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[GRTV Feature Interview w/ Nile Bowie] War on Syria: Gateway to WWIII [video]

The Corbett Report
January 4, 2012

Now entering its second year, the foreign-funded civil war in Syria continues to drag on, destabilizing the country and causing widespread violence and bloodshed. In their newly-released free online e-book, War on Syria: Gateway to WWIII, Global Research contributors Nile Bowie and Tony Cartalucci examine the roots of this conflict and its potential consequences. Find out more in this week’s GRTV Feature Interview with our special guest, Nile Bowie.

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[hat tip: Land Destroyer]


For Whom the Syrian Bell Tolls

Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
December 28-30, 2012

Washington’s Sectarian Killers

For Whom the Syrian Bell Tolls

by Pepe Escobar

The top geopolitical tragedy in 2012 is bound to remain the top geopolitical tragedy in 2013: the rape of Syria.

Just as once in a while I go back to my favorite Hemingway passages, lately I’ve been going back to some footage I shot years ago of the Aleppo souk – the most extraordinary of all Middle Eastern souks. It’s like being shot in the back; I was as fond of the souk’s architecture as of its people and traders. Weeks ago, most of the souk – the living pulse of Aleppo for centuries – was set on fire and destroyed by the “rebels” of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA).

In this Syrian tragedy, there is no Hemingway young hero, no Robert Jordan in the International Brigades fighting alongside  Republican guerrillas against the fascists during the Spanish Civil War. In the Syrian civil war, the international brigades are mostly of the mercenary, Salafi-jihadi, beheading and car-bombing type. And the (few) young Americans in place are basically high-tech pawns in a game played by the rapacious NATOGCC club (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its Arab puppets of the Gulf Cooperation Council).

The tragedy continues. The Syrian state, political and military security apparatus will maintain its mini-blitzkriegs – with no second thoughts for “collateral damage”. On the opposing side, “rebel” commanders will be betting on a new Saudi-Qatari-encouraged Supreme Military Council.

The Salafis and Salafi-jihadis of the al-Nusrah Front – 7th century fanatics, beheading enthusiasts and car-bombing operatives who do the bulk of the fighting – were not invited. After all, the al-Nusrah Front has been branded a “terrorist organization” by Washington. 

Now check the reaction of a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) bigwig, Hama-born deputy comptroller general Mohammed Farouk Tayfour; he said the decision was “too hasty”. And check the reaction of the new Syrian opposition leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, at a “Friends of Syria” meeting in Morocco; the decision must be “reexamined”. Virtually all “rebel” outfits publicly declared their undying love for the hardcore al-Nusrah.

So with the al-Nusrah fanatics probably disguising their Islamically correct beards under a prosaic hoodie, expect plenty more “rebel” advances on Damascus – despite two major beatings (last July and then this month), courtesy of Syrian government counter-offensives. After all, that lavish training by US, British and Jordanian Special Forces has got to yield some results, not to mention the loads of extra lethal weapons provided by those paragons of democracy in the Persian Gulf. By the way, the al-Nusrah Front controls sections of devastated Aleppo.

Sectarian Hatred Rules

Then there’s the Orwellian, brand new National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces – a Washington-Doha co-production. Meet the new boss, same as the old (lousy) boss, which was the Syrian National Council (SNC). It’s just rhetoric; the only thing that matters for the “National Coalition” is to get more lethal weapons. And they love al-Nusrah, even if Washington doesn’t.

Qatar unloaded tons of weapons “like candy” (according to a US arms dealer) in “liberated” Libya. Only after the Benghazi blowback did the Pentagon and the State Department wake up to the fact that weaponizing the Syrian rebels may be, well, the road to more blowback. Translation: Qatar will keep unloading tons of weapons in Syria. The US will keep “leading from behind”.

Expect more horrible sectarian massacres as the one in Aqrab. Here is the most authoritative version of what may have really happened. This proves once again that what the NATOGCC “rebels” are actually winning is the YouTube war. So expect more massive, relentless waves of spin and propaganda – with Western corporate media cheerleading of the Syrian “freedom fighters” putting to shame the 1980s jihad in Afghanistan.

