This Land Is Their Land

by Stephen Lendman

Make no mistake. America is directly or indirectly responsible for most world conflicts. Across North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, it plays the lead role.

Afghanistan has been occupied for nearly 11 years. US air and ground attacks murder civilians daily. Pre-2003 Iraq no longer exists. America destroyed the cradle of civilization.

It’s complicit in daily Israeli state terror against Palestinian civilians. It ravaged and murdered tens of thousands of Libyans. It’s using death squad invaders against Syrians. Civilian men, women and children are prime targets. Everyone supporting peace and stability is vulnerable.

It’s not enough. Plans call for full-scale war. Washington fights dirty. Scorched earth belligerence is policy. Target states aren’t just attacked. They’re willfully, maliciously, and lawlessly destroyed.

People are massacred in cold blood. Propagandists call it humanitarian intervention. War is peace. Orwell warned us long ago.

Only imperial dominance matters. Hegemons accept nothing less. Human lives are of no consequence. It’s been that way since America’s beginning. It’s ongoing today with WMD ease.

Plans were readied months ago for ground and air attacks on Syria. Proxy war is prelude to full-scale conflict. Libya 2.0 looms. Media propaganda plays the lead role. Public opinion is being massaged, softened, and manipulated to accept more bloodshed.

It never ends. One war segues to another. After Syria comes Iran. How many more millions will die? How much more human suffering is enough? How much are media scoundrels paid to support what they should condemn?

People have a right to know. They pay for it multiple ways. Their tax dollars go for killing and mass destruction, not vital domestic services. They’re increasingly on their own to fund America’s war machine. Police state harshness targets dissenters.

Bipartisan complicity threw them under the bus long ago. Imagine what’s coming post-election. Both parties are committed to endless wars without mercy. Revolutionary resistance is the only way to stop them. Hardly a sign of it exists.

Drumbeat warmongering drowns out activists needing much greater support to matter. Western media managed news misreports on nations Washington targets.

Their hands are as blood drenched as imperial planners. They’re virtual subcontractors. They’re complicit in mass murder and destruction. They risk letting the entire Middle East explode.

They ignore fundamental international law principles. They support foreign wars and ones at home against freedom. They’re for wealth and power interests only. Destroying Syria and Iran get top billing.

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) features a “Crisis Guide: Iran.” Lies substitute for truth. A nonbelligerent nation is maliciously maligned. “(T)he Islamic Republic….threaten(s) the region’s balance of power,” claims CFR. No proof whatever suggests it.

“Iran’s support for militant groups, combined with its pursuit of a nuclear program, has aggravated relations with countries in the region and the West.”

CFR and other imperial supporters build their case for war on a foundation of lies and suppressed truth.

Iran’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah are “tools to project influence (and create) hostility (with) Israel” and America’s regional allies. Its nuclear program “generate(s) concern among experts.”

Options CFR endorses include sanctions, covert action, and preventive strikes. Diplomacy is mentioned but gets short shrift.

CFR’s Robert Danin says “Lebanon Erupts, Syria Boils….” Let’s have another war and cool things down.

Foreign Policy (FP) contributor Gary Gambill headlines “Two Cheers for Syrian Islamists.” Jeffersonians they’re not but who cares. It’s reminiscent of Franklin Roosevelt’s remark about Nicaragua’s Anastasio Somoza, saying:

He “may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.”

Gambill calls Islamic militants vital for US interests. They’re willing proxies. They’re battle hardened. They’re better fighters than secular counterparts. They willingly perform suicide bombings.

They’re “strategically preferable” to Assad. How they terrorize Syrian civilians doesn’t matter. Establishing another regional puppet state is all that counts.

They’re needed to defeat Iran. The Islamic Republic “constitutes a far greater and more immediate threat to US national interests.”

“So long as….jihadis are committed to fighting (as US proxies), we should quietly root for them….”

Weeks ago, hawkish American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka urged more direct US help for Syria, saying:

“Washington must stop subcontracting Syria policy to the Turks, Saudis and Qataris.” It’s time for direct involvement.

On August 31, Foreign Policy (FP) contributor James Traub headlined “The Time for Action,” saying:

More active US intervention is needed to oust Assad. The “moral case” for doing so is “incontrovertible.” A no-fly zone “could turn the tide.” So might safe havens.

If America “wants the rebels to win, then it should be doing everything it can to help them….to (stay) on the right side of history.”

Traub wants America off the sidelines and on the field. Delaying until post-election is “consummate cynicism. (Obama) should act now, before it’s too late.”

The latest Washington Post pro-war screed headlines “The UN’s unworkable plan for Syria,” saying:

Peace and diplomatic initiatives accomplished nothing. New ones won’t do any better. They give Assad “time and cover….The regime has no intention of capitulating….bloodshed will continue and probably worsen.”

“The fighting in Syria will end only when (Assad) is forced to stop – or he succeeds in killing his way to victory.”

Comments like these endorse direct intervention. The Post itches for more war. It inverts truth as justification. It blamed victims since last year. It ignores US-sponsored death squad invaders. It calls self-defense wanton killing.

It suppressed information about NAM countries declaring support for Syrian sovereignty and opposition to Western hegemony. They condemned unilateral US sanctions. They violate UN Charter provisions and other international law principles.

They oppose any form of outside interference into the internal affairs of other nations. Doing so is blatantly illegal. International law is clear and unequivocal.

They’re against Western forced no-fly zones or safe havens in Syrian territory. In mid-August, Law Professor Francis Boyle emailed this writer saying:

“Without authorization by the United Nations Security Council and express authorization from the US Congress pursuant to the terms of the War Powers Resolution, for President Obama to establish any type of so-called ‘no-fly zone’ over Syria would be illegal, unconstitutional, and impeachable.”

The same goes for safe havens in Syrian territory. They constitute ground-based no fly zones. Either or both assure war. Libya’s experience proved what’s incontrovertible.

With or without them, Obama plans intervention. So does Romney if elected. His web site calls Assad “an unscrupulous dictator, a killer, and a proxy for Iran.” He urges “redoubl(ing)” US efforts to oust him. He means whatever it takes including war.

The business of America is war. Profiteers demand it. Permanent ones are waged on their behalf and to further US global dominance.

Peace in our time is illusory. It’s bad for business and imperial Washington’s interests. Expect permanent wars without end. Homeland police state crackdowns will accompany them.

About the Author: Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached atlendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled “How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War”

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.