US Orwellian Narrative on Syria

US Public Falling Victim to Washington’s
Orwellian Narrative on Syria
Guest Article

Sputnik
November 9, 2015

Russian pilots of SU24 at Hmeimim Base, Syria (–Sputnik/Dmitriy Vinogradov)

The American public has fallen victim to Washington’s Orwellian policies, US author Eric Zuesse notes, calling attention to the fact that Americans’ perception of what is going on in Syria sometimes bears no relation to reality. The American general public has evidently been misled by Washington’s narrative on the ongoing Syrian crisis, American author and investigative historian Eric Zuesse underscores, citing Reddit users’ comments on the issue.

“Responses at reddit.com to an article about Syria demonstrate that Americans have massive misconceptions about the war in Syria,” Zuesse notes.

To illustrate his statement, Zuesse quotes a Reddit user who wrote: “They [“the Syrian people”] clearly don’t want Assad. In case he’s forgotten, that’s where the whole civil war started.”

According to the US investigative historian, the comment is a kind of a response to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s statement, largely neglected by the Western mass media: “The future of Assad must be determined by the Syrian people.” However, the facts on the ground clearly indicate that Bashar al-Assad is still being supported by the majority of Syrians, the historian stressed.

“The actual fact is that when America’s ally the Qatari regime, which funds al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria), hired a polling firm in 2012 to survey Syrians, the finding was that 55% of Syrians wanted Assad to remain as President. Then, as I reported on 18 September 2015, ‘Polls Show Syrians Overwhelmingly Blame US for ISIS,’ and those polls were from a British firm that has ties to Gallup,” the US author stressed in his article for Strategic Culture Foundation [see full text of Zuesse’s article below].

Another Reddit user quoted by Zuesse wondered: “It boggles my mind how anyone can say that the Syrian population actually supports Assad. When foreign nations say that Assad has to go as part of the healing process in Syria, they are speaking for the Syrian people.”

The word “they” is an apparent reference to Barack Obama, Saudi King Salman, Qatari Emir Thani, and to Turkey’s President Erdogan, the historian notes. While the Obama administration is accomplishing its own geopolitical task in Syria, King Salman, Emir Thani and President Erdogan have been involved in a ruthless sectarian standoff since the beginning of the conflict.

It is no secret, Zuesse remarks, that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are generous benefactors and supporters of radical Sunni organizations such as the Islamic State and Muslim Brotherhood, who are currently fighting to remove Bashar al-Assad.

“That reader at Reddit was so naive as to call those piranhas “the healing process in Syria,” who “are speaking for the Syrian people”,” the US historian underscored.

The Western public still believes that it was the Syrian political opposition, tired of Assad’s “dictatorship”, who eventually confronted the Syrian regime.

Curiously enough, a draft of the US Defense Intelligence Agency report, cited recently by another expert, Toni Cartalucci, sheds some light on what forces lay at the root of the ongoing strife. The 2012 DIA draft revealed that “the Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI [al-Qaeda in Iraq, also known as IS/ISIL] are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria.”

Meanwhile, the recent study, conducted by the British polling organization ORB International, demonstrate that the majority of Syrians reject the Free Syrian Army, al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State. Furthermore, 82 percent of Syrian respondents believe that the notorious Islamic State is a “US and foreign made group.” (Click map to enlarge.)

There is yet another reason why most Americans believe that Bashar al-Assad is a terrible “tyrant,” Zuesse remarked. “They’ve been deceived to think that Assad was behind the August 2013 sarin gas attack that Obama arranged to be the reason for him to bomb Assad’s forces,” he elaborated, dubbing the attack as a typical “false-flag attack.”

There was something fishy about this attack, especially that it was used by President Obama to accuse Damascus for crossing the so-called ‘red line’ he had set in 2012 on the use of chemical weapons. Then Obama started pushing ahead with the idea of a US military intervention in Syria.

Independent researchers later found evidence proving that the attack was carried out by the Syrian rebels allegedly backed by Turkish and Saudi intelligence personnel. “The American people believe in fakes. So do the peoples of many countries. Unfortunately, America’s fakes run the most powerful nation on Earth,” Zuesse noted. “After all, the US is no longer a democracy. A deceived public is what’s to be expected in a dictatorship. George Orwell wrote all about it in his prophetic novel 1984, but today’s America is a more sophisticated version of that,” the investigative historian concluded.

