When US forces rape and destroy nonbelligerent nations threatening no one, it’s called humanitarian intervention, responsibility to protect, and democracy building — notions Washington’s power elites abhor.
When victimized nations defend themselves lawfully against Pentagon terror-bombing and atrocities by ISIS and likeminded jihadists used as US proxy foot soldiers, they’re wrongfully condemned for aggression — notably by establishment media, operating as imperial press agents.
The Obama and Trump regimes respectively supported Turkey’s 2016 and 2018 aggression in Syria — Operations Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch, both flagrantly illegal under international law.
Aggression committed by other countries is only OK with Washington when serving its interests — notably when Israel smashes defenseless Palestinians, rapes Lebanon, and terror-bombs Syria, along with conducting targeted assassinations.
Throughout much of Obama’s war on Syria, now Trump’s, the Pentagon and CIA used Kurdish YPG fighters in the country’s north as proxy foot soldiers against Damascus.
They were supplied with heavy weapons, related equipment, logistical support, intelligence, and air cover for aggression, supporting Washington’s imperial aims, along with their own self-interest against Syria’s sovereign independence and territorial integrity.
When Turkey’s Erdogan launched so-called Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria days earlier, his third cross-border aggression since 2011, the Trump regime OK’d it, then expressed opposition along with congressional members for political and strategic reasons.
The US has a long history of abandoning support for allies to higher priorities, Kurds victimized time and again, early October their latest betrayal, pushing them to ally with Damascus against a common Turkish foe.
Turkey is a NATO member, its alliance with Washington uneasy at best. A rupture could happen any time over US actions Erdogan rejects, Russia the beneficiary if things turn out this way.
Trump and his handlers are trying to have things both ways, criticizing Turkey’s cross-border adventurism while stopping short of harsh actions to stop it — notably by continuing to sell Ankara weapons and munitions used for warmaking.
Neither DJT, his geopolitical team, or congressional leaders give a hoot about ordinary people anywhere, including at home.
Trump’s Wednesday letter to Erdogan showed he wants bilateral differences smoothed over, relations between both countries kept firm, saying:
“Let’s work out a good deal. You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people” — what the US, NATO, and Israel do in all their wars of aggression, accountability by the world community never forthcoming.
Republicans and undemocratic Dems have no compunction about mass slaughter and destruction committed against targeted nations.
They’re responsible for millions of casualties post-9/11 alone, their numbers growing daily as endless US wars of aggression continue in multiple theaters.
Separately on Wednesday, Speaker Pelosi and other undemocratic Dems had a stormy White House meeting with Trump, the first one since announcing their politicized Ukrainegate/witch-hunt impeachment inquiry.
It ended with both sides insulting each other, seeking political advantage, more evidence of what Paul Craig Roberts calls “today’s Amerika,” Washington’s “insane asylum” — governance all about enforcing might over right at home and abroad.
On the same day, undemocratic House Dems joined by scores of Republicans passed a nonbinding resolution (354 – 60) — condemning Trump’s withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria.
Unmentioned was Obama regime-launched war of aggression on the Syrian Arab Republic, raging since early 2011 — with no resolution in prospect because both right wings of the US war party reject peace, stability, equity and justice everywhere.
Achieving it defeats their imperial aims. Endless hot wars and by other means further them, what the US permanent war agenda is all about.
At home it includes force-fed neoliberal harshness, transferring wealth from ordinary people to privileged ones, controlling the message, censoring speech, media, and academic freedoms, along with police state crackdowns on nonbelievers.
All of the above reflect the disturbing state of today’s America.
Never beautiful or the land of the free and home of the brave, today’s USA is unsafe and unfit to live in for the vast majority of its people – exploited and otherwise mistreated to benefit its privileged class exclusively.
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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
