To many of us who have been in conflict zones without a sanitised cordon around us, and actually seen the effects close-up (and that excludes almost all of the political class), it is astonishing that the neo-cons constantly seek to promote war, any war. They just cannot sit comfortably unless we are blowing somebody, somewhere, limb from limb.
Little Aylan Kurdi and his family were fleeing Kobani, a town the US Air Force have been bombing relentlessly for weeks. Bombs are entirely agnostic over who they kill, and have not made life notably better for the population.
Yet the news media are now insistently beating the drum for British bombing in Syria. Who should be bombed exactly – ISIL or Assad – appears unimportant, so long as there is bombing. Indeed, the Murdoch Sky News, the Mail and the Blairites are contriving to build a narrative that Jeremy Corbyn, the SNP and bleeding hearts like myself are responsible for the death of little Aylan and hundreds like him, by unreasonable and inhuman opposition to a bit more bombing.
It is very reminiscent of the entirely fake narrative of a (non-existent) tank column sweeping down to massacre every civilian in Benghazi, to halt which we had to murder, by bombing, many thousands of civilians in Sirte, several hundred miles away and containing no tank columns. The people of Benghazi went on to show their gratitude by killing the US Ambassador, while Libya disintegrated into a violent mess with no effective government that could control activities like drug and people smuggling.
That worked well, didn’t it? Of course we should try something similar in Syria.
ISIL is a bastard child of the Iraq War. A bastard child of Bush and Blair. Its weapons are almost entirely American. Some have been captured from Iraqi forces, others were gifted to it by the Saudi/CIA sponsors of its original constituent parts. The countless deaths of children we inflicted by bombing in the Iraq war will fuel it for another two generations.
Never mind old bean. Nothing a spot more bombing won’t sort out, eh?
Is this the Oded Yinon plan in action or something bigger?
Utterly cynical emotional blackmail by people who do not give a fig for the sanctity of human life.
I fully expect Corbyn will put them to the shame they deserve.
Well Said Craig.
Sponsor’s include Toyota..Brand New Jeeps, As Far as the Eye can See…Lets Start a Rebellion … Easy
http://www.globalresearch.ca/twenty-six-things-about-the-islamic-state-isil-that-obama-does-not-want-you-to-know-about/5414735
Why The US, UK, EU and Israel Want To Destroy Syria
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36173.htm
Syria what is really going on and why
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4vD6JpJAFI
Let’s Bomb Syria.. Worlds largest Arms Fair!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLPsnz-w_bM
It is my experience of just about all people that they always exercise whatever power they have-fully. This operates at all levels, even the most petty . It applies in the nursery as well as the cabinet office, or boardrom, and especially at the bureaucratic level. As people ‘develop’ or grow into positions of authority or influence – the distribution of power becomes asymmetric, and becomes more and more concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. At the same time their thoughts are accorded more and more unconsidered privilege, simply because they have acquired power.
People without power become either: passive and accepting, of their plight and resigned, or wriggle, mostly ineffectively, to escape the yoke.
People with power become more and more detached from the realities of their actions and become fully self-justifying. Ultimately they are left with only the invocation of God(s) to cover their shameless cruelty.
‘It is very reminiscent of the entirely fake narrative of a (non-existent) tank column sweeping down to massacre every civilian in Benghazi, to halt which we had to murder, by bombing, many thousands of civilians in Sirte, several hundred miles away and containing no tank columns. The people of Benghazi went on to show their gratitude by killing the US Ambassador, while Libya disintegrated into a violent mess with no effective government that could control activities like drug and people smuggling.’
This isn’t correct. My son was in Benghazi at that time, Gaddafi did start bombarding the city and the citizens most certainly believed there was going to be a massacre. Benghazi had always been a thorn in the flesh for Gaddafi with students being gunned down during protests, public hangings etc. The citizens of Benghazi actually helped rescue the US ambassador and many Libyans condemned the attacks and praised the late ambassador. They staged public demonstrations condemning the militias which were suspected of the attacks.
“ISIL is a bastard child of the Iraq War. A bastard child of Bush and Blair. Its weapons are almost entirely American. Some have been captured from Iraqi forces, others were gifted to it by the Saudi/CIA sponsors of its original constituent parts. The countless deaths of children we inflicted by bombing in the Iraq war will fuel it for another two generations.”
