- America's business isn't just war and grand theft. It's
also regime change by whatever means.
-
- A previous article mentioned General Wesley Clark, from
his book, "Winning Modern Wars," saying that Pentagon sources
told him two months after 9/11 that war plans were being prepared against
Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Somalia, Sudan and Libya. Months earlier, they
were finalized against Afghanistan.
-
- Clark added:
-
- "And what about the real sources of terrorists -
US allies in the region like Egypt, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia? Wasn't
it repressive policies of the first, and the corruption and poverty of
the second, that were generating many of the angry young men who became
terrorists? And what of the radical ideology and direct funding spewing
from Saudi Arabia?"
-
- "It seemed that we were being taken into a strategy
more likely to make us the enemy - encouraging what could look like a 'clash
of civilizations' - not a good strategy for winning the war on terror."
-
- On September 5, Nil Nikandrov's Global Research.ca article
asked if "After Libya: Is Venezuela Next?" saying:
-
- NATO insurgents attack on Venezuela's Tripoli embassy
and compound narrowly missed claiming casualties as "ambassador Afif
Tajeldine and the embassy staff moved to a safer location at the last moment
and left Libya shortly thereafter."
-
- Nikandrov added that Venezuela's embassy was the only
one looted, suggesting perhaps a message threatening Chavez as America's
next target.
-
- He certainly was in April 2002 for two days by a Washington
instigated coup, aborted by mass street protests and support from many
in Venezuela's military, especially from its middle-ranking officer corp.
-
- Later in December 2002 and early 2003, he was again by
a general strike and oil management lockout, causing severe economic disruption,
and by an August 2004 national recall referendum he won handily with 59%
of the vote.
-
- Chavez knows Washington targets him for removal, yet
he remains Venezuela's democratically elected president since first taking
office on February 2, 1999, and still popular.
-
- Nonetheless, last June, the Republican controlled House
Foreign Relations Committee wanted the Obama administration to aggressively
"contain (his) dangerous influence (and) his relations with Iran,"
according to Rep. Connie Mack (R. FL), chairman of the Subcommittee on
Foreign Affairs for the Western Hemisphere.
-
- He and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R. FL), another right-wing
extremist, got the White House to impose sanctions on Petroleos de Venezuela
(PDVSA), its state oil company even though America relies on imported oil
it supplies.
-
- They and others also want Venezuela designated a supporter
of state terrorism with greater consequences if they succeed, unfriendly
to US business interests very much opposed.
-
- As a result, whether other actions follow bears close
watching. Moreover, Venezuela's late 2012 presidential election is important,
especially with Chavez recovering from cancer, so perhaps is more vulnerable
than earlier.
-
- Ahead of the precise date to be announced, Washington
is funding his opposition as done previously, meddling in the internal
affairs of a sovereign country, what's illegal in US elections.
-
- Since 2002, in fact, America's State Department-funded
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) directed over $100 million to anti-Chavez
groups, candidates, and media campaigns.
-
- Despite America's debt and budget problems, it continues
perhaps in amounts greater than known, and may increase substantially next
year as part of a greater regime change campaign.
-
- Are more aggressive actions planned? Only the fullness
of time will tell, but given the Obama's penchant for regime change, events
ahead bear close watching.
-
- In Syria also since externally generated uprisings began
last March, then intensified, suggesting regime change there as in Libya.
Both countries were targeted with violence, so far, however, without NATO
intervening against the Assad government or able to get a Security Council
resolution passed to facilitate it.
-
- However, according to National Security Council director
of strategic communications Ben Rhodes, the Libya model is a template for
future US/NATO interventions, but "(h)ow much we translate to Syria
remains to be seen. The Syrian opposition doesn't want foreign military
forces but do want more countries to cut of trade with the regime and break
with it politically."
-
- By opposition perhaps he means Washington, NATO allies,
and supportive regional regimes, not Syrians or its business leaders, harmed
most by sanctions and other tactics.
-
- On August 31, Corbett Report editor James Corbett told
Russia Today that manipulated video footage is being used to falsify events
on the ground, saying:
-
- "There's even been the implication that some of
the images being shown have been digitally manipulated," online reports
discussing it. One instance cited video footage from Bahrain. Claimed to
be from Hama, various stations airing it used different digitally "dropped
in backgrounds."
-
- "So there are some very strange things going on,
and unfortunately we live in an age when media manipulation is so easy."
-
- It's thus harder to distinguish between reality and fiction.
It was true in Tripoli when alleged rebel-supportive euphoric celebrations
were, in fact, produced at a Doha, Qatar Green Square Hollywood-style sound
stage mockup. In other words, they were staged and untrue. Apparently,
the same deception is now repeated in Syria.
-
- A September 3 Corbett Report video with Michel Chossudovsky
focused on destabilizing Syria, suggesting a greater global war could result,
involving Russia and China.
