21st Century Wire says….
“It is time that the United States, guided by our strategic interests and moral convictions, lead a global effort to put an end to this conflict once and for all.”
This was the closing sentence of a US State Department memo, published in a New York Times report. Always at the vanguard of the US warmongering propaganda, the New York Times has once more led the charge against the Syrian people. Hot on the heels of seeing Raqqa literally snatched from under their special forces noses, the US is once more beating the hollow drums for war.
The same old tired rhetoric is being deployed to persuade an election feverish, distracted public of the need to combat the Syrian “regime” and its “persistent violations”. Of course what is not mentioned, ever, are the persistent violations being carried out on a daily basis against the Syrian people of all denominations by the US and NATO funded terrorist gangs swarming inside Syria and conducting ethnic cleansing operations against Alawite and Shia communities at the behest of their Wahhabi Saudi handlers. Such massacres serve the US NATO objectives well, fomenting sectarianism and facilitating plan “B” to partition and fracture Syrian society along sectarian fault lines that have never existed inside Syria prior to this US, NATO neocolonialist intervention.
We hear of the collapse of diplomatic efforts to resolve the Syria conflict, diplomatic efforts endorsing the inclusion of known terrorist leaders and factions, the same terrorists responsible for the massacres of the Syrian people.
Head of the list of those clamouring for military action is of course, ex US Ambassador to Syria, alleged death squad creator, Robert Ford.
On June 9th, Robert Ford tweeted that R2P [controversial Responsibility to Protect] should be engaged in order to bypass any lack of UN Mandate to justify taking tougher action against Syria and remove the sovereignty obstacle that is barring the way to all out military intervention.
Robert Ford Tweet
Earlier this week, the Syrian state accused Germany of putting “boots on the ground” in north western Syria near Kobani and Manjib. Military manouvers are already underway inside Syria and NATO is working in lock-step with the US to secure positions inside the northern Syria borders along the terrorist rat line of the Turkish borders.
On June 7th, 10 days ago, a former UK Ambassador to Syria, Peter Ford, made the clear statement that the US Government was preparing to ally itself with Al Qaeda in order to achieve the ouster of President Assad.
“The US is “ready to de facto ally” with its arch-enemies from Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria as part of its “obsession” by using “so-called moderate” groups to overthrow the Syrian government, former UK ambassador to Syria, Peter Ford, told RT in an exclusive interview.
The US “is effectively siding with a branch of Al-Qaeda” in Syria, Peter Ford told RT, speaking of Washington’s recent request to Moscow not to target Al-Nusra positions with air strikes for the sake of moderate opposition groups located in the same area.
The former ambassador denounced the move as “not reasonable at all” and “grotesque.” He also sharply criticized the US for their “obsession with getting rid of Assad and the secular government in Syria” that leads them right to the alliance with “their arch-enemies” and to the loss of “all moral and practical competence.”
“We can only hope that it is a temporary aberration and they will soon return to their senses,” Ford told RT, urging the US government to abandon their policy of de facto aiding Al-Qaeda’s affiliate. He also expressed his support for Russia’s “very reasonable demand that the forces of the so-called moderate opposition disentangle themselves from the embraces of Al-Nusra and allow Al-Nusra to be bombed.”
The former ambassador also stressed that there is “virtually no difference” between Al-Nusra and such groups as Jaish al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Fatah as they are “indistinguishable” in terms of ideology, sectarian bias and their practical methods consisting of “massacres and ruthlessness.”
He also emphasized that the only difference between Al-Nusra and other groups that western countries, including the US, portray as “moderate opposition” lies in the field of tactics.”
Here we see US State Department Spokesperson, John Kirby fumble his way through explaining the role Al Nusra is playing in US operations against the Syrian government.
— Walid (@walid970721) June 17, 2016
CIA Director John Brennan also opined:
“Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director John Brennan told a congressional hearing on Thursday [16/6/2016] that Assad was in a stronger position than he was a year ago, bolstered by Russian airstrikes against moderate opposition.
Brennan also said the Islamic State’s “terrorism capacity and global reach” had not been reduced.”
The New York Times Article Generates Media Storm
“More than 50 State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo sharply critical of the Obama administration’s policy in Syria, urging the United States to carry out military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the country’s five-year-old civil war.
