US Chickenhawks want War in Syria

Just as we start to wind down the war in Afghanistan many in Congress want to get this country into a new war, in Syria.  And those US citizens waiting to see any debates on this subject, or reasonable explanations, will be sorely disappointed. There hasn’t been any. News shows, such as Nightline, have been too busy covering “Dancing With The Stars” and other mindless crap to bring us any debate on foreign policy matters.

Despite the fact that the US is already heavy involvement in the Syrian Civil War, little has shown up on the major news networks about it. The only debates taking place are in Congress where the usual group of rightwing Chickenhawks are pushing for an outright invasion and toppling of President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

The Washington Post reported the Obama administration said Thursday that the Syrian government is likely to have used chemical weapons on a small scale against its own people, but it stopped short of threatening military action against Assad.

But the Chickenhawks of congress are already sounding the war cry. According to The Washington Post:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said it was “pretty obvious that a red line has been crossed.” House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) accused the administration of outsourcing national security to the United Nations….

Senior Democrats also voiced concerns. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said the Syrian government had “crossed a red line by using chemical weapons, which forces us to consider all options as to how we act to influence the balance of the conflict.”

And what options are they considering? Here is a list of euphemism they use and what they really mean:

*Establishing a no-fly zone—it sounds like creating a safe area for rebels and refugees. But as we saw in Libya, it really means an all-out attack on government forces using the US Air force.

*Get NATO backing or with a coalition of nations similar to the NATO-led overthrow of Libya’s Col. Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. This is really just a propaganda ploy to make it look like the whole world is coming together to the rescue—but in reality it is just a rouse to send US troops into a war zone, with a few token troops from other NATO countries.

*Some senators have also pressed for the U.S. to set up a narrow, so-called safe zone inside Syria, along its border with Turkey where citizens could go and be safe. To do so would also require neutralizing Syria’s air defenses. This is just another clever way of sending troops and using aircraft attacks on the Syrian Army. As with the no-fly zone, it is about attacking Assad’s troops and resources. There is nothing defensive about it.

*The U.S. has taken only minimal military steps so far, including the deployment of about 200 troops to Jordan to assist that country’s military. This is an admission that this country is already heavily involved militarily in this civil war. Little, if anything has been reported to the press about this, so many people may believe we are not yet at war in Syria. But the reality is we already deeply involved.

*Transition from power (for Assad)—As we already saw in Libya the transition amounts to letting the rebels drag Assad, his ruling circle, and many of his supporters into the street to be executed without any kind of trial. That is what happened in Libya and other places where the US has supported rebels against so called “anti-American governments.”

The war in Syria is just one more chapter of the US Empire flexing its muscle and recreating the Middle-east in its own image and likeness. But that image is really based entirely on lies.

The rebels are not fighting for democracy against a tyrant; they are a mix of imperialist stooges and Islamic extremist, such as al-Qaeda. They are a destabilizing force, which just this week, began expanding their war into Lebanon.

The US, with its military tribunals for “foreign combatants,” prisoners detained for years at Guantanamo without trial and according to Partisan;

“The country which has the highest incarceration rate on the globe, has killed millions of people in the imperialist adventures that
define its history and has shown an active disdain for the well-being of
the people of the world has managed to dominate the discourse and frame its
aggression as defensive.” 

This same country now talks of human rights abuses by the Assad Regime.

Many of us in the US are sick of the continued lies that spew from the Whitehouse and Congress—lies which are then repeated without question by the US mainstream news media outlets. We are sick of endless wars, designed to further the interest and agenda of the US Empire.

We are tired of hearing that our troops are “fighting for our freedom,” or “keeping us safe from terrorists while we sleep at night.” These troops are people who foolishly spill their blood for their corporate masters and most of these people know very little about the cultures or the people they are at war with. They hear a steady stream of propaganda and most of these people just believe it.

THE TRUTH: This is a needless bloody war that the US has no business being involved in. Some of us can see through the lies.

-សតិវ អតុ