Eric Draitser is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City and the founder of StopImperialism.com.
The US Capitol: Magnificent building, sordid business.
[dropcap]Despite[/dropcap] being the world’s self-appointed champion and proselytizer of the gospel of democracy, the United States is clearly and unmistakably an undemocratic nation.
By JUSTIN AMASH, US Representative, 3rd Congressional District, Michigan.
Please read the prefatory note below first. Click on bar or button marked “v”
[learn_more]A number of our regular contributors have said it here already, eloquently, the US government is once again trying to fool the American people by dint of artifice into another criminal war. Syria’s Assad government, too independent for Washington’s and Israel’s taste, a nation that has the audacity to sport her own allies in a coveted region, has been in Washington’s crosshairs for a long time, way before there was an Iraq intervention, or a Libya “humanitarian intervention” and many other horrendous depredations America has committed under false pretenses—in fact even before there was an official (and convenient) “War on Terror” detonated by the events of 9/11. The latest exercise in massive hypocrisy is this sneaky war on Assad waged on the coattails of the revulsion created by the beheadings by ISIS—a monster undeniably manufactured by US foreign policy—of several Western journalists and players in that conflicted region. The importance of this article, and why it is news in our view, is because, as in the case of the dog that bites human not being news, but the human biting dog being news…the denunciation of this staggering crime is being done by none other than Justin A. Amash, an American attorney, and—to add more incredulity to the mix—a Republican member of Congress for Michigan’s 3rd congressional district, centered around Grand Rapids. —Patrice Greanville[/learn_more]
[W]hat have we learned from the last decade of war?
Those years should have taught us that when going to war, our government must:
(1) be careful when defining a military mission;
(2) speak forthrightly with the American people about the sacrifices they will be called to make;
(3) plan more than one satisfactory end to the conflict, and
(4) be humble about what we think we know.
These lessons should be at the front of our minds when Congress votes today on whether to arm groups in Syria.
We have said it many times, there’s a robotic, inhuman, unrelenting and obsessional quality to the actions of the American capitalist government. The US ruling cliques decided long ago that the time had come to get rid of Assad and an independent Syria. To that end, they will lie, manufacture false flag incidents, and resort to whatever is necessary to accomplish the task.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow, September 9, 2014. (Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin)
If the West bombs Islamic State militants in Syria without consulting Damascus, the anti-ISIS alliance may use the occasion to launch airstrikes against President Bashar Assad’s forces, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
“There are reasons to suspect that air strikes on Syrian territory may target not only areas controlled by Islamic State militants, but the government troops may also be attacked on the quiet to weaken the positions of Bashar Assad’s army,” Lavrov said Tuesday.
Such a development would lead to a huge escalation of conflict in the Middle East and North Africa, Lavrov told reporters in Moscow after a meeting with the foreign minister of Mali.
Moscow is urging the West to respect international law and undertake such acts only with the approval of the legitimate government of a state, Lavrov said.
“Not a single country should have its own plans on such issues. There can be only combined, collective, univocal actions. Only this way can a result be achieved,” he said.
His comments came shortly after Washington announced plans to go on the offensive against the Islamic State jihadist group. The US military has already launched over 100 airstrikes against militant targets in Iraq, including a new series that the military said killed an unusually large number of Islamic State fighters, AP reported.
US military launches airstrikes near Iraq’s Haditha Dam
Following the beheading of two American journalists, President Barack Obama is considering a military strike against Islamic State in Syria. The plans are expected to be announced in a speech Wednesday.
Moscow has repeatedly voiced its readiness to cooperate with Washington in countering terrorism, Lavrov said. Secretary of State John Kerry, in response, has proposed that the US, Russia and countries in the region cooperate to work out “a balance of interests so that they could eliminate terrorism threat,” he added.
“However, this hasn’t got beyond words,” Lavrov said.
Russia has long warned its western partners about the threat posed by Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other groups that later merged into the Islamic Front, Lavrov said.
“We have repeatedly suggested to the US, the EU and leading European states to realize the extent of this threat. We have called on the UN to resolutely condemn terrorist attacks staged by Islamists in Syria. But we were told that it was Bashar Assad’s politics that gave rise to terrorism, and that denouncing such acts was possible only alongside with the demand for his resignation,” Lavrov said.
In Moscow’s view, this represents “a double standard” and an attempt to justify terrorism.
Up until the Syrian conflict, Russia and the West were unanimous that terrorism cannot be justified “no matter what motive was behind them,” Lavrov said. But in case with Syria the West had a “different, two-faced stance.” It was only when the terrorism threat which originated in Libya crept to Lebanon and then Iraq that Western countries realized it was time to deal with that, Lavrov said.
“Having admitted it with a huge delay, western partners for some reason think that this threat should be eliminated on the territory of Iraq, while on the territory of Syria it might be left to the consideration of those who conduct the operation,” Lavrov said.
The US agreed its airstrikes against Islamic State militants on Iraqi territory with Baghdad, Lavrov said. However, “it was rumored… no such permission was required from the government of Syria because they claim ‘Assad should resign and his regime should be overthrown’.”
Lavrov said that there could be no different interpretation when it comes to the common interests of the West, Russia and other states: “Terrorist threats must be eliminated and terrorists liquidated,” he said.
Obama vows to ‘hunt down’ Islamic State militants
Earlier in August, when the US State Department’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked to comment on whether it would be possible for the US to launch airstrikes inside Syria without coordinating it with the government, she said: “I think when American lives are at stake, when we’re talking about defending our own interests, we’re not looking for the approval of the Syrian regime.” She added, though, that it was for the US president to make such a decision.
By Stephen Gowans, What’s Left
Many clashes in the Ukraine are provocations staged by Western agents.
The uprising in Ukraine represents a struggle between the West and Russia to integrate Ukraine economically, and, ultimately, militarily, into their respective orbits. I take no side in the struggle. All the same, each side wants me, and you, to take sides. Since I live in the West, and have greater exposure to the pronouncements of people of state in the West, and to the Western mass media than I do to their Russian counterparts, I’ll concentrate herein on analyzing Western efforts to shape public opinion to support the Western side of the struggle.
By Stephen Gowans, what’s left
Survivors of sarin attack. The “who” question remains very much in doubt but data manipulation seems evident.
The United Nations report on the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Ghouta area of Damascus on August 21 does not, as newspaper headlines have indicated, “point to Assad’s use of gas” [1]; confirm that rockets were loaded with sarin [2]; or “come closer to linking Assad to sarin attack” [3]. Nor, as US officials and some journalists have declared, does it “reinforce the case that Mr. Assad’s forces were responsible” [4]; “confirm Damascus’s responsibility” [5]; or “undercut arguments by President Bashar al-Assad of Syria that rebel forces … had been responsible.” [6]