David Swanson: Purposeless Death in Syria + No U.S. Warplanes Over Syria News Conference

Image by Alisdare Hickson via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
August 9, 2017

Statement by David Swanson as Director of World Beyond War at DC press conference August 8, 2017.

I won’t have time to list all the reasons I want U.S. military planes and drones out of Syrian skies much less all the reasons people have noted in comments on our petition, but there’s no question what my first reason is, although it’s not a reason always given much weight here in Washington.

The Real US Syria Scandal: Supporting Sectarian War by Gareth Porter

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Middle East Eye
Washington
August 30, 2016

The main criticism of US policy in Syria has long been that President Barack Obama should have used US military force or more aggressive arms aid to strengthen the armed opposition to Assad. The easy answer is that the whole idea that there was a viable non-extremist force to be strengthened is a myth – albeit one that certain political figures in London and Washington refuse to give up.

How Putin’s Leverage Shaped the Syrian Ceasefire by Gareth Porter + Larry Wilkerson: Will the Syrian Ceasefire End the US-Russia Proxy War?

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

by Gareth Porter
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Middle East Eye
Washington
March 28, 2016

By his military withdrawal, Putin was actually enhancing his leverage over both the military situation and the political negotiations still to come

When Russian President Vladimir Putin had a substantive meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry last week, it was an extremely rare departure from normal protocol. There was some political logic to the meeting, however, because Putin and Kerry have clearly been the primary drivers of their respective governments’ policies toward Syria, and their negotiations have already led to a stunningly successful Syrian ceasefire and possible Syrian negotiations on a political settlement.

Abby Martin and Vijay Prashad: Examining the Syria War Chessboard

Image by Elvert Barnes via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Abby Martin

teleSUR English on Jan 22, 2016

The war in Syria is an unparalleled crisis. It has gone far beyond an internal political struggle, and is marked by a complex array of forces that the U.S. Empire hopes to command: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and more. To simplify this web of enemies and friends, Abby Martin interviews Dr. Vijay Prashad, professor of International Studies at Trinity College and author of several books.

Why Does the Government of The United States Hate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad With Such Passion? by William Blum

Image by The Weekly Bull via Flickr

by William Blum
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.killinghope.org, Nov. 3, 2015
November 5, 2015

Are you confused by the Middle East? Here are some things you should know. (But you’ll probably still be confused.)

If Stones Could Weep by Felicity Arbuthnot + Sy Hersh Reveals Potential Turkish Role in Syria Chemical Strike That Almost Sparked U.S. Bombing

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
April 9, 2014

Not only is Middle East “Peace Envoy”, Catholic convert and Butcher of Baghdad, Tony Blair gunning for another overthrow and mass destruction in Syria, he has recruited the son of an Archbishop to help him.

Not any old Archbishop either, Blair’s latest recruit is son of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England, who heads both the Church of England and the eighty million member Anglican Communion worldwide.

Western Imperialism’s Creative Destruction in Syria by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
February 18, 2014

Image by Stephen Melkisethian via Flickr

US-led Western regime change in Syria might be described as a process of creative destruction. Like Schumpeter’s economic concept of cyclical creative destruction, so too Washington’s political machinations in Syria seem to be playing out likewise.

We begin with the premise that the humanitarian crisis in Syria over the past nearly three years is largely as a result of a Western covert proxy war inflicted on that country. The objective is to destabilize, terrorize and eventuate regime change in the Arab country.

US, Allies ‘Arming Al-Qaeda’ in Syria by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV, Feb. 4, 2014
February 5, 2014

Image by The Weekly Bull via Flickr

The titular head of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has reportedly disavowed the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Videos emerged over the weekend of the Egyptian-born leader denying any organizational links with the ISIS.

The British Guardian reported that the move by the top al-Qaeda commander was an attempt to “reassert control” over the disparate militant groups fighting in Syria.

Geneva II – Washington’s Plan B for Regime Change in Syria by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
January 15, 2014

The fatal problem with the Geneva II negotiations on Syria, due to open next week in Switzerland, is that the process is furtively being treated by the US and its allies as a lever for regime change. It is their Plan B for regime change, where Plan A is the failed covert military tactic. That does not bode well for a successful, that is sustainable, settlement to a crisis that is nearly three years old with well over 100,000 deaths and nine million people – more than a third of the total population – displaced from their homes. It amounts to an illegal interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, and as such is doomed to fail.

Seymour Hersh: Obama “Cherry Picked” Intel on Syrian Chemical Attack to Justify U.S. Strike

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Dandelion Salad

democracynow on Dec 9, 2013

democracynow – Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh joins us to discuss his new article casting doubt on the veracity of the Obama administration’s claims that only the Assad regime could have carried out the chemical attacks in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta earlier this year. Writing in the London Review of Books, Hersh argues that the Obama administration “cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad.” The administration failed to disclose it knew Syrian rebels in the al-Nusra front had the ability to produce chemical weapons. Evidence obtained in the days after the attack was also allegedly distorted to make it appear it was gathered in real time.

Syrian Nun Seen as Threat to War Resistance by William Boardman

by William Boardman
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published on readersupportednews.org
November 22, 2013

Here’s what it looks like when a respected reporter talks about his blackmail note to an established anti-war organization regarding the organization’s upcoming conference in a tweet on November 15:

jeremy scahill @jeremyscahill I’ve informed organizers of @STWuk that I will not participate in their conference if Mother Agnes is on the platform.

What a Sorry State of Affairs by William Bowles

by William Bowles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
19 November 2013

I have been involved with left-wing politics in one guise or another pretty much my entire life and I have to admit to getting an awful lot of stuff wrong, largely because rather than thinking things through properly for myself, I listened to the ‘authority’, to those who allegedly know best.

Syria, Sarin, and Casus Belli by Michael Parenti

by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Michael Parenti Blog
www.michaelparenti.org
September 30, 2013

Image by Xizi (Cecilia) Hua @ Neon Tommy via Flickr

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that on August 21 the Assad government slaughtered 1,429 people, including 426 children, in a sarin chemical attack in Ghouta, a Damascus suburb. (Doctors Without Borders put the total at about 300.) Secretary Kerry insisted that now the United States had no choice but to launch U.S. bombing attacks against President Bashar al-Assad, devolving into another of America’s “humanitarian wars.”

Dennis Kucinich’s Interview with Bashar al-Assad in Syria

Image by Michael Fleshman via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

martysoffice on Sep 18, 2013

Charlie Rose: Media Straight Man for Bashar el-Assad by Cameron Salisbury

Image by Michael Fleshman via Flickr

by Cameron Salisbury
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Opedinfo.com
September 11, 2013

On Monday night, September 9, 2013, media personality Charlie Rose sat down with Syria’s leader Bashar el-Assad for an interview that lasted the better part of an hour. It was a remarkable conversation but not for the reasons that Charlie Rose is being treated like a conquering hero at CBS. The person who deserves the high-fives is Syria’s president.