{"id":44555,"date":"2013-06-23T20:06:54","date_gmt":"2013-06-23T19:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/fast-tracking-toward-war-on-syria\/44555\/"},"modified":"2013-06-23T20:06:54","modified_gmt":"2013-06-23T19:06:54","slug":"fast-tracking-toward-war-on-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/fast-tracking-toward-war-on-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"Fast-Tracking Toward War on Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\n<b>Fast-Tracking Toward War on Syria<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nby Stephen Lendman<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nAmerica&#8217;s run by sociopaths. They&#8217;re out-of-control criminals. They&#8217;re traitors. They menace humanity. They violate their sacred oaths of office.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nPresidents &#8220;do solemnly swear (or affirm to) faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of (their) Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nCongressional members &#8220;do solemnly swear (or affirm to) support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; (to) bear true faith and allegiance to the same; (to) this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and (to) well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which (they are) about to enter: So help (them) God.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nStraightaway in office they spurn them. Presidents do most of all. Wealth, power and privilege alone matter. It shows in how they govern.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nThomas Jefferson said &#8220;When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nHe also said &#8220;Experience hath shewn (sic), that even under the best forms of government, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nThomas Paine said &#8220;The duty of a true patriot is to protect his country from its government.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nAccording to James Madison, &#8220;If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.&#8221;\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nAmerica&#8217;s &#8220;war on terror&#8221; explains. When nations have no enemies, they invent them. Washington does so in the extreme.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nBenjamin Franklin warned that sacrificing freedom for security assures losing both.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nNew administrations and congressional members exceed the worst of their predecessors. Governance today is out-of-control. Rogue state extremism explains it. War on humanity&#8217;s institutionalized.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s shocking how bad things are. Ahead expect worse. Obama&#8217;s already fighting multiple direct and proxy wars. He&#8217;s got more death and destruction in mind.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nHe&#8217;s escalating war on Syria. He intends doing more than already. He bears full responsibility for tens of thousands of deaths. Assad&#8217;s wrongfully blamed for his crimes. Rogue states operate this way.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nShameless pretexts are invented. John Kerry&#8217;s more mad bomber than diplomat. He replicated Madeleine Albright&#8217;s moment.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\n&#8220;What&#8217;s the point of having this superb military that you&#8217;re always talking about,&#8221; she asked then Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell, &#8220;if we can&#8217;t use it?&#8221; Her comment urged war on Yugoslavia.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nKerry wants Syria bombed. He wants Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey launching it. Doing so requires taking out Assad&#8217;s sophisticated air defense systems. It involves neutralizing his command and control capability.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt means Yugoslavia or Libya 2.0. Take your pick. It assures destroying another country. It&#8217;s doing so for power and profit. It doing it by hundreds of sorties.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt means unconscionable mass killing and destruction. It risks genocide. It assures destroying essential infrastructure. It guarantees longterm environmental contamination.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt ensures vast numbers of birth defects, cancer and other diseases. It means potentially millions displaced on their own.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nAlbright told <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=omnskeu-puE\"><span style=\"color: #1255cc\">60 Minutes<\/span><\/a>&#8216; viewers that half a million dead Iraqi children was a small price to pay. She referred to lawless sanctions responsible for killing them.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nKerry matches her roguishness. Power-hungry officials ignore horrific consequences. Mass killing and destruction don&#8217;t matter.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nCrimes of war and against humanity reflect business as usual. Imperial priorities count most. Another country will be entirely destroyed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nAlbright got what she wished for. So may Kerry. Events seem headed that way. Replacing Assad remains policy. Western-sponsored death squads alone can&#8217;t do it. They need air support. They need round-the-clock terror bombing.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nUS policymakers understand. Replicating Yugoslavia and Libya looks likely. Pretexts are in place to do it. Others will be invented if needed. War winds blow more strongly. They&#8217;re heading toward gale force strength.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nWhat will freedom loving people tolerate before they react. Rogue states have no legitimacy. America&#8217;s by far the worst. War on Syria risks embroiling the region. Doing so risks WW III.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nPutin drew Russia&#8217;s red line. He sent Assad sophisticated air defenses. He promises more. He supplied other weapons. He&#8217;ll ship what&#8217;s needed. He&#8217;s aiding a valued ally. He&#8217;s got every right to do so. Friends in need are friends indeed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nRussian warships patrol the Mediterranean. They&#8217;re delivering needed supplies. They&#8217;re protecting Moscow&#8217;s regional interests. Doing so leaves no ambiguity. Imperial madness must be stopped.