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Obama's America: Gangsterism Writ Large

by Stephen Lendman
Syria
Obama's America: Gangsterism Writ Large

by Stephen Lendman

Obama's America is an out-of-control rogue state. It's nuclear armed and dangerous. It maintains large stockpiles of hugely toxic chemical and biological weapons.

They're used freely in all US wars. Washington threatens world peace. It risks global war. It's no land of the free and home of the brave. It's not beautiful.

It's no democracy. It's run by cutthroat criminals. They're gangsters. They're thugs. They're hoodlums. They're barbarians.

They're corrupt. They're morally depraved. They're ethically challenged. They want everything for themselves. They want unlimited wealth, power and privilege.

They're waging war on humanity for global dominance. They're benefitting at the expense of its survival. They need to be stopped at all costs. The alternative is potential annihilation.

The stars are aligned against Syria. They're pointed the wrong way. The Syrian Arab Republic threatens no one. It's in Washington's crosshairs. It's being ravaged and destroyed. It's fighting to survive.

Obama bears full responsibility. America's a modern day Sparta. Peace is abhorrent. "Yes we can" reflects Obama's pro-war, pro-imperial, pro-ravage, plunder and dominate agenda.

The business of America is war. Militarism is longstanding US policy. America's history is bloodstained. It glorifies war. Enemies are invented to wage them. Doing so makes peace impossible.

Cruise missile diplomacy substitutes for give peace a chance. America goes out of its way to wage war. They rage without end.

According to James Petras, Obama "systematically reject(s) opportunities to resolve conflicts" responsible.

His "diplomatic initiatives lack substance (They're) neutralized by parallel military moves and aggressive interventions."

He never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. His destructive agenda proves why.

His world view reflects grab all you can. Wage permanent wars. Create enemies to do so. Ravage and destroy them. Create new ones.

Petras said Obama's epitaph will read in part: He fought wars and lost. He "turned friends into enemies."

He destroyed humanity in the process. He did so one country after another. He's been ravaging Syria for two and a half years.

Expect lots more ahead. Cruise missile diplomacy explains what coming.

On August 29, Reuters headlined "Obama makes case for Syria strike, British house votes no," saying:

"The United States and its allies have 'no smoking gun' proving Assad personally ordered the attack on a rebel-held Damascus neighborhood in which hundreds of people were killed, US national security officials said."

Fabricated intelligence expresses "high confidence" Syrian forces bear responsibility. It bears repeating. Big Lies launch wars.

This one's a whopper. It's fake. It's manufactured out of whole cloth. No evidence linking Assad or Syrian forces to Ghouta's attack exists.

What's obvious is suppressed. Insurgents bear full responsibility. They conducted numerous past chemical attacks. They've been caught red-handed.

It doesn't matter. Hegemons do what they want. They ignore public opinion. Polls show only 9% of Americans support war.

It's an unprecedented low figure. It shows overwhelming opposition. It compares to 90% support for attacking Afghanistan in October 2001.

It's far below the lowest Vietnam and Iraq wars support. They bottomed at around 30%.

Majorities in Europe and Middle East countries oppose war. On August 30, Press TV headlined "British anti-war campaigners to protest against Syria attack," saying:

"Thousands of British anti-war campaigners are to demonstrate against the Western war rhetoric against Syria."

"The demonstration titled 'No attack on Syria' was called by The Stop the War Coalition and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and is planned to be held on Saturday 31 August in central London."

People were lied to about Iraq. They know they're being lied to again. Americans feel the same way. On Thursday, hundreds protested in Times Square.

"US, NATO, hands off Syria," they chanted. Some carried pictures of Assad. One protester held a sign reading: "Syria=Iraq. Same Lies."

Protesters turned out in Chicago, Boston, Miami, and other US cities. They're sick and tired of endless wars.

They're tired of being lied to. They want jobs. They want America out of the Middle East. They want peace, not endless conflicts.

Over the weekend, more anti-war protests are planned. They're expected across Europe, the Middle East, North America and perhaps elsewhere.

