Syria: U.S. Special Ops Forces to Fight Against ISIS or Damascus?

[ckaihatsu]

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Syria: U.S. Special Ops Forces to Fight Against ISIS or Damascus?

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By Mazda Majidi
Apr 30, 2016

President Obama announced on April 28 that an additional 250 special operations forces will be deployed to Syria. Speaking in Hanover, Germany, Obama said: “Just as I approved additional support for Iraqi forces against ISIL, I’ve decided to increase U.S. support for local forces fighting ISIL in Syria.”

Even though Obama’s public rationale for deploying forces to Syria is the fight against ISIS, in reality the function of these troops is more likely to train and organize “moderate,” pro-imperialist “Free Syrian Army” rebels in Syria. While the FSA at times has had clashes with ISIS over control of territory, FSA’s mission is not to fight ISIS but to overthrow the secular state of Syria.

It has been nearly two years since the Islamic State gained control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. It is widely known that major operations are being planned in hopes of driving ISIS out of Mosul. So if defeating ISIS were the main objective of the deployment of additional forces, one would expect those forces to be deployed in Iraq, not in Syria.

Obama frames the new deployment in the context of recent battlefront victories against ISIS: “So given their success I’ve approved the deployment of up to 250 additional U.S. personnel in Syria including special forces to keep up this momentum.” But recent ISIS defeats have not been the product of battlefront victories by pro-West Syrian rebels or U.S. special ops forces. ISIS defeats have been at the hands of the Syrian Arab Army, simultaneously fighting ISIS and a conglomerate of other rebel forces, including Al Qaeda-allied Nusra Front and the U.S.-sponsored FSA.

The major battlefront in Syria in recent months has been Aleppo, Syria’s most populated city prior to the start of the civil war. Aleppo has long been divided between a government controlled section, an ISIS controlled section and a section controlled by other non-ISIS rebels, including the FSA. The Syrian army has been advancing on all fronts and severely limiting the supply lines to the various rebels, supply lines from NATO-member Turkey, which has long provided full support to the anti-government rebels.

In February, a cease fire, mediated by the UN Special Envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura, took effect. Against expectations, the cease fire held for some time. But as acknowledged by even de Mistura, the cessation of hostilities has now effectively fallen apart. De Mistura’s effort now is to negotiate a new cease fire. He has announced plans to visit Moscow shortly.

Ever since Russia’s air campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad started in September 2015, the tide of the Civil War has decisively turned in favor of Damascus. The Obama administration may now have given up hope of the pro-imperialist FSA to overthrow Assad and take over the country, a now most improbable outcome given the relative weakness of the FSA. However, the FSA is the strongest card the United States has to influence negotiations over the future of Syria. The Obama administration does not want the FSA to be annihilated or further weakened.

There were already 50 U.S. special ops forces deployed in Syria. This is the number acknowledged by Washington–the real number is likely much higher. The newly deployed special ops forces will try to prop up the decaying FSA, not to fight ISIS, but to fight the Syrian government.

This is a continuation of U.S. policy towards ISIS and Al Qaeda. It wants to use them while it suits Washington’s aims. If the U.S. priority were to fight ISIS, it would throw its support behind Syria’s government, by far the most significant force fighting against ISIS on the ground. But Damascus is too independent to suit Washington’s taste, so it must be overthrown. That continues to be as high a priority for Washington as the defeat of ISIS.

In the remaining months of the Obama administration, it is unlikely that we will see U.S. military presence in the region escalate into an all-out military intervention. However, Clinton and Trump, the presumptive nominees of the two major capitalist political parties, are both likely to pursue more hawkish foreign policies. Clinton’s tenure as the secretary of state shows that she is as pro-intervention a politician as any, as evident by her efforts to overthrow the Libyan state and cause its descent into its current miserable state, thanks to U.S./NATO bombing.

There is a real danger in the not so distant future of incremental increases in U.S. forces in Syria leading to another U.S. invasion. Such a development will have an uncertain prospect for reversing Washington’s fortune in creating a U.S. client state in Syria. But what is not uncertain, is that it will have disastrous consequences for the people of Syria and the rest of the region. The U.S. anti-war movement should unequivocally oppose U.S. deployment of forces in the region, large or small.
imperialism, iraq, middle east

Mazda Majidi

Mazda Majidi is a long-time activist for socialism and a member of the PSL. He has written extensively on U.S. intervention in the Middle East.

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[TheIrrationalist]

does the FSA even exist anymore? every time I hear now about syria it is always al-nusra that is fighting against the kurds and damascus. I'm amazed how the western propaganda machine's view on syria has even lasted this long.

[ckaihatsu]

does the FSA even exist anymore? every time I hear now about syria it is always al-nusra that is fighting against the kurds and damascus. I'm amazed how the western propaganda machine's view on syria has even lasted this long.


This is a good point about the FSA, which I noted myself -- my understanding has been that the U.S.' *SDF* has been coordinating with Syria against ISIS, though perhaps the CIA is still backing FSA efforts against Assad, *counterproductively*.

[TheIrrationalist]

sure, US is supporting SDF, so is Russia. but isn't al-nusra backed by major US allies in the region: Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar? and al-nusra is of course closely related to FSA, whatever they happen to be today. quite clearly it is 'FSA' that US says it is backing in the fight against damascus.

[ckaihatsu]

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#AleppoIsBurning: Building support for an imperialist agenda

By Chris Banks
May 05, 2016

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In its heyday during the mid-2000s, it was the Save Darfur campaign. A few years later, it was the Kony 2012 campaign. Today, we have the #AleppoIsBurning campaign. Like its predecessors, #AleppoIsBurning claims to be aimed at ending a humanitarian crisis through the mechanism of Western intervention, only this time not in the Sudan or in Uganda, but in Syria.

