War Against Syria Part 4: “This Guy” (Dismantling Western Disinformation on Bashar al-Assad)

Iwould say 99.9% of Americans know “who lives in a pineapple under the sea” (SpongeBob) while 99.9% couldn’t pick this guy out in a line up. Yet most have been programmed to think of this guy as an embodiment of Hitler-Stalin-Satan. He’s President Dr. Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

 

 

The old, “he eats babies for breakfast” propaganda which is always used by the powers that be to manipulate people into supporting whatever war or takeover they’re involved in. I can imagine the discussions among the ones missioned with selling this completely unjustified aggression:

“Go for it. Let’s bring freedom and democracy to Syria!” And the room erupts into derisive laughter.

Anyone saying anything positive about this guy – or even sharing anything good about Syria under his leadership - has been a red line; it results in getting attacked by the mainstream establishment media and ignored by almost all alternative media as well. It’s not a coincidence that it is increasingly verboten in the US and west to criticize Israel or the Zionists – while speaking in any positive terms about Syria or its leader is equally taboo.

 

But who is this guy? What is true should be what matters. As a short summary, yes he’s a tough guy in a tough neighborhood … and … the portrait painted of him (and the war) by the western governments and media is a false image. The US (with its allies, particularly the UK and France) want you to believe they are the cavalry with white hats – America casting itself in the role of the John Wayne hero riding in to save the Syrian people from the black hat bad guy. But this fantasy has nothing to do with the reality of the US having worked towards taking control over Syria since 1947. Yes, you read that right – since 1947. This war in Syria is not about toppling an evil Hitler-Stalin-Satan dictator; it is a war against Syria itself by the west for full control or failing that, total destruction and dismemberment.

It is: A terrorist-proxy war. An economic siege war. A political war to undermine the sovereignty and legitimacy of the Syrian state. An attrition war. A media propaganda war. A divide and conquer war. A Balkanization war. (“Balkanization: divide a region or body into smaller mutually hostile states or groups.)

Why are the US with its allies gunning for Syria? Because for seven decades it has resisted US imperialism and Israeli expansionism; the two interests are considered one and the same by Washington DC. But ‘they’ – the decision makers and power brokers in America, Britain, France and other EU countries, Canada, Australia, etc - can’t tell you that can they? You might not readily accept the idea that the US led gang is attacking yet another country that is not only no threat to any of them but in fact has only wanted mutually beneficial and respectful relations. You might question the many billions that have been spent to get hundreds of thousands of Syrians killed and about eight million displaced from their homes. Perhaps you won’t accept the idea of the US led coalition troops stealing Syria’s oil and wheat from the northeast where they occupy 100% illegally. Maybe you’ll figure out how America has been using both al Qaeda and ISIS as assets in their deadly games. You might make some noise against the economic sanctions designed to strangle the economy and starve the entire population to punish them and make them miserable enough to help in the regime change operation. You might challenge the empire and its military-industrial-intelligence complex and ‘they’ can’t have that.

I’m not at all prone to supporting dictators – and while he is an elected leader he certainly has dictatorial powers – yet I’ve not hesitated to show the positive aspects of his rule. Why? Because it only took a few months of research starting back in 2012 to see that the US government is not in any way concerned with what it claims to care about. And because it was quite obvious that Assad’s vision for Syria is positive and inclusive. My jaw would drop anytime some western talking head, media personality, government official or journalist would say with a straight face how Syria must not be ruled by someone from a minority - during the Obama administration. I’ll just leave that there for you to ponder.

Regimes in the Middle East supported by the US government are some of the world’s worst. People in the West have been programmed to consider any effort to put the war against Syria in context as “conspiracy theory” or “whataboutism”; however it is the proven pattern of total hypocrisy and catastrophic consequences of US policies which should be the first clues to anyone [wanting to understand US actions in the Middle East] that they’ve been deliberately and criminally misled.

