Hillary Offers Syria a Libyan-Iraqi-Style Paradise
By David Swanson
October 02, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - Americans may find Syria
a bit confusing. David Petraeus, sainted hero, has proposed arming
al Qaeda, organized devil. Vladimir Putin, reincarnated Hitler, is
bombing either ISIS or al Qaeda or their friendly democratic allies,
but he shouldn't be because he's against overthrowing the Syrian
government, also run by Hitler living under the name Assad. Hillary
Clinton, liberal socialist, wants to create a no-fly zone, but
wouldn't that make it hard to bomb all the scary Muslims? Wait, are
we against Assad or the scary Muslims or both? Aaaaaarrrrgghh! How
does this make any sense?
Let's start over, shall we?
Some basic facts?
We'll start with the most uncomfortable fact, but
one that helps begin to make sense of everything, OK?
The United States military wants to dominate the
earth, has "special" forces active in 135 countries, and has troops
stationed in some 180 countries. On a map of the world showing
nations with no U.S. troops in them, Syria and Iran stand out like
sore thumbs, as once-upon-a-time did Iraq and Libya. Syria not only
has no U.S. troops; it has Russian troops, and it's friendly toward
Iran, which has no U.S. troops. Overthrowing the Syrian government,
like Iraq's and Libya's and Iran's, has been on the Pentagon's
bucket list for the 21st century. As early as 2006, the U.S.
government had people on the ground in Syria working to overthrow
the government. With the 2011 Arab Spring, the U.S. thought it saw
an opportunity, and helped turn the protests violent.
The Syrian government is awful and murderous. It
used to torture people for the U.S. government. It, indeed, attacks
"its own citizens" (which is always who governments attack that
aren't escapading around the globe attacking other people's
citizens, which in fact most governments never do). If every
government that attacked its own citizens had to be overthrown, the
list would be unending, and could begin with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain,
Yemen, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, and various other governments
just in that region that the U.S. -- far from overthrowing -- props
up, funds, and arms with the weaponry used to commit the attacks.
Overthrowing foreign governments and launching wars are in fact
illegal acts, and rightly so, regardless of the nature of the
governments.
The criminal acts of overthrowing the horrible
governments of Iraq and Libya resulted in millions of people being
killed, injured, traumatized, and turned into refugees, and the
creation of not only worse governments but deadly chaos in those
nations and spilling out into the rest of the region. This cannot be
a model for what to do to Syria.
Russia should not be arming Syria or bombing
Syria. We're so well trained to think in terms of war, that when we
hear that one side of a war is in the wrong, we imagine that must be
an argument for backing the other side. "You don't want the United
States bombing Syria? Then you must want Russia bombing Syria! You
must want Assad using his deadly 'barrel bombs'!" In fact, nobody
should be arming or bombing anyone in Syria. The United States and
numerous allies that have been bombing Syria need to stop. Russia,
which has just started, needs to stop. The U.S. media says Russia is
bombing where there's no ISIS, although
it said ISIS was there a week ago and seems to have forgotten.
Russia shouldn't stop bombing because it's bombing the wrong people.
There are no right people to bomb. The majority of people who die
from bombs are civilians. The majority of people involved with any
of the many opposition groups in Syria are opportunists and
misguided desperate souls. Every single person in Syria is a person
deserving better than a crude "barrel bomb" from a helicopter they
hear coming or a far more deadly missile from a foreign jet or
drone.
A no fly zone is not a zone in which nobody can
fly. It's a zone in which the United States claims the exclusive
right to fly and to shoot out of the sky anyone else who tries it,
and to bomb out of existence any weaponry that could threaten U.S.
planes, along with any people who happen to be anywhere near any
suspected weaponry or near any locations accidentally hit in the
process. The history of human catastrophes facilitated by
humanitarian "no fly" zones includes Iraq and Libya. Hillary
Clinton, motivated by interest in Libya's oil, wanted a no fly zone
in Libya, urged that it be used to overthrow the government, laughed
gleefully about killing Gadaffi, and would prefer that you now not
look at Libya too closely. A no fly zone for Syria is a declaration
of war on Syria.
Hillary Clinton, just to be clear, is not an
office holder. She is a private citizen who ought to be shunned from
all public discourse. As Secretary of State, she waived restrictions
on shipping weapons to brutal governments if they made large
"donations" to her foundation. For that, she should be in prison.
Nothing worse will be found, no matter how many of her emails are
read in a mad pursuit of more minor but colorful offenses.
In 2013, the Obama Administration demanded the
right to send missiles into Syria. The plan, kept private, was a
massive bombing campaign that would have leveled Syria and set it on
a more rapid course toward utter chaos. Obama made claims about
chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government that have never
yet been documented, and alleged proof for which fell apart.
The U.S. public helped prevent that attack in 2013
and was, according to polls, even more strongly against arming and
training Syrians. So, the CIA and the Pentagon went right ahead with
arming and training Syrians. They have had a very hard time
recruiting, and have seen their trained and armed troops desert and
join other groups, including al Qaeda and ISIS. The U.S. dismissed
out of hand a Russian proposal for peace, including Assad stepping
down, in 2012, under the delusion that Assad would be quickly
overthrown by violence in a manner less advantageous to Russia. That
hasn't happened. U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia keep funding and
arming ISIS and allied groups. The U.S. keeps arming supposedly
"moderate" murderers who supposedly oppose both ISIS and Assad. The
various opposition groups keep fighting Assad and each other. And
Assad gets support from Russia, and has begun working with Russia,
Iran, and Iraq against its opposition / ISIS.
The United States still dreams of overthrowing
Assad on the cheap without a massive U.S. occupation, and without
bombing quite the whole country. The U.S. keeps fueling the fires
that sooner or later could escalate into the kind of war that could
overthrow Assad, generate lots more hatred of the United States,
empower ISIS, and kill millions.
Russia hopes to keep Assad or a Russia-friendly
government in power without a massive Russian occupation, and
without bombing quite the whole country. Russia keeps fueling the
fires that sooner or later could escalate into the kind of war that
could put an end to major opposition in the short term, generate
hatred of Russia, empower ISIS, and kill millions.
The global threat is, of course, that this could
escalate into a war between Russia and the United States.
What can be done? From the U.S. side that's not
hard to answer, though it may be hard to accept.
1. Apologize to the people of Iraq and Libya,
abandon the overthrow of Syria, apologize to the United Nations for
promoting war at the General Assembly.
2. Cease all weapons shipments to the Middle East
and pull all U.S. troops out of the Middle East.
3. Launch a massive campaign of
no-strings-attached aid as restitution to the region, costing of
course many times less than the ongoing militarism.
4. Work to negotiate an arms embargo and a
weapons-of-mass-destruction free Middle East, including Israel.
5. Work to cut off the funding to armed groups.
6. Ask the United Nations to convene peace talks
with all parties, including the Syrian opposition, including Iraq,
including Iran, including Russia, including Turkey, including the
Syrian government, but not including nations that are not even
located in the region, such as the United States.
David Swanson is an American activist, blogger
and author.
http://www.davidswanson.org