The power of social media is immense. With the Syrian army winning battlefront victories in Aleppo (Syria’s most populated city prior to the civil war) against anti-government rebels like ISIS, the Al Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front and the U.S.-backed “Free Syrian Army,” Obama has quintupled the number of special operations forces deployed to Syria. At the same time, social media-driven campaigns for increased Western “humanitarian” intervention have come to life on Facebook and Twitter.

Latest “humanitarian” interventionist fad

#AleppoIsBurning, a campaign begun on Facebook by the Syria Pressure Advocacy Group (SPAG), asked followers to change their profile picture to a red square and to join a “global protest” to “condemn the war crimes against humanity of the Assad regime and its allies” and to support “action” from the “international community.”

Like similar campaigns, it substitutes much-needed knowledge and information with accusations founded on distortions. For example, the campaign’s Facebook page suggests that all recent civilian deaths in Aleppo due to fighting are at the hands of the “Syrian regime,” when in reality 71 civilians, including 13 children, were killed in the last week of April from anti-government rebel shelling.

The #AleppoIsBurning call-to-action demands that the “international community” hold the “Assad regime” accountable for the destruction of a medical facility on April 20, but doesn’t utter a single word about the 33 hospitals put out of service by rebel attacks on government-controlled territory, which have deprived hundreds of thousands of Syrians health services.

#AleppoIsBurning is not a peace movement but war mobilization

This misleading and misinformed presentation reveals that while #AleppoIsBurning campaign purports to be innocently concerned with the general suffering of the Syrian people, it is in reality designed to build support for an imperialist agenda.

Its mission is to establish in the public mind that violence in Aleppo (and all of Syria) is one where the evil Syrian “regime” perpetrates geometrically mounting atrocities against the helpless Syrian “people.”

It has packaged Syria for a Western audience as a world populated by villains and victims. The perpetrators are so evil and victims are so helpless that the only possibility of relief is a rescue mission from the outside, preferably in the form of a Western-led military intervention. Indeed, the press release issued by the organizers of the #AleppoIsBurning campaign states that “we will not stop… until the International community intervenes and saves them [the Syrian people].”

This narrative fits in seamlessly with the Washington narrative shamefully repeated in the corporate-owned media. In this way, #AleppoIsBurning has become an indistinguishable twin of the demonization campaign that accompanies all Western military interventions, whether in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq or Libya.

Pro-interventionist cries to “protect civilians” were used by Western imperialists as a pretext to overthrow the Libyan state in 2011, with disastrous consequences for Libyans.

Misleading public and confusing antiwar movement

The regime-versus-the-people narrative propagated by Western governments and the corporate media also emphasizes and distorts the ethno-sectarian dimension to the conflict. There is a widespread assumption that the anti-government rebellion represents all of Syria’s Sunni majority (74% of the population) against the sectarian rule of the Alawite minority (12 percent). This has become conventional wisdom in Western media. The universally ignored reality is that most of the officers and soldiers in the Syrian army and most government officials, including ministers and diplomats, are Sunni. Despite some early desertions, the government and the military have retained a pluralistic character and held together in spite of the extreme difficulty of fighting on several fronts.

The results of the April 13 Syrian parliamentary elections are a striking case-in-point. Sunni representatives completely dominate the new assembly.

Eighty percent of the population lives in the government controlled territory and was able to participate in the elections. Of 250 parliamentary seats up for grabs, 186 members of the new government are reportedly Sunni, compared with only 21 Alawite. In other words, the outcome is reflective of the religious affiliations of the geographic areas taking part in the voting process. This does not conform to the mass media presentation of an Alawite minority ruling the country in a totalitarian manner.

To the contrary, it points to the fact that large numbers of Syrians still see themselves primarily as Syrians, defending the Syrian state, and that sectarian identities such as Sunni, Alawite, Shia, Christian or Druz are often secondary.

The #AleppoIsBurning publicity campaign’s arrogant and reckless call for Western intervention is dangerous at a time when the prospect of incremental increases in U.S. forces in Syria are on the horizon. The campaign’s call for “justice” is really a slogan that masks a drive toward even more hawkish policies of aggression.

anti-war, imperialism, syria

LiberationNews.org is the website of Liberation News, the newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). Not all the materials on the website reflect the official positions or formulations of the PSL.

[ckaihatsu]

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What’s behind the protests in Iraq?

By Walter Smolarek
May 08, 2016

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What’s behind the protests in Iraq?

Large swaths of Baghdad were on lockdown May 6, as Iraqi military and police forces fanned out across the city and put up barricades around the most politically sensitive areas.

This massive show of force, however, had nothing to do with the war raging against ISIS to the west and north. Instead, the Iraqi government was desperately trying to avoid a repeat of the events of April 30, when thousands of protesters breached the infamous and heavily-guarded “Green Zone” that houses the main government buildings and stormed the parliament.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued strict orders to security forces to prevent another humiliating incursion. However, a massive demonstration is expected to take place within days.

The protest movement that has led to a profound crisis at the highest levels of the Iraqi state has two closely-linked primary demands: an end to endemic corruption and the formation of a cabinet of independent technocrats to be appointed on the basis of their professional credentials alone, irrespective of their sectarian background.

Sectarian system a legacy of U.S. occupation

U.S. imperialism thought that the 2003 invasion of Iraq would be a cakewalk, and a springboard for a much more ambitious offensive in the Middle East. Notorious war criminal and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld infamously predicted that the war would take “six days, six weeks, I doubt six months”. Instead, the Iraqi people fiercely resisted the occupation and halted the menacing U.S. advance in the region.

