The following article presents MSM propaganda from a Canadian perspective...
Media Disinformation, War Crimes, and the Liberation of Aleppo
Global Research, December 16, 2016
It continues to amaze me – although I know it shouldn’t because
of its repetitious nature – but the mainstream media (MSM) content of
Canada’s CBC as represented by Rosemary Barton on Power and Politics is a
combination of double standards, misinformation, and innuendo through
choice of language.
Barton’s main talking points today (Wednesday, December 14, 2016)
came under the title “Fall of Aleppo”, with her main theme being war
crimes. The implications made for the latter put full blame for the
declared crimes on the Assad/Russia combination. Her three guests
today were: Louise Arbour, former Canadian Supreme Court Justice;
Stephane Dion, current Liberal foreign affairs minister; and Stephen
O’Brien, UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs. All three
avidly reflected and supported the “war crimes” thesis of Ms Barton.
First, the “Fall of Aleppo”
From the many sources I have read, from the many history books and
contemporary events books I have read, the very title “Fall of Aleppo”
is a lie. Aleppo – at least a good part of it, “fell” to the al-Qaeda/al-Nusra related so called rebels about four years ago.
These ‘rebels’ were aided and abetted by the U.S. CIA, indirectly
through our great democratic allies in Saudi Arabia, and more
discreetly, at first at least, by our Turkish NATO ally. Yes there were
protests, but the violence came from outside (hmmm, perhaps the call
for war crimes investigations should extend back in time….more later).
What is actually happening in Aleppo is a victory of government
forces, aided by its allies, in retaking the part of Aleppo that was
held under the severe hand of the Islamic fundamentalist groups. The
way the CBC and other western MSM present the story is as if the
“moderate” terrorists – which the U.S. failed to identify – were the
ones besieged in Aleppo. Certainly the civilians trapped in this
“cauldron” (the non-western term used for the surrounding and defeat of
the rebel/terrorist groups) have suffered, as they do in all wars. They
will continue to suffer until the Assad government – okay call it a
regime, which it is just as much as Trudeau’s government is a regime
considering it governs with only 40 per cent of the populations approval
(at last count) – until the government can restore some semblance of
security to the city as a whole. The civilians were essentially
hostages to the rebel/terrorist forces, not allowed to leave the area,
killed if they tried, subject to enforced fundamentalist rules.
In short, Aleppo has not fallen, Aleppo has recovered from its hostage taking by the terrorists. Aleppo has been liberated.
War crimes - for sure, all wars are crimes, but how far back do you want to go?
The first guest, Louise Arbour, supported the war
crimes meme currently circulating in western MSM and government
agencies. Barton asked about Canada’s UN initiatives which have gone
nowhere. Arbour’s response accepted the war crime premise, and placed
the blame on the UN and the ICC as being ineffective and their actions
insufficient in the past (as per Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Darfur). She
reported that they (someone) is “collecting…accumulated evidence” of the
“devastation” as Aleppo “falls completely to the regime.” The U.S. is
not party to the ICC, and Russia has recently withdrawn because of its
evident western bias and its true ineffectiveness.
Barton ended asking if Arbour was “anyway hopeful for the people of
Syria?” The response was a clear “No”, qualified by saying that the
civilians were “hostage to both sides.” Time will tell what happens in
Aleppo, but so far from what I have seen, most of the citizens are very
happy to see the end of the rebel/terrorist occupation and hostage
holding in eastern Aleppo. Arbour called it a “very dark day.” Crazy,
hey, I thought it was the best news to come out of the war so far – yes,
I know, more civilians will die, in Mosul as well as Aleppo, and on to
Idlib and Raqqa – but at least the scourge of fundamentalist terrorism
has been alleviated and hopefully seriously restricted for this
important city.
