Criminal War Propaganda Directed against Iraq and Syria: “We Think the Price Is Worth It.”

By Mark Taliano

Global Research, August 19, 2019

When we play their game, we will always lose, and they will always win. “They” are the largely unelected “Permanent State”, sometimes called the “Deep State”. “They” are the publicly bailed-out transnational, corporate monopolies and their political fronts that destroy domestic and foreign economies with their supranational “trade” agreements, their parasitical “neoliberal”, publicly bailed-out “privatization” schemes, their permanent warmaking, and their terrorism.

A large part of their game is indoctrination. They are experts at war propaganda. They can make broad-based domestic audiences believe almost anything. And they are doing it now. They have largely succeeded in fabricating Canadian consent to support ISIS and al Qaeda and affiliated terrorists.

We must break free from their words, their stories, their criminal war propaganda. Nomenclature is important.

The pre-planned NATO war of aggression against Syria is not a “civil war”. The term “civil war” connotes a false equivalency between both sides, an internal conflict. It is a war lie. The terrorists are Western -supported, they are al Qaeda and ISIS, the Syrian people overwhelmingly reject them. The elected Syrian government is legitimate, the terrorists are not.

Similarly, the notion that the war is a “revolution” is a lie. Western-supported terrorists displaced peaceful demonstrations, murdering government security personnel and others. It was an “intelligence” operation. Weapons and terrorists came from Libya and beyond.

It was never an “intervention”. Intervention is a sanitized word that camouflages the anti-humanitarian reality which is that Empire and its proxies mass murder children, women, and men. Empire’s sectarian terrorists mass murder Syrians, Empires bombs mass murder Syrians, and Empire’s economic warfare mass murders Syrians. The intent is there. Have we forgotten Madeline Albright and the mass murdering sanctions imposed on Iraq? “We think the price is worth it,” she said.

Even the term “proxy war” is misleading. There is no equivalency between the warring sides. Syria and its allies are fighting a just war, self-defense, all within the framework of international law. The other side consists of al Qaeda, criminal occupiers. No equivalency.

“Moderate” terrorists never existed. Think about that one. It’s true.

Bread and Circuses, Clowns and Imposters. “Syria Face to Face”

The Syrian soldier above protects Christian towns from the West’s sectarian terrorists.

The anti-democratic SDF/YPG/PKK/Rebadged ISIS are not “militias”. The term “militia” connotes a legitimacy. They are criminal occupiers, Empire’s stooges, terrorists, resource thieves. They are not “legitimate opposition”.

Anti-democracy and freedom resource plundering. Also known as Supreme International war crimes.

If everyone told the truth, more people would understand. If we all used the same truthful nomenclature/word choice, just like all mainstream media uses the same lying nomenclature, then the people’s resistance would be a powerful humanitarian intervention. A reality-based “intervention” that actually supports rather than destroys humanity.

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Mark Taliano is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and the author of Voices from Syria, Global Research Publishers, 2017. Visit the author’s website at https://www.marktaliano.net.

All images in this article are from the author

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Kept Secret for 17 Years: Intel Memo Warned Bush’s Iraq Invasion to Create “Perfect Storm”

By Zero Hedge

Global Research, March 18, 2019

Zero Hedge 15 March 2019

A newly declassified US intelligence memo has been unearthed this week and featured in a bombshell Wall Street Journal report. It proves that the year prior to the Bush administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq the White House was expressly warned in great detail of all that could and would go wrong in the regime change war’s aftermath, including the Sunni-Shia sectarian chaos and proxy war with Iran that would define Iraq and the whole region for years following. And crucially, it reveals that seven months before the US invasion of Iraq, American intelligence officials understood that Osama bin Laden was likely “alive and well and hiding in northwest Pakistan”  — important given that a key Bush admin claim to sell the war was that Saddam Hussein and bin Laden were “in league” against the United States. 

The July 2002 memo was authored by William Burns, then serving as assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, and though clearly dismissed by the Bush neocons making the case for war, proved prescient on many levels.