In response, the Bush administration deployed the classic strategy of imperialism – divide and conquer. They sought to fracture Iraqi society into three parts: Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs and Kurds. Tensions between these groups existed prior to the occupation, but there was a strong sense of Iraqi national consciousness that the invading powers needed to shred.

One of the main ways this strategy was implemented was the imposition of a sectarian quota system at the top levels of the new Iraqi government. Under this arrangement, the country’s president was always to be a Kurd, the Prime Minister a Shiite and the Speaker of Parliament a Sunni. Cabinet positions and the three Vice Presidential positions were also divided on a sectarian basis.

The U.S.-imposed quota system (this should not be confused with affirmative action policies, which also involve quotas but have a progressive character) has been a disaster for Iraqi society. It has facilitated corruption and gross incompetence, leading to decaying infrastructure, poorly administered social programs and a civil service rendered highly ineffective by patronage. It is questionable whether or not the high-level political actors involved in the crisis are sincere opponents of sectarianism, but there was a deep reservoir of popular frustration with this arrangement waiting to be tapped.

Shia alliance fractures

When protests against corruption and the sectarian power-sharing system broke out last year, the leadership was largely secular. Corruption and poor service delivery were also central issues raised during the Arab Spring-inspired wave of protests in Iraq in 2011, which similarly had a secular orientation.

However, followers of Muqtada al-Sadr gained control of the movement following the intervention of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shiite religious authority in the country. On August 7, Sistani declared through a representative that Abadi must root out corruption “with an iron fist” and threw his weight behind the demand that the Prime Minister form a technocratic government.

What prompted Sadr and Sistani to come out against the sectarian system? It is impossible to know the full extent of the behind-the-scenes power struggles, but it had certainly become clear that Abadi’s government and its predecessors in the post-invasion period were so incompetent that it posed a major threat to the stability of the Iraqi state itself.

As the protest movement in 2011 and 2015 showed, there is widespread anger at the political elite of all sectarian backgrounds. It is often necessary to pay bribes to access even the most basic government services, a situation made all the more intolerable by the widespread poverty that is a consequence of a quarter century of non-stop U.S. aggression. The popular legitimacy of the entire political system is called into question by this extreme corruption.

Furthermore, core state institutions have become extremely fragile and ineffective as a consequence of sectarian patronage. Nothing exemplifies this more than the collapse of the Iraqi National Army during ISIS’ lightening offensive across the country in 2014. In the face of an enemy many times smaller and far worse equipped, the INA in most cases simply fled. In fact, 50,000 troops (roughly one fifth of the size of the national army) turned out to be “ghost soldiers” – fictitious members of the armed forces who existed on paper so that officers could collect their salaries.

In February, Sadr presided over a huge demonstration of hundreds of thousands. In late March, the struggle escalated with the launch of a sit-in just outside the gates of the Green Zone. A week later, Sadr himself entered the elite compound and set up a tent where he held his own one-man protest – with the implied threat that his thousands of supporters could follow him in at any time.

While Sadr comes from a famous family of Shiite religious leaders, he has always sought to carve out a public profile as an Iraqi nationalist. Following the U.S.-led invasion, he was the resistance leader most despised and feared by the occupying armies.

After a period of exile in Iran, he returned to the country in 2011. His supporters compose the second largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament, and Abadi relies on their support to maintain his majority – a position Sadr has leveraged in the ongoing crisis. The militia he led during the occupation – the Mahdi Army – has been disbanded, but it has now been replaced by a new formation numbering in the tens of thousands called the Peace Brigades, which under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Forces are playing an important role in the fight against ISIS.

Under tremendous pressure, Abadi relented and adopted the demands of the protest movement as his own. However, this does not mean that the non-sectarian cabinet is a done deal. In fact, two previous attempts in recent weeks by the Prime Minister to replace his ministers have been rejected by parliament. There are still powerful forces defending the sectarian system.

Abadi is a member of the Dawa Party, one of the oldest Shia religious political formations in the country that Sadr’s grandfather played a key role in founding. Abadi’s predecessor from 2006 to 2014, Nouri al-Maliki, is a member of the same party but was forced to resign following the disastrous collapse of the Iraqi army as ISIS captured much of the country.

However, Maliki has no intentions of fading into the background, and leads a faction of the Dawa Party opposed to Abadi. Maliki is generally considered to favor a foreign policy orientation that is friendlier to Iran, while Abadi has fewer reservations about working with the U.S. government.

Maliki is opposed to the demand for a technocratic cabinet, but is still willing to intervene in order to better his political positioning. Pro-Maliki lawmakers were able to use a sit-in held by dozens of Members of Parliament on April 14 that was initially aimed at supporting the anti-sectarian movement to hold a no-confidence motion to oust Speaker Salim al-Jabouri. Jabouri, a leading Sunni politician, claims that the legislature did not have a quorum at the time and refuses to recognize the result of the vote.

Political turbulence reflected on the battlefield

The advance against ISIS in Iraq has been painfully slow. It is carried out by a patchwork of armed groups – the largely Shiite Arab and Turkmen Popular Mobilization Forces, the Iraqi National Army, the Kurdish Peshmerga, and Sunni Arab forces (some of whom fight under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization and others in independent formations, while Sunni politicians have long demanded the formation of a National Guard under the authority of provincial governors).

The tragic and criminal consequences of U.S. imperialism’s divide and conquer strategy continue to be acutely felt. The existence of ISIS itself is a legacy of this. The Islamic State of Iraq, the predecessor to ISIS, emerged at the height of the fratricidal violence encouraged by the occupation and rose to prominence by carrying out massacres against Shiite civilians.