Stephane Dion was the second guest, and stuck with
the main themes of the afternoon. Barton again began with comments
about “shelling is a war crime” (really Rosemary?) in pockets of east
Aleppo. Dion attempted to explain what Canada was doing via the UN
which effectively highlighted Canada’s ineffectiveness. Part of the
discussion actually entertained the idea of removing the veto from
Russia in the Security Council – a great idea if the same would apply to
the other four veto holders, the U.S., France, Great Britain, and
China. In other words allow the General Assembly to hold the true
power, but that of course goes against ‘western’ wishes for dominance
globally.
I missed a short section then returned to find Britain’s Stephen O’Brien
essentially doing the British lap dog thing for the U.S. empire. If
one ever wants to hear any kind of rant containing double standards,
lies, and false humanitarianism, just listen to those who still believe
that Britain is an imperial power. It is in a way, but only as
mentioned, as a U.S. poodle.
O’Brien’s supercilious self-righteousness for humanitarian concerns
would bring a tear to even the most jaded eye. Mine were tears of
cynical jaded laughter as to the wilful ignorance of his overwrought
self-satisfied rectitude and virtue, typical British imperial rhetoric.
Repeating the memes of a fallen Aleppo and war crimes, O’Brien used
such wonderful phrases as “heinous and abominable acts…atrocities,” in
his attempts to be the civilizer, the bringer of benevolence to the
world. At the end, responding to Barton’s question concerning when
Aleppo were to be “run over entirely”, he indicated it was a “man made
crisis” and those that “perpetrated these abominations” should be
brought to justice.
War crimes? Well, where should we start?
Perhaps we should start most recently in Libya, where the British
promoted no-fly zone turned into a bomb anything that will help the
rebels, all on the pretext of a supposed genocide, the now thoroughly
disreputed “right to protect.” Certainly war crimes were committed
there by Britain, and Canada, and the U.S., and every other participant.
The military equipment used to supply the ‘rebels’ – really another
branch of al-Qaeda – was redistributed to the protesters in Syria and
the African Sahel. Who are the people responsible for that who should
be brought to justice for their abominable actions? Hint: it wasn’t the
Russians.
Or maybe we can go back to all the war crimes that started and
followed with the U.S. push for war in Iraq, based on lies and deception
from the U.S. government, all departments including the military and
the CIA, as well as the full Congress. Britain followed suit with its
false declarations by the Blair government in order to reinvigorate the
aged and poorly preserved ethos of the British Empire and its
civilizing role in the world. That led to war crimes throughout Iraq,
including Abu Ghraib, Fallujah, Tikrit, and on through other prisons
where the rise of al-Qaeda in Iraq essentially occurred as it had not
been there originally. As a consequence of other events, that led to
the rise of ISIS and the current war in Iraq and Syria. Hint: the
Russians weren’t involved.
Hmmm, where else can we go? In reality, the whole U.S. empire – as
were the British and French empires before that – is based on military
dominance of other regions for the sake of U.S. and later international
corporate interests. There is ample material on this history of crimes
against humanity under the fake guise of democracy and freedom, when
what really mattered was the subservience of all to the Washington
consensus and the dominance of U.S. power and U.S. money.
Enter Russia
After the CIA supported coup in Ukraine from which the Ukrop neonazis
were wanting to ethnically cleanse the Donbass region of Russian
speaking people; after the establishment of nuclear capable missiles on
the borders of Russia in Poland and Romania; after fighting
fundamentalist terrorists in Chechnya who originated from U.S./CIA
efforts in supporting the Afghanistan mujahideen, later Taliban; after
watching Yugoslavia be torn apart on the “right to protect” doctrine
that had no foundation and then to have Kosovo almost literally bombed
out of Serbia; after the war crimes committed by the west without a
Russian veto in the Security Council; after watching all these U.S.
related crimes against humanity/war crimes, it is really no wonder that
Russia finally found the strength to say no to U.S.imperial desires in
the Middle East.
But wait, wasn’t this about ISIS?