Expect more major distortions of context, as when Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said, “The fighting will become even more intense, and [Syria] will lose tens of thousands and, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of civilians… If such a price for the removal of the president seems acceptable to you, what can we do? We, of course, consider it absolutely unacceptable.”

Ergo, Russia is trying to do everything to prevent this from happening. And if NATOGCC “rebels” carry out their threats to attack the Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Damascus, they had better trim their beards and run for cover from the no-nonsense Spetnatz – Russian Special Forces.

Expect more sectarian hatred, as in Sunni Sheikh and al-Jazeera star Yusuf al-Qaradawi casually issuing a fatwa legitimizing the killing of millions of Syrians, be they military or civilian, as long as they are Alawites or Shi’ites.

Sectarian hatred will rule, with Qatar in the lead, followed by Saudis with large pocketbooks and assorted hardcore Islamists. Agenda; war against Shi’ites, against Alawites, against secularists, even against moderates, not only in Syria but all across the Middle East.

A Patriot vs Iskander face-off

The new Syrian Army strategy boils down to a major pull back from countryside backwaters and bases, concentrating their troops in cities and towns.

Expect the overall strategy of the NATOGCC club to remain more or less the same; bog down the Syrian Army in as many areas as possible; demoralize them; and keep oiling the terrain for a possible North Atlantic Treaty Organization intervention (the chemical weapons hype and the relentless carping over a “humanitarian catastrophe” are part of the extensive psy ops package).

The Syrian Army may have the heavy weapons; but when confronting a tsunami of mercenaries and Salafi-jihadists fully trained and weaponized by the NATOGCC club, the whole thing may take years, Lebanon civil war-style. That leads us to the next “best” option – which is in fact a spin-off; the death of the Syrian state by a thousand, make it a million, cuts.

What’s certain is that the “coalition of the willing” against Syria will have no trouble unraveling once the endgame is reached. Washington bets on a post-Assad regime run by the MB. No wonder King Playstation in Jordan is freaking out; he knows the MB will also take over Jordan and expel him to permanently shop at Harrods.

Those paragons of democracy – the medieval petro-monarchies in the Persian Gulf – are also freaking out; they fear the popular appeal of the MB like the plague. Syrian Kurdistan – now definitely on its way to total autonomy and eventually freedom – already keeps Ankara freaking out. Not to mention the future prospect of a tsunami of unemployed Salafi-jihadis merrily ensconced in the Syria-Turkish border and ready to run amok.

And then there’s the complex Turkey-Iran relationship. Tehran has already warned Ankara in no uncertain terms about the just-to-be-deployed NATO missile defense system.

That’s got to be the newspeak masterpiece of late 2012. Pentagon spokesman George Little has been adamant that “the United States has been supporting Turkey in its efforts to defend itself… [against Syria].”

Thus the deployment of 400 US troops to Turkey to run two Patriot missile batteries, to “defend” Turkey from “potential threats emanating from Syria”.

Translation; this has nothing to do with Turkey, it’s all about the Russian military in Syria. Moscow has given Damascus not only very effective, hypersonic Iskander surface-to-surface missiles (virtually immune to missile defense systems) but the ground-to-air, multiple target defense system Pechora 2M, a nightmare to the Pentagon if ever a no-fly zone is imposed over Syria.

Welcome to the Patriot vs Iskander face-off. And right in the line of fire, we find Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan – an outsized egomaniac harboring a deep inferiority complex in relation to the Europeans – left in the cold under NATO’s master plan.

Turkey’s Achilles heel (apart from the Kurds) is its self-promoted role of being a crossroads of energy between East and West. The problem is Turkey depends on energy supplies from both Iran and Russia; unwisely, it is antagonizing both, at the same time, with its muddled Syrian policy.

All I hear is doom and gloom.

How to solve this tragedy? No one seems to be listening to Syrian Vice President Farouk Al-Sharaa. In this interview with Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar, he stresses “the threat of the current campaign to destroy Syria, its history, civilization, and people… With every passing day, the solution gets further away, militarily and politically. We must be in the position of defending Syria’s existence.”