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How Bamboozled the American Public Are About Syria
Guest Article
by Eric Zuesse

Strategic Culture Foundation
November 7, 2015

Eric Zuesse (from –info-direkt.eu)

Responses at reddit.com to an article about Syria demonstrate that Americans have massive misconceptions about the war in Syria. Their main falsehoods will be quoted here (from that reddit string), and then the relevant solidly established facts will be cited and linked to (so that you can check these facts for yourself): The article about the matter (which I wrote, and to which reddit’s readers were supposedly responding) was titled «Twice in One Day, Ban Ki-moon Condemned Obama’s Actions on Syria», and it quoted the statements from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemning U.S. President Barack Obama’s — and «many Western countries» — their repeated statements that Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad must be removed from office and replaced with a leader whom those foreign leaders approve.

Mr. Ban Ki-moon said (among other things) that, «The future of Assad must be determined by the Syrian people», rather than by foreign leaders. A reddit reader wrote the following brief comment to that: «They [presumably referring to «the Syrian people», not to the foreign leaders] clearly don’t want Assad. In case he’s [and no indication was given as to whom «he» was supposed to be] forgotten, that’s where the whole civil war started». The actual fact is that when America’s ally the Qatari regime, which funds al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria), hired a polling firm in 2012 to survey Syrians, the finding was that 55% of Syrians wanted Assad to remain as President. Then, as I reported on 18 September 2015, «Polls Show Syrians Overwhelmingly Blame U.S. for ISIS», and those polls were from a British firm that has ties to Gallup. Whatever that reddit reader (or anyone else) might think of Assad, all polling of the Syrian people shows that most Syrians are terrified of the jihadist groups who are trying to replace him (of which ISIS is merely one), fighting to take over the Syrian government; and also show that Syrians overwhelmingly blame as the cause of the war, the U.S. and its allies — which are the Sauds who own Saudi Arabia, and the Thanis who own Qatar, and the Islamicist leader of Turkey, Erdogan.

Only a small minority of Syrians blame Assad, who is a secular leader who has always been committed to separation of church-and-state (a rarity in a Muslim-majority country). Even most of Syria’s Sunnis want Assad to remain leading the country because the alternative has already shown itself in Libya; and, before that, in Iraq. If you were Syrian, would you want that alternative? The American public might be obtuse to (or deceived about) the realities that the Syrian people face, but Syrians are not. To them, this is a matter of life or death; and, now, mostly of death.

The next reader-comment was, «It boggles my mind how anyone can say that the Syrian population actually supports Assad. When foreign nations say that Assad has to go as part of the healing process in Syria, they are speaking for the Syrian people.» His «they» was referring to Barack Obama, and to Islamicist Saudi King Salman, and to Islamicist Qatari Emir Thani, and to Turkey’s Islamicist President Erdogan. The U.S. leader, Obama, hopes to eliminate an ally of Vladimir Putin, whom Obama hates. (He doesn’t say he does, but he really does.) The other three (Saud, Thani, and Erdogan) are Sunni supporters of jihadist organizations, such as ISIS and Muslim Brotherhood, who are fighting to remove and replace Assad. That reader at reddit was so naive as to call those piranhas «the healing process in Syria», who «are speaking for the Syrian people.» Not according to the polls, they aren’t.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Qatar, 3rd Presidential visit (–Daily News/AA)

The next reader-comment was, «You know the divide in Syria is almost entirely on ethnic lines between the sunnis and minorities?» That too is false. Table 3 in the most recent poll, July 2015, that was mentioned and linked-to in my «Polls Show Syrians Overwhelmingly Blame U.S. for ISIS», asked respondents’ approval/disapproval rating of each one of the three main groups fighting to remove Assad, including «Free Syrian Army» (the group that Obama says the U.S. wants to take over Syria); and each one of the three groups was overwhelmingly disapproved. Obama’s Free Syrian Army was rejected by 63%, approved by 35%. Al Nusra (Al Qaeda in Syria) was rejected by 63%, approved by 35% — exactly the same percentages as FSA. ISIS (Islamic State) was rejected by 76% and approved by 21%. Each one of those three organizations is Sunni; none is Shiite, which Assad nominally is. Most Syrians, even Sunni ones, are terrified of jihadists (all of whom are Sunnis; jihad simply isn’t a feature of Shiite Islam). Syria’s women don’t want to be executed if they get raped. Syria’s men don’t want to be forced to attend mosque. Syria is the most secular, the least sectarian, nation in the Middle East. Most Syrians want it to remain so. Obama, Saud, Thani, and Erdogan don’t. They want it to become a Sunni Islamic state. That’s not their lying rhetoric; it’s their reality.