“Following are some very quick and informal thoughts on how events before, during and after an effort to overthrow the regime in Baghdad could unravel if we’re not careful, intersecting to create a ‘perfect storm’ for American interests,” Burns wrote in the memo, classified ‘Secret’ and sent to Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The classified memo’s existence was first brought to the public’s attention through Knight Ridder’s reporting in July 2003, which sought to reveal at the time there were pockets of dissenting voices in the State Department and intelligence community pushing back against the absurd White House claim that the whole operation would be a “cakewalk” and US troops would be greeted as “liberators”. And there’s Vice President Dick Cheney’s infamous declaration that the military effort would take “weeks rather than months.”

Now, sixteen years after the start of the war the “perfect storm” intel briefing has been made public in fully redacted form and it affirms, as the WSJ reports,

“Diplomats accurately forecast many setbacks: sectarian violence, attacks on U.S. troops, Iranian intervention and long road to structural change.”

Out of this came the rise of ISIS and the continued unleashing of regime change and sectarian chaos on neighboring Syria.

The ten page memo outlines a litany of catastrophic doom and gloom scenarios resulting from the invasion which would destabilize not only Iraq, but unleash sectarian hell on the entire region.

Here are but a handful of the memo’s many warnings which later proved right on target, as summarized by the military reporting website Task & Purpose:

• Iran increasing aid to anti-American groups in both Iraq and Afghanistan because it feared being “next on US hit list.”
• Security in Iraq collapsing following regime change because Iraqi troops and police would be too afraid to patrol while Iraqis aligned with the United States would prove to be inept.
• U.S. troops coming under increasing attacks as they patrol both Shiite and Sunni cities. “If they intervene to stop disputes, they are perceived to have sided with one party or another in a tribal dispute, thus incurring the wrath of the opposing party.”
• Afghanistan’s security situation simultaneously deteriorating, creating the need for more U.S. troops there.
• “Carpetbaggers, bill collectors, expats and exiles,” arriving in Iraq. “It will be a wild mix.”

“I don’t mean to be pessimistic, because I really do believe that if we do it right this could be a tremendous boon to the future of the region, and to U.S. national security interests,” the memo stated. “But we should have no illusion that it will be quick or easy.”

And further contradicting Cheney’s “weeks rather than months” claim, the memo accurately predicted that U.S. troops would have to stay for, “Five years – maybe four if we’re lucky, ten if we’re not.”

Read the full newly declassified and unredacted intelligence memo here. 

Some further interesting highlights from the July 2002 ‘Secret’ report are below.

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Osama bin Laden hiding in Pakistan (the Bush admin claimed Saddam and bin Laden were in cahoots)

“Osama bin Laden turns out to be alive and well and hiding in NW Pakistan. We press Paks, internal stresses grow in Pakistan.”

Iran and Syria targeted next

“Following US warnings that it would take the war on terrorism to all groups with global capabilities, Iran and Syria hold summit meeting, decide US has targeted them.”

Iran and Syria “strengthen positions in face of perceived US threat against them following action in Iraq.”

Sectarian score settling and Shia uprising

“This means night becomes the time for revenge, all over Iraq. A horrible wave of bloodletting and private vengeance begins… US forces are helpless to stop the countrywide phenomenon. Police, intelligence, senior military, and Baath Party officials effectively go into hiding…”

“Shia religious and political leaders, unhappy with composition of provisional government and determined to secure greater share of power in post-Saddam Iraq… This leads to more violent confronations, and deaths, and the riots become a political tool to demonstrate power and increase leverage against Sunnis and Kurds…”

Long US quagmire to put down sectarian powder keg

“Faced with inchoate and escalating disorder in the provinces, the US faces an agonizing decision: step up to a more direct security role, or devolve power to local leaders.”

“The Shia in the south, quietly aided by Iran, stage major revolt, taking over local government offices and killing interim officials.”

Weapons from Saddam’s army will disappear (to be later used against US occupation)

“Law and Order, collecting weapons. We won’t get them, most will go to ground.”

