{"id":16116,"date":"2011-12-05T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=16116"},"modified":"2011-12-03T13:44:54","modified_gmt":"2011-12-03T13:44:54","slug":"spinning-invasions-from-the-nile-to-the-euphrates-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/12\/spinning-invasions-from-the-nile-to-the-euphrates-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Spinning Invasions from the Nile to the Euphrates and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

If a man seeks to understand Rome\u2019s casus reason for each foreign conquest, he needs only look into the Treasury.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>\u2014 Tacitus, AD 56 \u2013 AD 117<\/p>\n

As the US and UK lead towards more illegal overthrows, invasions and destruction in Iran and Syria, a political pattern of manipulation and disinformation has become an art form.<\/p>\n

Libya, under Colonel Gaddafi, with highest (UN) Human Development Index in Africa, and living standard which drew immigrants from across the region, has been air brushed out and replaced with a \u201cmad dog\u201d \u2013 and a liberating lynching. Oil, spoils and reconstruction contracts, though, are being divvied out apace.<\/p>\n

Iraq, formerly described in UN Reports as approaching \u201cFirst World\u201d standards, also much in ruins, shattered infrastructure trumpeted as due to \u201cthirty years of neglect.\u201d No mention of over fifteen years of decimating embargo and bombings, culminating in \u201cShock and Awe.\u201d Pretty glaring omissions.<\/p>\n

Now President Assad of Syria is being subject to the same build up \u2013 or taking down \u2013 with calls for a Libya-style \u201cno fly zone.\u201d Being an independent-minded Arab leader certainly comes with a health warning.<\/p>\n

On 20th November, Israel\u2019s Defence Minister Ehud Barak<\/a> commented:\u00a0 \u201cAnd it\u2019s clear to me that what happened a few weeks ago to Qaddafi\u2026 and what happened ultimately to Saddam Hussein, now might await him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another day, another \u201cdespot\u201d, more chilling alarm calls. Ehud Barak is surely in line for the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n

But a decade or so is a long time in politics, especially with Western allies emboldened by a lynching or two.<\/p>\n

Consider this from political analyst Sami Moubayid<\/a>, author of\u00a0Steel and Silk, Men and Women who have Shaped Syria<\/em> and other scholarly literary over-views of the country\u2019s\u00a0 modern history.<\/p>\n

In December 2000, six months into Bashar Al-Assad\u2019s tenure, he wrote of a \u201ccultural revolution<\/a>\u201d the new President was implementing, entitling the piece \u201cA Modern-Day Attaturk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOvernight the thousands of pictures of Hafez Al-Assad \u2026 disappeared\u201d, following a statement committing to a \u201crealistic\u201d policy that did not immortalize and over-exaggerate leaders. \u201cA relief \u2026 from the ever increasing photo-mania\u201d of Syria (and the region\u2019s) political culture.<\/p>\n

Decades old bureaucratic laws were scrapped, a 25% wage increase was instituted\u00a0 \u2013 not universally welcomed, as rumors had been circulating that it would be far higher, but quite a start. Compulsory military service was \u201csomewhat\u201d reformed \u2013 a service instituted to counter the perceived \u201cever present\u201d Israeli military threat.<\/p>\n

Freedom of speech was \u201cmarginally\u201d restored and the Muslim Brotherhood leaders, jailed since 1982, perceived a threat to the regime\u2019s existence, were released. A conciliatory hand extended. An Ex-chief of staff to his father,\u00a0Hikmat Shihabi, with close links to Washington, who had fled the country after allegations of corruption, was welcomed back and received as a guest in the Presidential palace. Another returnee was an \u201coutspoken\u201d newspaper Editor,\u00a0Aref Dalila, formerly critical of the regime \u2013 who resumed his criticisms.<\/p>\n

Before becoming President, Bashar had opened the country up to internet and mobile \u2018phone use.<\/p>\n

When his father had traveled : \u201c\u2026 roads were sealed (and) his entourage comprised ten cars, a mine detector and an ambulance.\u201d Bashar began driving himself, with two car security, eating in public restaurants and attending prayers in various mosques.<\/p>\n

He was, concluded Moubayed: \u201c \u2026 revolutionizing Syrian society at a slow and delicate pace\u201d, warning of the \u201dthe challenge of living up to his people\u2019s very high expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the subsequent turmoil in the region and Syria\u2019s hosting of nearly two million post-invasion Iraqi refugees, he has walked a challenging political and financial tight rope.<\/p>\n

