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/From Linux Beach near SAT:/
The role of US Imperialism in Syria and the Left's Dilemma
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-role-of-us-imperialism-in-syria-and.html>
US President Barack Obama's air war in Syria has been a long time in
the making. I wrote about it more than 18 months ago in a blog post
titled *Obama planning drone strikes against Assad's opposition in
Syria*, 16 March 2013. I reported then
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/03/obama-planning-drone-strikes-against.html>:
From the LA Times today
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-cia-syria-20130316,0,3989647.story>
we have breaking news that the Obama Administration is presently
in the planning stages for direct US armed intervention into the
Syrian civil war. The plan will be to intervene on the side of
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with a series of armed drone
strikes against his opposition.
...
While drone strikes against Islamist militants fighting Assad may
be taken in the name of saving US lives in some hypothetical
future, they won't save any Syrian lives now or hinder Assad's
massive /"Death from Above"/ campaign against Syrian civilians.
Actually, since al-Nustra has been most effective in relieving
Assad of bases for his air operations and is attempting to
implement a /"no-fly zone"/ over Syria, any Obama attack against
al-Nusra would certainly be most welcomed by the embattled Assad
regime.
Now those strikes have come, the danger to US lives has been declared
/"imminent,"/ and not just drones are being used, but the whole range
of the US air arsenal is being employed. I was banned from blogging
<http://notthesingularity.com/455/clay-claiborne-banned-from-daily-kos-for-speaking-truth-about-syria/>
at the Daily Kos <http://www.dailykos.com/blog/clay%20claiborne> for
talk like that, but as I predicted, these strikes are against Assad's
opposition, have not interfered with his own air campaign of bombing
hospitals, schools and breadlines, and have been most heartily
welcomed by the regime.
The same day Obama killed 50 al Nusra militants
<http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Sep-23/271641-eight-civilians-30-fighters-killed-in-us-led-strikes-on-nusra-front-in-syria-activists.ashx#ixzz3E8z2uYK4e>
and 27 civilians
<https://www.facebook.com/RadioFreeSyria/posts/706573779427832>,
including at least 6 children and 4 women, Assad continued his own
devastating air campaign against those seeking to end his 42 year old
dictatorship, and this US intervention was most welcomed by the Assad
regime. The *New York Times* reported
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/world/middleeast/clashing-goals-in-syria-strikes-put-us-in-fix.html?_r=0>:
A Syrian diplomat crowed to a pro-government newspaper that /“the
U.S. military leadership is now fighting in the same trenches with
the Syrian generals, in a war on terrorism inside Syria.”/ And in
New York, the new Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said in
an interview that he had delivered a private message to Mr. Assad
on behalf of Washington, reassuring him that the Syrian government
was not the target of American-led air strikes.
...
/“Of course coordination exists,”/ said a pro-government Syrian
journalist speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of
retribution, who had criticized the prospect of the strikes but
turned practically jubilant once they began. /“How else do you
explain the strikes on Nusra?”/
Ali Haidar, Assad's minister for national reconciliation, told
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/24/us-syria-crisis-minister-idUSKCN0HJ19S20140924>
*Reuters* on Wednesday:
/"As for the raids in Syria, I say that what has happened so far
is proceeding in the right direction in terms of informing the
Syrian government and by not targeting Syrian military
installations and not targeting civilians,"/ he said.
/"Notification of the Syrian government happened,"/ he said.
/"Confirmation that they would not target Syrian military
installations, and confirmation they would not target civilians
happened."/
Targeting civilians is what the Assad regime does best, and having
been assured by Obama that US warplanes were not entering Syrian air
space to interference with that, Assad has felt free to continue his
own campaign of /"Death from Above."/ *Reuters* reported on Friday
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/09/26/uk-mideast-crisis-oil-raids-idUKKCN0HL0D220140926>
Assad steps up bombing as West strikes militants in Syria
U.S.-led forces hit Islamic State bases in eastern Syria on Friday
and a monitoring group said the Syrian army had intensified its
bombing campaign in the west. More...
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/09/26/uk-mideast-crisis-oil-raids-idUKKCN0HL0D220140926>
From *Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
<https://www.facebook.com/syriahroe>* we get a more detailed look at
what Assad's air force has been free to do as it shares its air space
with the US allies. By the numbers:
*More....**
*
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-role-of-us-imperialism-in-syria-and.html>
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