-
- "Whatever the nature of the Syrian government,"
he said, falsely intervening based on "the doctrine of the responsibility
to protect is a derogation of the sovereign rights of a country,"
according to fundamental international law prohibiting it.
-
- In fact, Western media suppress reports of well armed
insurgents, brought in from the outside, stoking violence since last March.
At the same time, Assad's forces were blamed for responding.
-
- In all anti-government demonstrations, disruptive "Islamists,
snipers, and armed gangs are involved in acts of arson directed against
government buildings," including a "court house and the agricultural
bank in Hama."
-
- At the same time, nonviolent civilians, legitimately
protesting grievances, are trapped between waring sides, resulting in deaths
and other casualties.
-
- At issue, however, is "an armed insurrection, spreading
from one city to another. We now have very firm evidence that both Turkey
and Israel are" supporting militia groups (financially and with weapons),
some of them, in fact, used as death squads.
-
- At the same time, "they're using this a pretext
to demonize the Syrian regime, and demand the resignation of Bashar al-Assad,"
perhaps heading toward NATO intervention and greater war.
-
- On September 2, Chossudovsky's Global Research.ca article
headlined, "The Al Qaeda Insurgency in Syria: Recruiting Jihadists
to Wage NATO's 'Humanitarian Wars,' Part III," saying:
-
- Despite its authoritarian nature, Assad's government
is "the only (remaining) independent secular state in the Arab world.
Its populist, anti-Imperialist and secular base is inherited from the dominant
Baath party," supportive of Occupied Palestinians as is Iran and Lebanon's
Hezbollah.
-
- At issue is the US/NATO plan to "displace and destroy
the Syrian secular State, displace or co-opt the national economic elites
and eventually replace the" current government "with an Arab
sheikdom, a pro-US Islamic republic" or US-style democracy meaning
one in name only.
-
- As always, America's pack journalism produces one-sided
falsified report, supporting US imperial wars and disruptive insurgencies
preceding them.
-
- As a result, accounts and commentaries suppress information
about efforts to recruit thousands of jihadist "freedom fighters"
like earlier in Afghanistan against Soviet Russia, and currently a de facto
NATO invasion force in Libya, massacring anyone thought to be pro-Gaddafi.
-
- Already battling an outside instigated insurrection,
is Syria's turn next, a topic MK Bhadrakumar addressed in his August 30
article, saying:
-
- If earlier events in Iraq and current ones in Libya are
"any indication, the future of (Syria's) sovereignty might be hanging
by a thread." In fact, as he and others believe, regime change in
one form or other is core regional US policy for strategic gains against
rivals Russia and China.
-
- Images from Syria now are all too familiar, including
falsified reports hyping them, as well as claims about people yearning
for Western liberators to free them.
-
- As a result, expect Libya to replicate post-Iraq and
Afghanistan occupations, highlighted by protracted conflict and violence,
including insurgent forces warring amonst themselves, innocent civilians
harmed most as a result.
-
- Moreover, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg ominously
said:
-
- "I want to make it absolutely clear: the UK will
not turn its back on the millions of Arab states looking to open up their
societies, looking for a better life?"
-
- After destroying and preparing to loot Libya, did he
mean Syria is next? Surely not Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, other Gulf States,
Yemen, or other loyal regional allies, according to Bhadrakumar and other
analysts.
-
- Although accomplishing regime change in Syria may be
harder than in Libya, never underestimate the ability of Western plotters
to find a way. Perhaps what's now ongoing mere prelude to greater planned
disruption politically, financially or by direct military intervention.
-
- "Sustained efforts are afoot to bring about a unified
Syrian opposition." A Turkey-held meeting, "third in a row, finally
elected a 'council' ostensibly representing the voice of the Syrian people."
-
- In fact, it represents predominantly Western interests
as well as Turkey's and Israel's. "The fig-leaf of Arab League support
is also available," pro-West autocratic regimes now "in the forefront"
for regime change in Syria.
-
- Key ahead is getting another Security Council mandate
for intervention. "The heart of the matter is that regime change in
Syria is imperative for the advancement of" America's Middle East
strategy.
-
- It includes delinking Syria from Iran, then Hezbollah
in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, isolating the Islamic Republic, while at
the same time, strengthening Israel's position, and weakening that of Russia
and China.
-
- Portraying both countries as being on the "wrong
side of history," Bhadrakumar calls the strategy a "clever ideological
twist to the hugely successful Cold-War era blueprint that pitted communism
against Islam."
-
- Western body language and supportive media rhetoric suggest
"no conceivable way the US would let go the opportunity (for regime
change) in Syria."
-
- Whether it's coming, only time will tell. In the meantime,
regional violence continues subverting Arab spring aspirations everywhere
from blooming.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive
Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays 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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