They won't deter Obama's rage for war. He exceeds the worst of George Bush. He's got other targets in mind.

The road to Tehran runs through Damascus. War on Syria's prelude to targeting the Islamic Republic.

Spurious Iranian threats continue. Hassan Rohani's election doesn't matter. He promises "government of deliberation and hope."

He wants to engage Western countries responsibly. Obama hasn't recognized his legitimacy.

He wants Iranian sovereignty destroyed. It's planned after ravaging Syria. He's got more targets in mind.

Attacking them furthers America's war agenda. It advances its imperium. It threatens humanity's survival. It doesn't matter. Hegemons do what they want.

Former UK First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff/Under-Secretary of State Admiral Admiral William John West/Baron West of Spithead expressed great concerns about attacking Syria.

"(H)aving seen the run-up to the Iraq war," he fears another disaster unfolding now. We need "hard intelligence," he said. "People don't trust (the) information" they're getting.

They've got good reason to disbelieve it. They've been lied to many times before. America and Britain need to share what they have with Russia. They need to prove what they claim with hard, verifiable facts.

So-called "limited surgical strikes" are dangerous. "(I)n all my experience of wars - and I've been in them and in the lead-up to them and running them and things - you have a law of unintended consequences," said West.

"You think you’re just going to do one little thing but actually things then happen and expand."

America, Britain, France and Turkey "need to be very careful about what action to take."

"We need to be very clear what it is we actually want to achieve, what is the end state we want."

"We need to have mechanisms in place militarily to ensure things don’t go beyond a certain degree. But I am not at all convinced that an attack would help the people in Syria."

"We've seen what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan."

It repeated in Libya. It's doing it in Syria. It's for all the wrong reasons. Lawless aggression can't be countenanced. Strong opposition against it is needed.

On August 26, China's Xinhua News Agency headlined "Russia sees risk of 'war of civilizations' in Syria," saying:

"…Western powers (are) moving along that path, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday."

"I was greatly alarmed by the statements made from Paris and London that NATO may intervene to destroy chemical weapons in Syria without the consent of the UN Security Council. It's a very dangerous and slippery path," he said.

"Even if we leave the legal, moral and ethical aspects aside, specific consequences of external interference not authorized by the international community would only sharply exacerbate the situation in the country," he added.

He called Western forces deployed against Syria "a grave blunder." It suggests Iraq and Libya redux. It doesn't deter hawks from wanting more.

Wall Street Journal editors headlined "A Serious Bombing Strategy."

They want more than a "shot across the bow." They want shock and awe. They want Syria's air force destroyed.

Debate so far has been over a "false choice," they said. Too little won't make a difference, they claim.

They want to "level the battlefield for the opposition." Killing thousands more doesn't matter, they believe.

"We'd support a larger military intervention aimed at regime change," they say.

"Short of that, any US military strike should focus on doing enough damage to the Syrian air force so the rebels can change the regime themselves."

New York Times editors published an anti-Assad hate piece titled "Make Assad Pay," saying:

"This is still an American-led and American-protected world," it said. Who gave America the right? Who appointed it global policeman?

Who gave the nation Martin Luther King called "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world" the right to differentiate between good and bad guys?

Separately, Times editors headlined "More Answers Needed on Syria."

They were duplicitous. On the one hand, they said "Obama has yet to make a convincing legal or strategic case for military action on Syria."

On the other, they want "some kind of international response to (Assad's) chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of civilians."

They want him prosecuted in the International Criminal Court. They dismiss any possibility that insurgents are responsible for what happened.

They have no access to chemical weapons, they allege. They have no capability to use them, they believe.

They ignore clear evidence otherwise on both counts. They suppress it. They do so duplicitously.

They've pilloried Assad since conflict began in March 2011. They back regime change. They ignore inviolable rule of law principles.

They back all US wars. They're lawless. They're based on lies. They support advancing America's imperium. They're on the wrong side of history. Don't expect them to explain.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
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