He does not have “a clear answer to what the solution may be”. But he has a road map:

Any settlement, whether starting with talks or agreements between Arab, regional, or foreign capitals, cannot exist without a solid Syrian foundation. The solution has to be Syrian, but through a historic settlement, which would include the main regional countries, and the members of UN Security Council. This settlement must include stopping all shapes of violence, and the creation of a national unity government with wide powers. This should be accompanied by the resolution of sensitive dossiers related to the lives of people and their legitimate demands.

This is not what the NATOGCC compound wants – even as the US, Britain, France, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are all engaged in their own divergent agendas. What the NATOGCC war has already accomplished is one objective – very similar, by the way, to Iraq in 2003; it has completely torn the fragile Syrian social fabric to shreds.

That is disaster capitalism in action, phase I; the terrain is already prepared for a profitable “reconstruction” of Syria once a pliable, pro-Western turbo-capitalism government is installed.

Yet in parallel, blowback also works its mysterious ways; millions of Syrians who initially supported the idea of a pro-democracy movement – from the business classes in Damascus to traders in Aleppo – now have swelled the government support base as a counterpunch against the gruesome ethnic-religious cleansing promoted by the “rebels” of the al-Nusrah kind.

Yet with NATOGCC on one side and Iran-Russia on the other side, ordinary Syrians caught in the crossfire have nowhere to go. NATOGCC will stop at nothing to carve – in blood – any dubious entity ranging from a pro-US emirate to a pro-US “democracy” run by the MB. It’s not hard to see for whom the bell tolls in Syria; it tolls not for thee, as in John Donne, but for doom, gloom, death and destruction.

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His most recent book is Obama Does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com

This column originally appeared on Asia Times.


UN Syria “Peace Plan” a Fraud

by Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer

December 28, 2012 (LD) – UN “peace envoy” Lakhdar Brahimi  is attempting to broker a transitional government ahead of proposed elections in Syria. For Brahimi, his efforts are not only in vain, they are entirely disingenuous. The proposal of a “transitional government” in the midst of what is in fact a foreign invasion, funded, armed, and perpetuated openly by foreign interests violates both Syria’s sovereignty and the UN’s own founding charter. It would be not unlike a UN envoy visiting Poland at the beginning of World War II, and proposing a transitional government in the midst of the Nazi invasion. The UN would clearly be a facilitator of injustice, not a broker of peace.

The LA Times reports in their article, “Lakhdar Brahimi works to revive Syria peace plan“:

“Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi made a new push Thursday to draw Syrian officials and rebels into negotiations, aiming to revive a plan for a transitional government and elections that faltered because of disagreements over the future of President Bashar Assad.”

The UN has categorically failed to delineate between legitimate opposition inside of Syria, and bands of roving armed terrorists committing wide scale atrocities against the Syrian people – many of whom are not even from Syria, all of whom are heavily armed by the US, NATO, and its regional allies including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar as part of a long standing plan to effect regime change in both Syria and Iran. The Western press is not only supporting the UN’s disingenuous efforts, it has gone through great lengths to delegitimize any opposition in Syria that refuses to pick up arms, or that speaks out against foreign intervention.

While the LA Times attempts to make the UN plan seem reasonable, with only Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia standing in the way of peace, in reality, the plan is yet another effort to frame the conflict as a political struggle instead of the foreign invasion it actually is.

Syria is Being Invaded by Foreign Terrorists

The armed “rebels” the UN is refusing to condemn, constitute foreign Al Qaeda fighters, including theUS State Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf)-listed international terrorist organization, the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), Al Nusra also known as “Al Qaeda in Iraq,” and Syrian Muslim Brotherhood extremists. None of these terrorist factions would be negotiated with by Western nations if by some means their weapons turned from Syria and back toward the West. Yet the West demands that they not only be recognized and negotiated with, but indeed handed the entire nation of Syria to rule over.

In November 2011, the Telegraph in their article, “Leading Libyan Islamist met Free Syrian Army opposition group,” would report:

Abdulhakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, “met with Free Syrian Army leaders in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey,” said a military official working with Mr Belhadj. “Mustafa Abdul Jalil (the interim Libyan president) sent him there.”

Another Telegraph article, “Libya’s new rulers offer weapons to Syrian rebels,” would admit

Syrian rebels held secret talks with Libya’s new authorities on Friday, aiming to secure weapons and money for their insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

At the meeting, which was held in Istanbul and included Turkish officials, the Syrians requested “assistance” from the Libyan representatives and were offered arms, and potentially volunteers.
“There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria,” said a Libyan source, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There is a military intervention on the way. Within a few weeks you will see.”

