The Syria Thread 2011 - Present

[Rory]

Everything...

Gobshite

[Sounder]

You are so funny AD, not only does your lesser evilism comment not relate to what the article asserts but you are the one promoting acceptance of a lesser evilism in your support for no-fly zones, jihadis, etc. All because 'Assad must go', -which really means; 'Dammit we gotta get that pipeline laid'.

Thanks Rory for that efficiently written article on "White Helmet" history.

[American Dream]

That's incredibly ignorant- I don't support no-fly zones, jihadis, etc., and the comment about Lesser-Evilism was not specific to Rory's article but rather to the anti-Imperialism of Fools in general...

[Sounder]

That's incredibly ignorant- I don't support no-fly zones, jihadis, etc., and the comment about Lesser-Evilism was not specific to Rory's article but rather to the anti-Imperialism of Fools in general...

Yes, i know, i know incredibly ignorant, but then again I haven't taken all the indoctrination courses that you have. And yes when you go into a tizzy by surrogate, in support of 'White Helmets', who are the sometimes soft side of paid mercenary structures created for use by imperialist powers, then yes I can safely say that you support no-fly zones and the jihadis. (Your narrative is hateful and stupid, so I will stick to mine, thank-you very much.)

Yes, not specific to Rory's article, because you don't have the stomach to read it perhaps? But I do love that wonk tank phrase 'the anti-imperialism of Fools', that should really get through to your target audience.

Don't they require at least some social skills for wonk tank shillary.

[American Dream]

(I think he can't even imagine people who read texts critically).

[Sounder]

(Schuss, you're talking too loud, that guy over there might hear you.)

That's wonderful for you AD that you are able to maintain you're air of superiority, but really the situation requires no 'deep critical analysis'.

Chances are that if the imperial powers are throwing millions of dollars at trying to overthrow the leader of another nation, then those that shill for that violence are in no way 'on the side of the people'. They are warmongers without proper respect for human life or self determination.

Maybe that is not a critical analysis at all, but it's still what it looks like to me.

And as far as reading texts critically, bring it on, you should be able to decimate the 'texts' in this thread.

Yet you don't. Why not take the golden opportunity?

[American Dream]

Truly, I've got better things to do- and I have to run in a minute.

I do agree that the White Helmets receive backing from Imperial forces and I don't support that. That will never lead me to cheerlead for Putin and Assad, however.

These sorts of threads do betray the lie of those who suggest they are somehow beyond binaries but fall back on false dichotomies on a regular basis.

Anyway, gotta go.

[Sounder]

Truly, I've got better things to do- and I have to run in a minute.

You are nothing if not predictable. Here and I thought that the best thing you always have to do is to plaster this place with western exceptionalist propaganda dressed up as progressive thought.

That will never lead me to cheerlead for Putin and Assad, however.

Great, you're off the hook then as there is no need to 'cheer-lead' for Putin or Assad.

Still it is a weird and passe western exceptionalism that thinks itself better suited to 'pick' a national leader that are the people of the respective countries.

Did someone promise you that once all national borders are erased that patriarchy would also be abolished?

[American Dream]

http://arabist.net/blog/http://www.syna ... ian-trauma

The Syrian Trauma→


Sit yourself down to read, without distraction, this essay by our friend Peter Harling. It drives through, with unforgiving force, through the apathy that many of us who watch Syria from afar (and indeed those of us for whom Syria is a professional interest). There is a "Syria" out there that is synonymous with evil, misery, apocalypse and the collapse of a regional, or even global order. There is a "Syria"that is a "problem from hell" or an argument about i teventionism. And then there is Syria, the country, the complicated people, which is what Peter is reminding us to listen to:

Syrians don’t need more people lecturing them on what their future should be. There are plenty of them, none with any claim to knowing what is best until they do some demonstrable good on the ground. A mere ceasefire may be a start in principle. But it also has been, repeatedly, an alibi, for the US and the UN to pretend to have achieved something, and for others—such as Russia and the regime—to regroup and push their advantage militarily. Whenever gaining time is the only outcome, Syrians lose collectively.