ISIS’ surprise offensive temporarily suppressed sectarian tensions at the very beginning of the conflict as it appeared possible that they would overrun Baghdad. However, as the battle lines stabilized and Iraqi forces made gains, recapturing Tikrit and reversing the humiliating loss of Ramadi in 2015, this relative cohesion is breaking down.

As the decisive battle for Mosul, the second largest city in the country, approaches, the question of who will rule post-ISIS Iraq becomes dominant. Ironically, military victories undermine the political incentive to press the advance.

U.S. imperialism has been taking advantage of the chaos to escalate its military presence in the country. In addition to the bombing campaign, thousands of troops have been deployed and, as the death of a U.S. Navy SEAL in Northern Iraq earlier this month shows, are playing an increasingly direct role in the fighting.

The tangled web of problems facing Iraqi society cannot be resolved if it is under the boot of imperialism. The U.S. anti-war movement can play a positive role by opposing all attempts by the criminals who shredded Iraq in the first place – the Pentagon and Wall Street – to reinsert itself into the country.

anti-war, iraq, middle east, U.S. imperialism

Walter Smolarek

Walter Smolarek is a member of the Philadelphia branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and a senior at Temple University studying education. He is the managing editor of Liberation newspaper.

LiberationNews.org is the website of Liberation News, the newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). Not all the materials on the website reflect the official positions or formulations of the PSL.

[ckaihatsu]

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Articles Home » NEWS BY LOCATION » Africa » Syria » US, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi to launch operation in north Syria: Report

Michael Eisenscher
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US, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi to launch operation in north Syria: Report
ARTICLE_POSTED_BY Michael Eisenscher Mon at 2:01 PM 11 views 0 likes 0 comments
ARTICLE_TAGS - #Syria #Saudi Arabia #Qatar #Turkey #militants #military campaign #North Army #jihadi opposition forces

Author: unidentified
Article Source: Press TV
Source Url: http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/05/16/465875/Syria-Saudi-Arabia-Qatar-US-Turkey-North-Army
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Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the US and Turkey have agreed to form a coalition to launch a large-scale military operation in northern Syria, the Rai al-Youm newspaper reports.


US, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi to launch op in north Syria: Report
Mon May 16, 2016 10:37AM

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A Syrian militant (file photo by AFP)

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the US and Turkey have agreed to form a coalition to launch a large-scale military operation in northern Syria, the Rai al-Youm newspaper reports.

The paper, edited by prominent Palestinian journalist Abdul Bari Atwan, on Monday quoted Mohib Shalati, a former major general with the Syrian army, as making the announcement on his Twitter account.

Shalati was himself citing the US State Department’s website as announcing that the US has agreed with Turkey to launch a massive military campaign in northern Syria.

The campaign will be backed by American and Turkish airstrikes as well as Turkish artillery attacks, it said.

Shalati said a meeting had been held in Turkey last Monday with the participation of representatives from the CIA, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey as well as commanders of militant groups in Syria to coordinate the operation.

The report said the so-called “North Army” coalition will be completely financed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Shalati added that the force will include militants from Ahrar al-Sham, Failaq al-Sham, Jaish al-Sham, Thuwar al-Sham, al-Jabha al-Shamiya and Nour al-Din al-Zenki, among others.

Turkey, he said, had told the militant groups that if they refuse to participate in the operations, they will be deprived of support and will be added to a terror list.

Shalati said the agreement entails transportation of forces and weaponry from Turkey to Syria’s Aleppo. The operation will be launched from several fronts in one to two weeks, he added.

According to the former general, more than 3,000 militants with advanced equipment will take part in the operation.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has also displaced over half of the Arab country’s pre-war population of about 23 million.


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[ckaihatsu]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/05/18/syri-m18.html


US and its allies threaten escalation of Syrian war

By Bill Van Auken
18 May 2016

Foreign ministers of the major powers, including both Washington and Moscow, ended a meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in Vienna with no proposal for a date to resume peace talks between the Syrian government and the collection of Western-backed Islamist militias that constitute the “armed opposition.”

The so-called rebels walked out of the last round of talks in Geneva, accusing government forces of continuing to attack their positions in violation of a February 27 cessation of hostilities brokered by the US and Russia.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad and its allies, Russia and Iran, have insisted that continued operations were being carried out against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Al Nusra Front, Syria’s Al Qaeda affiliate, both of which are designated by the United Nations Security Council as terrorist groups and remain excluded from the shaky cease-fire.

In a communiqué issued at the close of the Vienna meeting, the ISSG member states warned that the consequences of a failure to fully implement the cessation of hostilities “could include the return of full-scale war.”

While the communiqué warned of consequences for any party violating the agreement, including “the exclusion of such parties from the arrangements of the cessation and the protection it affords them,” it gave no indications of what concrete actions would ensue.

What is painfully obvious, however, is that alleged violations by forces loyal to the government of Assad could provoke retaliation from the US, whose warplanes are already engaged in strikes on ISIS targets in Syria. At least 250 Special Operations troops have also been deployed on the ground, without the permission of Damascus and in violation of international law.

A US air strike against the city of al-Bukamal in Dayr al-Zawr province near Syria’s border with Iraq reportedly killed three children and one woman on Monday.

Violations by the so-called rebels, meanwhile, are ignored by their Western sponsors, and would be punished only by the government and its ally, Russia.

This is clearly a formula for an intensification of a conflict that has already claimed over a quarter of a million lives, while driving some 11 million Syrians from their homes. It also creates the conditions for the Syrian conflict to spill over into a wider war pitting the US against Russia.

Washington only entered into the Syrian “peace process” as a means of buying time under conditions in which Russia’s intervention on the side of the Assad government had reversed the tide of battle against the Western-backed Islamist militias and thrown the US-orchestrated war for regime change into disarray.

