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<h1 class="entry-title" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Play, arial, serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 36px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">
Preserving ISIL: Despite Ceasefire Talk, Tradition Dictates US Will Move Towards Regime Change in Syria</h1>
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<span class="date published time" title="2017-07-08T08:54:37+00:00" style="background-image: url(applewebdata://FC2703B2-CF72-4699-83A8-7F0ED1E921AB/images/icon-time.png); padding: 2px 0px 2px 21px; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">JULY
8, 2017</span> BY <span class="vcard author"><span class="fn"><a href="http://21stcenturywire.com/author/21wire/" rel="author" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">21WIRE</a></span></span> <span class="post-comments" style="background-image: url(applewebdata://FC2703B2-CF72-4699-83A8-7F0ED1E921AB/images/icon-comments.png); margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; padding: 2px 0px 2px 22px; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;"><a href="http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/07/08/preserving-isil-despite-ceasefire-talk-tradition-dictates-us-will-move-towards-regime-change-in-syria/#disqus_thread" data-disqus-identifier="94452 http://21stcenturywire.com/?p=94452" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">7
COMMENTS</a></span></div>
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<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
<strong class=""><em class="">Despite recent reports out of the G20 that the US and Russia have agreed to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/us/politics/syria-ceasefire-agreement.html" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">provisional
ceasefire</a> agreement in southern Syria, <a href="http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/07/05/us-expands-military-footprint-in-syria-to-eight-bases-modifies-kobani-air-base/" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">evidence on the ground</a>,
along with noises coming out of <a href="http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/07/07/syria-maria-zakharova-press-briefing-on-wests-chemical-weapon-propaganda-campaign/" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">Washington and the OPCW</a> on
supposed ‘chemical weapons’ and underpinned by the well-established behavioral patterns of Washington – point to a bellicose US who is gradually nudging its way towards regime change in Syria…</em></strong></p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-94463" src="http://i1.wp.com/21stcenturywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/1-Trump-Putin-Regime-Change-.jpg?resize=610%2C415" alt="1 Trump-Putin Regime Change" srcset="http://i1.wp.com/21stcenturywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/1-Trump-Putin-Regime-Change-.jpg?w=610 610w, http://i1.wp.com/21stcenturywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/1-Trump-Putin-Regime-Change-.jpg?resize=300%2C204 300w" sizes="(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px" width="610" height="415" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; border: 4px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); padding: 1px;"><strong class="">By <a href="http://www.21stcenturywire.com/category/martin-jay" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">Martin
Jay</a> </strong></p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
<strong class="">America’s naked lust for regime change in Syria is plain to see now, following the folly of weapons inspectors and a State Department comedy moment. But history has shown us it is likely to push Muslims to slaughter their own, once again.</strong></p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
When Donald Trump ordered Tomahawk missile strikes on the Syrian military airbase of Shayrat <a href="http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/04/08/after-u-s-attack-on-syria-trump-may-have-become-the-world-ruler-he-swore-hed-never-be/" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">in
April this year</a>, the world should have woken up. Everything we needed to know about Trump which was previously lost in the smoke and mirrors of his buffoonery was there to see.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
We are seeing it now more than ever in Syria, although remarkably it is still confusing many Western journalists who are struggling to see the wood for the trees.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
Although the strike itself missed many of the intended targets, it did destroy three key myths about Trump’s Middle East objectives and the rhetoric which he had espoused leading up to his election victory in November. Firstly, he is disingenuous about destroying
ISIL; secondly his objective with Syria is a carbon copy of Obama’s (regime change); and lastly, despite so much Russia-smooching, he is in fact not remotely serious about keeping good relations with Moscow.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
Remarkably, the strike was an immediate reaction to what his experts in the White House and the Pentagon had concluded to be a chemical attack at Khan Sheikhun, in Idlib province – a hotbed of Al-Qaeda groups fighting Assad’s army. In fact, as investigative
journalist Seymour Hersh revealed in a recent piece for<em class=""> Die Welt</em>, <a href="https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article165905578/Trump-s-Red-Line.html" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">Trump ignored the intelligence
community</a> when it said they had found no evidence that the Syrians had used chemical weapons.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
The truth is that it is entirely inconsequential and serves as just one more <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_mf_wAZWfk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">distraction</a> for
analysts and journalists who are not focusing on the real picture: Trump is preparing for war with the regime.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
<strong class="">Tradition dictates that Trump should bomb Assad</strong></p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
And there is a pattern to this which is carved out by US presidents and their diplomatic envoys. When the late Richard Colburn <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/06/29/time/holbrooke.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">met</a> with
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in July of 1998, the UN ambassador diplomatically sketched out the options for the nationalist leader. They all boiled down to playing ball with the US over Kosovo or expect airstrikes. For the second time.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
Milosevic’s neck was already in the noose as for at least six years the US had been doing the most it could to isolate him as Russia’s rogue leader in the former Yugoslavia. The Americans had supported from the off, another nationalist leader in neighboring
