A Nation vs. a Lobby.   Who Will Obama and Congress Listen To?

A Prelude to Iran

By Mohamed Khodr

“Hypocrisy, double standards, and “but nots” are the price of universalist pretensions.  Democracy is promoted but not if it brings Islamic fundamentalists to power; nonproliferation is preached for Iran and Iraq but not for Israel….human rights are an issue for China but not with Saudi Arabia.   Double standards in practice are the unavoidable price of universal standards of principle”.

          –The Late Professor Samuel Huntington in his book: “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order”; p. 184.

“The US must carry out some act somewhere in the world which shows its’ determination to continue to be a world power.””

            -Henry Kissinger, quoted in The Washington Post, April 1975

“Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle”.

            –Alexander Solzhenitsyn

President Obama, nothing is more honorable in the service of God and humanity, more credible, more courageous, and truly worthy of your integrity and innate inclination to bring peace and justice to mankind than to stand up for what is right in the face of those who seek war and declare that you are in unison with the wishes of the American people who elected you and who are strongly opposed to an attack on Syria, a nation that has already suffered greatly for two years from a deadly civil war.  The world was silent when 100,000 Syrians have been killed, when 5 million refugees are desperate for food, water, and medicines, and a nation whose destruction is beyond belief.  The U.S. is being used as a military tool to fulfill the agendas of Israel and the corrupt evil tyrants of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf who unlike the American people are pushing hard for a war.

[Update:  Syria announced it’s accepting the Russian proposal of halting the manufacture of chemical weapons, placing them under international control for eventual disarmament.  This gives Obama a way out and provides Israel with its ultimate goal of completely disarming Syria of such weapons.  However Obama, taking credit for this proposal given his military threat, he will tell Congress and the American people tonight that he now needs Congressional authorization for war even more under the ruse that such a threat will ensure Syrian compliance with  the proposal.  DON’T LET CONGRESS OFF THE HOOK, TELL THEM NO WAR ON SYRIA}

Before delving into the Syrian Crisis I’d like to provide some background for the conflicts that have riddled the Middle East since World War 1.

In all of the wars, conflicts, sectarian violence, and how Israel was founded, historical contex is hardly ever provided to western audiences to better understand the roots and causes of such issues.   No historical context is more deliberately ignored than the founding of Israel in Palestine.

It all began during and after World War 1 when the imperial powers of England and France shaped and created a new Middle East after the defeat of the Ottoman Turks thereby creating inherent conflicts that continue this day.   After World War 2, the United States became the sole imperial power in the Middle East safeguarding both Israel and Oil flow.

This short Video on World War 1 deals with the British and French betrayal of the Arabs and the creation of a new Middle East…

SYRIAN CRISIS:  The basic framework for war is, as it was in Iraq:  A Prelude to Iran.

Israel Orders It, America Bombs it, Saudi Arabia and the Gulfies Pay For It.

On August 20, 2012:   President Obama issues his infamous “Red Line” on Syria using or moving its chemical Weapons.

On August 21, 2013:   A Chemical Weapon Attack occurred in Syria.

On the first anniversary of Obama’s “Red Line” a Chemical Weapons is fired on innocent Syrian civilians.

Coincidence?  There are never any coincidences while Israel runs U.S. Foreign Policy.

What the U.S. Government, Multi-National Corporations, and Israel are depending on when they launch wars for political or economic reasons is that the American people suffer from “Attention Deficit Disorder”, or A.D.D., that their disconnect from their government, their short attention span, and focus on self fulfillment, will allow them to continue their military interventions around the world with little or no opposition.

NOT THIS TIME.  American are telling Obama and Congress – JUST SAY NO TO MORE WARS FOR ISRAEL.

“The time has come to stop beating our heads against stone walls under the illusion that we have been appointed policeman to the human race”.

–~Walter Lippmann

President Obama, Kerry, Hagel, and world leaders have stressed the fact that there is no “military solution” to Syria’s civil war, only a political one.

Yet somehow bombing Syria will induce Assad and our coalition allies of many disparate rebel groups including Al Qaeda, the Tailban, Jihadists, and other terrorist groups to negotiate peace.  What Secretary Kerry failed to tell Congress is that Assad has agreed to a peace conference but our allies have refused.