From the outset, the Obama administration has threatened to resort to a “Plan B” if the negotiations in Vienna and Geneva fail to achieve Washington’s original aim in stoking the bloody war in Syria: the toppling of the Assad government and the imposition of a more pliant Western puppet regime. Last month, unnamed senior US officials let it be known that “Plan B” would include the provision of more sophisticated weaponry to the “rebels,” including MANPADS, portable shoulder-fired missiles that could bring down Russian planes.

Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking to the media alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and UN special envoy Steffan de Mistura at the close of the Vienna conference, issued a direct threat to Syria’s Assad, stating, “He should never make a miscalculation about President Obama’s determination to do what is right at any given moment of time where he believes he has to make that decision.”

For his part, Lavrov charged that Washington’s key regional allies, including Turkey, are pouring more arms into Syria to fuel the conflict. Lately, he said, this has included the provision of tanks to the “rebels.”

The “main supply conduit for extremists,” the Russian foreign minister said, is a 90 kilometer stretch of the Turkish-Syrian border controlled on one side by the Turkish military and, on the other, by ISIS. He charged that there existed “a large, widely-spread network created by Turkey on its side of the border to continue and cover up these supplies.”

Kerry spent the weekend preceding the Vienna talks in Riyadh, meeting behind closed doors with representatives of the Saudi monarchy, a principal US regional ally and main supporter of the Islamist forces in Syria. The Saudi regime was the organizer of the so-called High Negotiations Committee, which was formed to represent these Salafist jihadi militias in talks with the Syrian government.

Speaking at the conference in Vienna, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir advocated a speedy escalation of the war for regime change in Syria.

“We believe we should have moved to a ‘Plan B’ a long time ago,” Adel al-Jubeir told reporters. “The choice about moving to an alternative plan, the choice about intensifying the military support [to the opposition] is entirely with the Bashar regime … He will be removed, either through a political process or through military force.”

Meanwhile, Turkey, Washington’s NATO ally and also a key backer of the “rebels,” threatened Tuesday to carry out a unilateral military intervention in Syria.

President Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting in Istanbul that the Turkish military would act alone, supposedly to deal with ISIS missile attacks coming across the Syrian border and striking the town of Kilis.

“We will solve that issue ourselves if we don’t receive help to prevent those rockets from hitting Kilis,” he said. “We knocked on all doors for a safe zone at our southern border. But no one wants to take that step.”

Erdogan’s statement echoed that made by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu earlier this month: “If necessary, Turkey may launch a ground military operation in Syria by itself.”

Erdogan’s remarks made clear that his concern is not ISIS, which Ankara has armed and supplied, but rather the growing strength of Syrian Kurdish forces near the Turkish border. In a thinly veiled criticism of US backing for these forces, he declared: “States which exercise control over the world’s arms industry give their weapons to terrorists. I challenge them to deny this.”

The Turkish government is committed to the war for regime change in Syria and has demonstrated, with its shoot-down of a Russian jet last November, its willingness to push this conflict into an armed confrontation with Moscow.

There is little doubt that the Saudi and Turkish regimes are openly advocating a policy that is being supported within powerful sections of the US ruling establishment and military and intelligence apparatus.

An escalation of the Syrian bloodbath also has the backing of the leading candidates in both the Democratic and Republican parties, but its initiation is almost certain to be postponed until after November in order to prevent the subject of war becoming an issue in the US presidential election.

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[ckaihatsu]

The White House proposals represent a tactical maneuver, aimed at salvaging the remnants of the anti-Assad forces, the backbone of which is composed of ISIS and the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra fighters.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/07/16/ussy-j16.html

[ckaihatsu]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/02/pers-d02.html


Mosul and imperialist “human rights”

By James Cogan

2 December 2016

Once again, the United Nations Security Council convened in emergency session on Wednesday to denounce Syria and Russia over the plight of civilians in the war-torn city of Aleppo.

An offensive begun last weekend by pro-Syrian government forces, backed by Russia, has recaptured 40 percent of the city’s sectors that were held by various Al Qaeda-linked and other Islamist militias since they launched a civil war against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in 2011. Thousands of people are fleeing from the US-backed Islamist militias. Syrian government officials have asserted they will retake all of Aleppo by the end of the year.

US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power was among those who addressed the Security Council. Power spoke as the representative of the Obama administration, which actively intrigued with the Islamist militias to initiate the war against Assad. Washington has worked with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf State monarchies, as well as the European powers, to recruit, fund and arm the “rebels.” It has used the Islamists as its proxies in a pro-imperialist regime-change operation. The result has been over 400,000 deaths, the displacement of over 10 million people and the destruction of much of Syria.

Power spoke as Washington contemplates the prospect that large sections of its militia proxies could be destroyed over the coming weeks, signalling the general failure of its efforts to overthrow the Assad regime. She demanded an immediate ceasefire and “compliance with international humanitarian laws.”

In emotive language, Power declared: “I would ask Council members and all citizens of the world to just force yourself to a take a break from your day and watch the images from eastern Aleppo. Parents cradling their children in agony, civilians on foot mowed down literally carrying their suitcases, which then lay beside their lifeless bodies…”

The Russian-backed Syrian government offensive in Aleppo is, without question, brutal and merciless. Professions of concern by US imperialism, however, which has ravaged much of the Middle East over the past 25 years, carry no political or moral weight. Power’s rhetoric and similar statements in the Security Council by US allies, such as France, Britain, Spain and New Zealand, were even more grotesque given the character of the US-directed assault underway on the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Six hundred kilometres to the east of Aleppo, the US and its allies are assisting an Iraqi government offensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which, bolstered through Washington’s intrigues in Syria, crossed into Iraq and took control of Mosul in 2014. The US-backed regime in Baghdad claims the city is now fully surrounded by tens of thousands of Iraqi Army troops, Kurdish forces and various Shiite militia members.

