With Minds Full of Money, Bones Made of Military Might and Blood Dripping From Oil … Expect a Flesh-Eating Bacterial USA!
ISIS was formed after Bush-Cheney — with support from all GOPwingers, most Democrats and the media — invaded and occupied Iraq, installing a provisional governor, Paul Brennan. Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party was made illegal, the entire Iraqi military was fired and very few Iraqis viewed America as “liberators.”
With only manufactured support from the Iraqi people and minimal support from the United Nations (US invaded without a UN Resolution) America’s “Coalition of The Killing” held little chance of success in the aftermath of its “Shock and Awe” invasion.
The disbanded Iraqi military was largely Sunni, especially its command structure. Sunnis comprised about 25% of Iraq’s population. The undercurrents from the invasion also saw Shiite Iran gaining more influence and taking a stronger role with Iraq where Shiites dominated over 60% of the population.
The disenchanted Sunnis (Baathists), using former Iraqi and captured American military equipment, then waged a rebel war against America’s occupation. General support for this resistance grew stronger and also included disparate elements of the Shiite population. In short, nobody liked the American infidels but Bush-Cheney pushed on — essentially bribing the Kurds, who made up 15% of Iraq’s population, for assistance — dreaming of future oil deals given Iraq was a nation rich with oil resources.
In parallel with Iraq’s resistance Saddam’s former military leaders, now in Eastern Syria, teamed with advantage-seeking Al Qaeda elements who were getting support from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Turkey. From Syria, with Iraq’s former military commanders now on board, ISIS was formed, a Caliphate declared and they proceeded to take over large swaths of Eastern Syria and western-northern Iraq.
Unfortunately, for Syrian Bashar al-Assad’s secular government, several major events were in play.
First, climate change had produced severe drought-like conditions in Syria and this was coupled with bad economic conditions, thus creating Syrian citizen hardship. Syria became a land ripe for protest.
Second, with Iran gaining stronger influence over Iraq, the US began to realize the possibility of a future Cross-Shia Crescent, stretching from Lebanon to Syria to Iraq and to Iran. Geopolitically, this would have meant a territory, rich in oil, as large as the United States.
Third, Saudi Arabia and Qatar wanted to build an oil pipeline that would have gone through Syria and through Turkey in order to feed Europe which traditionally has been supplied by Russian oil. The Syrian government, long-aligned with Russia, said no to the plan.
Fourth, additional pressure came from Israel which discovered a tremendous deposit of oil located in the Golan Heights, a land owned by Syria but annexed by Israel from a previous war. The UN has repeatedly voted for Israel to return the land to Syria. But this hasn’t stopped a Dick Cheney-connected oil company from now drilling that oil in The Golan.
[NOTE: Israel has also been drawing 60% of its water needs from The Golan Heights. Forget not the climate change problem!]
Fifth, wanting to maintain its international strength with the petro dollar, sensing a loss of its grip over Iraq and wanting to help Saudi Arabia (pipeline) and Israel (oil/water from the Golan), US strategists concluded if the Syrian government could not outright be overthrown (Plan-A), a new Sunni-Kurdish principality (declared or undeclared) must be created (Plan-B) in order to serve as a buffer to keep a split, between Syria and Iraq, and thwart potential for a Cross Shia Crescent which could create yet another pipeline route from Iran to Lebanon into The Mediterranean.
The US indeed would have been content had ISIS, Al Qaeda and other rebellious Syrian elements overthrown the Assad government. The Obama Administration provided every incentive for this to happen, including helping to spur Syrian rebellion in the streets, as well as providing military weaponry to so-called Syrian “moderate” groups who, in reality, were ISIS and Al Qaeda.
It wouldn’t have mattered if chaos then reigned within Syria’s government. A defeat of Assad would have resolved Israel’s Golan Heights problem, and would have enabled the Saudi-led pipeline to become built under US military protection. Assisting the Saudis also would have meant dealing a blow to Russia. Obama thought he was flying lots of balloons on one string!
But Plan-A became shattered when Russia and Iran responded to Syria’s request for military assistance. These two nations helped rebuild the Syrian army and Syria began retaking the land it lost from ISIS and Al Qaeda, effectively isolating the two terrorist militant groups into small pockets of territory. Were the US not present, all of Syria would have been retaken from the terrorist militants. The war would be over!
Meanwhile, the US became deeply embroiled with its Plan-B. As a result, US military forces, now using defeat of ISIS as an excuse — the very same ISIS it helped to create — illegally, and in violation of international law, entered Syria’s sovereign territory and began assisting the Kurds to defeat ISIS east of the Euphrates River where most of Syria’s oil, crucial for its economy, was located.
[NOTE: The Kurds have been longing for statehood for centuries and recent decades have seen them at war with Turkey which historically does not want a Kurdish state believing it would interfere with its own sovereignty.]
The US also established a military base near the Syria-Iraq border effectively blocking the important Damascus-to-Baghdad Highway, the commerce from which is crucial for the Syrian economy. The US excuse for doing this was it had established a refugee camp. But, in reality, the US has been using this base to train militants to continue to wage war against the Syrian government.
Back to the Kurds. The US has promised them pie in the sky and ultimately has instilled in them the possibility of statehood. But Turkey says no. Consequently, Turkish military forces have moved into northwestern Syria where they are battling the Kurds and have threatened to invade the traditional lands of the Kurds in Northeastern Syria. Had it not been for the US, the Turks unlikely would have militarily entered Syria.
Again, like in Iraq, the US has called upon the Kurds to become its proxy army in Syria. Paying military salaries, training, equipping, providing intelligence and air cover, the US convinced the Kurdish forces to supplant the ISIS-held Syrian territory east of the Euphrates River, an area populated by Arabs and not within the traditional homeland of the Kurds. This isn’t working well. Also, they’ve intentionally kept a small ISIS pocket where the Euphrates River meets the Syrian and Iraqi border. This is to help justify the US toe-hold in the region.
Finally, ISIS and Al Qaeda in Syria were originally funded and weaponized by the Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates with help from Turkey — each in cohorts with the US which realized the rebel groups could work to its geopolitical advantage. Israel was also has been playing a hidden role, especially its undercover Mossad spy agency.
When Gaddafi’s government was overthrown in Libya, Benghazi became a CIA outpost instrumental in smuggling Gaddafi’s weaponry out of Libya through Turkey and into the hands of ISIS in Syria. See Seymour Hersh below:
Turkey has since changed its position and no longer sides with ISIS. Lately, the Erdogan Turkish government has been working with Russia, Iran and Syria for a solution. But so long as the US keeps propping up the Kurdish SDF military forces which include military elements Turkey has deemed terrorist, Turkey unlikely will vacate Syria.
The last thing the US should ever be doing in troubled lands is destroying stable secular governments. Both Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi maintained secular governments, as does Bashar al-Assad. A stable secular government should be desired, not overthrown. But, as described below, such is the nature of America’s oligarchy!
With Minds Full of Money, Bones Made of Military Might and Blood Dripping From Oil … Expect a Flesh-Eating Bacterial USA! And so it goes …!
