The
Western governments' and mainstream media’s narrative of a one-sided
humanitarian crisis in Syria is rapidly unwinding to reveal a
self-serving deception to justify a re-run of Libya-style NATO conquest.
In reality, it is the Western powers and their Israeli and Arab
henchmen who are fuelling a humanitarian crisis and creating the
conditions for all-out war. All of which, it should be said, constitutes
criminality comparable to Nazi Germany’s wars of aggression.
The
latest crack in the Western façade over Syria comes in the form of
leaked correspondence from Western private intelligence firm Stratfor,
which reports that US-led NATO special forces have been operating inside
Syria alongside armed opposition groups. Stratfor is closely aligned
with Pentagon planners; indeed can be viewed as a private wing of the
Pentagon. The document, disclosed by Wikileaks, cites US military
sources discussing a campaign of destabilisation against the Syrian
government of Bashir Al Assad, involving training opposition groups and
deploying guerilla tactics, including assassinations. In other words,
discussing a scenario that approximates to what is actually happening in
Syria.
Given
Straftor’s credentials as a reliable think-tank for the US
military-industrial complex, the disclosure can be seen as a damning
indictment of NATO criminality and Western mainstream media complicity.
Since
political turmoil erupted in Syria a year ago, the monotonous “big lie”
narrative from Western governments and the corporate-controlled news
media has been one of “brutal state repression against a civilian
population” committed by the Assad government.
This
portrayal has, predictably, led to strident condemnation of the Syrian
government by Western leaders and calls for “humanitarian intervention”
by NATO powers and Western-backed Gulf Arab states – in a tested formula
prescribed for Libya.
The
Gulf Arab states led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been most prominent
in doing the bidding of the Western powers in labelling the Syrian
government as an international pariah – just as these Western client
monarchies had done with regard to demonizing Libya. The
ridiculous irony of unelected Gulf Arab despots, who have been brutally
suppressing their own populations, denouncing anyone seems wholly lost
on the mainstream media.
Ominously,
the 22-member Arab League suspended Syria’s membership in a repeat of a
similar sanction against Libya before the latter was subjected to a
seven-month aerial blitzkrieg by NATO powers and eventual regime change,
culminating in the roadside execution of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
No
doubt the Syrian government has a case to answer, not only over recent
human rights violations but also for decades of resistance to political
reforms.
However,
this is a far secondary issue to the immediate concern of criminal
aggression by foreign powers. Over the past year, the Assad government
has consistently maintained that a large measure of the violence
assailing the civilian population is emanating from external forces. That
is, the situation in Syria is more akin to a sponsored armed
insurrection against the state. In that context, the Syrian government
has a sovereign right to suppress such violent sedition, which
furthermore appears to have little popular support and which is
threatening the stability and security of the entire country.
This
sovereign right is all the more founded given burgeoning evidence that
the subversion is being fomented and furnished by foreign governments
and their special forces. Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia have emerged
as key backers of the self-styled armed opposition, the so-called Syrian
Free Army. Most of the weaponry supplied to the oppositionists is
reportedly emanating from Israel.
French
and British special forces, such as Britain’s SAS and SBS, are believed
to have been on the ground in Syria for several months directing the
armed opposition. Michel Chossudovsky has reported British military sources admitting to such involvement. This systematic infringement by foreign powers can only be explained on the basis of a premeditated strategic plan.
Yet
all the while, the Western governments and mainstream media studiously
promote a deceptive fiction that the Syrian state is acting
unilaterally, barbarically and criminally against its own people. The
increasingly threadbare narrative maintains that Western governments and
military are not involved in the Syrian conflict. Indeed, the Western
mainstream media continue to report that Western governments are
“opposed to arming Syrian rebels” and that they are anguishing over
whether to intervene or not. This media also peddle the absurd claim
that Arab states are “considering” supplying weapons to the supposed
Syrian rebels when the latter are already armed to teeth by Arab Sunni
monarchs who are salivating at the chance to take down a Shia/Alawite
“enemy”.
Despite
the mainstream media’s self-serving smokescreen, the fact is that the
Western governments have been calculating for years on the subversion of
Syria from within. For the past 12 months, their plans for regime
change in Damascus have gone into overdrive with clandestine, criminal
military action on the ground and using Arab and Israeli proxies as
conduits for weapons. The latest leak from the Pentagon’s favourite
private-sector think-tank, Stratfor, is just one more proof of an
already established fact on the ground. But don’t expect the Western
mainstream propaganda machine, or even some of the so-called progressive
media, to alter the mood music of “humanitarian crisis” in its efforts
to groom the Western public to accept yet another criminal war, even
when it becomes patently clear that the narrative is nonsense.
There
is too much at stake for truth to be allowed to interfere. Syria is a
preordained piece on the chessboard that the Western powers want to take
out in their grand scheme for bolstering dominance over the oil-rich
Middle East – with Iran as the next piece. The Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya,
Syria… Iran sequence stretches Western government and media credibility
to well beyond breaking point. Believe the “responsibility to protect”
or “weapons of mass destruction” fairytale if you want. Meanwhile, in
the real world Prince Charming is shafting international law and human
lives by the millions.
Finian Cunningham is Global Research’s Middle East and East Africa Correspondent
Source: Global Research