Later that month, some 600 Libyan terrorists would be reported to have entered Syria to begin combat operations and in July 2012, CNN, whose Ivan Watson accompanied terrorists over the Turkish-Syrian border and into Aleppo, revealed that indeed foreign fighters were amongst the militants, particularly Libyans. It was admitted that:

Meanwhile, residents of the village where the Syrian Falcons were headquartered said there were fighters of several North African nationalities also serving with the brigade’s ranks.
A volunteer Libyan fighter has also told CNN he intends to travel from Turkey to Syria within days to add a “platoon” of Libyan fighters to armed movement.

CNN also added:

On Wednesday, CNN’s crew met a Libyan fighter who had crossed into Syria from Turkey with four other Libyans. The fighter wore full camouflage and was carrying a Kalashnikov rifle. He said more Libyan fighters were on the way.

The foreign fighters, some of them are clearly drawn because they see this as … a jihad. So this is a magnet for jihadists who see this as a fight for Sunni Muslims.

In essence, Syria has been under invasion for nearly a year by Libyan terrorists. Additionally, in the immediate aftermath of the US recognizing its own handpicked “opposition coalition” as the “representatives of the Syrian people,” its leader, Moaz al-Khatib, immediately demanded that the US lift sanctions on Al Qaeda terrorist organization al-Nusra.

Reuters quoted al-Khatib as saying:

“The decision to consider a party that is fighting the regime as a terrorist party needs to be reviewed. We might disagree with some parties and their ideas and their political and ideological vision. But we affirm that all the guns of the rebels are aimed at overthrowing the tyrannical criminal regime.”

Not only is the West refusing to acknowledge that Syria’s conflict is one of foreign and domestic terrorism, it is actively arming, funding, and offering safe haven to these terrorist factions. NATO-member Turkey is directly complicit in facilitating Libya’s extraterritorial aggression by hosting Libyan fighters within its borders, while coordinating their funding, arming, and logistics as they cross the Turkish-Syrian border. Along Turkey’s borders also facilitating Libya’s invasion of Syria, is America’s CIA.

The New York Times admitted in June 2012 in their article, “C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition,” that “CIA officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey,” and directing weapons including, “automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and some antitank weapons.” The NYT implicates Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar as the primary underwriters for the weapons while the CIA coordinates the logistics.

https://i0.wp.com/www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/content/2012/0224-friends-of-syria-conference/11843662-1-eng-US/0224-friends-of-syria-conference_full_600.jpg

Image: The “Friends of Syria” represent many of the co-conspirators described in Seymour Hersh’s extensive 9 page report “The Redirection.” Syria’s violence is not the result of an indigenous uprising carrying “political aspirations,” but rather the conspiring and machinations of the global elite, who long-ago  premeditated the destruction of Syria for their own, larger, overarching geopolitical agenda.

….

US policy versus Syria stretches as far back as 2007, where US officials admitted that they planned to overthrow the government of Syria with foreign-sectarian extremists, using nations like Saudi Arabia to channel funds and weapons through – specifically to maintain the illusion that they were somehow not involved.

Seymour Hersh’s lengthy 9 page report, “The Redirection” published in the New Yorker in 2007 exposes US plans to use clandestine means to overthrow the government of Syria in a wider effort to undermine and destroy Iran. “A by-product of these activities,” writes Hersh, “has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.”

Al-Nusra are openly affiliates of Al Qaeda. To say that Libya’s LIFG are “sympathetic to Al Qaeda” would, however, be misleading. It is Al Qaeda.

LIFG merged with the US-Saudi created terror organization in 2007, according to the US Army’s West Point Combating Terrorism Center report, “Al-Qa’ida’s Foreign Fighters in Iraq:”

The apparent surge in Libyan recruits traveling to Iraq may be linked the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group’s (LIFG) increasingly cooperative relationship with al‐Qa’ida, which culminated in the LIFG officially joining al‐Qa’ida on November 3, 2007. (page 9, .pdf)

Hersh’s report would continue by stating, “the Saudi government, with Washington’s approval, would provide funds and logistical aid to weaken the government of President Bashir Assad, of Syria.” This included billions to pro-Saudi factions in Lebanon who were propping up militant groups linked to Al Qaeda. These militant groups are now crossing over the Lebanese-Syrian border to join their Libyan counterparts.