According to a Reuters/psop Poll 60% of Americans oppose this war on Syria with only 9% supporting it.  Several other polls have found similar results.  The American people do not want to go to war again in the Middle East thus if Obama bombs Syria regardless of Congress voting No and against the will of the people – he committed an impeachable offense.

Regardless of what the White House, Kerry, Hagel, Congress members, media pundits, or anyone else, there are only two reasons for Obama to illegally attack Syria, a nation that has neither attacked nor threatened the U.S., in direct violation of the U.N. Charter and world wide opposition:

1.   Israel demands it and AIPAC is twisting Congressional arms to get it.

2.   To save Obama’s face and his credibility.

In fact Jewish Zionists are already pushing Obama and the Congress to take advantage of the Syria situation and approve a War Resolution on Iran.  Here’s Alan Dershowitz clamoring for Iran war.in the Israeli paper, Haaretz, September 5, 2013

Mr. President, only you have the power to stop this rushed madness to war with Syria that despite what you and Secretary Kerry have said has nothing to do with our “national security”.   For decades Syria has secured its borders with Israel and although its had chemical weapons for decades it never used them and no one was worried about them, but now, we’re worried about them getting into the wrong hands.  Sir, the wrong hands are already strongly present in Syria, and it is them, these wayward rebels that should worry you, not the Assad regime.

Unfortunately the political reality in Washington D.C. is that Israel has the most powerful and intimidating lobby, AIPAC, that no President or Congress has ever been able to muster the courage to say NO TO ISRAEL, not even once.

Thus Obama and Congress are obliged to weigh AIPAC’s power and push for war against the enormous opposition of the American people.  Our politicians are more fearful for their careers from AIPAC’s retribution than from the nation that elects them.

Who they choose will have a great impact not only on this Administration and the 2014 Congressional election but on the 2016 Presidential election given that Hilary Clinton supports the AIPAC/Israel push for war against the wishes of the very population that will vote in 2016.

“Syria Vote Tests Pro-Israel Groups’ Influence”. ABCNEWS September 9, 2013

 “Lobbying Group for Israel to Press Congress on Syria”  New York Times, September 9, 2012

“AIPAC Details ‘Major’ Lobbying Push on Syria“, Flood of Activists Will Hit Capitol Hill, The Forward, a N.Y. Jewish paper, September 7, 2013

Many papers around the world raised the issue of AIPAC’s power including Israeli papers.

If AIPAC/Israel are defeated then future Presidents and Congress members will be freed from the enormous fear, intimidation, bribery, and blackmail AIPAC shackles them with forcing them to choose Israel’s interests above America’s national interest.

America, this is not the moment to be silent or disinterested, nothing less than a war, perhaps a wider war, is at stake and the lives of thousands of innocent men, women, and children are in the balance.

This historical moment can determine once and for all who’s the boss of the U.S. Government and who does it serve:  AIPAC or AMERICA.

The Obama administration has reached high and wide to come up with a convincing rational reason to attack Syria based on conclusive evidence.

The characterization of the evidence against the Syrian regime has changed day by day, at time even in the same day.  It’s been:

“Undeniable, and No Doubt” – which was softened to “highly confident” by the Intel agencies —  then  the evidence became “beyond a reasonable doubt” – then Denis McDonough, Obama’s Chief of Staff said  that simply “Common Sense Test” alone points to Assad’s regime firing the chemical weapon —  then he admitted the administration lacks “irrefutable, beyond a reasonable doubt evidence”

Making the rounds on TV news shows on September 8 Mr. McDonough said:

“This is not a court of law. And intelligence does not work that way …The common-sense test says he (Assad) is responsible for this. He should be held to account,”

Much has been said and written regarding the unconvincing, highly suspicious, flimsy, and twisted evidence.   The best brief summary of the refutation of the Administration’s evidence can be found in this article titled:

 “High-Level U.S. Intelligence Officers: Syrian Government Didn’t Launch Chemical Weapon”.   Numerous Intelligence Officials Question Administration’s Claims.   Washington Blog, September 7, 2013

White House Cherry Picked the Intel Evidence to support an Attack.  PLEASE READ this vital article on the falsification of the Intel Agencies Report.