Precisely. It is a bastard child but it has also been sponsored for its education by one its bastard parents, if not both.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-trained-isis-at-secret-jordan-base/5387532
It is clear, like you say, they do not mind who they bomb. They do not mind who they kill. Yet in the minds of some it is not the US and UK that are guilty but media-created pariahs who lead the countries they bomb. I hold no candles for Middle Eastern leaders, or any world leaders, certainly not ours, but we have no right to bomb these countries any more than Hitler had the right to march into the Sudetenland.
Our reputation worldwide ought to be zero. Sadly too many are seduced into believing MSM reports. I saw a cartoon recently with a shepherd one end of the field and sheepdog the other. The sheep were in a group except for one, which said: “I’m sure the man and dog are working together.” The response was: “You and your conspiracy theories, Cyril.” Says it all!
Craig is right to highlight the deceitfulness of Western claims of humanitarian objectives in Libya when regime change was the real objective.
Apart from the chaos this bombing campaign over Libya unleashed – two competing governments, vicious civil strife, CIA ‘rat-runs’ of weapons to jihadis, blown open weapons caches to the benefit of groups from Tuareg to Boko Haram, boatloads of refugees – the deliberate hoodwinking of Russia and China at the UNSC has had arguably even worse consequences, since it has totally destroyed trust between US/UK and Russia – and so immensely complicated the search for any solution to the yet greater tragedy in Syria.
Lawrenceab,
Absolutely. And it should not be forgotten that the Security Council only agreed to the enforcement of a no-fly zone, not the massive ground-bombing campaign which ensued.
Sorry but I am rattled today:
Let me tell Lord Carey (no pun intended) if Britain bombs Syria without UN approval on the false pretext of combating a terrorist entity initially created by the Western alliance, we move from a bound state where the Syrian army is fighting terrorism in it’s first duty to protect to the higher energy level of international crisis and the very real impetus towards world conflict and holocaust.
This must be the Grand Game, A LAST DITCH ATTEMPT to wrench power and bounty back into Western union at the shocking and ’aweful’ consequence of a million souls whose time has ceased.
That is the reality Lord Carey and that truth & sensibility is already planted in the minds of intelligent, sensitive and tuned in public, communities and nations.
Lord Carey you are a presumptive, adulterated bastard willing to sacrifice the innocent for your monstrous be-all & end-all annihilation.
I and us will struggle stop you and the hidden peerage that pulls the this government’s strings.
http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/war.crimes/World.war.2/Air.Control.htm
Basically this who crisis is meant as a threat to the peoples of Europe: Either bomb Syria on behalf of Israel or you’ll be swamped by millions more immigrants. The mainstream media is a disgrace, as usual, in peddling this propaganda, and betraying their readers.
Sorry about typo – should read ‘whole crisis’ of course.
Ruth
7 Sep, 2015 – 10:21 am
“Gaddafi did start bombarding the city and the citizens most certainly believed there was going to be a massacre.”
With all due respect to you and your son, how do you know it was “Gaddafi” doing the bombardment?
‘False flag’ operations have been extremely common throughout history, including recent history (though it usually takes quite some time to ‘come out’), so in the absence of conclusive evidence, one needs to bear this fact in mind, especially when ‘someone’ is loudly proposing ‘retaliation’.
“The citizens of Benghazi actually helped rescue the US ambassador and many Libyans condemned the attacks”
This is not surprising. 99.99% of Muslims around the world condemned 9/11 2001, and it seems unlikely that there were no muslims among the many people doing what they could to help the rescuers and survivors.
And the irrefutable fact remains that Libyan citizens in general were better off (to put it mildly) before western allied forces destroyed their country.
I am moved to tears by your passionate words against war Craig and commend you for them.
Having just heard of the death in the night of my **niece’s husband who has been in ICU in Southmead Hospital for weeks post operatively, I know how just one death will devastate a family so multiply the devastation wrought by war by millions and millions.
Mr Hollande is first in the queue for the bombing I read.
We are living in the most cruel of times.