Our massive moral failure has been a source of public embarrassment and personal unease for many officials involved in the conflict’s management. Gradually they have been gravitating toward a solution to their own psychological tension: “stopping the violence” to appease themselves, even at the expense of diminishing any prospect of closure for Syrians. Such self-centeredness has become, in itself, an obstacle to any progress: all the policy talk about “what can we do” will remain empty until its meaning becomes “what can we do for millions of Syrians” and not “what can we do to rid ourselves of the problem.”

Our moral stupor is not inconsequential, although many people would be tempted to say so, on the basis of some cynical view about archaic struggles between sects and tribes, the intrinsic ugliness of war, a lack of “national interests” in Syria, or foreign policy understood as the natural realm of unprincipled goals. A parallel with a molested child bluntly illustrates the callous logic that seems to apply to Syria: should a victim, raped by its relatives, stay silent? Is it more convenient than shame? Is it more cost-effective than years of an arduous process toward uncertain recovery? Why even take the trouble? How can such questions have obvious answers when applied to one person, yet meet only confusion when they concern millions?

[tapitsbo]

Obviously there are multiple "empires" and different factions of "the people", AD is right about that.

Pointing that out doesn't really support the case a lot of these texts he is pasting make though.

"Syria" is de facto partitioned already. The government is still offering the option of retreat, surrender, etc. to the forces opposing them, which is better than what e.g. Gazans got during the bombing there.

The real "moral stupour" is the one that prioritizes the objectives of the actors that have been most responsible for the war like the would-be pipeline builders. It is very difficult to conclude that the legitimate Syrian government are the ones bearing the majority of the blame.

The Greater Evilism on display isn't just hollow, it's been shredded to near incoherence...

[American Dream]

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2016/10/o ... lmets.html

On White Helmets

Look. This I believe: the workers of White Helmets and the workers of Syrian Red Crescent should not be accused of political intrigues or machinations regardless what the leadership may or maybe engaged in. But remember that Syrian "revolutionaries" and their supporters have accused the worker of Syrian Red Crescent of being shabbihah for the regime. Just as I reject that, I reject to imply that workers of White Helmets are part of a conspiracy. I think that Max's article should have added a qualifier in that regard.

Posted by As'ad AbuKhalil

[American Dream]

Italian fascists storm exhibit on Assadist torture chambers

[Nordic]

Italian fascists storm exhibit on Assadist torture chambers

Do you actually take your own posts seriously?

If so, why?

[Harvey]

TV generation? Is that why we can't distinguish between hilarious advertising copy and, the world itself. In the late forties early fifties, Pohl and Kornbluth looked with clear eyed wonder and described it while everyone else was sleeping:

The Space Merchants

In a vastly overpopulated world, businesses have taken the place of governments and now hold all political power. States exist merely to ensure the survival of huge trans-national corporations. Advertising has become hugely aggressive and by far the best-paid profession. Through advertising, the public is constantly deluded into thinking that the quality of life is improved by all the products placed on the market. Some of the products contain addictive substances designed to make consumers dependent on them. However, the most basic elements of life are incredibly scarce, including water and fuel. Personal transport may be pedal powered, with rickshaw rides being considered a luxury. The planet Venus has just been visited and judged fit for human settlement, despite its inhospitable surface and climate; the colonists would have to endure a harsh climate for many generations until the planet could be terraformed.

The protagonist, Mitch Courtenay, is a star-class copywriter in the Fowler Schocken advertising agency who has been assigned the ad campaign which would attract colonists to Venus. But a lot more is happening than he knows about. It soon becomes a tale of mystery and intrigue, in which many of the characters are not what they seem, and Mitch's loyalties and opinions change drastically over the course of the narrative.

