{"id":69805,"date":"2013-08-31T07:46:06","date_gmt":"2013-08-31T11:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=69805"},"modified":"2013-08-31T09:01:49","modified_gmt":"2013-08-31T13:01:49","slug":"iran-not-syria-is-the-wests-real-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/iran-not-syria-is-the-wests-real-target\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran, not Syria, is the West’s real target"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran is ever more deeply involved in protecting the Syrian government. Thus a victory for Bashar is a victory for Iran. And Iranian victories cannot be tolerated by the West<\/h2>\n
\n

Robert Fisk, for The Independent<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the stupidest Western war in the history of the modern world begins \u2013 I am, of course, referring to the attack on Syria that we all yet have to swallow \u2013 it might be as well to say that the cruise missiles which we confidently expect to sweep onto one of mankind\u2019s oldest cities have absolutely nothing to do with Syria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"A<\/a>
A general view shows a heavily damaged street in Syria’s eastern town of Deir Ezzor on August 26, 2013.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThey are intended to harm Iran. They are intended to strike at the Islamic republic now that it has a new and vibrant president \u2013 as opposed to the crackpot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad \u2013 and when it just might be a little more stable.<\/p>\n

Iran is Israel\u2019s enemy. Iran is therefore, naturally, America\u2019s enemy. So fire the missiles at Iran\u2019s only Arab ally.<\/p>\n

There is nothing pleasant about the regime in Damascus. Nor do these comments let the regime off the hook when it comes to mass gassing. But I am old enough to remember that when Iraq \u2013 then America\u2019s ally \u2013 used gas against the Kurds of Hallabjah in 1988, we did not assault Baghdad. Indeed, that attack would have to wait until 2003, when Saddam no longer had any gas or any of the other weapons we had nightmares over.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And I also happen to remember that the CIA put it about in 1988 that Iran was responsible for the Hallabjah gassings, a palpable lie that focused on America\u2019s enemy whom Saddam was then fighting on our behalf. And thousands \u2013 not hundreds \u2013 died in Hallabjah. But there you go. Different days, different standards.<\/p>\n

And I suppose it\u2019s worth noting that when Israel killed up to 17,000 men, women and children in Lebanon in 1982, in an invasion supposedly provoked by the attempted PLO murder of the Israeli ambassador in London \u2013 it was Saddam\u2019s mate Abu Nidal who arranged the killing, not the PLO, but that doesn\u2019t matter now \u2013 America merely called for both sides to exercise \u201crestraint\u201d. And when, a few months before that invasion, Hafez al-Assad \u2013 father of Bashar \u2013 sent his brother up to Hama to wipe out thousands of Muslim Brotherhood rebels, nobody muttered a word of condemnation. \u201cHama Rules\u201d is how my old mate Tom Friedman cynically styled this bloodbath.<\/p>\n

Anyway, there\u2019s a different Brotherhood around these days \u2013 and Obama couldn\u2019t even bring himself to say \u201cboo\u201d when their elected president got deposed.<\/p>\n

But hold on. Didn\u2019t Iraq \u2013 when it was \u201cour\u201d ally against Iran \u2013 also use gas on the Iranian army? It did. I saw the Ypres-like wounded of this foul attack by Saddam \u2013 US officers, I should add, toured the battlefield later and reported back to Washington \u2013 and we didn\u2019t care a tinker\u2019s curse about it. Thousands of Iranian soldiers in the 1980-88 war were poisoned to death by this vile weapon.<\/p>\n

I travelled back to Tehran overnight on a train of military wounded and actually smelled the stuff, opening the windows in the corridors to release the stench of the gas. These young men had wounds upon wounds \u2013 quite literally. They had horrible sores wherein floated even more painful sores that were close to indescribable. Yet when the soldiers were sent to Western hospitals for treatment, we journos called these wounded \u2013 after evidence from the UN infinitely more convincing than what we\u2019re likely to get from outside Damascus \u2013 \u201calleged\u201d gas victims.<\/p>\n

So what in heaven\u2019s name are we doing? After countless thousands have died in Syria\u2019s awesome tragedy, suddenly \u2013 now, after months and years of prevarication \u2013 we are getting upset about a few hundred deaths. Terrible. Unconscionable. Yes, that is true. But we should have been traumatised into action by this war in 2011. And 2012. But why now?<\/p>\n

I suspect I know the reason. I think that Bashar al-Assad\u2019s ruthless army might just be winning against the rebels whom we secretly arm. With the assistance of the Lebanese Hezbollah \u2013 Iran\u2019s ally in Lebanon \u2013 the Damascus regime broke the rebels in Qusayr and may be in the process of breaking them north of Homs. Iran is ever more deeply involved in protecting the Syrian government. Thus a victory for Bashar is a victory for Iran. And Iranian victories cannot be tolerated by the West.<\/p>\n

And while we\u2019re on the subject of war, what happened to those magnificent Palestinian-Israeli negotiations that John Kerry was boasting about? While we express our anguish at the hideous gassings in Syria, the land of Palestine continues to be gobbled up. Israel\u2019s Likudist policy \u2013 to negotiate for peace until there is no Palestine left \u2013 continues apace, which is why King Abdullah of Jordan\u2019s nightmare (a much more potent one than the \u201cweapons of mass destruction\u201d we dreamed up in 2003) grows larger: that \u201cPalestine\u201d will be in Jordan, not in Palestine.<\/p>\n

But if we are to believe the nonsense coming out of Washington, London, Paris and the rest of the \u201ccivilised\u201d world, it\u2019s only a matter of time before our swift and avenging sword smiteth the Damascenes. To observe the leadership of the rest of the Arab world applauding this destruction is perhaps the most painful historical experience for the region to endure. And the most shameful. Save for the fact that we will be attacking Shia Muslims and their allies to the handclapping of Sunni Muslims. And that\u2019s what civil war is made of.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran is ever more deeply involved in protecting the Syrian government. Thus a victory for Bashar is a victory for Iran. And Iranian victories cannot be tolerated by the West Robert Fisk, for The Independent Before the stupidest Western war in the history of the modern world begins \u2013 I am, of course, referring to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}