Click on photo to enlarge
| The aftermath
of a barrel bomb attack in a rebel-held area of Aleppo, Syria, earlier this
month. Credit Karam Al-Masri/Agence France-Presse
Syria
is rapidly becoming a blowback death trap for all the major countries
involved; Russia, France, Britain and the United States with Israel an active
silent partner. ISIS is making it a death trap for each participant with the
recent Russian Airline tragedy and Paris mass killings being the latest
examples ~ Britain and the United States will most likely follow if we
continue on the path of empire building: Allen L Roland, PhD
“In a sense, blowback is simply another way of saying that a
nation reaps what it sows. Although people usually know what they have sown,
our national experience of blowback is seldom imagined in such terms because
so much of what the managers of the American empire have sown has been kept
secret.”
~ Chalmers Johnson, Blowback, Second Edition: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
Marc Ash, RSN news, finally states the obvious during
these perilous times and he is absolutely correct;
"Call it the War on Terror, an ISIS Caliphate, defense
of Islam or a battle for freedom. The bullets are flying and people
everywhere are dying from global colonialist domination.
The West and China
are everywhere, their fingers in everything of monetary value. Those who
resist are assigned the same label the Romans gave to those who took up arms
against their empire, “terrorist.”
ISIS will fail. Brutality cannot defeat injustice. ISIS
will paint this as a great victory. In fact, gunning down unarmed
civilians is only a sign of impotence and desperation.
For decades the
U.S. has waged the most inept and corrupt wars of domination and greed
imaginable to the extent that they would not have been imaginable had the
atrocities not actually been committed.
We are chasing
ghosts in Mesopotamia, ghosts of men and civilizations we have defiled and
slaughtered for decades. That does not justify what happened in Paris. It
is however an indictment of war for profit.
We must respond
with wisdom and determination. Not blind aggression and profiteering. The
“New American Century” is over, really before it began."
And then Ash offers sage advice ~ which we have yet to heed;
"Do not arm good guys. Do not allow profit
to be a defense strategy. If we had stayed out of Iraq, ISIS would never
have risen. It’s a lot easier for ISIS to defeat themselves than it will
be for the West to defeat them, by orders of magnitude. Get the idiots
away from the command center ~ There is no substitute for rational
thought"
See
RSN article ~ http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/33485-global-domination-not-going-well
So
let's take a close look at Syria and sort out the players in this Death Trap ~ which has already struck Russia and France.
Here is where some of the main foreign principals stand
(Courtesy of NY Times)
THE UNITED STATES
OPPOSES: The government of President Bashar al-Assad, as well as the Islamic State
(ISIS) and other Islamic extremist groups.
HOW IT IS FIGHTING: The United States leads a coalition conducting
airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State and other extremist
groups. It has been carrying out a covert program to train and equip Syrian
rebels and a separate Pentagon program to train the moderate Syrian
opposition to fight the Islamic State (ISIS)…. The Pentagon program
has drawn few recruits.
RUSSIA
BACKS: Mr. Assad, the leader of Syria, which has been Russia’s only persistent ally in the Middle
East for decades.
OPPOSES: Russia says it opposes the Islamic State, but most of its airstrikes have
instead targeted rebels trying to topple Mr. Assad, Russia’s ally. Many of
Russia’s early attacks have struck at an Islamist coalition called Army of Conquest, which opposes the Islamic
State and had been making gains against Mr. Assad in recent months. The group
includes Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate as
well as more moderate rebel factions that have received covert arms support
from the United States.
HOW IT IS FIGHTING: Russia has coordinated with Syria to begin a coordinated
assault by land, air and sea on insurgents opposed to the Assad
government. Russia said it fired 26 cruise missiles at Syrian targets from
naval vessels in the Caspian Sea on Wednesday. Russia has long supplied arms
to Syria, and Russian pilots carried out their first airstrikes
in the country in late September. Before the airstrikes began, Russia had
been deploying military equipment ~ including 32 warplanes ~ and soldiers to
a Syrian airfield near Latakia for weeks, according to the United States, and
Russian drones had been conducting reconnaissance
flights over areas controlled by opponents of Mr. Assad.
BRITAIN
BACKS: More moderate elements among the rebel forces in Syria.
OPPOSES: The Assad government, the Islamic State (ISIS) and other Islamic
extremist groups.
HOW IT IS FIGHTING: Because of strong opposition in Parliament to military intervention in
Syria, Britain has so far focused mainly on coalition airstrikes in Iraq.
However, it recently conducted a drone
strike in Syria that killed two British citizens it said had joined
the Islamic State (see the United States)
FRANCE
BACKS: More moderate elements among the rebel forces in Syria.
OPPOSES: The Assad government, the Islamic State (ISIS) and other Islamic
extremist groups
HOW IT IS FIGHTING: Facing a refugee crisis and stepped-up jihadist recruiting in Europe,
France recently expanded its participation in coalition airstrikes
against the Islamic State (ISIS) and other extremist groups to
targets in Syria as well as Iraq. But it has ruled out any ground
intervention. (See the United States)
|
Robert Parry, Consortium News, asks the most obvious question ~ "Will President Barack Obama and other leaders finally level with the American people and the world about what the underlying reasons for this madness are? Will Obama explain how U.S. “allies” in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, have been fuelling this Sunni extremism for years? Will he dare recognize that Israeli repression of the Palestinians is a major contributing factor, too?" See Parry article ~ http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/33514-can-obama-level-with-the-people
Of course President
Obama will do no such thing and will instead accommodate the neocons and liberal hawks, including Hillary Clinton,
who remain influential within his own administration.
In Essence,The
War on Terror and Syria is still all about Empire building and Regime Change
and only the honest and rational thoughts of people such as Chalmers Johnson ( who has seen it all
) can offer the tough truth needed to deal with the reality of this
ISIS Blowback Death Trap.
“Terrorism
The suicidal assassins of September 11, 2001, did not “attack America,” as
political leaders and news media in the United States have tried to maintain;
they attacked American foreign policy. Employing the strategy of the weak, they
killed innocent bystanders, whose innocence is, of course, no different from
that of the civilians killed by American bombs in Iraq, Serbia, Afghanistan,
and elsewhere.”
~ Chalmers Johnson, Blowback, Second Edition: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
~ Chalmers Johnson, Blowback, Second Edition: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
Allen L
Roland, PhD
Heart centered spiritual consultant and advisor Allen L Roland can be contacted at allen@allenroland.com Allen is also a lecturer and writer who shares a weekly political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com. He is also featured columnist on Veterans Today and guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