Mitch goes to a resort in Antarctica, only to become lost outside in a blizzard. He recovers to find that he has been shanghaied as an ordinary working stiff. His ID number tattooed on his arm has been altered so he cannot reclaim his old identity. However his skills remain intact. He becomes the propaganda specialist for a cadre of revolutionaries, in the process becoming a convert to the cause of those he once manipulated as mere consumers. In the end he confronts those who stole his life, who are not necessarily his enemies, and those from his old life, who are not necessarily his friends.

https://en.wikipedia.org...The_Space_Merchants

[conniption]

quemadoinstitute

The Role of NGO’s in Regime Change and Military Interventionism – (VIDEO)

Posted by kpomeroy ⋅ October 8, 2016

NGO’s and Terrorists Play Good Cop-Bad Cop Role
in Western Imperialist Agenda

AlternateView.co.uk
Conclusion by Kennedy Applebaum

Quemado Institute
October 8, 2016
Vanessa Beeley

We live in a world governed by propaganda.

Vanessa Beeley explains, in this 1 hour 12 minute VIDEO, the role of so-called humanitarian NGO’s as spearheads of violent US-EU-NATO intervention in sovereign countries such as Libya, Syria, and Yemen, and the devastation that results from the misuse by the deep state of our natural human compassion.

Preliminary Remarks
By Vanessa Beeley

The NGO Soft Power Complex:
Humanitarians or “Executioners”?

We live in a world governed by propaganda where the majority of media mouthpieces are gagged by those who own them and only permitted to release information that serves the narrative of the ruling elite or Imperialist powers.

We know that our governments lie. We know that our media channels lie. We search for integrity and truth among the rubble of propaganda. We want to pin our hopes on a power for “good”.

So what does the machine create? It creates a power for good in its own image. It creates the Non Government Organisations, the Not for Profit Industrial Compex [NPIC] to give us the illusion, not only of this power for good, but of our own empowerment, our own stakeholding in reducing the misery being inflicted upon Humanity.

The problem reveals itself when we consider who does actually fund & create these flagships of philanthropy. The problem lies with the foundations and government think tanks who have their hands firmly on the helm and direct the ship where they want it to go. Do we really believe that these funders, donors and backers will sail the ship into waters where they risk capsizing their own objectives?

In this role and dependant upon their donor support, NGOs cease to be the neutral, unbiased ‘humanitarian’ organisations they publically purport to be, and instead become actual covert tools for foreign intervention and regime change. By default, they are assimilated into the Western modus vivendi of “waging war by way of deception” and their purpose is to alter public perception of a conflict via a multitude of media and “marketing” channels.

My focus will be on Syria to demonstrate the blueprint used by the Axis of Interventionism and “regime change” to create a two headed coin of destruction. On the one side is their own Frankenstein monster with its unique market branding: Al Nusra, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Khorasan and on the other side, supposedly pitted against all form of brutality and evil authoritarianism is the ubiquitous NGO, in situ despite all risk to themselves to “save all Humanity from the evil regime”.

I will demonstrate that when the “soft power” missionary complex is in the same hands as the “hard power industrial/military” complex…they are two sides of the same coin..overtly opposing and covertly combining to achieve Imperialist aims in any given target region or nation. The NGO complex is THE most insidious tool of empire and arguably the most damaging.

“Syria is one of the biggest propaganda schemes of our time. When the dust settles, if it does, it will be revealed” – Professor AbuKhalil

Syria : White Helmets ... EXPOSED!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG6gb31VJHA
Published on Jun 24, 2016

continued...
https://quemadoinstitute.org/2016/10/08 ... ism-video/

~~~

MoA

October 08, 2016
A Desperate Obama Administration Resorts To Lying And Maybe More

On September 28 the French mission to the UN claimed that two hospitals in east-Aleppo had been bombed. It documented this in a tweet with a picture of destroyed buildings in Gaza. The French later deleted that tweet.

It is not the first time such false claims and willful obfuscations were made by "western" officials. But usually they shy away from outright lies.

Not so the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. In a press event yesterday, before talks with the French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault about a new UN resolution, he said (vid @1:00) about Syria:

continued...
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/10/a- ... more-.html