Media, politicians and rights groups citing human rights abuses as excuse for regime change, seemingly forget Guantanamo, Bagram, Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca, and uncounted renditions to unknown detention dungeons across the world; torture, water boarding, and simply disappearing.<\/p>\n

In an imperfect world, threatened Syria is fighting an enemy within, but the US, UK and allies most recent marauding, is uncounted horrifying deaths, acres of communities turned to rubble, culminating in the second lynching of a sovereign leader.<\/p>\n

The remodeling of the Middle East, however, has been long on the cards .\u201d9\/11\u201d, it is increasingly clear, provided the perfect excuse.<\/p>\n

Maidhc \u00d3 Cathail, in a recent article, recalled<\/a> a 2003 comment written by Patrick Buchanan:<\/p>\n

In the Perle-Feith-Wurmser strategy, Israel\u2019s enemy remains Syria, but the road to Damascus runs through Baghdad.<\/em><\/p>\n

The road to Baghdad, of course, had been planned since 1998, when the Iraq Liberation Act<\/a> declared:<\/p>\n

\u2026 that it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic government.<\/em><\/p>\n

(Authorizing) the President \u2026 to provide to the Iraqi democratic opposition organizations: (1) grant assistance for radio and television broadcasting to Iraq; (2) Department of Defense (DOD) defense articles and services and military education and training \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Directs the President to designate: (1) one or more Iraqi democratic opposition organizations that meet specified criteria as eligible to receive assistance under this Act; and (2) additional such organizations which satisfy the President\u2019s criteria.<\/em><\/p>\n

Expresses the sense of the Congress that once the Saddam Hussein regime is removed from power in Iraq, the United States should support Iraq\u2019s transition to democracy\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

By July 2002 when a bunch of US funded Iraqi opposition were welcomed by the British government and hosted in Kensington Town Hall, in a pattern now depressingly familiar in countries doomed to \u201cdemocratization\u201d, US officials \u201chave reported that SAS troops and MI6 agents are already in Iraq<\/a> working with opposition groups in the northern Kurdish areas of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1946 a US State Department Report had described Iraq as \u201c\u2026 a stupendous source of strategic power and the greatest material prize in world history\u201d.<\/p>\n

Compared to that, Syria does not have vast natural resources (comparatively limited petroleum, with phosphates, chrome and manganese ores, asphalt, iron ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum, hydropower). However, it is geographically \u201cThe doorway to Asia and the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iraq had its \u201cliberation Act\u201d, in\u00a0 May 2004, the United States imposed the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, imposing, in all too familiar words: \u201c \u2026a series of sanctions against Syria for its support of terrorism \u2026 weapons of mass destruction programs and the destabilizing role it is playing in Iraq.\u201d <\/strong><\/em>Jaw dropping stuff from a country which illegally attacked Iraq, having worked tirelessly on its destabilization for years. (Emphasis mine.)<\/p>\n

In 2006, the US Department of the Treasury imposed \u201cspecial measures\u201d against the Commercial Bank of Syria. As ever, Judge, jury and executioner.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Israel bombed an undeclared \u201cnuclear facility\u201d \u2013 except it wasn\u2019t. Another weapons of mass destruction myth. It was a textile factory. A German journalist<\/a> tracked down machine suppliers, but the designing engineer.<\/p>\n

A re-run of the Iraq baby milk factory, declared a chemical weapons factory and flattened \u2013 transpiring to be a British engineered baby milk factory. The Al-Shifa pharmacetical factory in Khartoum, Sudan, suffered a similar fate under US bombs in August 1998, also accused of making chemical weapons.<\/p>\n

It manufactured mainly veterinary medicines and malarial drugs, antibiotics, at prices which undercut the Western multinationals.\u00a0 The suppliers for construction had included the US, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany.<\/p>\n

Beware of Western governments making assertions.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, British Foreign Minister and Conservative Friend of Israel, William Hague, met \u201cSyrian opposition representatives\u201d (insurgents?) on Monday declaring: \u201c\u2026we will do what we can to support democracy in Syria in the future.\u201d \u00a0He appointed former Ambassador to Lebanon and Yemen, Frances Guy, to lead London\u2019s co-ordination with them.<\/p>\n

