Do Hypocrites Know No Shame?

Sunday, 9 October 2016

Do Hypocrites Know No Shame?

Posted on October 7, 2016

After the US has started wars under false pretexts, bombed wedding parties, and operated torture centers, Secretary of State John Kerry has finally called for a war crimes investigation–of Russia.

Secretary of State John Kerry gets my nomination for “hypocrite of the month” for October. I realize I’m going out on a limb here since the month isn’t even half over, but I’m pretty confident Kerry’s performance today will be difficult, if not impossible, for any Washington politician to surpass.

In a briefing at the State Department, and with the foreign minister of France present, Kerry called for a war crimes investigation into Russia as well as of Syria–or “the regime,” as he put it, using the term universally employed by propagandists when referring to the Syria’s elected government.

“Russia and the regime owe the world more than an explanation about why they keep hitting hospitals, and medical facilities, and women and children,” Kerry said, as quoted by CBS.

“They are beyond the accidental now, way beyond,” he added.

The US has of course presented no evidence that Russia has bombed hospitals, accidentally or otherwise, but I guess this is beside the point. For Kerry, Russia’s and Syria’s actions “beg for an appropriate investigation of war crimes,” and that’s that.

I am beginning to think that US officials like Kerry are little different from the so-called “crisis actors” who purportedly show up at events like the Boston bombing. Their role, in fact, seems to be very similar. During his comments, Kerry, sounding very much like a crisis actor, alleged that Syrian forces bombed a hospital overnight, killing 20 people and wounding 100.

“This is a targeted strategy to terrorize civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their military objectives,” claimed Kerry.

Is it possible the US secretary of state is projecting? Did not the Bush II administration launch the Iraq war in 2003 with a self-proclaimed “shock and awe” campaign, and have not countless drone strikes in Afghanistan over the years essentially served a similar purpose?

In a pattern that has become familiar, the CBS report on Kerry’s comments shrouds and obfuscates certain facts about the Syrian conflict as we see from the following excerpt:

Kerry’s Sept. 9 agreement with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would have created a new counterterrorism alliance in Syria, had fighting stopped for a week and aid deliveries been permitted to reach desperate civilians in rebel-held parts of Aleppo and other besieged areas.

Neither condition was ever met.

The truce then broke completely when Syria and Russia renewed their military offensive in Aleppo. Kerry ended bilateral discussions with Russia on the military partnership earlier this week.

No mention is made by CBS of the fact that Syrian troops observed the terms of the ceasefire, while the terrorists did not, nor is any mention made of the US-coalition attack which killed upwards of 80 Syrian soldiers. And while allegations have been made that Russia or Syria bombed the humanitarian convoy shortly afterwards, no evidence has been presented of that either.

Kerry’s comments have been denounced by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

“Kerry’s statement – this is propaganda. There are some very serious legal consequences behind this terminology, and I think that Kerry used all of these terms to inflame the situation,” she said. And she also called Kerry out on his hypocrisy.

“If it comes to war crimes, US representatives should start with Iraq. And then move to Libya, and of course to Yemen – find out what’s there. I want to say that juggling these words is very dangerous, because there are indeed war crimes on the part of the American representatives.”

Do hypocrites know any shame? It’s an often-asked question. The actions of US officials would suggest they do not.

But then maybe it’s all just part of being a paid crisis actor.