Crescent International
Saturday April 14, 2018
Thousands of Syrians poured into the streets of Damascus on Saturday (April 14) to denounce the latest US-UK-French aggression against Syria. Late Friday/early Saturday morning, the terrible trio launched 103 missiles from ships, submarines and planes at three sites in Syria.
According to Syrian and Russian military sources, 71 of the 103 missiles were intercepted and shot down. That is a pretty high kill rate: almost 70 percent.
At a hurriedly convened press briefing at the Pentagon on Friday night, American Secretary of War, General James ‘mad-dog’ Mattis and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph F. Dunford said the missile strikes were confined to Syrian targets.
They were identified as the Barzah Chemical Research lab in Damascus suburb and two other chemical facilities in Homs province. Neither site had any chemical weapons. Syria gave up its chemicals weapons in 2013. Besides, people were seen walking about the ruins soon after the attacks without masks.
Mattis admitted there would be no more strikes. He refused to give details about whether any missiles had been intercepted.
Dunford revealed that the Russians had been notified that US and allied planes would be flying in the deconfliction air corridors over Syria.
Before the US strikes were launched, Russia had warned that if any Russian military personnel or equipment were hit, there would be swift reaction. Russia would not only target the incoming missiles but also the platforms from which they were launched.
The Americans seemed to have got the message although US President Donald Trump showed his customary arrogance. On Friday night he announced from the White House that he had ordered strikes on Syrian targets, seeking to punish President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected chemical attack near Damascus that killed more than 40 people.
The chemical attack allegation has no basis in fact but the Western corporate media has run with it in order to prepare the ground for an illegal Western strike on Syria.
Trump and his minions—Britain and France—did not even wait for an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) whose inspectors were to start work in Douma on April 14 before carrying out an illegal strike. The organization said its inspectors would start their investigation as planned.
While Western war-mongering regimes and their puppets in the Middle East—Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Zionist Israel et al—welcomed the attacks, there was swift condemnation from other leaders.
The Rahbar, Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei of Iran denounced the rulers of the three regimes—the US, Britain and France—as war criminals. Speaking on April 14, he said: “I clearly declare that the US president, the French president and the UK prime minister are criminals and have committed a crime.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the missile strikes on Syria as an “act of aggression”. He further said that a state that has been in the frontline of fighting terrorists [Syria] was attacked without UN authorization.
Bolivia also condemned the attack while China said such attacks were not helpful and risked a wider conflict.
The Islamic resistance movements Hizbullah (Lebanon), and Islamic Jihad and Hamas (Palestine) also condemned the missile strikes. Iraq called for a “clear Arab position” at the Arab League summit to be held on Sunday April 15.
The Iraqis’ work may have been cut out for them. The Saudis have already come out in support of US-UK-French aggression.
The strikes occurred in the aftermath of the routing of the terrorists from the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta from where the last remnants were driven out a few days earlier.
According to reports, a number of British mercenaries assisting the terrorists were also killed in Ghouta. The others slipped out disguised as Syrian terrorists. This may explain the British government’s outrageous allegations and belligerence.
On Friday (April 13) while Russian Foreign Minister Sergio Lavrov was circumspect and guardedly said a “foreign intelligence agency” was behind the chemical weapons story, General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry was more forthright.
He said images of victims of the purported attack had been staged with “Britain’s direct involvement.”
He provided video footage of interview with Halil Ajij, a medical student at Douma’s only hospital, who said a bomb had fallen on a building and the injured were brought to the hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
Then all of a sudden someone started a rumor that chemical weapons had been used. Relatives of the injured started pouring water on them that was depicted as victims of a chemical weapons attack!
While Trump was forced into this criminal act by the warmongers that dominate his cabinet, he did not get the endorsement even within the US that he thought he would get.
“President Trump’s decision to launch airstrikes against the Syrian government without Congress’s approval is illegal and — absent a broader strategy — it’s reckless,” said Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, who has long argued that presidents should request permission from Congress before taking military action.
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, also berated Trump saying, “one night of air strikes is not a substitute for a clear, comprehensive Syria strategy.”
Following the air strikes, Trump used the phrase, “Mission Accomplished”, an unfortunate reference to George Bush’s boast in 2005 relating to his illegal war on Iraq. That turned out to be an empty boast. Trump’s boast has also been widely derided.
The terrible trio’s air strikes have once again underscored the criminal nature of these regimes and their utter disregard for the sovereignty of other countries.
At the same time, it has exposed the US military’s weakness that despite Trump’s bluster, did not wish to entangle the Russians militarily otherwise the consequences would be grave.
Given that nobody was killed and little if any damage was caused to Syria’s infrastructure, everybody seemed to save face: moron Trump and his beleaguered puppets in Britain and France, and the Russians.
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