The highly effective Russian operation in Syria has clearly exposed the real position of the West, along with the ties it has with international terrorist groups.
As is already known, the so-called Western coalition, created by Washington more than a year ago has been “effectively fighting” terrorism in Syria and Iraq. What are the results? Desert areas with no terrorists to be found anywhere have been heavily bombed, at the same time, terrorists are regularly acquiring weapon due to “mistakenly” air-dropped crates. In any case, the terrorists are fighting with modern American weapons and they are wearing US army BDUs (battle-dress uniforms). And it seems that this outcome fully satisfies the sitting US administration, since Washington was leading the charge against international terrorism, or at least it claimed it did. However, the year of bombing nonexistent terrorist positions produced at least some results – the Islamic State has significantly increased the territory it controlled in Syria. It seems that the US could have been supporting extremists, while pretending that it fights them, until the Russian military campaign in Syria began.
Since the first days of Russian airstrikes in Syria, when militants got a taste of real bombs falling on their heads, and while fortifications, equipment, and command bunkers were being obliterated, Washington suddenly became quite vocal in claiming that the wrong terrorists were under fire. A whole new media campaign has been started with the money provided by the regimes of the Persian Gulf and the West, in a desperate attempt to convince the world that Russian air strikes are having no military success, and that they are killing civilians in droves. The major advancement launched by the Syrian Arab Army is now portrayed as a sort of a deal between the Islamic State and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, so, we are being told, terrorists are not running for their lives, and instead are just handing over their positions to the Syrian army. Such publications are usually published with unclear “open source” pictures and videos, so that nobody can confirm or deny this evidence.
Under these circumstances, it’s only natural for any honest analyst to conclude that Washington and some of its Arab allies are closely linked to terrorist groups and it doesn’t take long to locate those militants. There’s not a lot of people left today who would try deny the fact that Al-Qaeda was created, financed and armed by Washington and its allied reactionary regimes of the Persian Gulf. Al-Qaeda then gave birth to the Islamic State, which has now seized vast territories in Syria and Iraq. The Islamic State or “ISIL” is a Wahhabi organization and it was created by Washington during the days of the Iraq occupation, for them to fight against Iraq’s Shia’a instead of against their Western and Persian Gulf sponsors.
When Russia started the fight against terrorism, radical Islamists vowed to wage war against it, but not against the West that has allegedly been fighting them for over a year. In early October, Jabhat al-Nusra along with Jaish al-Islam announced that they’re at war with Russia, while the so-called Free Syrian Army, which is claimed to be a part of the “moderate opposition” in the West, contacted the countries of the region with a proposal to create a military alliance against Russia.
However, despite the ongoing anti-Russian rhetoric, Russian airstrikes have led to the intensification of the struggle between terrorists in Syria which has been confirmed by Western experts. Because of destroyed infrastructure, Islamists encountered numerous problems with getting their much needed supplies. As the fear of being punished by warlords weakened among ISIL terrorists, they decided that it was easier to obtain weapons and supplies by killing other terrorists.
While witnessing its assets being destroyed, the United States rushed to help. On October 31, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken stated at a regional security summit in Bahrain that the U.S. was stepping up its efforts in Syria on all fronts. According to Blinken, the US government will allocate 100 million dollars to the opposition forces in Syria. Thus, the total official funding of “those opposing Assad” will reach 500 million dollars spent over the last 3 years. The US administration stressed that the money would allegedly be given only for peaceful purposes, namely to support of “civil society representatives” that have in reality served as cover for the butchering of the Syrian population for years.
Moreover, the White House has announced that it is going to deploy a limited number of special forces in Syria, without obtaining any sort of official permission from Damascus. Those NATO troops will be tasked with training the so-called “moderate opposition” and will also coordinate airstrikes from the ground. In other words, we are witnessing the creation of a new military alliance in Syria, that will include NATO, the United States, and all sorts of terrorists. The latter are entrusted with a single task: to get rid of President Bashar al-Assad by any means possible.
Saudi Arabia, for its part, didn’t leave ISIL Islamists waiting for help long either. General Mayhub said:
On October 26, according to the reconnaissance data, four planes from Turkey arrived to the airport of the city of Aden (Yemen). Two of them belong to Turkish Airlines, one — to Qatar Airways and one more aircraft owned by an airline of the United Arab Emirates,” said the Syrian army spokesman. “There were more than 500 militants of the Islamic State terrorist organization on board, they were taken from Syria to save them from Russian airstrikes.
It’s been reported that the militants should take part in operations conducted by the Saudi coalition in Yemen, that has suffered huge losses in battles against the Houthis. Syrian officials are convinced that redeployment of terrorists from Syria will continue, as Russia carries on with its airstrikes.
Some US experts openly admit that the leading US allies in the Middle East are sponsors of terrorism. Experts from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy noted that the Ministry of Finance of the United States recognizes that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are openly sponsoring terrorist groups in Syria. In 2014 the US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David Cohen, announced that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have received millions of dollars from their sponsors in the Persian Gulf, Pakistan and Turkey. Money supporting terrorists is still being raised in Kuwait and Qatar on a daily basis.
According to RIA Novosti, on November 4 the U.S. Representative for California, Dana Tyrone Rohrabacher directly accused the US of double standards and hostility towards Russia, adding that this policy has caused a lot of damage to the United States, especially in the Middle East. Rohrabacher underlined that Russia is a great world power that has its own interests, just like the US has. During the hearings on Russia before Congress, Rohrabacher stressed the fact that the US is confronting Russia because it is defending Bashar al-Assad, who is allegedly a terrible dictator, but the Saudi monarchy is also a dictatorial regime prepared to kill thousands of people to stay in power, and the same can be said about other Persian Gulf states.
Rohrabacher has underlined that the United States would not listen to Russia’s proposals on Syria since the outbreak of the conflict, which has resulted in the severe deterioration of the situation on the ground. The US Congressman stressed that Putin had been seeking a compromise with the US for five years in order to find some form of stability in Syria, yet Washington turned him down each time. He also added that should radical Islamists come to power in Syria, it will be a veritable nightmare for Washington.
Nevertheless, Washington keeps on pushing for major escalation in Syria, while excusing true state sponsors of terrorism. As it has been announced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia all refused to coordinate their actions in Syria. Following the meeting in Vienna, Lavrov said he invited the representatives of those three countries to coordinate military operations in Syria, as Russia does with Jordan. Cooperation, he said, could be established through a formal agreement on the list of organizations that are to be regarded as terrorist. Lavrov regretted the decision of the above mentioned states not to work together with Russia, while adding that in Amman, Jordanian and Russian military experts will be working together to carry out combat operations against terrorism. Yet, shortly after the meeting, Saudi Minister Of Foreign Affairs , Adel Al Jubeir announced that his country would still be supporting the “moderate opposition”, or in other words, the terrorists. It seems there’s no other way to put it more clearly.
The question as to why Washington occupies such a non-constructive stance in Syria can be partially explained by US opinion polls. The Wall Street Journal has recently published a survey according to which 56% of respondents believe that Syria could become a threat to the United States. Another 23% said Syria is an imminent threat, while Russia is called a long-term military threat by 60% of all respondents.
Apparently, as long as the media in the US is dominated by certain political circles, Washington’s policies in a number of regions, including the Middle East, will not be determined by the best interests of the American people, but only by delusional ideas of those Washington politicians nostalgic of the Cold War who imagine themselves sitting in the trenches awaiting inevitable war.
Victor Mikhin, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
