Conversations about Syria … open letter to the Greens

NSW Greens Party MLC, David Shoebridge, has been vocal about the tyrant in Syria killing his own people, oh yes and Russia, the same Greens who called for a No Fly Zone over Libya to allow NATO free reign to commit war crimes, and so they did.  That was initiated by Adam Brandt if I recall, I resigned from the Greens because of it.  Here’s an abridged version of their crimes, the highlights you might say … until today Libya remains destabilised and a terrorist haven.

13 May 2011:  The murder of 11 Muslim Imams in Brega.
30 April 2011:  The bombing of the Downs Syndrome School in Tripoli                                                          
30 April 2011:  The bombing of a Gadhafi residence, murdering Saif Gadhafi, his friend and 3 Gadhafi children.

12 June 2011:  The bombing of the University of Tripoli. Death toll yet to be established.

22 July 2011:  The bombing of the man made underground waterway, which supplies most Libyans with drinking water.

23 July 2011:  The bombing of the factory that makes the pipes for repairing the water system, and the murder of 6 of its employees.

8th August 2011:  The bombing of the Hospital at Zliten.  Resulting in the murder of 50 plus people, many of them children.  Bombing of hospitals is against all international laws, and a most heinous crime.

9 August 2011:  The bombing of the village of Majer, resulting in the murder of 85 civilians. Including 33 children.
After the relentless bombing of the civilian population in Zliten and Tripoli, the death toll is unknown and may well never be known.  It was obvious member States had been arming the Libyan rebels, in direct contravention of International Law.  Whether one supported Gadhafi or not, the left only seems to understand things in Manichean terms, is irrelevant.  We are not supposed to throw away international law, decades of conventions and norms because the West finds certain leaders unpalatable, or wants to steal their stuff.  Working with known terrorists is against international law … apparently.  Although one could be forgiven for believing otherwise these days, as it is conveniently ignored.  In today’s Syria al Qa’eda affiliates, al Nursa, are AOK, the ABC are happy to use them as their primary source, albeit dressed up as the White Helmets.  This despite being caught out using fake footage early in the Syrian crisis.  Our media no longer asks questions, they just accept the US State Department line/lies, never verified, they are happy to take their word for it.  Butcher Bashar and barrel bombs, they love alliteration, that’s the mantra du jour, oh yes, and death to Russia.  Yet the people of Syria cry; Allah, Suria, Bashar wu bas – God, Syria and Bashar is enough.  It’s all so Pythonesque, I despair.  It makes the ‘War on Terror’ seem rather nonsensical, to say the least.  The fall out from the West’s blood lust in Libya enabled supply lines for guns and terrorists into Syria.  Yet, while we see a replay, the white saviours of the West have their heads firmly in the sands of the Syrian desert.  I ask in all seriousness; what exactly, don’t the Greens understand about NATO NFZs?

