A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria

[David Guyatt]

From OffGuardian

Published on August 8, 2016
Comments 6

The Renewed Call for War in Syria is coming. Be ready.

by Kit

Since Russia and Iran agreed to lend military assistance to the embattled government od President Bashar al-Assad, Syria has taken very much a backseat in the Western political sphere. The Russian presence there seemed to silence all but the most insane warmongers in Washington and Whitehall. We got updates, courtesy of NGOs like the highly suspicious Syrian Civil Defense, telling us how "brutal" the Russian bombing campaigns were, and how "savage" the siege-tactics have been. Occaisionally a lunatic like Natalie Nougayrède will write about how "we" are "letting down the people of Syria". But it's a long time since anyone read any of NatNug's columns with anything but a sense of baffled pity for the poor old dear.
Brexit, the Labour coup and the Presidential election in the US have pushed Syria further to the back pages recently. The vague, simmering propaganda execises about Syria's "plight" are met with derision by the public, never has the general population's opinion been so far from what they are supposed to think. It is a sign of the power of the internet, and the failing of the old media mechanisms.
All this is primed for a change, however. There will be a renewed push for war in Syria before the end of the year. With Iran and Russia already deeply involved, any Western military intervention could easily trigger a truly global conflict. In the nuclear age such a war would be brief and catastrophic. These risks cannot be overstated.
The ordained presidential successor to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, has been shown to be a dangerously psychopathic warmonger many times in her political career blazing a path of destruction from Latin America to the Middle East via Eastern Europe. Once elected she will make Barack Obama look like the drum-circle peacenik he has always pretended to be. Her projected Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, is a glassy-eyed neocon lunatic who already, in Ukraine, pushed us right to the precipice of calamity and started spitting over the edge.
It was reported, late last month, that a Clinton regime:

…will reset Syria policy against murderous' Assad regime

This comes from a statement made by one of Hillary's aides, the delightfully named Jeremy Bash, speaking the Telegraph Bash also said:

…a Clinton administration would seek to bring moral clarity to the US strategy on the Syrian crises."

For those of you behind on your Newspeak lessons, "moral clarity" means bombing more people. It means arming terrorists and mercenaries (even more than they already are), and it means implementing the famous "no fly zone". People tend to think of a no-fly zone as a passive, defensive measure. It is neither. A no fly zone means NATO jets patrolling the skies above Syria, shooting down Russian and Syrian bombers. A no fly zone is World War III waiting to happen. A no fly zone is a global suicide pact. Nevertheless, it will almost certainly be part of the "moral clarity" Clinton intends to bring to bear on Syria.
There are also signs of a renewed propaganda campaign re: Syria. On August 6th Le Point [link in original French] headlined:

Why Putin is going to destroy Aleppo

Coupled with the Telegraph article, and the 1, 2, 3, 4 editorials in the Guardian in the last week (2 by the increasingly bewildered and incoherent NatNug), and the failed hype of a "new chemical attack", you can sense an increased energy surrounding the Syria question.
The "new chemical attack" is the reported use of barrel-bombs laced with chlorine gas in Idlib province. Reported, it should be pointed out, only by the previously mentioned Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the "White Helmets". Whose about page declares[our emphasis]:

Syria Civil Defence receives funding (through Mayday Rescue and Chemonics) from the governments of the UK, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Japan, and the USA. This funding goes towards the training, equipment and support we need to achieve our mission.

Now, the more cynically minded readers might be thinking this calls into question how "neutral, impartial and humanitarian" they are, don't worry because:

Our donors…do not control the mission of the organisation, our advocacy messages or our internal leadership structure."

So that's alright then.
It's interesting that, alongside the sudden ratcheting up of tension from the media and Western-backed NGOs, there is also the sudden identity crisis for Jabhat al-Nusra. They have decided to cut all ties with al-Qaeda, and change their name. The "moderates" are getting more moderate every day, now they are even disavowing their jihadist roots and calling themselves a new friendly name: Jaish al-Fatah, or "The Army of Conquest"…which doesn't sound especially "moderate" to me, but then again neither does decapitating prisoners or eating human organs.
John Kerry said, on May 5th this year, that August 1st would be the deadline (a new "red line", if you will) for Assad to step down…or else.
He said:

…either something happens in these next few months, or they are asking for a very different track."

Assad is, obviously, still in power. The board was set, and now the pieces are moving.
To sum up:

• In the week leading up to the 1st of August the Western media began a new barrage of propaganda concerning Syria, and especially Aleppo.
  
• On July 28th al-Nusra Front, the much derided "moderate rebels", changed their name and disavowed all links to al-Qaeda (or pretended to, at least).
  
• On August 1st the "rebels" launched a counter-attack, trying to cut the supply lines of the government forces surrounding Aleppo, and a Russian helicopter was shot down, killing 5 Russian soldiers.
  

Nobody is asking where the "besieged" rebels got the arms and supplies needed to counter-attack. No one is asking where the rebels, who previously had no anti-air weapons, got the MANPADs required to take down a helicopter. No one is asking, because everyone knows.
It's the same place ISIS get their matching Toyotas and green-screen equipment. It's the same place that started this war five years ago, and the same place that will set the whole world ablaze if allowed to go unchecked.