“All for one, one for all, free for all – deals, short-term scrambles. It will be every clan for itself.”

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We Should Listen to the Iraqi Parliament

The original source of this article is Zero Hedge

Copyright © Zero Hedge, Zero Hedge, 2019

https://www.globalresearch.ca/intel-memo-warned-bushs-iraq-invasion-create-perfect-storm/5671850


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US Shifts Weapons from Iraq to Syria

By Jack Detsch

Global Research, March 08, 2019

Al-Monitor 4 March 2019

The Pentagon rerouted millions of dollars’ worth of weapons and vehicles from Iraq to Syria in the second half of 2018, Al-Monitor has learned, as US-backed forces cornered the last remnants of the Islamic State (IS).

In a series of notifications to Congress reviewed by Al-Monitor, the Defense Department said it had determined that a bevy of supplies purchased by the Pentagon for the Iraqi military would instead go to the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Pentagon sent lawmakers its last reprogramming notification for 2018 on Dec. 31, 12 days after President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria.

The stock of equipment includes nearly 50 Humvees, 20 mine-resistant vehicles, 40 enhanced armament carriers and nearly 700 light anti-tank weapons. The Pentagon also approved the transfer of more than 2,400 mortar rounds, 25 mine rollers and dozens of charges used to destroy mines and other explosives, the letters indicate.

Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, would not confirm whether the supplies had been moved, citing government policy. When Al-Monitor reported the transfer of route clearance equipment to Syria in June, he said it would “assist the SDF in successfully retaking the last remaining [IS-held] territory in Syria.”

“Ensuring that the SDF are sufficiently equipped has been critical to the SDF’s hard-fought campaign to liberate the Middle Euphrates River Valley from [IS] control,” he said last month. “The [Defense] department will always exercise effective and efficient use of the train-and-equip funding appropriated by Congress.”

Experts said the equipment may help the SDF further diminish IS, which beefed up its urban defenses with car bombs, booby traps and other battlefield hazards. Al-Monitor first reported that the Pentagon was transferring equipment from Iraq to Syria in June.

Grim Middle East Reality. Permanent US Occupation. American Forces will Stay Indefinitely

The equipment would be helpful, “particularly to be able to overcome entrenched [IS] defenses” and vehicle-born improvised explosive devices, which the militant group used extensively to slow US-backed forces in Syria’s Middle Euphrates River Valley, said Nick Heras, a Middle East fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Mazlum Kobane, the SDF’s top commander, said last week IS is just days away from losing control of all its territory in Syria. But the shift in resources may come at a cost for Iraq, which is struggling to regain its military footing even after declaring IS defeated in 2017.

The Pentagon budgeted $800 million to rebuild the country’s armed forces last spring. But experts worry that without US boots on the ground in next-door Syria, Iraq could be forced to pick up the slack, taking on an expeditionary role fighting IS across the border.

“When you don’t have intelligence on the ground and you lose some of the things that are leaving, it will become much more pinpricks from the outside,” said Linda Robinson, a senior defense researcher at the RAND Corporation. “It will become a much more difficult fight to prosecute. It’s first a question of the wolf at the door and then the wolf across the border.”

As Iraq looks to beef up its counterinsurgency operations against IS, and US forces take on more of a training mission, Ambassador Fareed Yasseen said the US troop and equipment presence in Iraq remains to be seen.

“It will certainly mean more American troops if we get American equipment,” Yasseen said. “It will probably mean less if we buy European or Russian equipment. The American equipment is pretty expensive, and we’re cash-strapped.”

The envoy’s assessment aligns with incoming US Central Command chief, Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, who told Congress in December that Iraq will not be able to pay to maintain US equipment.

Yasseen said Iraq will likely see an “internationalization of the Western military presence that’s there in support of Iraqi military capabilities.” That includes a new NATO training operation led by Canadian Gen. Dany Fortin. The US-led coalition fighting in Iraq told the Pentagon’s inspector general last month that training of Iraqi forces “is of a basic nature” and does not fit US definitions of counterinsurgency instruction.