~~
**My niece is the dear soul who left home and husband and her job as a carer to look after me last year when I was poorly and needed help. I was told by one of Branson’s ‘community matrons’ that I was on a ‘virtual ward’ and that no help was forthcoming from Virgincare who have taken over Surrey’s NHS Community Services. I still have the leaflet! she left and the brown envelope on which she wrote a list of private care agencies and care homes while she sat on the bed watching a nutrition nurse from the oncology team instructing me how to use my stomach tube for liquid feeding and drug delivery.
I obviously compensated my niece for what she did for me for a couple of weeks and then managed on my own afterwards.
Here is some more confirmation that Craig is not just blowing smoke in regards to US (and its allies) supporting and manipulating ISIS in order to destroy Syria and get rid of Assad.
Yes, pretty much sums things up.
Amazing that the MSM get away with so much falsehood. The only commentator in the MSM who tells the truth seems to be Peter Hitchens, and he is dismissed as being off the wall.
Having said which, I think there was a dispute between him and the Mail, and one of his columns was spiked.
I hold Blair, Cameron, Israel, Turkey & GCC responsible for the Syrian genocide. The End.
The suppressed facts and actualities that are replaced with the oligarch owned media narrative, in cahoots with the selected political leaders busy discharging their duties for their sponsors the banksters. These have brought about a an echo chamber in which there exists no other alternative other than war, war, war, and even more war!
The reality of the shit, blood and piss mixed with mangled flesh, and bone fragments of mostly civilians victims of the bombs are far too horrific to be shown on the TV new packages. As these scenes are far too upsetting upsetting for the viewers to watch. Although the same cosseted viewers are then invited to support the bombing runs that will leave the unholy and evil massacre of the civilians a world away, in the way of spreading;”our democracy and freedom brand”.
Our political systems have been hijacked, our moral turpitude has been worsened all in the way of facilitating the sequestration of wealth from those lesser powerful into the deep pockets of the banksters. The same shameless banksters whose proxy mercenaries posing as our armies are sent in as marauding hoards of vandals to wreak destruction from loft with the latest miracles of technology that can kill, burn and blow apart more than before.
Reading the comments in the last few threads ought to leave not a shadow of a doubt that those bent on destruction on the industrial scale and cheer for more deaths and mass murder. These zombies are only the visible hyphae of the dry rot that is destroying the humanity from within.
No one should be in any doubt that;
Wars today!
Wars tomorrow!
Wars forever!
Mantra is laying the ground for their destruction, ie our own destruction. These blood thirsty warmongers monsters promoting wars across the planet will not rest until the last man standing has fallen; that means you the reader!
CM – “Bombs are entirely agnostic over who they kill”
Yes, indeed they are. Apparently, in the first three days of Bush’s “Shock & Awe” bombardment of Baghdad, the sum total of “smart”, “laser-precise” bombs that hit its target was zero! (If I remember correctly, that was written by Robert Fisk).
I agree with Mary that we are living in the cruelest of times. I was also moved to tears recently by a Jeremy Scahill documentary called “Bitter Wars”.
The episode that really got to me in the film was the “accidental” US missile attack on an Afghan village meeting of tribal elders. I believe the number of elders killed was twenty-seven (they had come from far and wide in the region and were ALL killed).
Why it got to me so much was the fact that these elders, and the way in which they carried out their societal roles were the epitome of true democracy.
They may not have been ‘learned men of letters’ but their combined wisdom (that is WISDOM – not to be confused with its poor relation, knowledge) in matters of things like social justice, dispute resolvement and democratic inclusiveness was irreplaceable – an entire region lost its leaders – REAL, RESPECTED leaders, not the CEO vavasours we have here in the west.
As a side note, there is a wonderful moment in Laura Poitras’ documentary on Iraq, “My Country, My Country” when she is filming the Iraqi doctor and his family sitting in their living room watching TV, and the loud sound of bombs going off not very far away is met by the doctor’s glance toward the window and the wry comment “so this is the democracy they are bringing us”. Priceless!
Syrian War-Islamic State (ISIS) Creation Timeline
Clustershambles made in the West.
Paul Dacre and The Daily Mail has been the only national newspaper consistently anti the Neo Cons and their wars (despite Melanie Phillips). Are you saying they have changed their tune?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-collateral-damage-of-us-nato-wars-europes-refugee-crisis-depraved-morality-of-uk-prime-minister-david-cameron/5473997
Craig’s St Andrews’s speech covered in this article.
