A Bleak Look at the West's Vision for Syria

Sunday, 21 April 2013

A Bleak Look at the West's Vision for Syria

By Tony Cartalucci
Terrorist controlled areas are scenes of sectarian brutality, fear, kidnappings, mass murder, collective punishment, and pillaging - the obvious end game of Western-backed regime change.

April 20, 2013 (LD) - Reports are starting to creep into Western media regarding sweeping atrocities committed by the so-called "Syrian rebels." Areas held by terrorists have become bleak landscapes both literally and socioeconomically - with sectarian extremists running the vast majority of civilians from towns and leaving whoever remains in perpetual fear for their lives, and in utter despair for their futures.

Image: Western-backed terrorists have driven out most religious and ethnic minorities, leaving Syria's ancient churches all but abandoned. Those who remain, live a life of perpetual fear and uncertainty. While the UN grandstands, claiming the refugee crisis is the result of the Syrian government, The Atlantic reported that some 300,000 Syrian Christians have fled the country, apparently from areas held not by the Syrian government, but by Western-backed sectarian terrorists. (photo by Danny Gold)

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Fighting for "Democracy"

We were first told that the so-called "rebels" were fighting for "democracy." As the West began to acknowledge that the "rebels" were in fact sectarian extremists, the narrative shifted to simply, "fighting to oust Assad." However, entire battles have been fought not between the Western-backed terrorists and the Syrian Army, but rather between the terrorists and local tribes, Kurdish militias, and virtually anyone who attempts to oppose the invading militants, many of whom are foreigners.

In Reuters' "Rebels battle with tribesmen over oil in Syria's east," the narrative of "pro-democracy" "freedom fighters" crumbles entirely:

Islamist rebels are clashing with tribesmen in eastern Syria as struggles over the region's oil facilities break out in the power vacuum left by civil war, activists said on Saturday.

One dispute over a stolen oil truck in the town of Masrib in the province of Deir al-Zor, which borders Iraq, set off a battle between tribesmen and fighters from the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda linked rebel group, which left 37 killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The fighting, which started in late March and lasted 10 days, was part of a new pattern of conflict between tribal groups and the Nusra Front, said a report from the Observatory, a British-based group which opposes Syria's government and draws information from a network of activists in the country.

Despite quoting the discredited "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights," the Reuters report backs not only independent geopolitical analysis from the past two years, but the narrative put forth by the Syrian government itself. That al-Nusra is fighting in Syria, that it constitutes the most prominent armed front in the conflict, and that it is guilty of an increasingly long list of atrocities is a universally accepted fact. The only point of contention put forth by the West is whether or not the opposition consists entirely of sectarian extremists, or if there are indeed "secular" fighters in any significant quantity amongst the opposition. In eastern Syria, at any rate, it appears Al Qaeda's al-Nusra is the sole "opposition."

Reuters continues:

Masrib tribesmen called for help from Assad's forces against Nusra, according to the Observatory and a fighter with the Islamist group.

Nusra responded by blowing up 30 houses after the battle, in which 17 rebels were killed, at least four of them foreigners, the fighter said on Skype.

What is being described is collective punishment of the variety used by the Nazis against the people it invaded and attempted to subjugate. The fate of territory under terrorist control in eastern Syria portends the fate of greater Syria should the government fall to what is clearly a pillaging sectarian tyranny.

Not only are the "rebels" not fighting for "democracy," they are not even fighting the Syrian government. Instead they are fighting to pillage the oil from a region they invaded and are currently occupying. What's worse is that the EU is attempting to lift sanctions on Syrian oil, specifically so these occupying sectarian extremists can further fund and expand their campaign. Reuters reports:

The incentive for disputes over lucrative resources may be increased by plans by the European Union to lift an embargo on Syrian oil, which would make it easier to sell.

The EU said this week it wants to allow Syria's opposition to sell crude in an effort to tilt the balance of power towards the rebels, who are outgunned by Assad's fighter planes and long range missiles.

What of Syria's Christians?

