Quite simply I do not believe the US, UK and French government’s assertion that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against rebels “multiple times in small quantities”. Why on earth would they do that? The claim that “up to 150 people have died” spread over a number of incidents makes no sense at all. In a civil war when tens of thousands of people have died, where all sides have been guilty of massacres of scores at a time, I cannot conceive of any motive for killing a dozen or so at any one time with the odd chemical shell. It makes no military sense – chemical weapons are designed for use against population centres and massed armies. They are not precision weapons for deployment against small groups.
Why on earth would the Assad regime use a tiny amount of chemical weapons against tiny groups of rebels, knowing the West would use it as an excuse to start bombing? It makes no sense whatsoever. Cui bono?
The Russians have described the evidence as fabricated, and on this one I am with the Russians.
It is of course no coincidence that this humanitarian motive to start bombing Syria arises just as the tide of war turned against the rebels, and the government forces are about to move on Aleppo. I suspect now we will see massive NATO force intervention, with huge air to ground destruction of the government forces all over the country to “defend” Aleppo, just as we saw hundreds of thousands killed and whole cities destroyed in Libya to “defend” Benghazi. Whose people showed their gratitude by murdering the US Ambassador.
It is a further fascinating coincidence that this coordinated western switch of policy happens immediately after the Bilderberg conference. An analysis of which of the corporate interests there stand to gain in Syria might be a fascinating exercise.
There were two main reasons the tide of war turned against the rebels. Firstly, Hizbollah’s decision to enter the war on a large scale was provoked by the Israeli Air Force’s massive attack around Damascus, a fact the mainstream media has managed to hide completely. Secondly, at Turkish urging, the rebel forces had diverted much of their energies to attacking the Syrian kurds. This opens the interesting question of what the American client Kurds of Iraq will make of their patron sponsoring the massacre of their brethren in Syria.
Finally, chemical weapons are a terrible thing and their use should be condemned unreservedly. But where was all this Western outrage and activity when the Israelis were pouring down white phosphorous and kicking and maiming thousands of women and children in Gaza?
@ Suhayl
Sure, why not read it – just don’t spend good money on it.
(576 pages – that’s more than several works of Marx put together.)
Re the other one The Scourge recommended – I don’t know it, but again, why not? Might be better than “The Confessions of a window cleaner” (oh, sorry, that was a film, wasn’t it)
Beachbumsback!
@ Herbie
“Anyway. I’d have said that it was No Logo ‘made’ Naomi Klein. No?”
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No.
@ The Scourge
“Don’t get sand in your foreskin Habbabkuk!”
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I’ll do my best not to, Dougie!
technicolour (15 Jun, 2013 – 6:38 pm) asks:
Allow me, Fred:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/02/israel-grants-oil-rights-in-syria-to-murdoch-and-rothschild/
Can we get back to business? Who benefits from destabilising Syria? What has the attack on Turkish protestors got to do with US Chicago school neoliberalism? Occupy Syria Facebook (though at a glance strangely pro Assad for an Occupy movement) tweets: “The economic agenda of the Syrian opposition: To destroy infrastructure and taking loan$ for the recon$truction$”.
thanks A Node.
@ The Scourge
“In western “democracies” leaders are puppets of (unelected) state powers, like the security services for example”
You’re slipping, Doug. Why so coy?
You forgot to mention the Royal Family, the Bilderberg Group and Amschel Rothschild (deceased).
Habby
Can you please explain then why you think “The Shock Doctrine” ‘made’ Naomi Klein?
She was already quite famous from “No Logo”, some years before.
According to Fisk, Iran will send an initial 4000 Revolutionary Guards to Iran.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/world-exclusive-iran-will-send-4000-troops-to-aid-bashar-alassads-forces-in-syria-8660358.html
With friends like (apparently) all the Sunni extremest groups, who needs enemies?
Dad!
It’s good to see you back. I was worried there that you might have bored yourself to death.