A claim, repeated in an Associated Press report, that the US-led forces are “avoiding the use of overwhelming power to protect civilians,” is crass propaganda. The Iraqi military has asserted that the ISIS fighters intend to “fight to the death,” effectively ruling out any prospect of negotiations. Leaflets have been dropped instructing the up to 1.6 million civilians trapped in the city to remain in their homes, while a “coalition” of American, British, French, Australian, Canadian and Jordanian aircraft bomb suspected ISIS positions. A November 24 humanitarian overview by aid organisation REACH reported that families are crowding into the lower floors of housing complexes out of fear of the airstrikes.

Iraqi special forces units, accompanied in most cases by American personnel, are pushing through the eastern suburbs, clearing them block by block. The tactics they employ are simple, crude and, given the instructions to civilians to remain in their homes, murderous. They call in air attacks, artillery or tanks to destroy any building that is suspected of being occupied by ISIS or booby-trapped with explosives. Civilian casualties have been justified in advance by claiming that ISIS is using people as “human shields.”

The Iraqi military boasted this week it has killed 1,000 ISIS fighters, while ISIS has claimed to have killed over 3,700 pro-government and Kurdish troops. No credible figures are being provided by either side on the toll inflicted on civilians, but reports suggest it is high. West Erbil Hospital, located some 80 kilometres away from Mosul, is admitting 150 military and civilian casualties every day. The only wounded civilians who could reach the hospital are those found in areas captured by government forces. Thus far, barely 70,000 people have managed to escape.

Mosul—a city with a history stretching back over 4,000 years—is literally being destroyed in order to “save it.” Bombing this week destroyed a major water pipeline in the eastern suburbs, cutting off water to some 650,000 people. Electricity is already largely cut. Food prices have reportedly doubled as supplies dwindle. The city’s health system is dysfunctional. The university and numerous other public buildings have been reduced to rubble. On Wednesday, coalition aircraft bombed and “disabled” four major bridges over the Tigris River that link the western and eastern sectors of Mosul, further isolating the population in the east from potential resupplies of food and other essentials.

The siege of Mosul is predicted to continue for weeks, if not months. As winter and freezing temperatures set in, exposure, starvation and disease will likely take more lives than the bombing, particularly among children, the infirm and the elderly.

The Obama administration did not this week demand ceasefires or “compliance with international humanitarian laws” in Mosul. The attitude of the imperialist powers to war crimes is determined by whether they benefit from them. In Aleppo, the interests of the US and European powers are being set back, so there is condemnation and calls for action. In Mosul, US interests are being asserted, so civilian deaths are downplayed or outright denied.

Whenever representatives of imperialism and the capitalist ruling elite speak of “human rights,” the independent standpoint of the working class must be contempt and hostility. The only way to end the criminality of imperialist war and neo-colonial intrigue is to end capitalism itself.

Copyright © 1998-2016 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved

[ckaihatsu]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/06/syri-d06.html


Russia and China block UN resolution as Syrian army continues advance in Aleppo

By Jordan Shilton

6 December 2016

Syrian troops pressed ahead with their advance into eastern Aleppo Monday, continuing the rout of US-backed “rebel” groups. Reports indicate that Syrian government troops and Shia militias, including forces from Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah, are now in control of two-thirds of the area formerly held by the Islamist forces opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Washington’s attempt to rely on Islamist proxy forces to carry out its regime-change operation in Syria is in disarray. While Secretary of State John Kerry was pushing last week for a deal to remove al-Nusra fighters from the city in exchange for an agreement on the part of Assad and Russia to let “moderate” so-called rebels remain, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded Monday that all “rebel” fighters leave the city.

“Those armed groups that refuse to leave east Aleppo will be regarded as terrorists,” Lavrov declared. “We will treat them as such, as terrorists, as extremists, and will support a Syrian army operation against those criminal squads.”

The New York Times reported that US officials refused to confirm whether talks with Russia would begin in Geneva in the coming days on the withdrawal of the “rebels.” Indicating a sense of deepening crisis as the scale of the “rebel” defeat becomes ever clearer, the Times noted that Lavrov’s new demand appeared to have taken US officials by surprise.

Events on the ground are rapidly moving in the direction of a government victory in Aleppo. While reports Sunday indicated that government-aligned forces controlled 50 percent of eastern Aleppo, further gains were reported Monday. The rebel-held areas have been divided into enclaves during the three-week offensive, which has been accompanied by intense bombing raids on the area by Russian and Syrian planes.

According to the latest estimates, these attacks have cost the lives of 320 civilians, including some 40 children. The “rebels,” for their part, have continued their indiscriminate shelling of government-held western Aleppo, killing 69 people during the same period.

Aid agencies report that 31,000 civilians have fled “rebel”-held territory.

On Monday, a hastily established field hospital to care for civilians fleeing the fighting was shelled by anti-Assad forces. Two Russian nurses were killed in the attack. A total of eight deaths were reported in government-controlled areas. Two airstrikes in Idlib province, likely carried out by Syrian or Russian planes, killed dozens.

Hoping to seize the advantage and push all “rebel” forces out of Aleppo, Russia, together with China, vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Monday. The resolution, which was tabled by Spain, Egypt and New Zealand with the backing of the US, would have implemented an immediate seven-day cease-fire.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov declared the resolution to be a “provocation,” pointing out that all previous cease-fires had been used by the “rebels,” who are dominated by the Al Qaeda-linked affiliates of the al-Nusra Front, to regroup and obtain new supplies of weapons from the US and the Gulf sheikdoms. This was the outcome of the brief cease-fire agreed to by Russia and the US in September. The truce was broken when US aircraft bombed Syrian army positions less than a week after it came into force.

