It’s been a long time since I wrote about Syria (samples here and here) and longer still since I cited one of the few Western journalists 1 to document the dirty war on that country on the basis of frequent visits. But recent writings on this site, above and below the line – on whether either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump can be supported by true progressives – have led me to a piece Vanessa Beeley posted last week on her substack.
I’ll get to Vanessa in a moment. On the other thing, two days ago I was writing:
In respect of Ukraine I’d prefer a Trump Administration to anything the Dems could offer. It would have less to lose by ending the slaughter. But I’m too mindful of …
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- Trump’s capitulation – back-footed by the ‘Russiagate’ fabrication – to the US deep state in 2017-21.
- His hawkishness on Iran and China. (Though Beijing will be able – as it is not able with Biden, Blinken or Sullivan – to pick up the phone to Trump. Yes; the tangerine narcissist who, even while walking away from the Iran nuclear deal, and murdering a revered Iranian general, kept the lines open with Tehran.)
- His appointments. It’s unlikely for personal reasons that Trump will bring back a 24-carat psycho like John Bolton. Wish I could say the same of Mike (“lie-cheat-steal”) Pompeo.
… to be enthusiastic over the high likelihood – whatever the DNC machine throws up as Biden’s replacement – of a Trump presidency in January.
Absent from that list is Trump’s ferocious Zionism but, really, does anyone want to make a case for Biden-Harris on that of all fronts? Seriously?
In any case, critical here are my first four words: “in respect of Ukraine”. They set out the strict confines for any preferring, weak as it is, of Trump. (See footnote 5.) My asides on his phone prowess target the infantile arrogance of Team Biden, and its deep roots in an Exceptionalist hubris which long ago degraded Washington’s capacity for diplomacy. 2
They are not endorsements of the Big Tangerine.
For the rest I applaud Caitlin Johnstone’s post yesterday. She’s great at making a point through imaginary watercooler exchanges like this:
Vote For 6-Headed Zombie Hitler To Stop 7-Headed Zombie Hitler
Jack: So have you given any thought to who you’re going to vote for in November?
Jill: Yeah, been thinking about it a lot. Gonna sit this one out, or maybe vote third party.
Jack: What?? Don’t you know democracy is on the line this election?? Jill, this is the most important election of our lifetimes!
Jill: Jack they say that every election.
Jack: But this time it’s true, Jill! Seven-Headed Zombie Hitler wants to commit genocide and take over the world!
Jill: So does his opponent, Six-Headed Zombie Hitler.
Jack: Look, I’m not saying Six-Headed Zombie Hitler is perfect, but come on! He’s WAY better than Seven-Headed Zombie Hitler! Sometimes you have to vote for the lesser evil.
Jill: It’s not even clear to me that Six-Headed Zombie Hitler is meaningfully less evil than Seven-Headed Zombie Hitler, Jack! I mean, Six-Headed Zombie Hitler is really, really evil! What about all that genocide and imperialism he’s been supporting?
Jack: OK but do you want all that genocide and imperialism perpetrated by a Zombie Hitler with even more heads? Just imagine how much worse it could get with that extra Zombie Hitler head added into the mix!
Jill: But isn’t it kind of silly to even be debating this stuff anymore? At some point don’t we have to stop acting like the election results are the problem, when the real problem is clearly a system that’s so corrupt and undemocratic that it now forces us to choose between being ruled by undead Nazi hydra monsters with six heads or seven heads?
Jack: Jill, now’s not the time. Let’s just focus on getting Six-Headed Zombie Hitler into office, and then we can pressure him from the left to enact the policies we want! We can have our little revolution after we’ve stopped Seven-Headed Zombie Hitler.
Jill: That’s what you say now, but next election cycle they’ll roll out another Zombie Hitler with even more heads and you’ll be saying the same thing.
Jack: There’s a Zombie Hitler with even more heads?? Gosh, Seven-Headed Zombie Hitler doesn’t look so bad anymore!
Jill: Where is the line you won’t cross? At what point do you stop supporting evil monsters to defeat slightly more evil-looking monsters?
Jack: I’d definitely never go higher than twelve heads.
And now to Vanessa Beeley, and a Syria which has and continues to suffer so much. Not from Bashar al-Assad, target of a sustained Western media propaganda blitz of equal intensity to that aimed at Vladimir Putin, but from the US empire – however many Zombie Hitler heads its incumbent steward may have had.
Which brings me at last to Vanessa Beeley’s post. She begins with Iran, then moves to Syria – definitely her strong suit – before closing with my point of entry; that the genocidal vileness of Biden-Harris hardly leaves Trump smelling of roses.
Nor vice versa.