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I got my hands on a copy of “Shock Doctrine” tonight on the strength of your negative review and I’ve just finished Chapter 1. Just brilliant! She certainly describes a world I recognise and provides plenty of references and pertinent quotes to back up her observations.
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As time passes I am learning that you do after all have some value. With unerring precision your state of agitation indicates what I should be giving my attention to.
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Thanks to Technicolour for winding the old fool up in the first place with the mention of Naomi Klien.
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I’ll have to find “No Logo”
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Now for Chapter 2 before bed.
“With friends like (apparently) all the Sunni extremest groups, who needs enemies?”
The Reichwing in ‘Merica is exultant over events in Syria. Why not? They have the mirror-image of the prophecy of the 12th Imam which is ‘End Times’ excitement. They actually think they will be ‘Raptured’ out of harm’s way and are giggly about all the sinners who must stay to endure the events to come.
It’s the same stupidity as 72 virgins to perpetuity.
from medialens:
– Reuters reports:
‘The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights [SOHR], an opposition group, said on Tuesday that at least 94,000 people have been killed but the death toll is likely to be as high as 120,000.’
Figures supplied by SOHR, an organisation openly biased in favour of the Syrian ‘rebels’ and Western intervention is presented as sober fact by one of the world’s leading news agencies. No concerns here about methodology, sample sizes, ‘main street bias’ and other alleged concerns thrown at the Lancet studies by critics. According to Reuters itself, SOHR consists of a single individual, Rami Abdulrahman, the owner of a clothes shop, who works from his ‘two bedroom terraced home in Coventry’. –
i haven’t been able to access websites inside syria that might dispute Rami’s latest (or any) death toll figure, which – as always – was immediately reported & repeated by UN, govts, and all MSM, INCLUDING iranian & russian. Rami just adding 10,000 or thereabouts a month of late, is NOT evidence, YET the death toll is being used all the time to show why there needs to be intervention. wish someone could get a better handle on the real figures.
not only did Carla del Ponte implicate the rebels as per 6 May reports, i actually heard a radio news item the morning of Obama’s chemical weapon claim – which i feel sure was from the UN – saying AGAIN they & human rights groups had found both sides had used them (tho no evidence on Assad’s use while there is growing evidence re the rebels). the second message of the radio news item was the new death toll of 93,000-plus. by the time i booted up the computer to find that report on either abc or bbc, it didn’t exist & it was all Obama says, and the only articles about the radio report i had heard were headlined 93,000 dead in Syria.
6 May – Syrian rebels used Sarin nerve gas, not Assad’s regime: U.N. official
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/6/syrian-rebels-used-sarin-nerve-gas-not-assads-regi/
Bilderberg was wonderful – thank u all who attended. it made great online TV, and i’m not about to mock anyone involved. all played a part in shining a light on this particular element of the shadow govt – never a bad thing. max keiser had been negative, but he turned up with Stacy Herbert, adding to the hilarity. humour is a great weapon.
the bergers will be more careful where they hold their next one…if there is a next one, that is! wish i could have been there.
The poor Chinese. According to one left wing romanticist here, Western style capitalism has subjected them to a kind of 21st century Dickensian experience that makes the horrors of Mao Zedong’s reign look like a picnic. Apparently, being overworked and underpaid in iPhone factories is worse than starving to death on collectivised farms. Those 40+ million dead didn’t realise how good they had it under traditional communism.
But I wonder how much Chinese suffering is a product of their political and economic systems and not their reknowned lack of compassion for living things, including their own people.
Not long ago, I had the pleasure of watching a Beijing cooking competition (we need more of these on tv) on our nation’s multicultural broadcaster, SBS. One contestant produced a delicious meal wherein he cooked a fish whilst it was still alive, ensuring it’s survival for the plate by holding its head in a damp cloth. When he served it on the plate, it was still gulping, its ribboned body pulsating with garnishes atop that would leave the most sated gastronome salivating for more. It was enough to make me reach for my little bottle of medicinal asian bear bile.
