.
It would be nice if this were really about Syria or if it were just Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama who wanted to further harm
starving Americans in a
permanent part-time economy, still forced to pay
billions each and every month for Afghanistan 5 yrs. after Obama took over. Unfortunately, the GOP is thrilled to be part of the final destruction of the United States as well.
8/27/13,
"Does Obama know he’s fighting on al-Qa’ida’s side?" UK Independent, Robert Fisk
Quite an alliance! Was it not the Three Musketeers who shouted “All
for one and one for all” each time they sought combat? This really
should be the new battle cry if – or when – the statesmen of the Western
world go to war against Bashar al-Assad.
The men who destroyed so
many thousands on 9/11 will then be fighting alongside the very nation
whose innocents they so cruelly murdered almost exactly 12 years ago.
Quite an achievement for Obama, Cameron, Hollande and the rest of the
miniature warlords.
This, of course, will not be trumpeted by the Pentagon or the White House – nor, I suppose, by al-Qa’ida
– though they are both trying to destroy Bashar.
So are the Nusra
front, one of al-Qa’ida’s affiliates. But it does raise some interesting
possibilities.
Maybe the Americans should ask al-Qa’ida for intelligence help –
after all, this is the group with “boots on the ground”, something the
Americans have no interest in doing. And maybe al-Qa’ida could offer
some target information facilities to the country which usually claims
that the supporters of al-Qa’ida, rather than the Syrians, are the most
wanted men in the world.
There will be some ironies, of course.
While the Americans drone al-Qa’ida to death in Yemen and Pakistan –
along, of course, with the usual flock of civilians – they will be
giving them, with the help of Messrs Cameron, Hollande and the other
Little General-politicians, material assistance in Syria by hitting
al-Qa’ida’s enemies. Indeed,
you can bet your bottom dollar that the one
target the Americans will not strike in Syria will be al-Qa’ida or the
Nusra front.
And our own Prime Minister will applaud whatever the
Americans do,
thus allying himself with al-Qa’ida, whose London bombings
may have slipped his mind. Perhaps – since there is no institutional
memory left among modern governments –
Cameron has forgotten how similar
are the sentiments being uttered by Obama and himself to those uttered by
Bush and Blair a decade ago, the same bland assurances, uttered with
such self-confidence but without quite enough evidence to make it
stick.
In Iraq, we went to war on the basis of lies originally
uttered by fakers and conmen. Now it’s war by YouTube. This doesn’t mean
that the terrible images of the gassed and dying Syrian civilians
are false. It does mean that any evidence to the contrary is going to
have to be suppressed. For example, no-one is going to be interested in
persistent reports in Beirut that three Hezbollah members – fighting
alongside government troops in Damascus – were apparently struck down by
the same gas on the same day, supposedly in tunnels. They are now said
to be undergoing treatment in a Beirut hospital. So if Syrian government
forces used gas, how come Hezbollah men might have been stricken too?
Blowback?
And while we’re talking about institutional memory,
hands up which of our jolly statesmen know
what happened last time the
Americans took on the Syrian government army? I bet they can’t remember.
Well it happened in Lebanon when the US Air Force decided to bomb
Syrian missiles in the Bekaa Valley on 4 December 1983. I recall this very well because I
was here in Lebanon.
An American A-6 fighter bomber was hit by a Syrian
Strela missile – Russian made, naturally – and crash-landed in the
Bekaa; its pilot, Mark Lange, was killed, its co-pilot, Robert Goodman,
taken prisoner and freighted off to jail in Damascus. Jesse Jackson had
to travel to Syria to get him back after almost a month amid many
clichés about “ending the cycle of violence”. Another American plane –
this time an A-7 – was also hit by Syrian fire but the pilot managed to
eject over the Mediterranean where he was plucked from the water by a
Lebanese fishing boat. His plane was also destroyed.
Sure, we are told that it will be a short strike on
Syria,
in and out, a couple of days. That’s what Obama likes to think. But
think Iran. Think Hezbollah. I rather suspect – if Obama does go ahead –
that this one will run and run." via Drudge
.
"
Robert Fisk is a multiple award-winning journalist
on the Middle East, based in Beirut."
=================================
Note from blog editor: Please excuse gaps between text in article below. Google wants the text to appear as you see it, ie a mess, rather than the way I posted it. This happens when Google doesn't like things I post. The link to the BBC article should still work:
12/28/2001, "Hit US economy, urges Bin Laden," BBC
============================
"Osama Bin Laden's latest video message
urged supporters to "hit the pillars of the US economy" as the Afghan
defence ministry said he had escaped to Pakistan.
The 33-minute video - apparently pre-recorded some weeks ago - has been
broadcast in full by the Qatar-based satellite television station
al-Jazeera, which first aired excerpts on Wednesday....
Revelling in the "ease" of the 11
September attacks against the United States blamed on his al-Qaeda
network, Bin Laden says that if the "fragile" American economy
collapses, the superpower will be unable to oppress the weak.
Pronouncing the attacks which killed an estimated 3,000 people
"blessed", he congratulates the 19 suicide hijackers for shaking the
throne of America....
Noting with satisfaction the
"haemorrhaging" of the US economy since 11 September, he urges his
supporters to continue the "holy war" militarily and economically."...
======================
7/20/13, "A blow to LI's middle class: local jobs recovery led by low-wage sectors," Newsday (Long Island), Carol Polsky
"Lower-paying jobs have been growing faster on Long Island than
better wage occupations during the economic recovery, while
manufacturing and public-sector work -- long a mainstay for the middle
class -- are losing ground."...
---------------------------------
Ed. note: Newsday is a democrat newspaper.
..
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