UPDATE: U.S. Desperately Tries to Justify Syrian War … After Everyone Agrees to a Peaceful Solution
I guess I spoke too soon.
US Refuses To Admit Checkmate By Russia And Syria, Redirects Purpose Of Military Incursion: Admits Regime Change Intention
John Kerry gives Syria week to hand over chemical weapons or face attack
US secretary of state tells London press conference with William Hague that US intelligence blames Assad regime for gas attack.
The US secretary of state has said that President Bashar al-Assad has one week to hand over his entire stock of chemical weapons to avoid a military attack. But John Kerry added that he had no expectation that the Syrian leader would comply.
Kerry also said he had no doubt that Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack in east Damascus on 21 August, saying that only three people are responsible for the chemical weapons inside Syria – Assad, one of his brothers and a senior general. He said the entire US intelligence community was united in believing Assad was responsible.
Kerry was speaking on Monday alongside the UK foreign secretary, William Hague, who was forced to deny that he had been pushed to the sidelines by the House of Commons decision 10 days ago to reject the use of UK force in Syria.
Kerry’s Offhand Proposal on Syria Arms Welcomed
A seemingly offhand suggestion by Secretary of State John Kerry that Syria could avert an American attack by relinquishing all of its chemical weapons received a widespread, almost immediate welcome from Syria, Russia, the United Nations, a key American ally and even some Republicans on Monday as a possible way to avoid a major international military showdown in the Syria crisis.
The New York Times (as usual) has the timeline messed up. It was Russia that first proposed placing Syria's chemical weapons under international controls. Kerry's "us too" remark was intended to prevent Russia from looking like they were the only ones after a peaceful resolution, and Kerry probably assumed Assad would never agree. So Kerry opened his mouth and said Syria could avoid an attack by surrendering their chemical weapons... and walked into a bear-trap. Assad agreed to surrender his weapons (because after all, he isn't using them) and now Kerry has nowhere to go to push for war. Checkmate, John! -- WhatReallyHappened
At least the Boston Globe got it right.
Kerry Gaffes; The Russians Blink
Asked if there were steps the Syrian president could take to avert an American-led attack, Mr. Kerry said, “Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it, without delay and allow the full and total accounting.”
“We don’t know whether Syria will agree with this, but if the establishment of international control over chemical weapons in the country will prevent attacks, then we will immediately begin work with Damascus,” Mr. Lavrov said at the Foreign Ministry. “And we call on the Syrian leadership to not only agree to setting the chemical weapons storage sites under international control, but also to their subsequent destruction.”
"IF an attack on Syria has been derailed by Russia
(and Syria's foreign minister says he "welcomes" this proposal), then
the wheels are off the cart for any imminent invasion of Iran.
I am sure that ashtrays are flying at the residence of Israel's Prime Minister, and in the White House situation room right now.
It would be a ham-fistedly, pig-headedly stupid thing for the White House to continue to advocate for a US strike against Syria, when Syria and Russia have just completely pulled the rug out from under its arguments for doing such a strike.
The wild card in all this is still Israel, and the question must be pointedly asked as to just how horrific a "false flag" they may be prepared to conjure, to restart the push to war against Syria.
It would not be the first time Israel had created a false flag to attempt to get the US embroiled in a war against one of its enemies:
The descriptor, "false flag", is derived from an old pirate's trick: flying another country's flag during a raid. This would shift the blame for the attack to someone who had nothing to do with it. Governments have used false flag attacks to manipulate their people into fear and hate that can lead to a dictatorship or war. On June 8, 1967, using unmarked aircraft and attack boats, Israel attacked our proud naval ship -- the USS Liberty -- killing 34 American servicemen and wounding 172. Those men were then betrayed and left to die by our own government. Israel thought that Egypt would be blamed for their attack "We had been surveilled all morning and part of the afternoon by Israeli forces. They knew who we were. We heard them reporting over radio who we were and how we were sailing and where we were sailing. They saw the flag and everything else. We were in international waters." - Statement by survivor John Hrankowski The U.S. Government had posted the Liberty off the coast of Gaza, in international waters, to monitor developments in the region during the Six-Day War. (The Liberty's mission will be discussed in detail below.) At dawn 8 June, Israeli aircraft began reconnoitering the ship, some flying so close that the pilots could clearly be seen, and as low as masthead height, obviously photographing it. This extensive observation lasted seven hours and involved eight separate observations, at about 0600, 0900, 1000, 1030, 1100, and 1130, 1200 and 1215 p.m. U.S. intercept stations twice overheard Israeli pilots reporting that the ship was American. The visibility conditions were perfect; the ship's American flag was flying free and clear in a good breeze.
