Headlining “Syria’s Paradox: Why the War Only Ever Seems to Get Worse,” The Times reinvented one of history’s greatest crimes – besides numerous others on America’s despicable rap sheet. More on its article below.

The ISIS plague is a cynical Washington/Ryadh creation, also supported by lesser vassal states in the Gulf and NATO accomplices. The object has always been and remains to convert Syria into another vassal state of US imperialism.

Tim Anderson’s important book, titled “The Dirty War on Syria: Washington, Regime Change and Resistance” is the definitive account of the conflict – must reading to understand it. 

Separately, he explained Obama’s dirty war in basic terms as follows:

“Washington and its allies try another ‘regime change’ in Syria. A fake ‘revolution’ uses Islamic gangs, during an ‘Arab Spring.’ The Western media constantly lie about this covert, dirty war.”

“A political reform movement is driven off the streets by Islamic violence. (The misnamed pro-Western) ‘Free Syrian Army’ slaughters minorities and government workers.”

“Saudi and Qatari backed Islamists carry out a series of massacres, falsely blaming them on the Syrian Army and President Assad.”

“Most of Syria’s opposition backs the state and army against terrorism. Washington calls a puppet exile group ‘the Syrian opposition.’ “

“Washington (using Saudis, Qatar, Turkey and Israel) backs all the armed Islamist groups, pretending some are ‘moderate rebels.’ “

“A resistance coalition rallies to Syria. Iran, Hezbollah, Iraq and Russia join the Syrian Army in destroying western backed terrorist groups.”

Anderson’s book explains all of the above and more in detail, why it’s essential reading to understand what’s going on – polar opposite media propaganda, notably from The New York Times, Washington’s leading imperial press agent.

I’ve written scores of articles on the conflict since Obama launched it in March 2011, believing things would go like against Libya – its country raped, its leadership deposed in months. US naked aggression against sovereign Syrian independence rages in its sixth year with no prospect for resolving things in sight.

Diplomats talk endlessly, accomplishing nothing to end war while scores, maybe hundreds more Syrians die daily, numerous others injured, millions displaced, an entire population traumatized – victims of US state terror.

A separate article today explained failure in Geneva – Sergey Lavrov and John Kerry spending hours on Friday achieving nothing toward resolving years of US naked aggression.

It’ll either be won on the battlefield or not at all. Negotiating with rogue state America wastes time, an exercise in futility every time tried.

New York Times coverage of the Syrian conflict includes some of worst rubbish in memory – shameless disinformation and Big Lies, vital truths suppressed.

Instead of explaining why war continues endlessly, its intensity increasing, The Times substituted a reinvented version of what’s ongoing, suppressing hard truths.

Saying “(i)t frustrates any attempt at resolution” fails to discuss how war began, who’s responsible, and how ending it depends on America and its rogue allies ceasing support for terrorists.

Without foreign supplied arms, munitions, funding, training, direction and other material support, terrorist groups in Syria and elsewhere wouldn’t exist.

America created them for use as imperial foot soldiers – its proxy army doing its killing and dying for it, a seemingly endless supply of Islamist extremists willing to wage war for whatever benefits they hope to achieve – for many an early grave.

The Times: “The fact that the underlying battle is multiparty rather than two-sided…works against resolution.”

Fact: War in Syria pits US imperialism against the nation’s sovereign independence. No moderate rebels exist. All anti-government forces are US created and supported terrorists.

Fact: Washington wants Assad ousted, Syria transformed into another US vassal state, isolating Iran, next in line for regime change.

Times reports explain none of the above, instead maintaining the fiction of various anti-government elements vying for control. They’re pawns on America’s chessboard, used to achieve imperial aims.

The Times: “Pro-government forces have conducted by far the most attacks against civilians” – falsely accusing Syria’s military, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, a disgraceful perversion of truth.

US-supported terrorists along with US-led so-called “coalition” terror-bombing bear full responsibility for massacring hundreds of thousands of Syrians, mostly defenseless civilians. Syria’s only hope for restoring peace and stability is continued commitment from Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and maybe China to defeat the scourge of US imperialism. 

Otherwise endless war is likely, perhaps millions of Syrians perishing before it ends – besides other conflict theaters and new ones ahead killing millions more.

Western hypocrisy continues to reach new heights of shamelessness.

AP News broke the story. Off-guardian.org reported “of the three journalists credited, one was in Beirut, one in Geneva, and one in Moscow” – none in Aleppo or anywhere in Syria.

