Due to the immense political theater surrounding these Syrian chemical weapons charges, I decided to re-read some of my previous posts on Syria. That reminded me that for whatever reason, the strategy to topple Assad has not worked, so the Executive Branch of the United States had to pull out the old chemical weapons argument.
I decided to read the official US Assessment of the use of chemical weapons and am of the belief that yes, chemical weapons are being used in Syria, but I am not convinced on which side is responsible.
Where did the intelligence come from? According to this article,
The bulk of evidence proving the Assad regime’s deployment of chemical weapons – which would provide legal grounds essential to justify any western military action – has been provided by Israeli military intelligence, the German magazine Focus has reported.
If we have learned anything from the leadup to war in Iraq, its that intelligence can be subjectively interpreted to support you desired outcomes, and Israel is hardly an objective observer in this this conflict. Especially since they have just sold the oil rights to Syria.
One other article I stumbled across – this article references another article from July 9th, where Russia claims to have proof of a rebel chemical weapon rocket attack.
According to the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin:
The ambassador said the results of the analysis indicate the Bashar 3 rocket “was not industrially manufactured and was filled with sarin.” He said the samples indicated the sarin and the projectile were produced in “cottage industry” conditions.
The absence of chemical stabilizers, which are needed for long-term storage and later use, indicated its “possibly recent production,” Churkin said.
I couldn’t find any articles where the US Government denied this accusation, yet there was no call for intervention on humanitarian grounds to intervene after this attack.
In my opinion, this call for intervention has nothing to do with humanitarian issues and all about bailing out the rebels who are losing the battle against Assad. This proxy war is all about oil and/or oil pipeline interests in the region, and if one side punches, the other side will punch back just as hard. This is not worth going to war over.
This is kind of like those questions on intelligence exams.
A. The US supports the Taliban to fight Russia in Afghanistan.
B. The US then has to fight the Taliban.
C. The US supports AL-Qaeda to fight Assad in Syria.
D. ????
If B follows A then what is the D that follows C
Too bad the US government does not have any intelligence.
I guess it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that D is the US Supports Israel to combat Al-Qaueda. Maybe it doesn’t matter who we fight or support, as long as we support the military industrial complex.
Its funny how the nobody in the government is talking about how we need to support AL-Qaeda to combat Assad. I guess that would just confuse the American public.