The memo, a draft of which was provided to The New York Times by a State Department official, says American policy has been “overwhelmed” by the unrelenting violence in Syria. It calls for “a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process.” ~ New York Times
“The New York Times reported that most of the 51 signatories were mid-ranking officials.
“The moral rationale for taking steps to end the deaths and suffering in Syria, after five years of brutal war, is evident and unquestionable,” it quoted the document as saying. “The status quo in Syria will continue to present increasingly dire, if not disastrous, humanitarian, diplomatic and terrorism-related challenges.” ~ Financial Times
“That is an astonishingly high number,” said Robert Ford, who resigned in 2014 as U.S. Ambassador to Syria over policy disagreements and is now at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank.
“For the last four years, the working level at the State Department has been urging that there be more pressure on Bashar al-Assad’s government to move to a negotiated solution,” to the civil war, he said.
Ford said this was not the first time the State Department has argued for a more activist Syria policy. In 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed arming and training anti-Assad rebels. The plan, which had backing from other Cabinet officials, was rejected by President Barack Obama and his White House aides. ~ Reuters
As US-led air power pounds ISIL in Syria, dozens of State Department officials want the Assad regime to feel the force of American military might.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, more than 50 US diplomats have signed a confidential, internal memo sharply critical of current policy. The document urges ‘targeted strikes’ against Syria’s government to stop its persistent violations of a ceasefire brokered earlier this year” ~ Euro News
“The internal cable may be an attempt to shape the foreign policy outlook of the next administration, the official familiar with the document said. President Barack Obama has balked at taking military action against Mr. Assad, while Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has promised a more hawkish stance toward the Syrian leader. Republican candidate Donald Trump has said he would hit Islamic State hard but has also said he would be prepared to work with Russia in Syria.
The cable warns that the U.S. is losing prospective allies among Syria’s majority Sunni population in its fight against the Sunni extremist group Islamic State while the regime “continues to bomb and starve” them. Mr. Assad and his inner circle are Alawite, a small Shiite-linked Muslim sect and a minority in Syria. In Syria’s multisided war, the regime, Islamic State and an array of opposition rebel groups are all battling each other.
“Failure to stem Assad’s flagrant abuses will only bolster the ideological appeal of groups such as Daesh, even as they endure tactical setbacks on the battlefield,” the cable reads, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.” ~ Wall Street Journal
“The memo, a draft of which was provided to The New York Times by a State Department official, says American policy has been “overwhelmed” by the unrelenting violence in Syria. It calls for ‘a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process.’ Such a step would represent a radical shift in the administration’s approach to the civil war in Syria, and there is little evidence that President Obama has plans to change course.” ~ Politico
“The document urges a credible threat of military action against the Assad government. Otherwise, it says, Damascus will feel no pressure to negotiate with the rebels. This reflects concerns that the collapse of a joint US-Russian peace process is benefitting the regime.
Mr Kerry has pressed the administration for tougher action against the regime in order to force it to the negotiating table, and signatories to the dissent letter believe he’ll be sympathetic to their concerns, according to sources involved in the process.
But that’s unlikely to sway the Obama administration, which has prioritised the fight against so called Islamic State (IS) in Syria and largely stayed clear of the civil war.
President Obama is wary of being drawn into another Mid-East conflict after the messy results of US intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
However, his possible successor, presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, has argued for a more assertive policy in Syria, including stronger support for non-Islamist rebels.
Perhaps the letter is aimed as much at her as it is at Mr Kerry.” ~ BBC
“It is time that the United States, guided by our strategic interests and moral convictions, lead a global effort to put an end to this conflict once and for all.” – concluding sentence of memo as reported by the New York Times
Once more the US is dragging us towards the abyss of all out war, their Syria road-map is in tatters due to the solidarity of the Syrian people behind their elected government and national armed forces, the Syrian Arab Army and National Defence Forces [NDF] and the intervention of Iran, Russia and Hezbollah has turned the tide of war against the US NATO backed proxy armies of terrorists and extremists on the ground inside Syria. The frustration is revealing itself and the US Empire is seeing its hegemony challenged perhaps to an extent they had never imagined possible.
The next few months will be decisive not only for the future of Syria but for the future of the entire region.
READ MORE ON SYRIA: 21st Century Wire Syria Files
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