region and will “require” the U.S. military to beef up its “war on terror.” Donald Trump is NOT reducing the U.S. military effort in the Middle East; he is escalating it exponentially—not to mention unconstitutionally.

The Guardian reports:

The US military has started reinforcing its positions around oil fields in eastern Syria, saying the new deployments are part of its continuing counter-terrorist mission after the killing of the Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said on Monday that US forces would remain in Tanf along the Iraqi border, and more were being sent to the oil fields operated by the US energy corporation ConocoPhillips around Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria.

Video footage from the region showed US military convoys re-entering Syria, days after Donald Trump had ordered them out in advance of a Turkish invasion. The change of mind reportedly came after Pentagon officials persuaded the president that it was essential to protect east Syrian oil resources.

“Keep the oil, I’ve always said that. We’ve secured the oil,” Trump told a police chiefs’ conference on Monday. The president has said that his aim would be to secure a US share of Syrian oil revenues, which is potentially a war crime.

What authority does Donald Trump have to seize the oil fields of an independent sovereign nation? What would America do if Russia or China tried to seize the U.S. oil fields near Houston and Galveston, Texas? What authority does Trump have to green light an invasion of Syria by Turkey? Talk about impeachable offenses: There they are.

And as was pointed out at the beginning of this column, ISIS and al-Qaeda are the direct creations of America’s CIA, Israel’s Mossad and Saudi Arabia. Osama bin Laden, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Iran—or any other Muslim entity—had absolutely NOTHING to do with the 9/11 attacks.

The research that has been done into the 9/11 attacks by professional independent investigators has undisputedly proven that everything the government and mainstream media have told us about those attacks is a complete falsehood. Christopher Bollyn is one of those researchers.

Bollyn’s book The War On Terror: The Plot To Rule The Middle East should be the first book you read to start learning the truth about 9/11.

Whether Baghdadi is dead or not is irrelevant. This entire episode is about Donald Trump following the pattern laid down by his predecessors G.W. Bush and Barack Obama to use the “war on terror” as a launching pad for his re-election campaign.

Oh! As an aside, here is something else Christian conservatives will choose to ignore:

The amount of money the federal government collected in individual income taxes and the total amount of money the federal government spent both set records in fiscal 2019, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released Friday afternoon. (Source)

Yes, Donald Trump has now replaced Barack Obama as “The King of Debt.” I really don’t know why I bother to mention it. No one cares about it.

Without a doubt, duplicitous, conniving, power-mad presidents will continue to use 9/11 and the “war on terror” to manipulate the American people into voting for them under the guise of “national security.” The truth is, the entire storyline of 9/11 and the “war on terror” is a BIG, FAT LIE.

The “war on terror” is nothing more than a giant hoax that allows the U.S. military to kill people on behalf of Israel; it perpetuates the myth that we need “homeland security” in the form of a burgeoning police state; and it creates a contrived platform from which unscrupulous politicians can manipulate voters into keeping them in power under the phony rubric that they are “protecting” America.

Will the American people EVER wake up to this charade? It doesn’t look like it.

P.S. I strongly urge readers to order Christopher Bollyn’s tremendously important book The War On Terror: The Plot To Rule The Middle East.

Download free computerized mp3 audio file of this column

The Syrian War: America’s “War on Terror” Exposed

Continued Propaganda Regarding The “War On Terror”