Once again another President “politicizes” the intelligence evidence to suit his goal for war as Bush and Blair did to justify an invasion of Iraq.

An important report by the Inter Press Service titled “Obama’s Case for Syria Didn’t Reflect Intel Consensus”, written by Gareth Porter, September 10, 2013, reveals the astonishing fact, much like with Iraq, that the White House “cherry picked” the evidence to support their political goal and issued the declassified document on the Intelligence evidence from the White House Press Office not from the Director of National Intelligence’s office.   The document deliberately misrepresents the various opinions of the Intel Agencies by implying a consensus among them when there was none.  Most significantly is that the Director of the National Intelligence Agency refused to sign it.

Many reports have addressed the fact that many in the military are opposed to the Syria strike as well.

Both Saddam Hussein and the Assad regime were U.S. partners in previous wars.   Saddam Hussein, a CIA trained agent, fought Iran for eight years with the support and funding from the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Gulf States.

President George H. W. Bush lobbied the late President Assad, the father,to join the coalition efforts to attack Iraq, which he did.

What terrifies Americans is that attacking Syria maybe the start of a dangerous  “mission creep” which could lead to troops on the ground and another long costly war.

Just as was the case with the Iraq War there is no clear objective or end game for such a war.  What defines victory in attacking Syria?  

There is an exaggerated underestimation of the timeline and cost of war—Secretary Hagel mentioned “tens of millions of dollars”, thus with each Tomahawk missile costing one million dollars we can only expect tens of missiles to hit Syria.  

There is no plan for post-war consequences in Syria  or for a wider war that may involve Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Gulf nations interrupting oil flow, and increased attacks on U.S. civilian or military installations around the Arab and Muslim world. 

Most dangerously is that given that this is an Israeli initiated war Israel would very much welcome another round with Hezbollah in Lebanon given Hezbollah’s strong showing in 2005 when Israel again unprovoked attacked Lebanon.   Israel may manufacture a “trigger” attack from Southern Lebanon to launch such a war.

What role will Russia play is unknown and unpredictable is Syria is attacked?

To better understand the reasoning, emotions, and attitudes of the vast and growing animosity toward  U.S. foreign policy , not the American people, in the Middle East and Muslim world please watch this Video.   The underlying reason and root for such animosity is the U.S. Government’s surrender of its foreign policy to serve Israel’s interests even at the expense of America’s interests.  Many Americans both in and out of Government for decades have have spoken against Israel’s hijacking of American foreign poicy as well as the intimidating shackling of U.S. government officials, especially in Congress, by AIPAC, a foreign lobby serving Israel.   This video goes a long way to answer:  “Why They Hate Us”.

What of American Credibility and Hypocrisy on Israel When it Comes to Use of Chemical Weapons?

 “Do you rulers indeed speak justly?
Do you judge people with equity?
No, in your heart you devise injustice,
and your hands mete out violence on the earth”.

            –Bible Psalms: 58: 1 – 2

There must be no doubt that whoever launched the chemical attack on innocent Syrian civilians must be held to account.   They must be prosecuted at the Hague and sentenced accordingly for this crime against hujmanity whether its Bashar Al Assad or the Rebels or whomever.

The problem the entire world has with the holding people or nations accountable for war crimes is the selective nature of accountability.  Although the West beginning with Britain and France were the first to use Chemical Weapons in World War, followed by the U.S. and Israel these countries have never accounted for their crimes, they even refuse to acknowledge their actions, nor have they ever apologized.

Thus the conclusion is if you’re white or Jewish you’re not accountable but if a third world dictator does so, he and his nation must be punished and bombed.

This is the double standards and hypocrisy of the West as they are the current powers in the world.

Forgotten in this discussion is that the U.S. not only has used chemical weapons more often and in larger measure than all other nations combined, but it was the supplier of Chemical Weapons to Saddam Hussein which he used against Iran.

Also not discussed is that Britain itself sold chemical weapons to Syria ten months into the civil war.