pro-west Croatia – Franjo Tudman – and Clinton had secretly backed arms shipments to him, despite publicly <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1996-05-12/news/mn-3437_1_arms-smuggling" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">claiming</a> to
support a UN arms embargo on former Yugoslavia republics. But it wasn’t just arms. The Americans went the full nine yards in backing Tudman and Croatia – a country that Hitler didn’t need to send his own SS henchmen to, as one Croat extermination camp alone
did such a formidable job of killing 50,000 Serbs in the ethnic ‘clean up’ which the Nazis required in the region.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
On Madeleine Albright’s watch as UN Permanent Representative, Croatia was secretly given a league of retired US generals to work with Tudman and special satellite intelligence of the battlefield in Bosnia, not to mention a sterling PR campaign which succeeded
in planting a number of Op-eds in American broadsheets about Croatia being the ‘good guys’ in the war with Milosevic. Unsurprisingly, later in 2015, Croatia gave her an award for her support and presumably not for dubious articles in US media in the 90s claiming
she was <em class="">“getting tough”</em> on the Croatian government.</p>
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Russia has demanded the immediate dispatch of an independent fact-finding mission to the site of last month’s chemical incident in Idlib and the airbase from where the attack was allegedly launched,...</p>
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But a number of key events are important to remember and chime with what is happening in Syria today. In 1992, and later in 1994 and 1995, three events shook the world when Muslims were killed in a bread queue <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/muslims-slaughter-their-own-people-bosnia-bread-queue-massacre-was-propaganda-ploy-un-told-1541801.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">explosion</a> and
then two market <a href="http://www.justice-report.com/en/articles/muted-sound-of-mortar-detonation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">bombings</a> – where the West immediately accused
Serbs of the atrocities. Albright was too quick to make the conclusion even though UN inspectors could not establish if the craters could be made from Serb positions.</p>
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There were many Western critics, like Lord Owen, who were dubious of the US conclusion (particularly about the two market bombings). Yet Albright’s zeal to point the finger at Milosevic was all it took for NATO airstrikes to follow.</p>
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Years later, however, the evidence indicates that the swift conclusions by Albright and Clinton were, in fact, incorrect. The bread queue massacre was certainly a bomb planted by the Bosnian Muslim army, and the two market massacres similarly indicate the same.
Muslims attacked their own people to garner more Western support to hit Milosevic.</p>
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Any of this sound familiar? It should do as this is part of a well-honed craft, a pattern which the US carries out against its perceived enemies around the world, when diplomacy and joined-up-thinking flounder. In the former Yugoslavia, Milosevic was isolated
from the start and then demonized for no real reason other than he wouldn’t forlorn the West and had his views and agenda.</p>
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<strong class="">Grin by ex-Fox anchor speak volumes</strong></p>
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Assad in Syria has more or less become the fall guy, like Milosevic. It’s not that he has an appalling track record on human rights, torture, executions or destroying any inklings of journalism emerging. It’s that he has not buckled to Washington’s demands
and therefore has defined his destiny as a target, like Milosevic or Saddam Hussein.</p>
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And the pattern is identical. The UN now will attempt to identify who was behind the sarin attack in Idlib, but the indications from the OPCW are not good. Its <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/394955-syria-opcw-report-credibility/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class="">findings</a> are,
at best, tainted as most of its research is based on interviewing people who have already done the joined-up-thinking: if the attack can be blamed on Assad, then the West will bomb the Syrian leader into the next century.</p>
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Humble Sunnis in rebel-held areas of Syria know this, even if they don’t support the al-Qaeda groups which control them. But we shouldn’t think of these extremists groups anyway as enemies of the West. What can we make of the idiotic grin of ex-Fox anchor turned
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, when asked by an RT journalist if this immediate rush to military aggression against so-called chemical attacks would merely encourage ISIL to stage an attack<span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">.</span></p>
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The Tomahawk attack was a starter’s pistol for many like me who saw with their own eyes in the former Yugoslavia – and from afar in Iraq – that the die has been set in Syria. It is only a matter of time now before a new chemical attack will be staged. Who could
blame Assad for even carrying it out when he knows that any such attack carried out by rebels will be attributed to him regardless?</p>
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Recent events in Syria have made my view much simpler and clearer, despite the war there being so complicated that it even confuses those on the ground. America will secure Raqqa and create a military base there and therefore take air superiority in at least
part of Northern Syria. Israel’s proxy in the south – Al-Nusra – needs to keep a southern flank so as to buffer Assad from encroaching on the Golan Heights. It will not be apocalyptic, but more salami slice by salami slice as we see more focus each day on
Assad forces and less and less on ISIL – which is to be an army in waiting spread nicely across a huge expanse of the country thanks to US strategy.</p>
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History really is repeating itself. When I think of Assad and the West, I recall a cable sent to a senior US intelligence officer from his British counterpart in the 1960s who asked why Washington had installed Joseph Mobutu in Congo, in preference to the communist
intellectual Patrice Lumumba, who the CIA had assassinated in 1961. His response to the naive Brit was, <em class="">“Mobutu may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.”</em></p>
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<em class="">This article was originally published at</em><em style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class=""><a href="https://www.rt.com/op-edge/395250-protecting-isil-us-tradition-syria/" style="color: rgb(204, 153, 0); text-decoration: none;" class=""> RT
OpEdge</a></em></p>
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