Clearly the conspiracy being pieced together and executed in 2007, described by Seymour Hersh citing a myriad of US, Saudi, and Lebanese sources, is unfolding before our eyes. It was a conspiracy hatched of mutual US-Israeli-Saudi interests, not based on humanitarian concerns or “democracy,” but rather on toppling sovereign nations seen as a threat to their collective extraterritorial influence throughout the region.

The UN’s failure to acknowledge a documented conspiracy by foreign interests to violently overthrow the government of Syria (and eventually Iran) once again exposes the international body as a tool for special interests. Its attempts to broker a “peace plan” between foreign terrorists invading Syria as proxies for Western powers, lacks any dimension of legitimacy. The Syrian government and its allies must redouble their efforts to frame the conflict as the invasion that it is – and call for both support and patience globally while Syria confronts and defeats these foreign invaders and the foreign interests arming and driving them.

Lakhdar Brahimi, like Kofi Annan before him, is simply buying time for the West’s crumbling narrative. Syria and its allies must finally let it crumble, so the real business of saving Syria can get underway – through nation-wide anti-terrorism security operations, and the diplomatic confrontation of foreign interests supporting terrorism in and around Syria.


Military Escalation, Dangerous Crossroads: Russia-US Confrontation in Syria?

by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
December 15, 2012

On December 14, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed a Pentagon order to deploy 400 US missile troops to Turkey.  According to Washington, the security of Turkey, NATO’s heavyweight, is threatened.  US military personnel will to be deployed to Turkey in the coming weeks to operate two US Patriot missile batteries.

According to the Pentagon’s spokesman, George Little:

“The United States has been supporting Turkey in its efforts to defend itself,… [against Syria]

“I’m not going to go into precise locations at this time, he added, “but I wanted to let you…know that we signed that order and that we are prepared in the context of NATO to support the defense of Turkey for an unspecified period of time.”

“The purpose of this deployment is to signal very strongly that the United States, working closely with our NATO allies, is going to support the defense of Turkey, especially with potential threats emanating from Syria,”  US Air Force News, December 14, 2012)

The Patriot surface-to-air interceptors are deployed to deal  “with threats that come out of Syria” According to U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. these threats “include Syrian strikes inside Turkey and fighting between the government and rebels that extends into Turkey”  (CNN, December 14, 2012):

“We can’t spend a lot of time worrying about whether that pisses off Syria,” said Panetta [sic] after signing the order Friday. (Ibid, emphasis added)

In addition to the US missile deployment, Germany and the Netherlands have confirmed that they will also deploy Patriot missiles in Turkey directed against Syria.

Not mentioned in the official Pentagon statement, this buildup of patriot missile batteries is not only directed against Syria, it is intended to confront Russia’s military presence  in Syria as well  as its support to the development of Syria’s air defense system.

The US-NATO Led Insurgency

The Pentagon’s initiative in Turkey is part of the US-NATO-Israeli led insurgency against Syria. In recent months, this insurgency has evolved towards an unofficial (yet de facto) allied invasion characterized by the presence inside Syria of French, British, Turkish and Qatari Special Forces.

These Special Forces are “embedded” within rebel ranks. They are not only participating in the training of rebel forces, they are also involved in de facto paramilitary command and coordination, in liaison with NATO.

In other words, member states of the Atlantic Alliance through their Special Forces and intelligence operatives on the ground  largely determines the nature and thrust of rebel activities. Of significance, the main fighting force directly recruited and trained by US-NATO, Saudi Arabia and Qatar is the Al Nusra Front, (see image right) an Al Qaeda affiliated militia involved in countless terrorist acts against civilians.

The Broader Middle East War

The US Patriot missile deployment in Turkey is part of a regional process of  militarization which includes the establishment of US command posts and the stationing of American troops in Jordan and Israel.  This  regional military deployment also threatens Iran.