Please everyone phone or email your MP –tell him/her not to be tricked into agreeing a no-fly zone —that is simply code for bombing the hell out of Syria.
Difficult one this, 2 years ago Cameron wanted to bomb Assad because he was bombing people, now Cameron wants to bomb the people bombing Assad.
On Libya, bearing mind Dearlove told Hutton,
“Q. Can I ask you about the intelligence leading up to the 45 minutes claim. When did you first become aware of this?
A. Can I just say, you use the word “claim”; I think I would prefer to refer to it as a piece of well sourced intelligence.
Q. Right. When did you first become aware of this well sourced piece of intelligence?”
Dealove told Chilcot “we discovered that Libya has an active nuclear weapons programme, which I think you have to bear in mind comes as something of a shock.”
But Blair persuaded Ghadaffi to give up his weapons in return for British protection.
Mi6 thought they knew all kinds of things eg Jack Straw was told Saddam definitely had been trying to get his hands on Uranium but he refused to tell the Americans where the intelligence came from (a bit like report X , I suppose). Anyway Straw fell out with the CIA and after saying the US were not fit to handle British intelligence and saying US intelligence was crap, the US retaliated by saying Dr David Kelly was no longer allowed access to US classified material, this was just a few days before Dr Kelly died.
Not ideal when you are at war against someone and your primary ally refuses to swap intelligence.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/1435994/We-were-right-about-uranium-Straw-tells-CIA.html
But I am sure things are better now and the rules have been simplified; we need to bomb Syria for no good reason and the targets don’t matter, just as long as Syria gets bombed, so the special relationship is not likely to be harmed further.
On a personal note—-My children’s grandmother still in Damascus does not want to be ‘saved’ by US/UK bombs.
Libya, Syria, Lies, Perfidies and Tony Blair
by Felicity Arbuthnot / June 24th, 2013. Any time bombs are used to target … And because of that Benghazi decided to act … Further: All these weapons are …
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2013/06/libya-syria-lies-perfidies-and-tony-blair/
Syria: Britain’s “Duplicity, Treachery and Infidelity”
by Felicity Arbuthnot / December 11th, 2012 … “diplomats” been overcome with a derring-do deficit after the terrible events of Benghazi on September 11th?
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/…/syria-britains-duplicity-treachery-and-infidelity/
Response to Nick Clegg, UK Deputy Prime Minister
Felicity Arbuthnot / March 21st, 2011. The welfare of the people in particular … Did not Britain and America call thirty tragic deaths in Benghazi a “massacre”?
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/…/an-open-letter-to-nick-clegg-uk-deputy-prime-minister/
Link 2
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/12/syria-britains-duplicity-treachery-and-infidelity/
Link 3
http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/03/an-open-letter-to-nick-clegg-uk-deputy-prime-minister/
Beth
7 Sep, 2015 – 11:48 am
” http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-collateral-damage-of-us-nato-wars-europes-refugee-crisis-depraved-morality-of-uk-prime-minister-david-cameron/5473997 ”
Thanks for the link. Great article.
Is that the same Peter Hitchens who wrote this pro racial purity muck and the same Paul Dacre who published it?
PETER HITCHENS: We won’t save refugees by destroying our own country
By Peter Hitchens
6 September 2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3223828/PETER-HITCHENS-won-t-save-refugees-destroying-country.html
Have you noticed the hyperbole being used in the media? We are being conditioned so that real war, death and tragedy are accepted.
eg Sky News when reporting an everyday occurrence, this being a fire.
‘Apocalyptic’ Fire Tears Through Shops And Flats
BBC on reporting an excessive amount of barbecues on Brighton beach
Barbecue ‘Armageddon’ on Brighton beaches – BBC News
Vladimir Putin told reporters on Thursday that Syrian migrants (refugees) are not running away from Bashar Army but ISIS.
In March 2015, Netanyahu said that ISIS is good for Israel and American should not fight against it in Syria or Iraq.
http://rehmat1.com/2015/09/07/putin-refugee-crisis-created-by-the-us-eu/