NB: the layout is a tad confusing. But red text is Vanessa, italicised blockquotes her sources, and standard black text yours truly. OK? Here goes:
Trump elevated to “the chosen” status, genocide in Gaza increases in violence
Blame Iran! Today (July 17) in Politico
The U.S. intelligence community has received an increasing amount of evidence to suggest that Iran is actively working on plots to kill former President Donald Trump, potentially in the lead up to the election in November.
Two senior U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence said the Biden administration has gathered information from various sources, including human sources, on threats from Tehran that are linked to physical acts of violence — acts that could kill Trump, they said, without providing further details.
Iran has for years considered a plan to get back at Trump for his killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020. But the officials said the intelligence has ratcheted up in recent months and officials have become more confident in Tehran’s intentions. They also said there may be more attempts on Trump’s life in the coming weeks.
Potential for a future false flag?
One of the officials said it was clear from the intelligence the U.S. has gathered that Iran is actively plotting — and the administration was working to try and thwart such attacks. Still, Iranian operatives remain a concern for intelligence and national security officials — many of whom are part of organizations, such as Hezbollah, that have the capability to carry out large-scale attacks on Americans.
Vanessa then moves to:
… the Caesar Sanctions on Syria imposed during the Trump Presidency to further collectively punish the Syrian people for their loyalty to their leadership and refusal to comply with a Western/Zionist agenda 3 for their country:
As activist and journalist Rick Sterling wrote:
The new law is fraudulent on two counts. It is called “Caesar” in reference to a 2014 propaganda stunt involving an anonymous Syrian who was alleged to be a military photographer. He claimed to have 55,000 photos showing about eleven thousand victims of Syrian government torture. As Christian Science Monitor said at the time, the Caesar report was “A well-timed propaganda exercise funded by Qatar.” 4 A 30 page analysis later confirmed that the “Caesar” report was a fraud with nearly half the photos showing the OPPOSITE of what was claimed: they documented dead Syrian soldiers and civilian victims of “rebel” car bombs and attacks.
The Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act is also fraudulent by claiming to “protect civilians”. In reality, it punishes the vast majority of 17 million persons living in Syria. It will result in thousands of civilians suffering and dying needlessly.
The Caesar Act extends the sanctions from applying to US nationals and companies to any individuals and corporations. It claims the supra-national prerogative to apply US laws to anyone. “Sanctions with respect to foreign persons” include blocking and seizing the property and assets of a person or company deemed to have violated the US law. This is compounded by a fiscal penalty which can be huge. In 2014, one of the largest international banks, BNP Paribas, was fined $9 Billion for violating US sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Sudan.
The Caesar Act claims the Syria Central Bank is a “primary money laundering” institution and thus in a special category. It aims to make it impossible for Syrian companies to export and import from Lebanon. It will make it extremely difficult or impossible for Syrians abroad to transfer money to support family members in Syria.
In addition to these extraordinary attacks, the US is undermining and destabilizing the Syrian currency. In October 2019, the Syrian currency was trading at about 650 Syrian pounds to one US dollar. Now, just 8 months later, the rate is 2600 to the US dollar. Part of the reason is because of the threat of Caesar sanctions.
With that Vanessa leaves Syria too, to echo Jill’s counters to Jack’s lesser-evilism: 5
I have recently been pushing back against the ‘America First’ cabal on social media. You can find a couple of my comments here and here.
Those who will vote Trump and Vance because “America first” will continue a neocon policy that does not change regardless of Democrat or Republican – the targets may change, the goal does not – Biden may start nuclear war with Russia, Trump will exterminate Palestinians and destroy West Asia with Iran as the final prey.
Americans don’t get to be isolationist or protectionist about their foreign policies until America gets the hell out of every country it has occupied in the world today and for example, stops nesting unlawfully in sovereign nations to steal their resources.
If people really want to put America first, they should be ending US hegemony and military expansionism which has nothing to do with “national security”. Nobody wants America first except Americans who want to continue the neocolonialist agenda and don’t give a shit about the millions of brown people murdered in the name of US “democracy”.
The world is not a stage governed by the US, it is a world of diversity and culture that has existed way longer than America. Leave it alone, repair the damage but don’t vote in another wave of military adventurism.
Amen to that. Meanwhile, since we are going to see Trump or (less likely) Harris 6 – or some as yet to emerge product of DNC shenanigans – in the Oval Office come January, let’s by all means weigh the meagre merits and mandatory sociopathies of the Hydra-headed Zombie Hitlers on offer. As long as we don’t get carried away with the fanciful idea that any of this comes within a million miles of democratic choice – or, less ambitiously, morality – we should be OK.
* * *
- Alongside Vanessa (a Brit with US citizenship) another sterling exposer, also on the basis of frequent visits, of the West’s industrial scale lying over Syria is Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett. Check them out. Heed not the denunciations of them as conspiracy theorists, Assad apologists, baby-eaters and kitten-throttlers. Heed what they say, and on what evidence.
