RNA - Forty militants were killed Friday, and scores more Saturday in airstrikes against Douma. There is no conclusive evidence that this was anything other than a conventional attack, and indeed conventional airstrikes often kill that many people.
Images of dead bodies are common enough too after such strikes, but combining them with a story that everyone suffocated on some toxic gas makes it a much bigger story. It also is in keeping with the State Department’s interest in boosting international calls for regime change:
- This kind of allegations plays well in international politics, as the US State Department is insisting that whatever happened in Douma is ultimately Russia’s fault, and that “Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the brutal targeting of countless Syrians with chemical weapons.”
- Evidence has been lacking in past claims of chemical attacks by Syria’s government, and proof has been non-existent. US officials, however, never let uncertainty get in the way of a good story, and will not only be repeating this claim as unquestioned fact from now on, but as seen last year, may use it as a pretext for a military strike on Syrian forces.
- As maintained by the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Executive Council and the United Nations inspectors, the Syrian government phase of chemical facilities destruction was complete a long time ago, and indeed Damascus met all the agreed requirements by the United Nations. Throughout the period from September 2013 to January 2015, the process ended successfully. In October 2013, even former Secretary of State John Kerry pronounced himself “very pleased” at Syrian compliance.
- The State Department is not interested in good news, even when it’s accurate, because the US still seeks regime change in Syria. The Syrian government officials keep warning about American dissimulation at the UN, but it is like yelling down a well and hearing no echo come back. If the Americans get away with lying to the world about new chemical attacks, and if the world becomes a full partner to their original lie and lets them slide in their dissimulating desperation for regime change, the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria could get worse than what it is now.
- The US is spinning the new attacks in Eastern Ghouta to bolster their faltering narrative of demonizing the Syrian government while simultaneously sabotaging a recent Iranian-Russian-Turkish peace initiative to end the conflict. All these old and new unsubstantiated accusations against the Syrian government are there because there is no other way for the US to justify the presence of its occupying troops in the war-torn Arab state.
- It should be noted that terrorist groups still control the area after the alleged attack. Any tampering or planting of evidence – if any – could be easily carried out by them – and surely the Syrian government would not point rockets in directions that would implicate themselves. Regarding “rebels” lacking the necessary training to handle chemical weapons – US policy has seen to it that not only did they receive the necessary training, but Western defense contractors specializing in chemical warfare are reported to be on the ground with militants inside Syria. CNN reported in 2012 that: The United States and some European allies are using defense contractors to train Syrian rebels on how to secure chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria.
Taken together, there is indeed enough evidence substantiating the fact that the Syrian government has once again become the target of what is surely one of the largest and most sophisticated propaganda campaigns in the regime-change war. However, and as always, it cannot be that hard to catch the propagandists in the act:
The new allegations by the US State Department makes it abundantly clear that there is an organized disinformation campaign saturating mainstream narratives about what is really happening in Syria. However, this shouldn’t make it impossible to place some faith in the genuine reports that are coming out about that nation’s government today, an elected government that is at the forefront of the war on terror, protecting its people and the territorial integrity of Syria.
Source: Fars News Agency
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