Read this part transcript of Fox News' host Tucker Carlson, sensibly animadverting on the subject: What do we REALLY know [about the latest chlorine gas attack in Syria] this time? Then note his guest's - Republican Senator Roger Wickers - damning admission at the end. Most educational:
... All those geniuses tell us that Asad killed the children. But do we really know that? Of course, they really don't know that. They're making it up. They have no real idea what happened... How would it benefit Asad, using chlorine gas last weekend? Well, it wouldn't.
Asad's forces had been winning the war in Syria. The [US] administration just announced its plan to pull American troops out of Syria, having vanquished ISIS. That's good news for Asad and about the only thing he could do to reverse it and hurt himself would be to use poison gas against children. 'Well, he did it anyway,' they tell us. 'He's that evil.' Please.
Keep in mind this is the same story they told us last April. Do you remember that? It was almost exactly a year ago. The new administration was now no longer seeking to depose Asad from power. Regime change was no longer our policy. So the usual war hawks in Washington started yelling, went beserk, and days later Asad supposedly used sarin gas against civilians in Syria. There was a video. We bombed a Syrian airbase in response to that. At the time the obvious question would seem to have been: Are we really sure that Asad did that? It seemed weirdly-timed and counterproductive to him. 'Shut up,' they exclaimed. 'Of course we're sure. What an unpatriotic question.' But of course they were lying. Two months ago the Secretary of Defense admitted that actually we still have no proof that Asad used sarin gas last year. The story, it turns out, was propaganda, designed to manipulate Americans - just like so much of what they say. We've seen this movie before, and we know how hit ends.
But just for the sake of argument let's assume they're not lying this time. Let's assume Asad did just use chlorine gas against kids... Would that be worth starting a new war? Overthrowing Asad's regime in Syria would result in chaos. Many thousands would die. In fact we might likely see the genocide of one of the last remaining Christian communities in the Middle East, and we might just care about that... Would it make America safer? Would it make the region more stable? Let's see exactly how regime change worked in Iraq and Libya. 'It doesn't matter,' say our moral leaders at CNN... atrocities like this cannot be tolerated. OK, but let's be real. We do tolerate atrocities like this all the time. For example, there's a devastating famine killing children in Yemen right now. The Saudis are causing that famine...
In real life Syria is a highly complicated place. With Asad gone who would run it exactly. Are the moderate rebels we're always hearing about, the ones you're supporting with your tax dollars. Well, a lot of them turn out to be Islamist crazies...
Back in 2013, when the Syrian civil war was still in its earliest days, one onlooker weighed in on twitter. Here's part of what he wrote: "We should stay the hell out of Syria. The rebels are just as bad as the current regime. What do we get from our lives and billions of dollars?. Zero." That was Donald Trump.* And he was right, and that's one of the reasons he got elected president, and now the same people who brought us a dying American middle class, indefensible American borders and endless, pointless wars you can't even find on a map, are telling the president he's got to depose Asad for reasons that are both unclear and demonstrably dishonest...
Roger Wickers is the Republican representative for the state of Mississippi, and he joins us tonight... Senator, what is the national security interest that would be served by regime change in Syria?
Wickers: Well, if you care about Israel, you have to be interested at least in what's going on in Syria...
[*Trump's latest (11/4) gobsmacking tweet, smacking of a b-grade 50s western: "Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!' You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!]
PS - 13/4: Tucker Carlson's rant was featured on the American progressive Jimmy Dore Show. Most of it was replayed to much head-nodding and positive asides by Dore. But not all. Seems he was so wowed over the convergence of his and Carlson's anti-war stance on Syria that he neglected to play Carlson's exchange with Wickers. Funny that...
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The current crisis is proof positive that Trump does NOT call the shots in the US. Prior to becoming president, he stated on numerous occasions "America first" and that he would bring home the troops. Many US citizens voted him in on that premise. He was either lying, or his presidency has been hijacked by various lobby groups and the military.
Unfortunately if this situation is not resolved at the political level, but descends into military reaction, a protracted Middle East war or WW3 could follow. Iran is the real target here, and there are no prizes for guessing who has been aggitating against them for at least a couple of decades.
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