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nWashington positioned Patriot missiles, F-16s, and US troops inside Jordan. They&#8217;re on Syria border. Israel has its Golan forces mobilized. They&#8217;re not for defense.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nTheir presence is menacing. Perhaps they&#8217;ll be used aggressively. Syria and Russia have no illusions. AP cited Interfax saying Moscow&#8217;s planning to send marine units to Syria.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nOstensibly it&#8217;s to protect Russian citizens and remove property from Tartus. It&#8217;s Moscow&#8217;s sole Mediterranean naval facility. It&#8217;s strategically important to protect. Showing the flag supports Assad.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nPutin opposes no-fly zone imposition. He won&#8217;t tolerate one. He committed to protect Syria. He wants conflict ended diplomatically. He wants Syrian sovereignty respected. He wants Syrians alone to decide who&#8217;ll lead them. He wants rule of law principles observed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nHe knows who&#8217;s friend and foe. Diplomats choose words carefully. Putin&#8217;s more outspoken than most. He&#8217;s concerned about reckless US belligerence. If regional allies fall, Russia and China are next.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nHe not on the sidelines idle. He&#8217;s acting in Moscow&#8217;s best interests. He may have more aggressive measures in mind. Deterring America demands confrontation. Hopefully it stops short of greater conflict.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nBest to prevent it before initiated. Perhaps it&#8217;s Putin&#8217;s plan. Events going forward bear watching. They&#8217;ll unfold in the fullness of time. Hopefully a clear red line will explain best. Drawing it may get Washington to back off. It&#8217;s time to go all out and see.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nAt issue is lots more than Syria. It&#8217;s New World Order harshness. It&#8217;s state-sponsored terrorism writ large. It&#8217;s globalized central control. It&#8217;s madness instead of sanity.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s claiming war is peace. It&#8217;s monied interests pushing conflicts. It&#8217;s manufactured crises and permanent ones. It&#8217;s profiteering from human carnage. It&#8217;s living with the threat of mushroom-shaped cloud destruction.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s plundering the earth for profit. It&#8217;s exploiting people the same way. It&#8217;s neoliberalism on steroids. It&#8217;s giving capital divine rights. It&#8217;s money power in private hands used destructively. It&#8217;s out-of-control corporate power.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s giving corporations the same rights as people. It&#8217;s freeing them from equal responsibilities. It&#8217;s letting them become private tyrannies. It&#8217;s government of, by and for privileged elites alone.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s popular needs gone begging. It&#8217;s social America on the rocks and dying. It&#8217;s holding farcical elections. It&#8217;s back room deal making in charge. It&#8217;s duopoly power running things.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s preventing democracy by doing so. It&#8217;s mocking rule of law principles. It&#8217;s consigning them to history&#8217;s dustbin.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s ignoring growing poverty, unemployment, hunger, homelessness and human misery. It&#8217;s sacrificing healthcare, education, clean air and water, safe food, social safety net protections, and other vital services and needs.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s leaving worker rights unprotected. It&#8217;s creating ruler-serf societies. It&#8217;s militarizing them for control. It&#8217;s substituting managed news misinformation for truth and full disclosure.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s transferring wealth disproportionately to corporations and rich elites already with too much. It&#8217;s entrapping people and nations in debt. It&#8217;s sacrificing civil and human rights. It&#8217;s substituting wage for chattel slavery.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s filling prisons with societies&#8217; unwanted. It&#8217;s institutionalizing torture as official policy. It&#8217;s power without accountability. It&#8217;s heading America and other Western societies toward tyranny. It&#8217;s making them unfit to live in.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s ignoring deep-seated corruption, special interests over common ones, failed families, basic needs, ecocide, and global injustice. It&#8217;s letting unconscionable wrongdoing metastasize beyond control.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt&#8217;s making wrong choices. It&#8217;s living in a world unsafe to be in. It&#8217;s heading down a path toward oblivion. It risks destroying ourselves in the process.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nStephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nHis new book is titled &#8220;Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nhttp:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanII.html<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nVisit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nListen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nIt airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px\">\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: 19px\">\nhttp:\/\/www.progressiveradionetwork.com\/the-progressive-news-hour\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"clear:both;padding-bottom:0.25em\"><\/div>\n<p>This article originally appeared on: <a href=\"http:\/\/sjlendman.blogspot.com\/2013\/06\/fast-tracking-toward-war-on-syria.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Fast-Tracking Toward War on Syria\">Stephen Lendman<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fast-Tracking Toward War on Syria by Stephen Lendman America&#8217;s run by sociopaths. They&#8217;re out-of-control criminals. They&#8217;re traitors. They menace humanity. They violate their sacred oaths of office.\u00a0 Presidents &#8220;do solemnly swear (or affirm to) faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of (their) Ability, preserve, protect and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}