It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty, regarding the rubbery figures quoted in the western media and the shock, horror; ‘Assad is killing his own people’ narrative.  After Iraq how can it be, that adult leftists are falling for the exact type of propaganda the MSM peddled back then?  The Greens didn’t buy it before, I remember listening to Bob Brown in Hyde Park lay bare exactly what the result of the invasion of Iraq would foment, and he was correct.  What happened?  Do you ask yourself why the voices of those who travel to Syria are silenced with such vitriol?  Surely they are worth listening to.  They may have seen things Sophie McNeil hasn’t from her vantage point in Lebanon.  There is automatic slander of ‘Assad apologists’, anyone who sticks their head above the parapet of propaganda is fair game.  Yet we do no more than bear witness and endeavour to explain how the people inside Syria view the situation.  The majority of the Syrian people are in government held areas, that’s where they flee for protection from terrorists, why are their voices irrelevant?  What we see is in vast contrast to what the likes of David Shoebridge, who has not set foot in Syria during this crisis, has to say.  We do not go and risk our lives for the fun of it, we do it out a great need to help Syrian voices be heard.  To seek justice for them through truth, because as a wise man once said; no justice, no peace.  Sadly we also have to justify ourselves, unlike those who never travel in Syria.  To counter the usual cry of ‘paid shill’, let me say, if the Syrian government were paying my way, I’d be in Syria every other month, not every year.  I invite David Shoebridge to join me on my next trip, then he would see how wrong he is.
I’ve seen so many figures bandied around, and by those who David Shoebridge calls reliable.  So, for argument’s sake in 2014 it was reported that 150,000 people had been murdered by their leader.  How can that be right, think about it?  Aren’t the terrorists killing people, both civilians and SAA?  Aren’t the SAA killing terrorists?  Where are they in these figures?
Figures from 2014 antiwar.com, notice ‘Rebel Forces in ‘Civilian’ toll.
The above gives an honest view of the make up of deaths in Syria.  Even though this is a few years old, it was made at a time the western corporate media bemoaned the carnage of the Syrian people by Assad’s own troops.  Nothing has changed, the Syrian Army is still paying a high toll for protecting their people against a Wahhabi invasion hell-bent on changing the diverse make up of Syrian society.  They are still blamed for the carnage while their martyrdom adds to the figures used against them.  They carry the burden of the death toll, that statistic alone is indicative of who is killing whom.  To add to Syria’s woes Australia is helping to kill Syrian soldiers, the very people actually fighting terrorism, not paying it lip service.  Yet the SAA are still being blamed for all civilian deaths.  It’s rare to be informed of ‘rebel’ atrocities.  We are never given any context, why did President al Assad decide to start slaughtering his own people?  Peaceful protests doesn’t jive and there is evidence contradicting that tale.  What powers of persuasion does Assad have to convince an entire defending army to kill their own people?  Most families in Syria have a member in the army, are we expected to believe en masse, the SAA was ready and willing to slaughter their own families for one man from a minority sect, when 80% are Sunni?  Where is the logic in that?  We need to ask; where is the logic in that, constantly.  The Greens need to do that, particularly as the wrong call was made on Libya, it’s incumbent on you to be far more circumspect.
It seems David Shoebridge has bought this narrative hook, line and sinker, he hasn’t bothered to try and find an alternative narrative, although we have a foremost expert on Syria living in Sydney, Prof. Tim Anderson.  To add insult to the injury of the Syrian people, he has and he is not alone, demuhumanised Vladimir Putin from a powerful, long time ally of Syria into a cartoon character villain.  Enough to justify, in his mind, Putin joining this unexplained, mindless slaughter.  It’s like Assad has some sort of mind control over anyone who enters Damascus.  This is so unbelievable, one would think someone with a bit of nouse could have teased out a couple of threads that made them go hmm.  He could have delved deeper and found that there are no sources on the ground in Aleppo to confirm the ‘deliberate’ bombings of non existent hospitals.  Even MSF admitted they had not given either Russia or Syria the co-ordinates of any hospital, yet didn’t hesitate to claim ‘deliberate attacks’.  Again, let me be quite clear, there is no one from MSF on the ground, they too rely on the good will of terrorists for their information.  David Shoebridge, particularly with Libyan 20/20 hindsight, seems a little wet.  He should probably leave geo-politics alone, stick to domestic issues which he does very well.
Mention was made at a rally at Sydney’s Town Hall of the ‘last messages’ sent by jihadists, who the MSM wrongly labels activists.  In the middle of a war zone a gaggle of spontaneous ‘last messages’ hit us with their production values, lighting, sound etc, whilst there was no power in Eastern Aleppo and seemingly magic wi-fi connections, no wonder Bana was a fan of Harry Potter with all that magic around her.  This miracle of crisp, clear instantaneous communication was unavailable to Assad apologists, the independent journos on the ground.  Surely with their ‘connections to the President’, one would think they could get wi-fi when the ‘activists’ had no problem.
