All of us, in the West, have been subjected to a concerted disinformation campaign with regard to the Syrian conflict. We have been mislead about the causes of the conflict, duped over its nature, lied to about the combatants, their backers and sources of logistical support; we’ve been told a tissue of lies about the Syrian government, its level of support among the Syrian population and the popularity of the supposed ‘opposition;’ we’ve been deceived about both the U.S led coalition’s and the Russian’s military interventions in Syria and we’ve been given nothing but propaganda about events on the ground.
The evil dictator & Bashar al Assad (center) on a State visit to the UK.
Let’s consider the reasons we were given for the Syrian conflict. Why don’t we think about what we have been told about the evil ‘regime’ of President Bashar al Assad and his dark overlords, the Russians? How do we get our information? Who is giving it to us and what is their possible agenda? Let’s look at the evidence to substantiate those claims in the hope of understanding more about the cauldron of conflict that could still reignite.
In a nutshell this is the official story the MSM have given us.
In March 2011, as part of the Arab Spring uprisings, the Syrian Government opened fire on innocent, unarmed protestors in the southern town of Deraa. Three protestors were killed. This caused an intensification of the protests which developed into increasingly violent clashes between the people of Syria and the violent dictator determined to crush them. By July 2011, hundreds of thousands of protestors had started a wave of rebellion across Syria. As a result of ‘regime’ attacks the oppressed people were forced to take up arms to defend themselves.
The violence rapidly escalated and U.S. coalition backed ‘rebel brigades’ were formed to defend the country, and its people, from an increasingly tyrannical crackdown by the Assad ‘regime.’ Syria descended into a civil war. This rapidly turned into a sectarian war between the Sunni majority and Assad’s Shi’ah, Alawite ‘sect.’ The situation was further destabilised by the entry of ISIS into the conflict, who were determined to exploit the violence to create their caliphate.
By 2015 U.N estimates were that quarter of a million Syrians had been killed in the ‘civil war.’ The ‘civil war’ worsened with all sides accused of committing war crimes. In particular, it was the Assad regime’s use of barrel bombs and chemical weapons against civilian populations, with the support of the Russians, that horrified the rest of the world.
Millions fled the conflict, overwhelming countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. This created destabilising political divisions in these countries, as they struggled to cope with the influx of a new population. Hundreds of thousands sought refuge in Europe. Many suspected that among the desperate, fleeing war, were terrorists and economic migrants seeking to take advantage of the chaos. The social and political divisions, created by the crisis, worsened as terrorists attacks carried out by Islamist extremists struck Europe’s major cities.
It soon emerged the secularists within the Syrian opposition forces had lost out to the Islamists. ISIS capitalised upon the disunity, declaring its caliphate in June 2014. They were engaged in a ‘war within a war’ against the al Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front, as well as government and Kurdish forces. Alarmed by the spread of ISIS and the atrocities it committed, the U.S. led coalition were compelled to launch air strikes to ‘degrade and ultimately destroy’ ISIS. Though great care was taken, by the Western coalition, not to ‘assist’ the Assad ‘regime’ and avoid civilian casualties. This is because we are the goodies.
Russia also launched air strikes against the ‘terrorists’. However, they mainly bombed the opposition forces and civilians trapped in besieged cities like Aleppo. The Russians did this because they supported Assad’s ‘regime’ and were therefore baddies.
To try to resolve this mess and deliver ‘freedom and democracy’ to the Syrian people the U.N offered the Geneva Communique as the basis for peace talks. Unfortunately, they soon broke down because it was predicated upon a transition of power in Syria and the effective removal of the Assad ‘regime’. Russia wouldn’t support his removal and the Assad ‘regime’ refused to talk to the opposition, claiming they were terrorists. So ‘proximity talks’ were suggested, the U.N Security Council passed resolution 2254, the ‘road map for peace,’ in 2015. However, the road map led nowhere. The Syrian opposition would only consider the removal of Assad; the Assad ‘regime’ and Russia would accept elections but not his automatic removal; ceasefires didn’t work because no one could control ISIS, who persistently ignored them; the opposition refused to engage in the Russian Federation’s offer to broker a deal in talks scheduled to be held in Sochi. A diplomatic solution failed to emerge.
A proxy war was underway in Syria and the people were caught in the middle of it. The ‘moderate rebels’ were mainly backed by The U.S, UK, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, while the Assad ‘regime’ was backed by Russia and Iran. Allegations of Assad’s war crimes continued and the plight of the people of East Aleppo, in particular, prove what an evil dictator he is.
By late 2017 Iraqi forces, with U.S. coalition support, had won significant victories against ISIS in Iraq. The Syrian, Russian and Iranian forces had all but destroyed their brief caliphate in Syria. However, pockets of resistance by the ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria remained. Especially in the eastern Ghouta suburbs of the capital Damascus. By March 2018 people like British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson were calling for further coalition air strikes against the Assad ‘regime’ who he said threatened to continue the use of chemical weapons against the innocent Syrian people.
Then in April 2018, in the town of Douma in East Ghouta, just as the Assad ‘regime’ were poised for total victory, they again used chemical weapons, targeting mainly children. In response, the world said ‘enough was enough’ and the West, led by the French and the British, threatened missile strikes against the Assad ‘regime’. Russia threatened to retaliate if the President Trump followed through with his threatening tweets. On April 14th 2018 sites in Damascus and Homs were hit by U.S. led coalition air strikes.
If we unquestioningly accept the narrative we have been given, the West’s intervention in Syria (Iraq and Libya) has always been noble. Essentially it represented responsive humanitarian efforts to give the people what they were independently calling for. Namely democracy and freedom. It’s the existential battle of good against evil. The West didn’t want to become embroiled in the Syrian conflict but just couldn’t abandon the people of the region when they called for the coalition’s help.
We are the goodies and the Syrian, Iranian and Russian governments are the baddies. ISIS were sometimes baddies but occasionally goodies, depending upon whom they were fighting on the day. Al Qaeda in the form of al Nusra and now ‘Jabhat Fateh al-Sham’ are consistently goodies although they used to be baddies, especially when they killed 3000 people in the U.S. So we just need to carry on supporting our governments efforts to defend us all against the horrors of terrorism and totalitarianism. Whatever they ask us to give up, whatever they require us to sacrifice, we can rest assured it is all in a good cause.
Unfortunately, nearly everything we have been told about the Syrian conflict is either a gross misrepresentation of the truth or a downright lie. In Part 2 we will explore how we have been mislead and look at some examples which reveal the staggering depth of the deception. Before we accept the simplistic narrative the western MSM would have us believe, let’s take a critical look at the evidence.
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Idiot. The picture of the Assads with royalty would be understood by most people on the left as a sign of his affinity with the most reactionary elements of British society. No wonder you spend time absolving him of his filthy crimes.
The use of the picture was to show that, not so long ago, the reactionary UK State were celebrating Assad. As for absolving him of crimes I a have presented evidence which suggests the alleged crimes didn’t occur as reported. If you have evidence that they did I’ll look at that too.