Israel for example is neither a democracy nor defending itself. It is a democracy only for Jews and while it is systematically taking over all of Palestine for Jewish privilege and dominance – the daily crimes and persecution, harassment, humiliation, intentional impoverishment, theft/destruction of lands and other property, and murder are all designed to drive the people off their homeland –its leaders have rarely made any secret of wanting to take control over neighboring countries or get them weakened or destroyed.

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The empire's war on Syria can be easily summarised:

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Saudi Arabia is an absolute dictatorship ruled by a single family dynasty since 1932 – whose control is protected by the US and UK in perpetuity as an exchange for black goo called oil and being good little puppets of the West. Not only can the Saudis chop the heads off of political and religious dissenters; punish women who are raped; hack a journalist to pieces in an embassy; and treat the migrant workers who make up over 30% of their population often as slaves – they can engage in their many years of ongoing slaughter and starvation of the Yemeni people while getting considerable help from the “leaders of the free world” doing it. Bahrain’s leader, as another example, was brutally putting down peaceful protests during the euphemistically labeled “Arab Spring” with the help of troops from Saudi Arabia and the US was cheering it on. The Saud royals can commit all these crimes and still get called “reformers” by the West.

The leader of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has boasted of his expansionist ambitions to create a neo-Ottoman empire of conquest and/or controlling influence over neighboring countries; jails anti-government press; continues his illegal occupation of Syrian lands; has openly been supporting both al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria, while acting as a distributor for ISIS oil sales; and weaponized refugees by releasing them into Europe when Europe didn’t cough up the billions he wanted in payment to hold them.

The list of reprehensible leaders pandered to or put into power/kept in power by the US goes on and on.

There are many internal problems and issues in Syria. There are abuses and corruption which have gotten far worse during the war as they do in all wars. The Syrian people know best their problems and issues; they are not insulated in any way from them nor are they hesitant to share quite bluntly about them usually. Syrians have open access to the entirety of the internet and all have mobile phones. They know everything that the outside world is saying about their country as well as what’s being said and what’s happening inside. I’ve met with hundreds of people there on my travels from all different backgrounds and they all want serious reforms in the government. One big problem is they want different kinds of reforms; Religionists want a more fundamentalist-conservative society while Secularists (whether religious or not) want a more open one as an example. While the calls for reforms are strong, just as they are here in America, the calls for an outright overthrow of Dr. Assad are not and never have been.

Opinions range from full trust and support for the president to the opposite – Syrians are not some kind of collective and all have their own opinions – but throughout the war he’s clearly had the support of easily the majority and I would say the great majority, either through true devotion or because the alternatives offered by the US et al were so egregious. Literally the US was putting forward (and still is) a gang of criminals and stooges, primarily religious fanatics determined to obliterate Syria’s secular society that respects and protects all religions and empowers women – a gang utterly detestable, unacceptable and contemptible as the “new leaders for Syria”. So absolute is the corruption, hubris and ignorance of the US and allies’ policy planners that they thought the Syrian people would go for their selling them down the river so to speak. What happened of course is that most of the Syrians understand full well that this war is against their country and them and is not about this one guy.

What did this guy do for Syria? I’ll finish this article with a quote from Msgr. Giuseppe Nazzaro, former apostolic visitor to Aleppo and former Custodian of the Holy Land:

“[Assad] opened the country up to foreign trade, to tourism within the country and from abroad, to freedom of movement and of education for both men and women. Before the protests started, the number of women in the professional world had been constantly increasing, the university was open to all, and there was no discrimination on the basis of sex. The country was at peace, prosperity was on the rise, and human rights were respected. A common home and fatherland to many ethnicities and 23 different religious groups, Syria has always been a place where all were free to believe and live out their creed, all relationships were characterized by mutual respect. The freedom that is purportedly being brought to us by the rebels is precisely what this rebellion has taken away from us.” (From ISIS, Assad, and What the West is Missing About Syria: Syria, once home to a unique, multireligious society, is being destroyed. The West is turning a blind eye to the real cause of the tragedy. Catholic World Report, December 15, 2014.)

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About the Author
Janice Kortkamp exposes the bankruptcy of mainstream "professional" journalists and mercenary punditocracy.

See also this profile on Janice Kortkamp

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