No Change in Obama's War Plans

by Stephen Lendman

Obama's Tuesday night address didn't surprise. It featured demagogic boilerplate. Defending the indefensible took center stage.

Bombast assured business as usual. More on his speech below.

War plans remain on track. They're delayed. They're not deterred. They're prioritized. Obama wants another country ravaged and destroyed.

He hides behind a shield of humanitarian intervention. He does so through cruise missile diplomacy.

He's no peace president. He's hell bent for war. He's waging one after another. He's done so since day one in office. Ahead of his Tuesday night address, Francis Boyle said:

Reports suggest he'll "argue that his threat of war has produced this offer by Syria to eliminate chemical, and therefore he needs a resolution to authorize war in order to promote diplomacy."

"Of course, this is nonsense. Bush Jr. made the same argument to get his War Power Resolution authorization knowing full well he was going to use that to go to war."

He "told Rice in March 2002: F..k Saddam. We're going to take him out."

"Obama et al" decided the same thing for Assad. "It took Bush Jr. maneuvering from October 2002 until March of 2013 before he launched the war."

"So in the event Obama gets his WPR against Syria, it might take a few more weeks of maneuvering."

The die is cast. It's written in stone. There's no stopping it. Assad must go. "It does not really matter what (he) does from here on in."

"Like Bush, (Obama) will simply (tell) Congress that the conditions (for war) have been fulfilled when he (launches) cruise missiles."

"The test for circumstantial evidence cases is 'beyond a reasonable doubt.' " It's based on the World Court's Corfu Chanel case. Obama's alleged evidence doesn't exist. His claims don't pass the smell test.

America's "in material breach of its solemn obligation to dismantle all its chemical weapons by April 2012," said Boyle

So is Israel. On September 11, Voice of Russia headlined "CIA document indicates Israel likely to have chemical weapons," saying:

It "secretly developed a range of (them) in the 1960s and 70s." It's one of seven non-signatory Chemical Weapons Convention states. Others include Angola, Egypt, Myanmar, North Korea, South Sudan and Syria.

Its arsenal includes large stockpiles of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. It's a non-signatory Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty state. It's a rogue state.

Obama plans lawless aggression on Syria. Israel's very much involved. "This is not even a case of preemptive self defense or anticipatory war," said Boyle.

The Nuremberg Charter, Judgment and Principles rejected waging war for either reason. It called doing so the supreme crime against peace.

Obama's in violation multiple times. Attacking Syria will add another high crime to his rap sheet.

"Kosovo was the model for Libya (and same one) for Syria," said Boyle. Shock and awe cruise missile attacks are planned. So is high altitude B1, B2 and B52 bombing.

Enormous damage will be caused. Thousands may be killed. Many more will be injured and displaced. Civilians will suffer most.

"No legal" national security issue is at stake. Syria threatens no one. Claiming otherwise is false. Assad's defending his nation responsibly.

He's doing it against Western-enlisted death squads. They bear full responsibility for mass killing, chemical weapons use, destruction, torture and other atrocities.

"Like Iraq (Afghanistan and Libya), there will be no political solution," said Boyle. "Syria will be destroyed as a state." It'll be balkanized.

I'll be "carved into its ethnic units. Chaos and genocide will prevail against Alawites and Christians." Lawless aggression operates that way.

Obama intends it. His Tuesday night address wreaked of duplicitous fabrications. It repeated one Big Lie after another.

It was typical Obama. Syria is his war. It was planned years ago. Stopping it's as simple as calling off his dogs.

It's cutting off their weapons, funding, training and direction. It's going all out for peace. It's polar opposite of what Obama's pursuing.

He lied calling Syria's conflict "civil war." There's nothing "civil" about it. Syria was invaded. Western-enlisted death squads are employed. Salvador Option rules apply.

They include no holds barred mass killing, destruction, torture and other brutal atrocities. Assad's wrongfully blamed for insurgents' crimes.

On Tuesday, Obama strung one Big Lie after another together, saying:

Assad turned "peaceful protests into a brutal civil war." He killed (o)ver 100,000 people."

America's "work(ing) with allies to provide humanitarian support, to help the moderate opposition, and to shape a political settlement."

"But I have resisted calls for military action, because we cannot resolve someone else's civil war through force."

On August 21, "(t)he situation profoundly changed when Assad's government gassed to death over a thousand people, including hundreds of children."