Predictably, the US and its allies responded to Moscow and Beijing’s vote by denouncing Russia and Syria for human rights violations. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest stated that the Syrian and Russian attacks were “disgraceful.”

The level of hypocrisy in such statements is breathtaking. Moscow’s chief goal is to prop up the Assad regime, its most important ally in the Middle East and host to its sole military base outside of the former Soviet Union. But the casualties caused by Syrian and Russian attacks pale in comparison to the atrocities committed by US imperialism.

The US is playing a decisive role in the brutal offensive being waged on the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, where upwards of 1.5 million civilians are trapped amid sustained assaults on residential areas. US politicians and the media have sought to prepare public opinion for large numbers of civilian casualties in Mosul by placing all of the blame on Islamic State fighters. But the US-backed offensive by the Iraqi army, Kurdish Peshmerga and other militias has left an unknown number of civilians dead, caused tens of thousands to flee, and disrupted water and utility supplies to eastern districts of Mosul. There have also been reports of sectarian atrocities against the local Sunni population.

The United States bears principal responsibility for the violence that has engulfed Iraq and Syria, costing the lives of millions. Not only did Washington foment the 2011 civil war with the aim of engineering regime change in Damascus, it has waged virtually uninterrupted war in the region for two decades, with the aim of consolidating its hegemony over the energy-rich region.

The appointment by President-elect Donald Trump of a cabinet dominated by former military generals and aggressive proponents of US militarism demonstrates that this policy will only be intensified under the incoming administration.

While Trump has yet to lay out a Syrian strategy, his appointments of retired General James Mattis to the position of defense secretary and Michael Flynn as national security adviser point to a shift in policy. Both have criticized Obama’s reliance on “rebel” groups, and Mattis has called for a congressional resolution authorizing the deployment of US ground troops if necessary against the Islamic State, which still controls significant portions of Syria.

The routing of the US-backed Islamist forces in Aleppo is encouraging the European imperialist powers to advance an alternative solution to the conflict. A report in the Times of London suggests that the debacle of US policy in Syria has prompted the European Union to propose its own initiative. According to the Times ’ report, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini proposed at a meeting with Syrian opposition forces two weeks ago that Brussels could accept Assad remaining in power if he agreed to grant control of regions of the country to the “rebels.” Brussels would provide financial assistance to facilitate such an arrangement, Mogherini reportedly added. The Times suggested that this was part of a last-ditch effort to ensure Western influence over Syria in the aftermath of the civil war.

“What Mogherini wanted to do was present an EU plan—this is how to solve the conflict,” a source linked to the Syrian opposition stated. “… In return, if all sides agree and everyone does what the EU says, there’s a huge pot of money.”

This only underscores the increasingly explosive character of the Syrian crisis, which is deepening the rivalries between the imperialist powers as they seek to pursue their geostrategic interests with ever more open hostility. Leading European politicians reacted to the election of Trump last month by insisting that Europe had to act with greater independence from the United States and even challenge it in areas where their interests collide.

EU diplomats confirmed the outline of the proposals reported by the Times. With the US strategy of backing an Islamist insurgency against Assad apparently headed to defeat, the EU is pushing a plan for the sectarian partition of Syria along regional lines, with the competing governments propped up by European capital.

Copyright © 1998-2016 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved

[ckaihatsu]

VIDEO: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Introduces Legislation to Stop Arming Terrorists


Dear Friends and Supporters of the US Peace Council,

Yesterday, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard introduced a legislation to end US Government’s support for terrorists in Syria. USPC President, Alfred Marder has immediately sent a letter to Congresswoman Gabbard expressing USPC’s support for her legislation.

USPC urges all supporters of peace in Syria to contact Congresswoman Gabbard’s office and express their support for her “Stop Arming Terrorism” legislation. We need to mobilize massive support for this bill.

Bahman

----------------------------
Bahman Azad
Organizational Secretary
U.S. Peace Council


For Immediate Release
December 8, 2016

Media Contact:
Emily Latimer, (202) 604-2330

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Introduces Legislation to Stop Arming Terrorists

Washington, DC—Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists Act today. The legislation would prohibit the U.S. government from using American taxpayer dollars to provide funding, weapons, training, and intelligence support to groups like the Levant Front, Fursan al Ha and other allies of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, al-Qaeda and ISIS, or to countries who are providing direct or indirect support to those same groups.

The legislation is cosponsored by Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT-AL), Barbara Lee (D-CA-13), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA-48), and Thomas Massie (R-KT-04), and supported by the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and the U.S. Peace Council.

Video of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s speech on the House floor is available here (http://uspeacecouncil.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=090bb12a9ccf856210dc6105b&id=dc515bebf2&e=786f83a96f)

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said, “Under U.S. law it is illegal for any American to provide money or assistance to al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist groups. If you or I gave money, weapons or support to al-Qaeda or ISIS, we would be thrown in jail. Yet the U.S. government has been violating this law for years, quietly supporting allies and partners of al-Qaeda, ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham and other terrorist groups with money, weapons, and intelligence support, in their fight to overthrow the Syrian government.[i]

“The CIA has also been funneling weapons and money through Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and others who provide direct and indirect support to groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. This support has allowed al-Qaeda and their fellow terrorist organizations to establish strongholds throughout Syria, including in Aleppo.