Well, yes, but ISIS is generally rooted in U.S. war crime activities
that have taken place throughout the region, including U.S. supplying of
military materials to Israel as it bombed the open air prison of Gaza
with its now 2 million inhabitants. But…but….the bad guys were hiding
behind the civilians…whereas in Aleppo, the rebels/terrorists are….oh
yeah, hiding behind civilians.
Also consider that the U.S. pretended to bomb ISIS for a couple of
years – before Russia intervened – and accomplished little but a bit of
publicity; consider that very recently a major agreement on military
alignment was aborted by the U.S. when they bombed a known Syrian army
position guarding Deir Ezzor from the ISIS terrorists; consider that
Saudi Arabia, the U.S.’ second largest ally in the region after Israel
is supporting and supplying al-Qaeda and ISIS wherever it can find the
necessary conditions to promote its fundamentalist inhumanitarian form
of religion; consider that the U.S. has been the frontrunner in wanting
to get rid of Assad, supported by their faithful British lapdog;
consider all this before pointing a finger at anyone for war crimes.
So why would the U.S. do all that? Simple, really, as mentioned
above it’s about oil and money. The U.S. does not necessarily want
the oil, there are many sources available for that. What it wants is
twofold. First, the price of oil, in large part controlled by the
Saudis, is the main support of the U.S. petrodollar, the current global
reserve currency. If that status failed, if the Saudis sold oil in
Euros, or yen, or renminbi, or rupees, the U.S. dollar would fail. That
is another reason for the misadventures in Libya and Iraq as both were
wanting to set up currency exchanges not involving the US$.
The second reason is related in that the U.S. wanted a pipeline to
run from its friendly dictatorship countries in the Middle East to
Europe in order to weaken the Russian economic handle of oil/gas sales
to Europe. Except that Syria stood in the way, and Syria was allied
with Iran, and Russia was bypassing Ukraine with its Nordstream and its
Southstream through Turkey (or the Black Sea whichever works out). So
once again Russia is not only surrounded by U.S. missiles and military
bases, but also has to counter U.S. oil/financial attempts to
deconstruct it and make it, like all other states, subservient to U.S.
demands.
Syria, unfortunately for its citizens, is the small country caught up
in U.S. geopolitical enterprises that are attempting to isolate and
destroy the strength of Russia. War crimes, yes, but start with the
reality of the U.S. and its allies war crimes around the region over the
past many decades.
War criminals then for sure must be brought to justice to stop these
“atrocities” and “abominations”. Start with Bush, Cheney, and
Rumsfeld, then onto Blair, then back to the U.S. for the CEOs of Boeing,
Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, General Electric,
Lockheed Martin (of Hellfire missile infamy) et al. The current crop
in the EU could also be indicted for war crimes as they support the U.S.
efforts and follow along with the manufactured consent of thinking of
Russia as the bad guy in all this. And don’t forget to come to Canada
where we have our own crop of war criminals who support U.S. actions
both rhetorically and in action.
Russia is being vilified as the evil scapegoat for all the west’s
problems, as an empire needs a good enemy to distract its citizens from
problems it really created itself and from war crimes it has created
itself. As a person who has proven to recognize U.S. intentions and
outsmart the U.S. on most fronts, Vladimir Putin becomes the
arch-villain. What is truly happening is that Russia is standing up to
U.S. imperial interests as it increasingly recognizes that the U.S. is
still fighting its anti-Soviet cold war because it needs a good enemy to
distract blame from itself.
The war is far from over, as the U.S. will certainly try to pull out
all stops in order to retain dominance in the region – up to and
including – and here’s some big speculation – the CIA operating
internally to stop Trump from taking the presidency. I would have to
say, “Thank you” to Russia for intervening on behalf of the Syrian
people in order to rid the country of U.S. supported terrorists. It
ain’t pretty, it ain’t neat and tidy, and it ain’t over, but Aleppo is
liberated.
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Jim Miles, Global Research, 2016
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