Moreover, US-NATO-Israeli war preparations with regard to Syria are coordinated with those pertaining to Iran. The command posts in Israel, which oversee some 1000 US troops, in coordination with Israel’s IDF, are under the jurisdiction of  US European Command (EUCOM).

In a recent statement Iran’s chief of staff warned that the stationing of Patriot anti-missile batteries on Turkey’s border with Syria “was setting the stage for world war”

It is worth noting that in addition to the Patriot missiles in Turkey, Patriot batteries targeted at Iran have also been deployed to Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain (2010).

[READ MORE…]


NATO Turns Up Heat in Syria Psy-War

by Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer
December 15, 2012

NATO tells tales of recently launched “Scud missiles” to retroactively justify Patriot missile deployment months in the making.  

December 15, 2012 (LD) –  In a recent bid to psychologically break Syria’s government and military leadership, producing long sought-after defections, US-led NATO has decided to place Patriot missile systems along the Turkish-Syrian border. The announcement was made as far back as November with NATO Source Alliance News Blog reporting:

“Turkey plans to officially request NATO deploy a Patriot missile defense system in its territories as a security precaution against a potential large-scale military offensive from Syria as Syrian shelling on the border raises tensions.”

As this threat’s credibility diminishes, NATO has retroactively justified their November decision with a new tale of “Scud missiles” landing “fairly close” to the Turkish border, according to Reuters. Within the same report, “Scud missiles” would be downgraded to “Scud-style ballistic missiles,” in what appears to be immediate backpedaling that casts doubt on the entire narrative.

Syria has denied the accusations, and in response, no evidence has been provided by NATO, with the claims emanating apparently from unnamed “US officials” claiming to cite undisclosed “intelligence information.” It is very likely that more fabricated incidents will be announced as the missiles are put into position.

Within the pages of the March 2012 Brookings Institution Middle East Memo #21 “Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf),” it was stated explicitly that Turkey and Israel would coordinate with one another to apply pressure along Syria’s borders, in turn putting pressure on Syria’s leadership, forcing panic and defections while reducing pressure on NATO-armed militants operating inside the country. The report states on page 6:

In addition, Israel’s intelligence services have a strong knowledge of Syria, as well as assets within the Syrian regime that could be used to subvert the regime’s power base and press for Asad’s removal. Israel could posture forces on or near the Golan Heights and, in so doing, might divert regime forces from suppressing the opposition. This posture may conjure fears in the Asad regime of a multi-front war, particularly if Turkey is willing to do the same on its border and if the Syrian opposition is being fed a steady diet of arms and training. Such a mobilization could perhaps persuade Syria’s military leadership to oust Asad in order to preserve itself. Advocates argue this additional pressure could tip the balance against Asad inside Syria, if other forces were aligned properly. –(page 6), Assessing Options for Regime Change, Brookings Institution.

Apparently Turkey has not produced a sufficiently credible threat, and the deployment of 400 US troops manning Patriot missile systems under the NATO flag is meant to give “teeth” to this strategy.

It may also be a means to ensure that if an incident is staged, as US Senator John McCain advocates, where in if the Patriots are used to engage Syrian aircraft operating within Syrian borders to create a defacto “no-fly zone,” the presence of US troops will deter a Syrian counter attack and allow the no-fly zone to remain in effect – providing cover for terrorists operating in northern Syria, including the now admitted Al Qaeda faction, Jabhat Al-Nusra.

NATO Wages a Psychological War

The actual threat Syria poses to Turkish territory is non-existent. Syria gains nothing strategically by attacking Turkey despite numerous intentional provocations. And despite Turkey’s support for intentional terrorists seeking safe haven within its territory, receiving arms, equipment, and cash from NATO, and more specifically the United States CIA, Syria has still successfully ground down these terrorists as they enter and attempt to establish footholds across the country.

The placement of Patriot missiles is a necessary escalation for NATO, who is otherwise losing both time and credibility daily. The clock is also ticking for the inevitable collapse of its newly created opposition “coalition,” which is filling the already collapsed footprint of the recently abandoned “Syrian National Council” (SNC).

Despite a concerted effort by the Western media to portray the Syrian government as on the perpetual verge of collapse, no precise details have been given of actual terrorist gains. The psychological campaign was heightened when the Western media attempted for several news cycles to claim Russia was abandoning Damascus, another unsubstantiated claim Russia itself has since denied.

