by GLEN FORD
“Will Washington risk nuclear war to protect al-Qaida?”
With Donald Trump’s bid for the White House disintegrating by the second, there is no longer even the flimsiest excuse for those who purport to be “progressives” to withhold their vote from the one party on the ballot that opposes imperial wars, the rule of the rich, and the domestic mass Black incarceration regime: the Green Party. The alternative is a very short countdown to global war with Russia and, inevitably, China, and the possible extinction of the species. The overarching issue in the impending election is not the composition of a future U.S. Supreme Court, but whether humanity will be allowed to have a future.
Hillary Clinton cannot be stopped, but she can at least be denied a sweeping mandate to plunge the planet into a new dark age – a catastrophe that is only one U.S. airstrike away, in Syria. The U.S. is poised to put its planes and missiles at the service of al-Qaida, the main jihadist army occupying the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo. Although the Clinton campaign and most of the corporate media speak of a “siege of Aleppo” by Syrian government and Russian forces, all but 250,000 of the city’s more than 1.2 million residents live on the government-controlled side of the city, which has been shelled by jihadists entrenched in the eastern pockets for the past four years. The campaign to liberate eastern Aleppo is primarily a battle against the former al-Nusra Front, the al-Qaida affiliate that recently changed its name and will doubtless do so again, along with various smaller, supporting jihadist outfits, some of which the U.S. insists are “moderate.” Thus, Aleppo is the epicenter of the “war on terror” that the American and global public has been drafted into since 2001 — with the United States acting as defender of the very jihadists that are blamed for the 9/11 attacks.
“The campaign to liberate eastern Aleppo is primarily a battle against the former al-Nusra Front, the al-Qaida affiliate.”
What absolute madness! Once digested, the truth about the U.S. project in Syria would annihilate the legitimacy of the American ruling circles that have brought us this nightmare of depravity and betrayal, most of whom are now gathered in Hillary Clinton’s Big Tent, scheming on ways to kill some Russians.
The only forces that are actually battling al-Qaida are the Syrians and their allies, backed for the past year by the full strategic weight of Russia. Before the Russians brought their air force into play, the U.S. had hardly touched the main forces of ISIS, the al-Qaida offshoot, allowing the Islamic State’s tanker convoys to trade oil with Turkey under full view of overwhelming U.S. airpower. Russia’s entrance into the Syrian conflict — which is a totally legal agreement between sovereign nations, whereas the U.S. and its allies are invading aggressors under international law — revealed to the world public Washington’s true role as the superpower protector of international Islamic jihad. Most importantly, Russia’s engagement broke al-Qaida’s siege of Aleppo, which could have led to the collapse of the Syrian government and a jihadist takeover in Damascus. At that point, the U.S. and its European, Turkish and Persian Gulf Arab allies might have halted their financing and arming of al-Qaida and ISIS, and moved to occupy Syria, themselves – if they had a plan, at all. Most likely, Syria would have disintegrated into genocidal chaos, many times worse than Libya, the previous victim of America’s policy to deploy jihadists as foot soldiers of empire.
“Russia’s entrance into the Syrian conflict revealed to the world public Washington’s true role as the superpower protector of international Islamic jihad.”
As punishment for saving Syria from being entirely overrun by western-backed jihadists and a bloodbath even greater than the half-million that have already died as a result of U.S. policy, the Russians now face direct attack from the United States. It could come any moment, and is highly likely if Clinton wins what she can claim is a resounding “mandate” in November. The “no fly zone” that Clinton wants to impose over Syria would mean war with Russia from the very second it was implemented since, under U.S. military doctrine, it requires the immediate destruction of all “enemy” air defenses. That was a relatively easy assignment for NATO forces in Libya, in 2011, but Syrian airspace is now guarded by the world’s most sophisticated defense systems, manned by Russian operators, guarded by Russian Marines, and backed by Russia’s strategic nuclear forces. Will Washington risk nuclear war to protect al-Qaida? Isn’t it insane to have to ask such a question?
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