That most-recent poll, taken by ORB International, which is the British member of WIN/Gallup International, didn’t ask respondents whether they’re Sunni (the majority of Syrians) or Shiite (the minority). However, such high disapproval-rates for each one of those Sunni fighting forces that are trying to topple the Assad government indicate strongly one thing: many Syrian Sunnis support Assad despite his being nominally Shiite. His support isn’t merely Shiite. (But, of course, Ban ki-Moon’s point stands regardless: whomever the Syrian people want to be their leader should be their leader.)

Another major reason why Americans think that Assad is a terrible person is that they’ve been deceived to think that Assad — and not the leaders of U.S., Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey — was behind the August 2013 sarin gas attack that Obama arranged to be the reason for him to bomb Assad’s forces. (Such a thing is called a «false-flag attack» in the intelligence communities. Another of Obama’s false flags was his February 2014 coup in Ukraine, pretended to be a ‘democratic revolution.’)

The American people believe in fakes. So do the peoples of many countries. Unfortunately, America’s fakes run the most powerful nation on Earth. Perhaps that’s the reason why (as I reported earlier) «A Gallup International poll of 65 countries, issued on 30 December 2013, found that: ‘The US was the overwhelming choice (24% of respondents) for the country that represents the greatest threat to peace in the world today. This was followed by Pakistan (8%), China (6%), North Korea, Israel and Iran (5%). Respondents in Russia (54%), China (49%) and Bosnia (49%) were the most fearful of the US as a threat.’» After all, the U.S. is no longer a democracy. A deceived public is what’s to be expected in a dictatorship. George Orwell wrote all about it in his prophetic novel1984, but today’s America is a more sophisticated version of that.

[Links to references available at source.]

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Related article:

It’s ‘Simply Pathetic’ How US, France Demonize
Russian Airstrikes in Syria

Sputnik
October 4, 2015

Jacques Myard (–youtube.com)

France is bending over backwards trying to please the United States by blindly accepting Washington’s propaganda to fool the French public regarding Russian airstrikes in Syria, French politician Jacques Myard said, according to Le Figaro.

Myard, who represents the Union for a Popular Movement party at the French National Assembly, accused France of “carrying the bags of American propaganda” when it comes to Syria and the Russian-led airstrikes against ISIL.

“Today, there is an incredible media war going on to demonize Russian airstrikes in Syria, it’s shocking,” Myard said vehemently.

The politician added that Russia has always had a straightforward and clear plan when it came to the Syrian issue unlike the United States and France whose logic is hard to comprehend.

Russia launches attacks in Syria (–cbc.ca)

Moscow always supported the legitimately-elected government of Bashar al-Assad in a fight against Islamic extremism, meanwhile the Western logic was to train and supply arms to various shades of dodgy Syrian rebels, some of whom ended up joining jihadists, including ISIL and the al-Nusra Front.

It was a huge mistake to support the so-called “moderate” Syrian rebels in an attempt to topple the government of al-Assad. The truth is that one can find “moderate” Syrian rebels only working in the hair salons of US and French hotels, while those “moderates” in Syria packed up their bags and joined the ranks of ISIL and al-Nusra long time ago, Myard argued.

As for Paris, “it’s simply pathetic to see the alignment of France on this policy of the sorcerer’s apprentice,” the member of the French National Assembly said, adding that it will lead to a disaster.

Russia launched airstrikes on ISIL targets in Syria following a request from President Bashar Assad. Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011. The country’s government is fighting a number of opposition forces, as well as radical Islamist militant organizations, including the Islamic State.

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