But for now, Putin has played his hand brilliantly, for having taken Kerry at his word. Bravo, President Putin: well done, sir." -- WhatReallyHappened
UPDATE: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon added his support to the proposal
I am sure that ashtrays are flying at the residence of Israel's Prime Minister, and in the White House situation room right now.
It would be a ham-fistedly, pig-headedly stupid thing for the White House to continue to advocate for a US strike against Syria, when Syria and Russia have just completely pulled the rug out from under its arguments for doing such a strike.
The wild card in all this is still Israel, and the question must be pointedly asked as to just how horrific a "false flag" they may be prepared to conjure, to restart the push to war against Syria.
It would not be the first time Israel had created a false flag to attempt to get the US embroiled in a war against one of its enemies:
The descriptor, "false flag", is derived from an old pirate's trick: flying another country's flag during a raid. This would shift the blame for the attack to someone who had nothing to do with it. Governments have used false flag attacks to manipulate their people into fear and hate that can lead to a dictatorship or war. On June 8, 1967, using unmarked aircraft and attack boats, Israel attacked our proud naval ship -- the USS Liberty -- killing 34 American servicemen and wounding 172. Those men were then betrayed and left to die by our own government. Israel thought that Egypt would be blamed for their attack "We had been surveilled all morning and part of the afternoon by Israeli forces. They knew who we were. We heard them reporting over radio who we were and how we were sailing and where we were sailing. They saw the flag and everything else. We were in international waters." - Statement by survivor John Hrankowski The U.S. Government had posted the Liberty off the coast of Gaza, in international waters, to monitor developments in the region during the Six-Day War. (The Liberty's mission will be discussed in detail below.) At dawn 8 June, Israeli aircraft began reconnoitering the ship, some flying so close that the pilots could clearly be seen, and as low as masthead height, obviously photographing it. This extensive observation lasted seven hours and involved eight separate observations, at about 0600, 0900, 1000, 1030, 1100, and 1130, 1200 and 1215 p.m. U.S. intercept stations twice overheard Israeli pilots reporting that the ship was American. The visibility conditions were perfect; the ship's American flag was flying free and clear in a good breeze.
But for now, Putin has played his hand brilliantly, for having taken Kerry at his word. Bravo, President Putin: well done, sir." -- WhatReallyHappened
UPDATE: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon added his support to the proposal
There is no chain of evidence here; no attribution as to what entity determined for the American government that the gas used was, in fact, Sarin gas, and no indication of the method used for testing. Several methods of testing may actually create a "false positive" for the presence of Sarin gas.
In fact, with various reporters who are trying to get to the truth of what happened here, it appears that this attack must, based on logic and evidence, be laid squarely at the feet of the rebels the US government is supporting, which is more than disturbing (YES,(sigh) THOSE same rebels who are beheading prisoners, eating their entrails on camera, and killing Christians with impunity).
Here's the cold, hard reality: the rush to war here is motivated by some nasty financial factors for the US right now.
The US economy is withering on the vine; according to recent statistics from the US labor department, over ninety million able US adults are not able to find work; and the dollar is under siege from the Fed's quantitative easing program, which has gutted its value. Numerous countries are ditching the dollar in their financial transactions all together.
Historically, US government was able to get out of its financial difficulties through war, as demonstrated during and after World War I and World War II; this was, however, before we were looking at a nuclear-armed Russia and China.
The alleged "limited strike" option President Obama is pushing, ad nauseum, will ultimately most likely, not be limited in scope, nature, or duration.
These strikes will function very much the way a picador does in a bullfight, which is to continually wound the bull to get it to react ever more angrily at its aggressors.
The goal of these strikes is to bring in Iran and Lebanon, and provoke a wider, regional war, which will, almost inevitably, "go long".
Such a strike will not "punish" al-Assad or members of the Syrian government, all of whom will be safely ensconced in their bunkers. But such strikes will, inevitably, punish hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent Syrians, just desperately trying to survive.
As I type this, Russian and Chinese naval military assets are pre-positioned off the coast of Syria in the Mediterranean. If the US government goes ahead with these strikes against Syria, we may well see am military response from China and Russia to defend Syria.
I would like to point out to those precious few adults in the room in the bowels of power in DC that right now, the US military doesn't have the troop strength, the money, or the manufacturing to insure a positive outcome to a conventional war against Russia and/or China. This is what makes the military scenario so scarily dangerous right now, because such a confrontation could go nuclear faster than the speed of light.
So to those who continue, against all reason, to believe that such an attack against Syria would be "a good thing", I would strongly caution you on the following: the unintended consequences could be both horrific...and irreversible." -- WhatReallyHappened