Though the president visited US troops at al-Asad air base in December, he did not meet with Iraqi officials.

“Every minute we try to spend putting the Humpty Dumpty back together again we are reducing our opportunity to solidify Iraq,” Robinson said. “We have to look at all of the pieces on the chessboard and make the right decision.”

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The Globalization of War: America’s “Long War” against Humanity

Michel Chossudovsky

The “globalization of war” is a hegemonic project. Major military and covert intelligence operations are being undertaken simultaneously in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Far East. The U.S. military agenda combines both major theater operations as well as covert actions geared towards destabilizing sovereign states.

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-6-0

Year: 2015

Pages: 240 Pages

List Price: $22.95

Special Price: $15.00

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The original source of this article is Al-Monitor

Copyright © Jack Detsch, Al-Monitor, 2019

https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-shifts-weapons-iraq-syria/5670765

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Iran to the Iraqis: Do Not Attack US Forces Unless They Refuse to Withdraw Following a Parliamentary Decision

By Elijah J. Magnier

Global Research, February 07, 2019

Elijah J. Magnier 5 February 2019

US president Donald Trump’s statement of his intention to remain in Iraq in order to “be looking a little bit at Iran because Iran is a real problem” has created a political storm in Mesopotamia among local politicians and groups now determined to put an end to the US presence in the country. Many are upset by Trump’s statement, saying that the “US forces are departing from their initial mission to fight terrorism, the reason for which they are allowed to stay in Iraq”. Iraqi President Barham Saleh commented that the US administration did not ask Iraq’s permission for US troops stationed in the country to “watch Iran”.

US forces have been deployed in Iraq in large numbers since 2014 when ISIS occupied a third of the country. The US establishment under president Obama refrained from rushing to support the Iraqi government, leaving room for Iran to act rapidly and send weapons and military advisors to Baghdad and Erbil. The intentionally slow US reaction pushed the Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Sistani to call for the mobilisation of the population, a call that led to the creation of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), called Hashd al-Shaabi, who managed to stop ISIS’s advance.

Moreover, in response to Iraq’s request, a joint military operational room was formed in Baghdad’s “Green Zone” where Russian, Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian high-ranking officers are still present, coordinating military attacks and sharing electronic and other intelligence information about ISIS whereabouts and the movements of its militants, sleeping cells and leaders.

The US also offered to conduct intelligence operations and air strikes against ISIS. Nevertheless, during the period that the ISIS threat diminished the number of the US forces has more than doubled, from 5,200 to 11,000, according to sources within the Iraqi government; some Iraqi sources claim the real numbers are much larger, with as many as 34,000 US servicemen spread over 31 bases and locations, along with Iraqi forces. There are no military bases for US forces only.

US forces are officially based at Camp Victory within the perimeter of Baghdad airport, Camp Al-Taji situated 25 km north of Baghdad, Balad Airbase which is 64 km north of Baghdad, Al-Habbaniyah Camp between Ramadi and Fallujah, Qay’yara Airfield 300 km north of Baghdad, Kariz base in Zummar Nineveh, Ayn al-Assad Airbase close to Baghdadi in al-Anbar province, Kirkuk al-Hurriya Airbase, Bashur base in Erbil, Erbil International Airport command and control base, Harir Shaqlawa Kurdistan in Erbil and Atrush Field in Duhok. US forces constructed a new Airbase close to al-Qaem on the Iraqi-Syrian borders and another close to al-Rutbah east of Ramadi and close to the Syrian borders. The US forces have a military presence within the Iraqi security forces in various locations and camps, mainly within the Counter-Terrorism units.

US Seeks to Extend Military Presence in Iraq ‘Indefinitely’

Trump visited one of these bases, Ayn al-Assad, during the Christmas and New Year holidays. The breach of protocol associated with his visit created domestic upheaval, leading many Iraqis to call on the Parliament to expel US forces from Iraq; the three leading Iraqi officials (Speaker, President and Prime Minister) refused to meet him at the US part of the base.  For security reasons the US President was forced to keep secret his visit to a country where he has thousands of forces on the ground. By contrast the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Jawad Zarif, visited Iraq for five days meeting local officials in Baghdad, Najaf and Karbala.

