December 12, 2024
What is clearly a joint US-Israeli plan to remake the Mideast map is now well underway. Changes will be seismic.
The Biden administration, by now almost totally controlled by pro-Israel neocons, is making its final major moves by loosing a Parthian shaft into the heart of the Mideast.
Syria – or what’s left of it – was divided up into zones – a third of the country with all its oil and gas fields is under the control of US military forces. Revenues from this oil and gas accounted for half of Syria’s income and paid its armed forces. Deprived of pay and munitions, the Syrian armed forces faded away, leaving the roads to Damascus open to Islamist forces, branded ‘terrorists’ by the west.
Israel collaborated closely. In two days alone its powerful air forces launched 480 attacks against Syrian military and strategic targets, including Syria’s tiny navy on the coast and major air bases. Israeli forces occupied a UN-sanctioned demilitarized zone on its northern border with Syria.
While western media and politicians waxed euphoric over the fall of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, there was amnesia about the history of Syria’s nasty dictatorship. Not for me, of course, as a frequent visitor to the Assad’s frightening Syria.
The first time I visited Syria, there was a public hanging in front of my hotel. Later, I was arrested at the airport for carrying a hand-held dictaphone, described by guards as ‘a CIA radio device.’ Syria was even scarier than awful Iraq. Paranoia and suspicion were everywhere. But I also met with government officials and walked most of the Syrian side of the heavily militarized Golan Heights, later seized and annexed by Israel.
What our heavily biased media in the US and Britain don’t tell you is that the US has been trying to overthrow Syria’s different regimes since the 1950’s. I refer readers to a delightful book, ‘The Game of Nations,’ written by a former CIA agent based in Syria, Miles Copeland. He recounts how the US sought to order about successive Syrian regimes or overthrow them.
Syria’s worst years were under an Alawite air force general, Hafez al-Assad, who seized power in a 1971 coup. Until his death in 2000, he misruled Syria with an iron hand, battling attempts by Islamists, communists, Nasserites, Baathists, CIA, Britain’s MI6, France’s DGSE, Saudi intelligence, Turkey and Israel to unseat him. Syria suffered eight coups since 1946.
These efforts led to the brutal repressiveness of the Syrian regimes. I was in the city of Hama shortly after its Islamists revolted against the Assad regime. Tens of thousands were killed there.
Hafez Assad did America’s bidding when he sent troops to attack Iraq in 1991. The US long sent Arab captives to Syria to be tortured, particularly to link Iraq to non-existent nuclear weapons. Hafez’s oldest son Basil, who was slated to replace Hafez after his death in 2000, killed himself in a car crash. In true Mafia style, the Assad family forced the mild-mannered, Bashar, a British-trained ophthalmologist, to become president. His brutal brother Maher became the real power behind the throne.
Today, a third of Syria and Iraq are occupied by US forces. The mighty US air force rules the Mideast skies, along with its ally, Israel. When I was asked to the Pentagon to consult with the Air Force’s strategic planners, I was amazed to see many uniformed Israeli air force officers there. Qatar has become an aircraft carrier for the US Air Force. Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt and Kuwait all host powerful US forces.
Syria is crushed. Almost 50,000 Palestinians have been killed. Gaza is rubble. Israel is openly considering annexing more parts of Syria as well as slices of Lebanon. Israel’s hard expansionist right is cock-a-hoop over grabbing more land. The incoming Trump administration, flush with a $100 million gift from the casino magnates, Israeli-American Adelsons, and packed by Israel supporters, is giving Israel’s far right government carte blanche.
Will there be more targets? Possibly. One of the heroes of the Afghan War, Khalil Haqqani, was just murdered in Kabul, allegedly by an Islamic State suicide bomber. We don’t know who is really behind Islamic State, but the killing sounds a lot like some assassinations recently carried out by Israel’s intel agency, Mossad. Or was it delayed American revenge for its defeat in Afghanistan?
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2024
I have no idea of where this will end. The ‘puppet’ that was put in place is Julani (seen it spelled ‘Golani’) the leader of the HTS. Prior to his reincarnation he had a bounty on his head, by the US government, of $10,000,000.
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He’s a fundamentalist religious zealot, who actively executes people. I guess he has given the US et al his assurances that this is part of his passed life.
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I sure hope the US hasn’t created a bigger monster. I suspect Syria will be the new Gaza for genocide.
Namaskar! The looser is not Assad alone but Iran and Russia as well. Iran and Russia were practically running the administration of Syria’s puppet regime of Assad. Syria was a crucial link in Tehran’s Axis of Resistance connecting Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon and enabling the smuggling of weapons across the region via corridor stretching from Iran through Iraq and Syria into Lebanon.
Securing a foothold in West Asia was a corner stone of Moscow’s strategy, with the Khmeimim Air Base and Tartus naval facility serving as vital assets for projecting power. Since Assad has fled to Moscow, Russia’s assets in Syria is in dilemma or taken over by the rebels.
The Dictatorship rule by Assad witnessed 231,000 civilians killed in the war with 202,000 deaths attributed to the regime and the rest to various armed faction. SNHR says those killed by the regime include 23,000 children and 22,000 women as well as 15,000 who were tortured to death.
Is ICC looking into this? Can we expect a warrant of arrest to the deposed leader of Syria?
I’m not so sure that Russia and Iran are the losers. It may be too soon to make that pronouncement. There are so many characters in this play and so many perturbations to this kabuki that I’m not sure what the outcome will be. Even NATO (aka the US) is looking shaky.
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I’m not so sure about Syria could be considered as a cornerstone. Russia as well as China don’t seem to be interested in extending the extent of their influence or relying on other countries. Unlike the US they seem to be content with their current situation. With BRICS+ both countries seem to be reaching out to help the rest of the impoverished countries, rather than trying to exploit them, like the western countries have.
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The middle east problems have all been initiated by the United States and I don’t know if it’s going to be successful. They may be getting in too deep. They haven’t done so well since the war in Vietnam. They haven’t been so successful in Iraq, Afghanistan, or in the Ukraine. The new Russian weaponry is really quite interesting. These were much smaller endeavours. In addition, they have serious problems at home plus added pressure on their financial system as a result of the new BRICS+. Theirs is an empire in decline, I suspect.
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The characters in this new effort can extend far beyond the current theatre cast of characters to include Pakistan and Iraq and possibly others. In the extreme, possibly starting WWIII.
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An excellent description of the situation can be found at:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AeAfFfTqMk at 35:16.
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I’m neither a strategist nor a political scientist; I’m just a curious observer (and a little concerned) so take my comments on that basis.