Yeah Jemand. And of course there was the Evil and Inscrutable Fu Manchu..
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Jemandworld must be such a scary place with all those damned foreigners lurking in the shadows.
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I suggest you take cover under the stairs till the nice white westerners have them all civilised and democratised to death.
“Can we get back to business? Who benefits from destabilising Syria? What has the attack on Turkish protestors got to do with US Chicago school neoliberalism? Occupy Syria Facebook (though at a glance strangely pro Assad for an Occupy movement) tweets: “The economic agenda of the Syrian opposition: To destroy infrastructure and taking loan$ for the recon$truction$”.”
The oil companies and their shareholders benefit, Saudi royal family benefit. The control freak psychopaths in government benefit. It’s all about wealth and control.
Shia majority Iraq has agreed to let Shia Iran put a gas pipeline through to Shia Syria, right to the Mediterranean coast where they could supply Europe. Nobody in the west or the Sunni Muslim countries want that pipeline to be built.
Clinton wanted intervention. This piece predates Obomber’s decision to arm the rebels. Perhaps Clinton has Obomber’s ear.
Bill Clinton splits with President Obama on Syria
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=A2EF6B91-735D-455D-BEDB-3745C577ABEF
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Sky News, when reporting the Iranian elections yesterday, were repeating the old lie about Ahmadinejad wanting to wipe Israel off the map. They consulted an Israeli Dr Emily Landau on the result needless to say. She is in the video here.
http://news.sky.com/story/1104130/iran-vote-cleric-rouhani-elected-president
A point of interest from Mr Rouhani’s CV on that link.
‘Married with four children, Rouhani holds a doctorate in law from Scotland’s Glasgow Caledonian University, according to his official CV.’
~~
Enough said here on Landau.
19/02/2013
Dr. Emily Landau on the coming P5+1 talks with Iran
Dr. Emily Landau is Director of the Arms Control and Regional Security Program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University. On 18 February, a week ahead of scheduled P5+1 talks with Iran in Kazakhstan, Dr. Landau briefed a forum in BICOM’s London office on the diplomatic options facing the international community in addressing the Iranian nuclear programme. Dr. Landau argued that economic and diplomatic sanctions had to be applied in conjunction with the credible threat of military force in order to stop Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons.
http://www.bicom.org.uk/podcast/11907/
Oddie 7.32am
SOHR – A one man band run from a flat over a shop in Coventry of course. LOL.
http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/government/war/news.php?q=1338914745
@Sofia Blabbalot Puppetsock
“Sofia”, you have proven once again that sarcasm is indeed the best form of wit. Your untiringly hilarious, ‘satirical’ schtick of being Habbabkuk’s daughter, firing off sarcastic missives at straw-bogeymen in lieu of intelligent debate, keeps me coming back craving for more. Give me more, you sweet, little, hairy, girly man-child.
Oddie 7.32am and Flaming June 9:09 am
“SOHR – A one man band run from a flat over a shop in Coventry”
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If dad had gone a bit easier on the sherry last night he would be here to put you right. So in his absence I’ll have to stand in, in the interest of balance.
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You see, the key to understanding this is in the word “Observatory”. It’s all very well for tin-hat wearing conspiracists to scoff, but you have to remember that, in the real world, and especially in Coventry, there are some very high apartment buildings, from which Rami Abdelrahman, a man well able to use a powerful astronomical telescope, would be well able to observe the daily outrages perpetrated by the evil Assad on the kind and gentle rebels, whose only wish is to create the kind of heaven on earth that exists in the Gulf nations that sponsor them.
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Sorry Dad, I know there weren’t enough long words in there and I shouldn’t have used two sentences when one would do, but otherwise , how did I do?