Fact check

Obama bears full responsibility for two and a half years of bloody conflict, mass killing, destruction, brutal atrocities, and appalling human suffering.

He obstructs humanitarian aid. He doesn't provide it.

No political settlement is planned. He rejects it out of hand.

Western-enlisted death squads bear full responsibility for killing scores, perhaps several hundred, not over a thousand Ghouta residents. Cause of death remains to be determined.

Obama lied claiming otherwise. He's responsible for crimes of war, against humanity and genocide against Syrian civilians.

His entire address turned truth on its head. It was beginning to end lies. He abhors peace. He's selling war.

"If we fail to act," he said, "the Assad regime will see no reason to stop using chemical weapons."

"(O)ther tyrants will have no reason to think twice about acquiring poison gas and using (it)."

"If fighting spills beyond Syria’s borders, these weapons could threaten allies like Turkey, Jordan, and Israel."

"And a failure to stand against the use of chemical weapons would weaken prohibitions against other weapons of mass destruction, and embolden Assad’s ally, Iran - which must decide whether to ignore international law by building a nuclear weapon, or to take a more peaceful path."

"This is not a world we should accept. This is what's at stake."

"And that is why, after careful deliberation, I determined that it is in the national security interests of the United States to respond to the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons through a targeted military strike."

"The purpose of this strike would be to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime’s ability to use them, and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use."

Fact check

Annual US intelligence assessments call Iran's nuclear program peaceful. No evidence suggests a military component.

Tehran's in full compliance with Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty provisions. America and Israel are serial violators.

Obama wants war. Peaceful conflict resolution proposals are dead on arrival. He intends massive shock and awe attacks.

He plans ravaging and destroying Syria entirely. He wants another imperial trophy. Mass killing and destruction are small prices to pay.

Obama lied saying he "will not put American boots on the ground in Syria." CIA and special forces already operate there covertly. They've done so for months. Plans are readied to deploy thousands of troops if needed.

"I will not (repeat) Libya or Kosovo," he said. He claimed his only objective is "deterring the use of chemical weapons and degrading Assad's capabilities."

False! Deposing Assad and replacing him is planned. So is full-scale war. Before it ends, hundreds of thousands may die. Greater mass destruction will be inflicted.

Charnel house conditions writ large will follow. Syria's already a humanitarian disaster. Obama bears full responsibility. He represents the worst of rogue governance. Stopping him matters most.

He deplores political solutions. He rejects diplomacy. He claims otherwise. He rages for more war.

"I've ordered our military to maintain their current posture to keep the pressure on Assad," he said. He stopped short of explaining it's to wage war.

It's to violate core international law principles. It's to pistol whip independent nations into submission. It's to replace them with pro-Western puppet governance.

It's to control global resources. It's to exploit people everywhere as serfs. It's to destroy fundamental freedoms. It's to institute police state ruthlessness.

It's to crack down hard on nonbelievers. It's to make the world safe for capital. It's to do so through the barrel of a gun. It's to do it with the world's largest gulag.

It's by making torture official policy. It's by practicing death squad diplomacy. It's by ravaging the world one country at a time.

It's by stealing public wealth for corporate favorites. It's by consigning millions to poverty, unemployment, hunger, homelessness and unspeakable human misery.

It's by waging war on humanity. It's by risking destroying it altogether. Imperial priorities come first. Rogue leaders think that way.

Obama's by far the worst. It bears repeating. Stopping him matters most. Everything else pales by comparison.

A Final Comment

John Pilger said "(t)he great unmentionable is that humanity's most dangerous enemy resides across the Atlantic."

"John Kerry's farce and Barack Obama's pirouettes are temporary."

"Russia's peace deal over chemical weapons will, in time, be treated with (derision and) contempt that all militarists reserve for diplomacy."

Obama "intends to crush the last (remaining) independent" Middle East states. "Syria first, then Iran," Lebanon's Hezbollah governance, and Palestine's Hamas.

No holds barred terror bombing is planned. It's longstanding US policy. So-called humanitarian intervention is cover for crimes of war, against humanity and genocide.

Militarism is America's way of life. Obama's its latest exponent. He hides behind a facade of lies. He represents fascism writ large.

He's comfortable about inflicting dystopian harshness. Nuremberg judges were clear and unequivocal, saying:

"Individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity."

"The ordinary people of Syria, and countless others, and our own self respect, deserve nothing less now," said Pilger.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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