Iraq and Libya revisited.<\/p>\n

In the myriad political games, arm twisting, manipulation and propaganda, it should be remembered that President Assad is Regional Secretary of the Arab Ba\u2019ath Party. With Saddam Hussein gone and the concept of a Pan-Arab state now outlawed in Iraq, Syria is the remaining symbol of America\u2019s nemesis, but a concept close to many Arab hearts.<\/p>\n

The fathers of the vision of Pan-Arab national ideals combined with socialism, of course, were Damascus\u00a0 born Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar, who formed the Ba\u2019ath Party in the early 1940s.<\/p>\n

The commitment included freeing the Arab world of Western colonialism.<\/p>\n

Arguably, the overthrow of the last bastion of this ideal on the road through Damascus would be a powerful Crusaders \u201cvictory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echoing Foreign Minister Hague, President Genghis Obama has vowed that the US will: \u201ccontinue to work with our friends and allies to pressure the Al Assad regime and support the Syrian people as they pursue the dignity and transition to democracy they deserve.\u201d He omitted the \u201cdelivered by tens of thousands of air strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assad\u2019s hand of conciliation to the Muslim Brotherhood has been badly bitten as they push for a \u201cno fly zone\u201d, implemented by NATO Member, neighbouring Turkey.<\/p>\n

Further, Tony Cartalucci argues<\/a> that:<\/p>\n

The \u2018\u2019Free Syria Army\u2019 is literally an army of militant extremists, many drawn not from Syria\u2019s military ranks, but from the Muslim Brotherhood, carrying heavy weapons back and forth over the Turkish and Lebanese borders, funded, supported, and armed by the United States, Israel, and Turkey.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pepe Escobar\u00a0 concurs<\/a>, citing:<\/p>\n

A report by a Qatar-based researcher for the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) even comes close to admitting that the self-described \u2018Free Syria Army\u2019 is basically a bunch of hardcore Islamists, plus a few genuine army defectors, but mostly radicalized Muslim Brotherhood bought, paid for and weaponized by the US, Israel, the Gulf monarchies and Turkey.<\/em><\/p>\n

He adds:<\/p>\n

As Tehran sees it, what\u2019s really going on regarding Syria is a \u2018humanitarian\u2019 cover for a complex anti-Shi\u2019ite and anti-Iran operation.<\/em><\/p>\n

The road map is already clear \u2026 And psy-ops abound \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

In context, one Washington allegation last week accused Syria of aggression towards Lebanon by mining their common border.\u00a0 Lebanese de-mining teams combed the border and found none. (Jordan Times<\/em>, 18th November 2011.)<\/p>\n

This week both Iran and Lebanon have claimed to have arrested alleged CIA spy rings. The Lebanese Cabinet is to summon the US Ambassador, Maura Connelly to question her on the issue. They have also submitted a complaint to the UN on alleged Israeli covert activities.<\/p>\n

Baghdad, so extensively destroyed in 2003, was the \u201cParis of the 9th Century.\u201d Damascus ,\u201cCity of Jasmin\u201d, is widely thought to be the oldest continually inhabited city on earth. The Old City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The superb Umayyad Mosque,built in the 7th century, is a monument to inspirational wonders of that millennium.<\/p>\n

Inside a shrine to John the Baptist, believed by Christian scholars to have baptized Jesus, is perhaps a reminder across the millenia of the secular nature of Syrian society \u2013 as broadly, Iraq and Libya before Western intervention.<\/p>\n

Saint Paul was sent to what is now Syria to destroy the Christians, believers are taught. His conversion on the road to Damascus changed all that. It can only be fervently hoped that today\u2019s marauders also have a Damascene conversion for the sake of Syria\u2019s population of today and most ancient of nations.<\/p>\n

__________________<\/p>\n

Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist with special knowledge of Iraq. Author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of <\/em>Baghdad<\/em> in the Great City series for World Almanac books, she has also been Senior Researcher for two Award winning documentaries on Iraq, John Pilger’s <\/em>Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq<\/em> and <\/em>Denis Halliday Returns<\/em> for RTE (Ireland).<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 dissidentvoice.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If a man seeks to understand Rome\u2019s casus reason for each foreign conquest, he needs only look into the Treasury.
\n— Tacitus, AD 56 \u2013 AD 117
\nAs the US and UK lead towards more illegal overthrows, invasions and destruction in Iran and Syria, a political pattern of manipulation and disinformation has become an art form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}