Dead Giveaway:

US, Turkey Leeching off Syria’s Riches and Territorial Integrity

Rasa - The Pentagon’s new “offer” of additional support to Turkey in the ongoing war against Syria on the pretext of fighting ISIL is the moment of truth for the United States' outgoing President Barack Obama.

News ID: 426304

Date: 05 January 2017 - 22:01

RNA - As the Trump era ushers in, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is yet to reflect the hope of the awards’s founder Alfred Nobel that the world, much less the Middle East, be freed of American weapons, foreign-backed terrorism, and regime-change fantasy wars. On the contrary:

After having US warplanes fly over the ISIL-held city of al-Bab but not bombing them (why aren't we surprised) amounted to a “show of force” in support of Turkey, the Pentagon is now hyping that they are going to “keep supporting” Turkey in al-Bab.

We take it as it is that no such offer has yet been made, and that it isn’t clear what that might entail. But that's not the point. The question is who has given the right – and the authority - to Turkey and the United States to invade and occupy Syria, violate its territorial integrity, bomb its defenceless civilians, and leech off its riches? The answer is no one - not even the United Nations.

The sudden talk of “doing more,” which is to say killing more innocent people and bombing even more civilian objects, likely reflects the anger and frustration among the US-led regime changers about the never-ending and unstoppable terror attacks in Turkey and Europe. It’s a dead-giveaway. It also brings to light all of the facts and implications that they are unable to affect regime change in Damascus - not today, not tomorrow, not ever.

After six years of war and destruction that has killed hundreds of thousands, created millions more refugees, and destabilised the entire planet, it doesn't take a lot of effort to realise that this dirty campaign was never about freedom and democracy. It is about the United States and its monstrous project ISIL that has backfired. If there was any doubt about it, the New Year's terror attack on an Istanbul nightclub, in which 39 people were killed and dozens more were injured by an ISIL gunman, makes it plain as day: The regime changers have now turned their guns against each other.

It’s a typical response to frustration and exhaustion. It's also a reminder that the violation of Syria’s territorial integrity and criminal occupation is a thinly disguised helping hand extended to the terrorist groups of ISIL and Al-Qaeda. The US-led air strikes are pointed exclusively at the people of Syria and their government, which Western governments consider their “moderate” terrorists’ most determined foe. The regime changers, who have never lifted a finger to strike at  the “moderates”, are now desperate to help them seize and hold new territory in al-Bab after losing the strategic city of Aleppo to the Syrian Army and allies.

The danger is that Turkey, at war with ISIL and now with tacit US approval, is also slowly dragging the Middle East into a nightmare of never-ending war, pitting its warplanes and “moderates” against the Syrian people as part of a misguided competition with the allied forces.

It is incumbent, therefore, on the international civil society, in particular the European governments, to open their eyes to the US-led coalition’s sickly obsession with Syria, its territorial integrity, and its riches. They must stop supporting any new US-led campaign, because it’s a bad idea, and because the target, the Syrian government and its allies, are an effective counter to ISIL, Al-Qaeda and other Wahhabi-Salafist groups.

At the very least, Western governments and the establishment media should stop pretending that the “moderates” are their allies. It’s not funny anymore. Refusing to name the enemy at the epicentre of this global disaster and myth that is the “moderate rebel” will only bring further death and terror to Syria, Turkey, Europe and beyond.

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