These activists miraculously survived their imagined threats from the SAA, quelle surprise!  As did little twitter star Bana, with Allah on her side protecting her from the loss of wi-fi.  One ‘activist’, the charmer Bilal Abdul Kareem, hiding his jihadi tendencies in plain view, interviewed a moderate, suicide belted, head chopper.  He admitted there were many others also wearing these suicide belts.  But ssh, that doesn’t mean he’s not ‘moderate’, just ask John Kirby.  Even though they left clear evidence of a scorched earth policy in their wake; mass graves of tortured civilians including children, executed Syrian soldiers, burned buses, kidnapped and murdered drivers and we are still to believe these are moderates.  And we watch as the UN makes special effort to escort these criminals to Idlib, although they are not seen helping the civilians in liberated Aleppo.  That work is being done by the genocidal SAA and their equals in crime, Russia; giving medical care, feeding, clothing and sheltering IDPs in Aleppo.  The crimes invoked by the ‘last messengers’ were later enacted by them, not the SAA.  Meanwhile some of their mates took to Damascus where one moderately blew up his 7-year-old daughter at a Police Station.  Like any proud dad he filmed the family’s goodbyes and the mother kissed her daughters goodbye and sent them to be killed.  Days later moderates poisoned Damascus’s water supply, no need for the media to mention these things as they are counter to the imperial tale.  These are our media’s moderate rebels, the ones we see constantly on our ABC.  The terrorists that pervert our reality via our tax payer funded television, and the beat goes on … Butcher Bashar and barrel bombs.
All this hysteria when Russia is in Syria legally and the Syrian people are very happy to have them there.  What David Shoebridge fails to acknowledge, and this could be because he is not listening to voices from within Syria, but expats with agendas, is that Syrians don’t see their problem as their army or their President.  Their problem is the terrorists who invaded their peaceful land.  They do not distinguish between terrorist groups, or moderates or rebels or insurgents or FSA, they are all terrorists destroying their way of life and the F/UK/US, Gulf allies, Turkey, Israel and their sycophants are all unequivocally to blame.  Foreign influence cannot be denied, Dr. Bashar al Jaafari named foreign operatives at the UN.  Although I imagine he’s not on the lefts list of approved sources on Syria.
I have visited Syria three times since the beginning of the crisis.  Each visit strengthening my resolve to speak truth to power, I haven’t supported Julian all these years to remain quiet, that would be cowardly.  Still, I needed to be sure of what was really going on, each visit showed more clearly what is happening and what a disservice the media and our gormless politicians have burdened the Syrian people with.  I know David Shoebridge supports Julian Assange, as one has to supply the myopic left with media they approve of, why not read the Syria Files, the Clinton Emails and the Saudi Files to get some background?  It’s indicative how so much propaganda can hold sway when media from the legal players in Syria, is considered invalid.  Hard to see the truth when you’re blinkered.  Add to that anyone on the ground that bucks the western narrative is threatened and abused, personally rather than their words debated, no wonder lies can take hold.  Have the Greens learned nothing from Libya where Amnesty International lied, and lied some more, and David Shoebridge quotes them as credible?  This time Human Right’s Watch lied, and lied some more about Syria and David Shoebridge quotes them as credible.  Both NGOs, along with MSF, are not on the ground in Syria.  I can’t stress this enough.
How can David Shoebridge stand behind the 3 star flag, and say  to himself, yep this is a good idea?  His rhetoric, wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, is exactly what has the potential to recruit pre-jihadi types, who were bound to have been in attendance.  Is he unaware that there are already hundreds of Australian nationals in Syria fighting with jihadists on a lost cause, based on a false pretext?  It was dangerous and irresponsible behaviour based on lies, ignorance and propaganda.  For anyone who has travelled to Syria in the last few years it was sickening to watch.  The ultimate irony was while he was bemoaning Aleppo’s fall, the actual people of Aleppo where dancing in the streets celebrating their army, their President and most of all their liberation.  Christians and Muslims alike wore Santa hats, carrying their flag with the 2 green eyes, not the one David Shoebridge stood by, their first Christmas celebrations in 4 years and David Shoebridge mocked their victory and their suffering by defaming their army.  The Greens and David Shoebridge are no friends of Syrians inside Syria, you do not speak for them.  Do them a favour and leave them alone, they’ve had enough of Western lies and ‘help’.  If the Greens truly cared about the Syrian people they would do much more research and speak the truth or say nothing at all.  That would be a great help in ending Syrian suffering, that and demanding an end to the crippling sanctions.  That would definitely help the Syrian people, we can’t feign ignorance on that score, even if you have forgotten Libya, remember Iraq.
If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started with truth – Julian Assange.
Celebrating liberation in Aleppo

https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2014/04/16/most-reported-deaths-in-syria-have-not-been-committed-by-assad-regime/

Source