- In a post earlier this month on Modi’s visit to Moscow, I wrote:
… the checks, balances and greater complexity of a multipolar world call for the diplomatic skills of a Metternich; skills lost to the US when the USSR imploded and Neocons saw a barn door opening on a New American Century; when Karl Rove could say “we make our own reality”, and Madeleine Albright that “we are the indispensable nation”.
Such hubris is not conducive to diplomacy. It begets a boorish philistinism.
- What “Western/Zionist agenda” , you ask. The one spelt out by Brigadier-General Wesley Clark. A comprehensive wiki page for this interesting man notes that in his 2003 book, “Winning Modern Wars” , he recalls a soldier to soldier confab, weeks after 9/11:
In the Pentagon in November 2001, a senior military staff officer had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was to be part of a five-year plan against seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finishing off with Iran.
To which we can add the remarks of France’s former foreign minister, Roland Dumas, that London – Washington’s most obedient servant – was preparing for war in Syria two years before the Daraa protests of 2011 and the accompanying propaganda blitz which saw most Westerners, including Marxists who should have known better, buying hook, line and sinker the Evil Assad narrative. The reason Dumas advances is the “anti-Israeli” stance of Damascus but there’s far more. We can add its preference for a pipeline route bringing oil to Europe, the world’s largest energy market, going north to Russian gain and Saudi/Emirate loss. More importantly we can add that with Iraq and Libya regime-changed, Syria would be the last Ba’athism (“Arab socialism”) standing in a Middle East of vital geostrategic significance to Western imperialism. Hence its coming second only to Iraq on the hit list divulged a decade earlier to Wesley Clark. (That Iran featured last reflects, we may safely conclude, her formidable capabilities even then – assuredly not that the empire saw her as a lesser obstacle to regional designs.)
Finally, since Vanessa said “Western/Zionist agenda” – as opposed to “Western agenda” – M. Dumas may have been reductive but was not wrong. See my post of five years ago, a review of Stephen Gowans’ Israel: a beachhead in the Middle East.
- The Emir of Qatar loathes Ba’athist Syria. This makes Al-Jazeera – excellent on many things (hence its journalists murdered by IDF, and their surviving colleagues expelled from Gaza) – an unreliable source on Syria.
- There are times when, as with my “weak” and narrowly specific favouring of Trump, we might prefer one criminal over another. But ‘lesser evil’ is the wrong argument here. Leon Trotsky, wordsmith extraordinaire and master of icy logic, made this point graphically. I’m running on memory so can’t give a reference but here’s the gist of it:
Suppose two men are trying to kill me. One is coming at me with a loaded revolver; the other slips minute doses of a cumulative poison into my daily porridge. How I respond is not a question of “lesser evil” but the needs of the hour. My task, surely, is to disarm the gunman and use his weapon to kill both of my assassins.
- In my life it’s been rare for a US president – unless taken out by the deep state, Dallas ’63 style – to fail to secure a second term: Carter in 1980, Trump forty years later. Now we are looking at two in a row, even if the Dems by fair means or foul confound the bookies in November. This factoid alone speaks to the depth of the crisis engulfing the USA.
Agree with your narrow preference for a Trump administration re the war in Ukraine. It looks the best option for stopping the slaughter in at least that conflict zone and has the potential to force Europe to re-evaluate its relationship with Russia – and indeed the US.
Thanks Bryan. But hard as it is to see how Trump could surpass Biden-Harris genocide in Occupied Palestine, we can’t completely rule out Trump-Vance (even without Bolton) being so monumentally stupid as to attack Iran. In this Vanessa is quite right: Trump in the Middle East poses almost as great a risk of WW3 as do the Democrats – or rather, the Neocons who straddle both parties in the US billionaire duopoly – in Ukraine.
Bearing in mind her words on the MAGA “cabal” – elsewhere she targets Scott Ritter, I say harshly – I’m inclined to think that when I recently spoke of Alexander Mercouris at the Duran being “a tad soft on Trump” I was praising Alexander with faint damnation. I repeatedly promote him as an invaluable voice for informed truth on Ukraine. Right now that overrides all else.
Right now.
I’ve never pretended this isn’t a minefield. I’ve always stressed, given mainstream media corruption, the need to triangulate sources. There are those to the Right of me – Tucker Carlson, Dmitry Orlov, the Duran and so many others – with whom I agree and find useful on important matters, while striving to keep my distance and with it my obectivity. Easy it ain’t.
PS – I overlooked your final four words. I agree. Orban excepted, and to an extent Meloni too, all of Europe’s leaders sacrificed their peoples’ interests to please their Washington handlers.