Hypocritically the only users of chemical weapons in modern history have been the United States and Israel.   In fact when Israel did use the chemical weapon White Phosphorous on innocent civilians in Gaza in 2008-2009 which a U.N. investigating team called “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, Obama vetoed even the presentation of the report to the U.N. Security Council.   When asked to comment on onslaught of Israel on Gaza all he said was “no comment”.

So give us a break Mr. President about credibility and the violation of the International Norms.   No one has been more defiant of every single UN Resolution or International Law to the point of even slapping you, Biden, and Kerry silly like Israel.

 The White Western World and Israel are exempt

 from any “Accountabiity” when they violate

 International Laws banning the use of Chemical

 Weapons.  Laws and Accountabiity are ONLY meant

 for the poorer weaker nations of the Third World.

 Guess who sold and gave Chemical Weapons to the

 Third World?  The West and Israel.

What of the long history of the use of chemical weapons by the U.S.?

From 1962-1971 the U.S. sprayed over 20 Million gallons of the chemical warfare Agent Orange (Dioxin: a known Genotoxic, i.e. toxic to genes) ) over South Vietnam to defoliate the country and deprive the Viet Cong from food.   The Pentagon called it, “Operation Ranch Hand.”   It is estimated to have killed over 400,000 people with 500,000 children suffering from birth defects among many other ailments such as cancer, miscarriages, blindness, and mental retardation,   

Please read this article:  “Children of the Apocalypse: Agent Orange still affects people in Vietnam” by Alex Williams, August 22, 2013, on the horrific war crime and long term devastation of Vietnam’s children due to America’s use of Agent Orange in South Vietnam.

Please watch this very brief Video made by the BBC on British Surgeons operating on deformed children of Agent Orange in Vietnam.

The photo below is of U.S. Planes spraying AGENT ORANGE in South Vietnam.  The U.S. carlessly and callously destroyed a nation by using every conceivable weapon, including Napalm, to indiscriminate carry out a scorched earth policy in both North and South Vietnam.   Despite all that Superpower the U..S achieved nothing, ran away, and all of Vietnam was united under Communist Rule.  What will, according to Kerry, an “unbelievably small” attack on Syria.  What will the U.S. gain, what will it lose, and what blowback will she receive?   Americans don’t see the lethal genocide of mass civilians and devastated nations the U.S. leaves behind after it’s lying propaganda to bomb, bomb, bomb.  The U.S. Jewish owned media is just as guilty and complicit as the people who order and carry out the bombings.

As Theodore Roosevelt wrote to a friend in the year 1897;  “In strict confidence . . . I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one.”

Tragically there is an enormous disconnect in the psyche of the American people between their accepted image of the U.S. as a benign, benevolent, generous nation that only seeks to help people around the world to be free and prosperous as they are and the Reality of a belligerent, violent nation that has committed every conceivable crime and has aided and abetted the state terrorism of Israel.

Syrian Children killed by a Chemical Weapon.  U.S. Wants to Punish Syria for Violating International “Norms”.  Syria must be held ACCOUNTABLE.

Are the American people aware that the U.S. has since World War II been involved in overthrowing governments of some 60 sovereign nations which were democratically elected  replacing them with subservient dictators?  Egypt anyone.

The U.S. government has and still does support dictators around the world, some of the most genocidal murderers in history from South and Central America to Vietnam.   In the Middle East all the rulers are dictators and all are U.S. puppets, except Iran and Syria, and that’s the problem.  They refuse to kneel to the Israeli American hegemony in the region.

Here is a list of the countries bombed by the United States since the end of the Second World War:

Note that these countries represent roughly one-third of the people on earth.

Thus the U.S. should be the last nation to give advice on democracy and freedom, to berate and bomb nations for not upholding International Treaties and Law, and exalt itself as the judge of standards of conduct for the rest of humanity.  The U.S. and Israel give themselves the rights we deny other nations.

We can kill children with chemical weapons or any weapon we wish but you may not or else.

Does anyone ever think what the Middle East would be like if there was NO Israel?   What would be the relationship between the U.S. , the Arab and Muslim world?

America, Heal Thyself and Stop Invading and Bombing nations with lies and Propaganda.