The obvious question is how is a breaking story possible without being anywhere near where it happened? What sources were used? What due diligence checking was done – red flags without answers! 

AP likely published the script and photo it was handed, functioning as an imperial press agent, mocking legitimate journalism.

THE EMPIRE’S PROPAGANDA MACHINERY HAS MOVED, AS USUAL, WITH SWIFT, SEAMLESS COORDINATION. From the mainstream commercial media—CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc to PBS, they have all carpet-bombed the American mind with confusing statements always designed to inject the “anti-Russian/anti-Assad” poison. Observe closely the examples below.

Will the haunting image of an injured Syrian boy make a difference? PBS NewsHour
Omran: The boy who has known nothing but war / CNN 

In his photo gone viral, Omran Daqneesh looks remarkably calm, more soot-covered than bloodied, not at all like someone traumatized in shock and pain – alone enough to raise suspicions.

Years of Iraqi sanctions, imposed solely for political reasons, killed 5,000 children aged five or under monthly. Untold numbers of others suffered horrifically. Media scoundrels ignored them. No photos of their ordeal went viral.

US imperial wars from the rape of Yugoslavia through multiple Bush/Obama wars alone were responsible for millions of young children killed, injured or perishing from preventable diseases or starvation. 

What mainstream sources told their stories? Who showed their images? Who explained their suffering? Who laid blame where it belongs?

Images of Aleppo Boy Omran’s self-styled photojournalist, Mahmoud Raslan, are seen posted on Facebook together with Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki “rebels” (aka US-backed terrorists) – responsible for beheading 12-year-old Abdullah Tayseer Issa near Aleppo weeks earlier.

Why haven’t photos and stories of this atrocity gone viral? Why hasn’t Raslan been exposed as an ally of US-supported terrorists? Why doesn’t this automatically raise red flags about the veracity of the Aleppo Boy story?

Instead, London’s Telegraph gave Raslan feature op-ed space to promote himself as Omran’s photographer. The atrocity of US-led aggression on a nonbelligerent country went unmentioned – nor do any Western media report the real Syria story.

Instead Aleppo Boy propaganda stunts are used to enlist public support for greater mass slaughter, destruction and displacement than already.

Propaganda wars precede and accompany hot ones. They relate what aggressors want people to know, suppress their ugly crimes and intentions, while enlisting public support for what demands universal opposition.

Aleppo Boy Omran may turn out to be a lit fuse for more explosive war in Syria than currently. The conflict is already a potential flashpoint for East/West confrontation – the unthinkable horror of possible global war.

Introduction

Prelude to the Coup

Over the past 5 years Erdoğan has suffered a series of political, economic and diplomatic failures and defeats, seriously undermining his dictatorial and territorial ambitions. His air force shot down a Russian military jet operating within Syrian territory. The images of Turkish jihadi mercenaries murdering a Russian pilot as he parachuted to safety, as well as a member of the Russian rescue party, caused the Russian government to halt the multi-billion-dollar Russian tourism industry in Turkey and cancel lucrative business deals. He broke relations with Israel, which undercut a lucrative gas and oil offshore contract. His support for ISIS and other violent Salafist mercenary groups operating in Iraq and Syria provoked a rupture with Syria and Iran. His subsequent effort to disavow Turkey’s links with ISIS led to a series of horrific terror bombings by jihadi cells implanted in the country. Turkey’s diplomatic position in Egypt deteriorated as Erdoğan sought to maintain his ties with the Muslim Brotherhood after it had been ousted from power by a US sponsored Egyptian military coup.

Domestically, Erdoğan alienated the secular Kemalist military and civilian political-economic elite via trumped up trials and media purges. Erdoğan’s heavy-handed assault on liberal and leftist protestors over environmental issues increased Western concern. His brutal handling of the labor protests following the 2014 Soma coalmine disaster, when over 300 workers were killed, further isolated him.

Erdoğan’s war on the Kurdish independence movements in Turkey, Iraq and especially in Syria, where they were allied with the US against the jihadi terrorist ISIS, added to domestic unrest and international isolation.

In order to consolidate his executive power, Erdoğan had first allied with the extensive Gulenist-Islamist networks in Turkey in order to undermine the Kemalists and then he turned around to purge his former allies .

Faced with enemies and adversaries at home and overseas, Erdoğan decided on a dual strategy of improving his ties abroad, especially his links with Russia and Israel while launching a total war on domestic critics.