“A recent New York Times article confirmed that ‘rebel groups’ supported by the U.S. ‘have entered into battlefield alliances with the affiliate of al-Qaeda in Syria, formerly known as al Nusra.’ This alliance has rendered the phrase ‘moderate rebels’ meaningless. Reports confirm that ‘every armed anti-Assad organization unit in those provinces [of Idlib and Aleppo] is engaged in a military structure controlled by [al-Qaeda’s] Nusra militants.’

“A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that many rebel groups are ‘doubling down on their alliance’ with al Nusra. Some rebel groups are renewing their alliance, while others, like Nour al-Din al-Zinki, a former CIA-backed group and one of the largest factions in Aleppo are joining for the first time. “The Syria Conquest Front—formerly known as the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front—is deeply intermingled with armed opposition groups of all stripes across Syria’s battlefields.”

“The CIA has long been supporting a group called Fursan al Haqq, providing them with salaries, weapons and support, including surface to air missiles. This group is cooperating with and fighting alongside an al-Qaeda affiliated group trying to overthrow the Syrian government. The Levant Front is another so-called moderate umbrella group of Syrian opposition fighters. Over the past year, the United States has been working with Turkey to give this group intelligence support and other forms of military assistance. This group has joined forces with al-Qaeda’s offshoot group in Syria.

“This madness must end. We must stop arming terrorists. The Government must end this hypocrisy and abide by the same laws that apply to its’ citizens.

“That is why I’ve introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists bill—legislation based on congressional action during the Iran-Contra affair to stop the CIA’s illegal arming of rebels in Nicaragua. It will prohibit any Federal agency from using taxpayer dollars to provide weapons, cash, intelligence, or any support to al-Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorist groups, and it will prohibit the government from funneling money and weapons through other countries who are directly or indirectly supporting terrorists,” concluded Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
Stephen Kinzer, a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, and award-winning author and journalist said, “The proposal to stop sending weapons to insurgents in Syria is based on the principle that pouring arms into a war zone only intensifies suffering and makes peace more difficult to achieve. Congress made a decision like this about the Nicaraguan contras during the 1980s. Aid to the contras was cut off by the Boland Amendment. The result was a peace process that finally brought an end to wars not only in Nicaragua, but also in El Salvador and Guatemala. This is the example we should be following. Cutting off arms shipments forces belligerents to negotiate. That is what we achieved in Nicaragua. It should be our goal in Syria as well.”

Donna Smith, Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America said, "Progressive Democrats of America believes that it is fundamentally wrong for the United States to fund those groups or individuals aligned with al-Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, ISIS, or other terrorist/extremist organizations. The 'Stop Arming Terrorists' bill authored by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, of Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District, would help bring an end to the human tragedy unfolding in Syria where the haunting eyes of the innocent children of Aleppo call on us all to stop supporting those who threaten and kill them with ferocious intention. War is war, and terrorism is terrorism whether waged by the state or from external forces. PDA supports this measure."

Alfred Marder, President of the U.S. Peace Council said, “The U.S. Peace Council is honored to endorse and support the ‘Stop Arming Terrorists Bill’ as a major contribution to peace. This legislation will serve to galvanize the anti-war movement and the opposition to regime change policies that characterize our present foreign policy.”

Background: The Stop Arming Terrorists bill prohibits U.S. government funds from being used to support al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist groups. In the same way that Congress passed the Boland Amendment to prohibit the funding and support to CIA backed-Nicaraguan Contras during the 1980’s, this bill would stop CIA or other Federal government activities in places like Syria by ensuring U.S. funds are not used to support al-Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, ISIS, or other terrorist groups working with them. It would also prohibit the Federal government from funding assistance to countries that are directly or indirectly supporting those terrorist groups. The bill achieves this by:

1) Making it illegal for any U.S. Federal government funds to be used to provide assistance covered in this bill to terrorists. The assistance covered includes weapons, munitions, weapons platforms, intelligence, logistics, training, and cash.

2) Making it illegal for the U.S. government to provide assistance covered in the bill to any nation that has given or continues to give such assistance to terrorists.

3) Requiring the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to determine the individual and groups that should be considered terrorists, for the purposes of this bill, by determining: (a) the individuals and groups that are associated with, affiliated with, adherents to or cooperating with al-Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, or ISIS; (b) the countries that are providing assistance covered in this bill to those individuals or groups.

4) Requiring the DNI to review and update the list of countries and groups to which assistance is prohibited every six months, in consultation with the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees, as well as the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

5) Requiring the DNI to brief Congress on the determinations.

###



[i] Levant Front (U.S. backed, via the MOC in Turkey) is working under an Ahrar al Sham led umbrella group: http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/December%202%20EDITS%20COT_2.pdf ; U.S. support for Levant Front: http://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/57605?lang=en ; CIA groups cooperated with Jayesh al-Fateh http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/19/the-cia-s-syria-program-and-the-perils-of-proxies.html; U.S. weapons arriving in Syria through covert, CIA-led program, via Saudi Arabia and Turkey; CIA can provide support http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-syria-obama-order-idUSBRE8701OK20120802








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[Ibn.AL.Muqafaa]

The FSA still exists but in very minimal numbers. Most of them have been killed, joined Al-Nusra , Daesh , captured , fled the country.

[ckaihatsu]

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Whatever the authorship of the assassination, the prospect of it further cementing ties between Russia and Turkey can only serve to heighten tensions with Washington, which, the impending change in administrations notwithstanding, remains committed to asserting US imperialist hegemony over the Middle East.




http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/20/turk-d20.html

[willowtooth]

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I think it was the grey wolves those fuckers still want siberia

[ckaihatsu]

I think it was the grey wolves those fuckers still want siberia


Those gray wolf fuckers -- they messed up our election and I ain't gonna be down with no wolf-based state socialism.