APR's article, "Syria's Christian Minority Lives in Fear of Kidnapping and Street Battles," gives us updated insight to the plight of Syria's Christian population, who had lived in fellowship with Muslims, Druze, and Kurds until the Western-fueled sectarian bloodbath triggered in 2011.

The article states:

Prior to the conflict, many saw Ras al-Ayn as a beacon of tolerance between Muslims and Christians. Residents say that they there is still a camaraderie among the citizens that live there, but that problems arise from those fighting who don't live in the city, be they FSA, YPG [Kurdish militia known as the Popular Defense Forces], or Islamists.

The article describes the fighting, with "rebel" militants invading Ras al-Ayn. The Syrian military and Kurdish militias (referred to in the article as YPG), were pushed out of areas where the militants then established a foothold. Devastation by fighting, rampant crime, and sectarian violence caused some 65% of the population to flee the city - solving the mystery of just who is driving the refugee crisis - ironically the same refugee crisis the UN and the West have attempted to use as justification to further fund, arm, and aid the terrorists.

The article would continue by describing life for those who remain, who appear to be barricaded in what might be described as a ghetto:

In an article written for a Christian Orthodox website, Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Eusthathius Matta Roham called the Islamists, without naming Jabhat specifically, a great threat to the lives of Syrian Christians in Ras al-Ayn. He also praised the YPG for rooting out the rebels and protecting the Christian neighborhood.

Like many other Christians interviewed, a 24-year-old Christian named Diana refuses to answer questions about the specific armed factions. "We don't know about the fighting groups. All we want is the fighting to stop," she said. "My home has been destroyed, everyone has left."

I asked her who she was scared of. "Everyone," she replied. "My future is gone."

Previously she had studied in Aleppo, but she rarely leaves her neighborhood now.

Of particular concern to the Christians is kidnapping, which only some would admit seems specifically targeted at Christians.

Despite this damning indictment, the Atlantic piece is also filled with attempts to downplay what is clearly a catastrophic sectarian conflict, spawning atrocities and a humanitarian crisis. Such a blood bath was warned against as early as 2007, where Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker that the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel were purposefully planning to unleash sectarian extremists in Syria to overthrow the government. While the West now claims the rise of Al Qaeda is an unintended coincidence, Hersh reported in the 2007 article, "The Redirection," that:

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

Hersh quoted former CIA agent Robert Baer, who warned about the dangers of fueling sectarian extremists:

Robert Baer, a former longtime C.I.A. agent in Lebanon, has been a severe critic of Hezbollah and has warned of its links to Iranian-sponsored terrorism. But now, he told me, “we’ve got Sunni Arabs preparing for cataclysmic conflict, and we will need somebody to protect the Christians in Lebanon. It used to be the French and the United States who would do it, and now it’s going to be Nasrallah and the Shiites.

While Baer's comments were in regards to Lebanon, the conflict in neighboring Syria has turned out to be just as "cataclysmic," with Syria's Christians and other minorities in equal or greater peril.

Clearly, Western-backed terrorists are not just fighting the "Assad regime," they are fighting anyone opposed to their sectarian ideology which is both hardly "democratic," and hardly anything to do with "freedom." Predictably, unthinkable atrocities are being carried out in a wave of violence and subjugation that is leaving a broken society everywhere it sweeps through. Through the destruction of physical infrastructure, the crumbling of Syria's institutions, and the extermination or driving out of Syria's minorities, what the West backs as "regime change," is in reality calculated sectarian genocide.

In terrorist-controlled territory, we see a vignette of the "future Syria" the West imagines - one not unlike the now dysfunctional, decimated Libya, or the totalitarian regimes of Tunisia and Egypt, both ruled by the sectarian crypto-terrorist Muslim Brotherhood.

These are purposefully imposed nightmares couched behind "humanitarian concern" and "democracy promotion." It is clear that in areas the Western media claim are devoid of government troops, abuse, atrocities, tyranny, humanitarian catastrophe, and despair only increase. The rationale made by the West to continue fueling this conflict and extend this state of chaos across the entire country, poses to the rest of the world a moral imperative to not only condemn this conspiracy against the Syrian people, but to oppose it and ensure that it utterly fails.