The Syrian Confusion Isn’t So Confusing

”Russia has been methodically wiping out Washington’s mercenaries on the ground while recapturing large swathes of land that had been lost to the terrorists.”
Mike Whitney in Counterpunch; Oct. 29, 2015

”Recapturing”?
How can something never possessed be recaptured?

Mike means that the wiped out (really?) mercenary terrorists leave the land open to be retaken by the Syrian government. This article, as almost all articles about the war, reads like a review of a video war game. The explosive blasts of fire and steel don’t seem to affect daddies, grandmas and kids. It’s a war without people, just ”homicidal maniacs” on the ground and powerful war machines in the air. If the mercenaries are wiped out and the ”targets” destroyed, what’s left to recapture?

The ”homicidal maniacs” that Mike refers to are IS forces. What’s the difference between ”Washington’s mercenaries”, ”the terrorists” and the ”homicidal maniacs”? Semantics. Same people, different angles. In the same article Mike tells us,
”the US decided to bomb Aleppo’s main power plant last week plunging the entire city into darkness … Keep in mind, that the local water treatment plants require electrical power, so by blowing up the plant, Obama has condemned tens of thousands of civilians to cholera and other water-born diseases. Apparently, our hospital-nuking president isn’t bothered by such trivial matters as killing women and children.”

Do hold your breath waiting for the mass killer of women and children to be called a homicidal maniac or any other goony label. These are reserved exclusively for the people resisting the freedom-loving hospital nukers, city destroyers and cholera spreaders.

So what’s happening in Syria? The US has been pushing its position ever closer to Russia. Syria is one such position. Ukraine was the last straw. Russia strikes back in Syria. ”Enough!” says Russia. To underline the strength of its statement, it launches a few cruise missiles from inside Russia and strikes targets with impressive precision in Syria. Washington got the message and pulled its aircraft carriers out of the area. Now Russia will continue to blast away at mercenaries attacking Syria until the Yanks come to the conference table and at least promise to stop antagonizing Russian interests. Syria, in other words, is the front line in a military confrontation between Russia and the USA. The political, cultural and ECONOMIC battle proceeds and accelerates to the east where a country called China is involved on Russia’s side.

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“A (USA) citizen’s duty, whether in time of war or elections, is now, at best, to watch the show, or at worst, to see nothing at all.”
Tom Engelhardt

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