A force on the verge of real victory does not need to fabricate gains to psychologically diminish the strength of its opponent – real gains, even if embellished, have significantly greater impact. Despite claims made by the Western media – much of what is said by analysts are best guesses.

The actual tactical and strategic lay of the battlefield is privy to a select few within Syria, and amongst its adversaries and allies. To make any meaningful impact on the Syrian government’s leadership and supporting factions, real gains will need to be made – gains that have thus far failed to materialize after 2 years of NATO aggression against the nation.

Much can be garnered however, by the measures taken by those who do understand the actual strategic and tactical factors at play. The Western media’s repeated attempts to portray the Syrian government as taking increasingly desperate “defensive” measures have turned out to be false, betraying not only the image of weakness the West attempts to project upon Damascus, but betraying the image of strength the West attempts to project upon itself and its proxy forces.

Unity is Still Syria’s Best Option 

As stated many times before, the West has extended itself too far, its credibility and operational capacity is waning by the day. It has no choice but to continue pushing forward in hopes that all before it lacks the fortitude to stand up and fight. An essential component of its strategy is creating division and defections amongst its targeted adversaries while fallaciously multiplying its own forces to expedite an otherwise untenable and unsustainable military campaign.

In nations like Vietnam or Afghanistan, where the population absolutely refused to submit to foreign occupation and internal subversion, the West has been repeatedly defeated. The West will not stop until either Syria is divided and destroyed or the West itself crumbles in the midst of its untenable foreign conquest.

http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20110406&t=2&i=380594548&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=img-2011-04-07T022610Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-561712-1

Image: General Abdul Fattah Younis‘ reward for accepting offers to “power share” with the Libyan rebels was his assassination. Capitulation, division, and defecting are not real options.

….

Furthermore, defection, capitulation, and failure are not options. In Libya, a campaign NATO is attempting to scale up and repeat in Syria, otherwise superior forces folded in the face of psychological operations. A failure to adapt to NATO’s military tactics and a lack of leadership or understanding as to the consequences of losing the country to bands of genocidal terrorists has cost Libya the ultimate price.

Syria has shown remarkable resilience in contrast. It must continue to do so. Syria’s fate will be that of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, or worse if it falls. Unity is Syria’s only option.


Opposition slams Turkish government over Patriots missiles

PressTV
December 17, 2012

Patriot missile system (file photo)

Turkey’s main opposition party has criticized the ruling Justice and Development Party over the deployment of Patriot missiles along the country’s border with Syria.

During a Sunday parliamentary session at which the country’s budget plan for 2013 was to be discussed, a heated debate on foreign policy broke out between Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy leader Osman Koruturk, English-language newspaperToday’s Zaman reported.

“Turkey had never lost so much dignity in the eyes of its neighbors [as it has today],” Koruturk said.

He noted that Ankara maintained good relations with Tehran, Baghdad and Damascus in the past, and even mediated negotiations between Damascus and Tel Aviv over the Golan Heights.

“Today, we are at daggers drawn with all these,” Koruturk added.

The CHP deputy leader also criticized Turkey’s relations with NATO, stressing that Turkey is far from playing an active role in the Western military contingent.

“It looks as though major NATO members are directing Turkey through the alliance,” Koruturk said.

He highlighted that Syria is being used as an excuse for the deployment of Patriot missiles, and said the real aim for such a deployment is to protect the radar in the Kurecik district of Malatya province, which reportedly protects Israel.

NATO has approved of Turkey’s request for the deployment of Patriot surface-to-air missiles in its territory.

The agreement emerged from a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on December 4 despite strong opposition from Russia, Syria and Iran.

On December 14, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed orders to authorize the plan to deploy Patriot missile batteries and about 400 troops to Turkey following the announcement of a similar move by Germany.

MP/SZH


‘Jihadists may use chemical weapons to ethnically cleanse Syria’ [video]

Russia Today
December 10, 2012

Syrian political activist Yazan Abdallah shared with RT information that jihadist groups inside Syria might use chemical weapons to conduct “ethnic cleansing” against certain sectarian groups. READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/6lkeby

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