Fabricated Coup and the Permanent Purge

Erdoğan’s intelligence operatives within the military command encouraged or even provoked his critics in the General Staff, who were fed up with his bungling and disastrous policies, to mount a coup. They gave the rebellious military sufficient space and resources to provide a semblance of authority while retaining strategic control over the air force and key ground troops. They may have feigned sympathy to the launching of a premature uprising …doomed to defeat. Once the heavily infiltrated rebel units moved, the entire Erdoğan operation struck. Hapless conscripts thought they had been called out for military exercises, only to find themselves encircled, arrested and even lynched. The dissidents were isolated, their advances paralyzed, their leaders incapacitated. Erdoğan’s loyalist within the Turkish Air Force flew the triumphant president into the ‘liberated’ Istambul International airport to the cheers of his adoring civilian supporters.

Erdoğan immediately decreed a massive purge – in the name of the fatherland. A real coup had indeed taken place – Erdoğan’s total power grab. The entire political, military, judicial and police system was stripped of personnel within hours. There were over 20,000 arrests, beatings and disappearances. There were calls to re-introduce the death penalty.

Erdoğan’s power grab eliminated key US assets among the Gulenist and eliminated independent Supreme Court officials and secular republican officials. The president was free to rebuild an entire civil, governmental and military apparatus with his own loyalists. His control over the media and the educational institutions was total.

Rule Under Erdoğan

Erdoğan’s pre-emptive coup, purge and power grab will result in a monolithic state which Erdoğan will shape into his long-sought version of an Islamist regime. The new regime announced a ‘State of Emergency’, which places all Turks under strict compliance with Erdoğan’s policies.

Erdoğan’s “New Order” will launch large-scale operations against the Kurds, with no respect for the Syrian or Iraqi national borders. Erdoğan will ensure compliance with Islamist decrees designed to enforce conformity. He will succeed in imposing a dictatorial ‘Presidential’ regime. And parliament, if necessary will be bypassed; his ‘electoral’ mandate will be ensured.

In the immediate aftermath, mass detentions will strengthen the state – and Erdoğan’s generals, allied religious authorities and street thugs will call the shots.

Unleashing force and violence against his domestic enemies, however, may lead to internal disputes among the new predators over the spoils of victory. The economic elite may accept the New Order, but only if and when Erdoğan tones down his rhetorical attacks on the US and the EU.

Erdoğan has yet to develop a strategy on replacing the purged (’Gulenist’) professionals within the civilian economy and public bureaucracy – especially the schools and judiciary. The impetuous reversals of his reckless policy of confrontation with Russia, Syria, Israel, Iran, Iraq and the Kurds are likely to generate new layers of discontent, especially among his current military commanders.

Erdoğan’s New Order arises from the breakdown of civil society and long-term alliances. He may remain in power in Ankara but he will be viewed as more of a local political thug than a partner among the regional big powers.

Erdoğan’s external allies will exploit his isolation and radical bombast to forge lucrative alliances. Israel will push for favorable gas and oil deals; Russia will insist that Erdoğan abandons his ISIS allies. The US will demand he cease attacks on the Kurds. The EU will use the ongoing purge and re-institution of the death penalty to finally declare Turkey unfit to join the European Union. Bankers and foreign investors will wait for Erdoğan to stop his rampage over the financial sector and ‘get serious’ about the economy.

Erdoğan’s dream of lifetime rulership presiding over an Islamic Neo-Ottoman caliphate, buttressed by street mobs, praetorian guards and crony capitalists makes for an unstable and unruly Turkey. Erdoğan’s military loyalists have their own rivalries and ambitions. Now that Erdoğan has established his ‘military road to power’, he has set a clear precedent for other ‘Erdoğan’s’ to take the same route.

In the short-run Erdoğan needs to restart the economy, stabilize the political system and establish a semblance of international order.

Erdoğan cannot and probably will not prolong tensions with the US over the Gulen affair. Gulen will remain in Pennsylvania, in the CIA’s ‘regime change’ pocket. Meanwhile, he has eliminated most of the Gulenist agents capable of working with the US as a fifth-column. The question is whether he now moves back to his role as a ‘valued’ NATO junior partner, or if he will launch an intensified war against the US’s strategic Kurdish allies?

Erdoğan’s ties with Russia are precarious. There is no reason for the Russians to trust him. He has fallen somewhere between the need for reconciliation with Russia and the desire to continue his proxy war against the government of Syria.

In the end Erdoğan may have secured power and undertaken a vast domestic purge of his enemies, but he has lost the regional war while bearing the consequences of millions of war refugees and a deeply entrenched jihadi terrorist threat within Turkey.

[apss_share]