Activist Post – by Brandon Turbeville
Fresh on the heels of American airstrikes in Raqqa, Syria that devastated Syrian infrastructure and killed a number of innocent civilians, the United States has publicly condemned airstrikes by the Syrian military in the same location targeting ISIS militants.
Indeed, on November 26, a new report from the United Nations addressed the issue of civilian deaths at the hand of the American airstrikes, citing 50 dead civilians since the start of the air campaign. The report stated that “The international coalition continued airstrikes against ISIL in Syria on a near-daily basis with reports of some 865 people killed, including 50 civilians, in Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Hasakeh, Idlib and Raqqa since strikes began.”
Of course, the figure of 50 dead civilians is obviously quite low. American airstrikes have been known to target residential neighborhoods filled with innocent civilians killing many in one fell swoop. In addition, the United States has appeared to have been targeting civilian areas since the beginning of the campaign.
Apparently, the United Nations is using the same formula as Western media outlets in order to calculate the number of civilian deaths at the hands of the United States Air Force in Syria. In other words, as was the case in Vietnam, any dead human being (or anything that can be construed as a dead human being) is considered a dead death squad fighter but never a civilian. These manipulated figures are then reported back to a dazed and befuddled public who never think to question the numbers presented to them in the first place.
While the real numbers of dead Syrians whose lives were lost at the hands of American airstrikes are much higher, these numbers are inconsequential to the directors of the campaign and the overall destabilization. These numbers are also quite acceptable to the humanitarian warriors and “we are the world” Westerners observing the death toll from far away.
However, when the Syrian government – the only legitimate force operating in Syria and the only legitimate power to combat the Western-backed death squads – engages in airstrikes in the same exact location against ISIS (not civilians), the United States responds with condemnation, hysteria, and panicked claims of crimes against humanity and intentional targeting of civilians.
The Syrian air campaign in Raqqa is alleged to have killed 95 people although the number of civilians vs the number of death squad operatives is, as of yet, unclear.
The U.S. government, however, responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent Iraqis (and counting), well over a hundred thousand Syrians, thousands of Libyans, tens of thousands of Afghanis, and a smattering of other nationalities across the globe including Americans, responded that it was “horrified” by Assad’s “continued slaughter” and “no value for human life.”
U.S. State Department spokesman Jen Psaki stated that “We are horrified by the reports that the Assad regime’s airstrikes yesterday in Raqqa, Syria killed dozens of civilians and demolished residential areas. The Assad regime’s continued slaughter of Syrian civilians further exposes its callous disregard for human life.”
She continued to state that “We’ve been clear that Assad long ago lost all legitimacy to govern and that the Syrian regime must be held responsible for its brutality and atrocities against the Syrian people.”
Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi responded by stating that the accusations are “an attempt by the US State Department to push the world to disregard terrorism crimes through directing incorrect accusations against the Syrian State in the interest of those terrorist organizations.” Al-Zoubi also pointed out that the “U.S. government was obtaining all of its information from “terrorist organizations” like the Islamic State group and Jabhat al-Nusra, al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.”
While, on one level, Psaki and her discredited State Department are doing nothing more than repeating the tired claims of Assad’s “crimes against humanity” while themselves perpetrating crimes against humanity, there is also the question of the “no-fly zone” desired by Western NATO powers that has seemed to stall over recent months. An attempt to portray Assad as using his Air Force to slaughter innocent civilians thus also stands as another pathetic attempt to drum up support and justification for the implementation of such a zone over Syria.
Make no mistake, while the plans to implement a no-fly zone may have lost some steam temporarily, NATO has not given up on its goal of turning Syria into Libya on much the same roadmap. Any palatable excuse will do and, in the absence of a proper excuse, the apathy of the general public will suffice.
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Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1and volume 2, and The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria. Turbeville has published over 300 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.
http://www.activistpost.com/2014/11/obama-to-assad-stop-bombing-isis-and.html