Cleggover has been on a low key Marr, presided over by the lightweight Jeremy Vine. Clegg speaks a lot but actually says little of meaning. He uses hand gestures endlessly. Is there a training school where politicians are taught these neuro-linguistic skills?
I think support for the LDs will collapse come 2015 under Cleggover’s ‘leadership’. He is an empty vessel.
Sofia These trolls are very much like the scale insect infestation I discovered on my houseplants, known as soft scale (Coccus hesperidum) and hemisperical scale (Saisettia coffeae).
They are little flat pale brown creatures that lurk unseen on the underside of the leaves and exude a sticky substance which is the first indication of their presence. A good dose of an organic insecticide (fatty acids) has dealt with them.
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=224
🙂
“A point of interest from Mr Rouhani’s CV on that link.
‘Married with four children, Rouhani holds a doctorate in law from Scotland’s Glasgow Caledonian University, according to his official CV.’” Flaming June
Ah, so he’s a Weegie! Wan ae us! Let’s twin Glesgae wi’ Isfahan!
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/made-in-glasgow-the-moderate-man-who-could-be-irans-next-president.1371303561
Seriously, though, the regime runs a theocratic police state and like Khatami, Rouhani is from that regime; he also may have difficulty applying rational change. The Syria situation will also complicate matters. But at least there might be some hope – and Iranians need it.
@ Herbie :
“Can you please explain then why you think “The Shock Doctrine” ‘made’ Naomi Klein?”
________
Because, after a promising beginning with “No Logo”, it confirmed her as one of the world’s Leading Thinkers.
Hope that helps!
In a parallel with Colin Powell’s’mobile biological labs’ America has ‘found’ on chemical weapons in Syria – an international green card for the establishment of a ‘no fly zone’ extending from the Jordan border.
Such a blatant lie serves to enable massive Patriot missile bombardment and the use of armed drones to reverse recent gains by government forces.
Indeed Mark. I’ve been tweeting the Carla Del Ponte version, repeatedly, from different sources.
Sorry Craig, but I can not see a ground invasion as NATO would most probably NOT be able to enforce an air exclusion zone. Syrian air space is protected by two of the worlds most up-to-date air-defense systems, thanks to Russia and Iran. They have both supplied hardware and advisers.
I think this link to an nsnbc article from last week, might help clarify the situation. It reports that the UN confirmed last month, that it is the US government that is supplying Al Nusra with the chemical weapons and it is NATO special forces that are training the terrorist in how to use them. The second link provides some background on the US’s approved replacement for Assad, Al-Khatib, which should hopefully raise some concerns over Foreign Secretary William Hague commitment to support Al-Khatib.
Makes you glad to be part of the NATO gang, doesn’t it. Well, its better to be a bully that allow yourself to be bullied.
http://nsnbc.me/2013/06/06/the-syria-chemical-weapons-saga-the-staging-of-a-us-nato-sponsored-humanitarian-disaster/
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/uk-seeks-to-further-fund-arm-al-qaeda.html
@June. 10 09am
“…Coccus hesperidum…”
Thanks so much. You have given me the inspiration I needed for my biology project.
“……at least a dozen different species have been recognised so far, but by far the most spectacular of these extraordinary creatures is the legendary HabberCoccus sherryphillium pompuosgitium, whose unique physiology consists entirely of huge gas filled bladders with which it can overwhelm eventhe strongest of prey with repeated venomous outbursts…” (Eat your heart out David Attenbourough!)
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I can’t wait to hand it in to Miss Purvis. She’ll either give me an “A” or a detention, again.
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This blog’s comments have come to represent the World it observes — depressing and more than just a little weird. But then nothing unusual about that.
My heart goes out to the ordinary people of Syria, be they refugees or normal secular thinking people who don’t want to be fighting their neighbours and each other. And to the protestors in Turkey who just want to live ordinary lives in Freedom.
The only bright spots are the support shown for Snowden in Hong Kong and the peacefully chosen consensus President in Iran.