Iraqi organisations – who fought ISIS for years, and share Iran’s goal of rejecting US hegemony in the region – threatened to attack US forces if they didn’t leave the country immediately. However, sources close to decision makers report that “Iraqi groups are not expected to attack US forces immediately”.

“Iran has asked all their friends in Iraq to refrain from attacking the US forces and instead to arm themselves with patience for the day when US forces refuse to leave if and when the Parliament approves a bill asking them to return home. Should this happen, US forces would be considered an occupation force, giving legitimacy for the Iraqi resistance to attain their goal”, said the source.

These Iraqi organisations are keeping a close watch on the US forces’ movement in the country. They consider the US establishment a source of trouble to the country and the region. Last week, Iraqi security Forces Hashd al-Shaabi forced a US patrol to return from their mission, preventing them from entering the city of Mosul on foot. The Iraqi forces consider the US is diverging from its mission to help Iraq fight terrorism when US forces patrol Iraqi cities for their own training purposes.

Hashd al-Shaabi has a grudge against the US forces for having bombarded Iraqi forces on the borders between Iraq and Syria, causing dozens of casualties. US officials offered repeated apologies, accusing Israel of the bombing and promising that such “mistakes” would not be repeated in the future. US officials feared the Hashd reaction and were concerned about their own troops on the ground.

According to Iraqi sources, the Parliament “needs several months to coordinate a large action and the preparation of a bill asking for the withdrawal of the US forces from the country. This campaign is expected to be guided by the Sadrist leader Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr”. The Sadrist groups are feared by the US for their long history of attacks against US forces during the occupation of Iraq between 2003 and 2011. Those mainly responsible for attacking and killing US occupation forces were Sadrists leaders who today lead their own groups: Asaeb Ahl al-Haq, Kataeb al-Imam Ali and Harakat al-Nujaba’.

From 2003-11, the US declared themselves an occupation force. Today, these forces are present following an official request from the central government in Baghdad. Thus, their departure should follow on a parliamentary initiative, according to article 61 of the constitution.

The Iraq government would like to avoid an aggressive stand against the US and is not looking to have Washington as an enemy. At the same time, Iraq doesn’t want to be considered submissive and under the wing of the US and its policies. The US aims to pull out its forces from Syria – if Trump’s warmonger advisors allow him to do so – to deploy them in Iraq–a move that should increase the number of US forces in Iraq. This would represent a further provocation to the Iraqis.

Simultaneously, Iraq is cooperating with Iran on all commercial levels, especially with regard to energy. Washington would like to prevent any selling of Iranian oil and would like to make sure Iraq is not helping Iran or becoming hostile to Israel.

It is too late: the three Iraqi leaders (the president,the prime minister, the speaker) are closer to Iran than the US. Nevertheless, these leaders, unlike, for example, a figure such as Nuri al-Maliki,do not have a record of hostility to the US. Nevertheless, Trump is mistaken if he believes Mesopotamia will bow to his wishes and become the platform for an attack on Iran.

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The Globalization of War: America’s “Long War” against Humanity

Michel Chossudovsky

The “globalization of war” is a hegemonic project. Major military and covert intelligence operations are being undertaken simultaneously in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Far East. The U.S. military agenda combines both major theater operations as well as covert actions geared towards destabilizing sovereign states.

ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-6-0

Year: 2015

Pages: 240 Pages

List Price: $22.95

Special Price: $15.00

Click here to order.

The original source of this article is Elijah J. Magnier

Copyright © Elijah J. Magnier, Elijah J. Magnier, 2019

https://www.globalresearch.ca/iran-to-the-iraqis-do-not-attack-us-forces-unless-they-refuse-to-withdraw-following-a-parliamentary-decision/5667862


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