Listener Advisory
Starting October 4, CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg will begin airing the Global Research News Hour Fridays at 1pm Central Time.
“What kind of world will we live in if the United States of America sees a dictator brazenly violate international law with poison gas, and we choose to look the other way?” -US President Barack Obama, September 10, 2013
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Length (59:35)
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When US President Barack Obama addressed the nation on September 10, he emphasized the August 21 gassing of a civilian district in Damascus as a justification for the use of force in Syria. He indicated a military strike was needed “to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime’s ability to use them, and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use.”
The planned military strike for which President Obama was seeking Congressional approval has been forestalled in the wake of a US-Russia agreement. The deal would see a UN Security Council resolution put forward that would require the Syrian government to give up its chemical weapons arsenal and have them destroyed under international control.
It seems unlikely that the August 21 chemical gas attack is the principal motivator behind the US President’s aggressive military posturing. As Michel Chossudovsky has documented on the Global Research website, five US Naval Destroyers, including one used during the US-NATO war with Libya had been ordered deployed off the Syrian coastline well in advance of the August 21 incident. Each of these vessels have the capacity of carrying up to 90 Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Moreover, the US has been inconsistent in respecting international norms with regard to the use of chemical weapons.
For example, the United States used napalm and Agent Orange quite extensively during the Vietnam War.
Furthermore, the US did not seem to feel obliged to launch strikes against Israel for that country’s reported use of White Phosphorous against Palestinian civilians during the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead offensive.
The US itself used the deadly chemical during the siege against Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah nine years ago.
According to foreign policy analyst Yves Engler, even Canada has a long and sordid history in developing and testing chemical weapons agents for use in Vietnam and Korea.
If the chemical weapons attack is not the true motivation for a military confrontation with Syria, then how likely is it that the recent Russia-US agreement will end the threat of a confrontation with Syria?
On this week’s Global Research News Hour, guests Rick Rozoff, Ellen Hodgson Brown, and Yves Engler brilliantly cut through government jargon and examine some of the geo-strategic objectives in play.
In Part 1, Rick Rozoff of Stop NATO International attempts to decipher the Obama Administration’s game plan and concludes that an attack on Syria, has been at best postponed until the US devises another pre-text for aggression.
In Part 2, Ellen Brown, civil litigation attorney and author of The Public Bank Solution: From Austerity to Prosperity, examines a seldom discussed war pre-text, namely the move to undermine Syria’s state controlled banking system and open it up to plunder and de-regulation by the world’s major funancial powers.
In Part 3, Yves Engler, author of numerous books on Canadian foreign policy, exposes the hypocrisy of the Canadian government’s hawkish rhetoric on Syria by exposing the history of Canada’s own involvement with the testing, development and profiteering from the use of chemical weapons.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Length (59:35)
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
The Global Research News Hour, hosted by Michael Welch, airs on CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg Thursdays at 10am CDT. The programme is now broadcast weekly (Monday, 5-6pm ET) by the Progressive Radio Network in the US, and is available for download on the Global Research website.
Important Listener Advisory
Starting October 4, CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg will begin airing the Global Research News Hour Fridays at 1pm Central Time.
