On Friday, the United States rejected a draft resolution
by Russia that was intended to prevent a Turkish invasion of Syria.
Moscow had called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security
Council (UNSC) to address its growing concern that Turkey is planning to send
thousands of ground troops and armored vehicles it has massed on its southern
border, into Syria to protect Turkish-backed militants and to block the
Kurdish militia, the YPG, from establishing a contiguous state in northern
Syria. Moscow’s one-page resolution was a thoroughly-straightforward document
aimed at preventing a massive escalation in a conflict that has already claimed
the lives of 250, 000 and left the country in ruins.
According to Russia’s deputy U.N. envoy,
Vladimir Safronkov, “The main elements of this Russian draft resolution are to
demand that all parties refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of
Syria, that they fully respect Syria’s sovereignty and independence, stop
incursions, and abandon plans for ground operations.”
The resolution also expressed Moscow’s
“grave alarm at the reports of military buildup and preparatory activities
aimed at launching foreign ground intervention into the territory of the Syrian
Arab Republic.”
There was nothing controversial about the
resolution, no tricks and no hidden meaning. The delegates were simply asked to
support Syrian sovereignty and oppose armed aggression. These are the
very principles upon which the United Nations was founded. The US and its
allies rejected these principles because they failed to jibe with Washington’s
geopolitical ambitions in Syria.
Quashing the resolution confirms in the clearest
terms that Washington doesn’t want peace in Syria. Also, it suggests that the
Obama administration thinks that Turkish ground troops could play an important
role in shaping the outcome of a conflict that the US is still determined to
win. Keep in mind, if the resolution had passed, the threat of a Turkish
invasion would have vanished immediately.
Why?
Because the Turkish “military has publicly
stated that it is not willing to send troops across the border without U.N.
Security Council approval.” (Washington Post)
Many people in the west are under the illusion
that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dictatorial powers and can
simply order his troops into battle whenever he chooses. But that is not the
case. While Erdogan has removed many of his rivals within the military, the top
brass still maintains a certain autonomy from the civilian leadership.
Turkish generals want assurances that they will not be prosecuted for war
crimes in the future. The best way to do that is to make sure that any invasion
has the blessing of either the US, NATO or the UN.
The Obama administration understands this
dynamic, which is why they quashed the resolution. Obama wanted to leave the
door open so Turkish troops could eventually engage the Russian-led coalition
in Washington’s ongoing proxy war. This leads me to believe that the
Washington’s primary objective in Syria is no longer the removal of Syrian
President Bashar al Assad but the bogging down of Russia in a never-ending
conflict.
Just hours after the US defeated Moscow’s draft
resolution at the UN, closed-door talks were convened in Geneva where
high-level U.S. and Russian military officials met to discuss the prospects for
ceasefire.
The cease-fire, which is typically referred to
as a “cessation of hostilities”, is aimed at temporarily stopping the fighting
so the battered jihadists and US-backed rebels can regroup and rejoin the war
at some later date. Both Moscow and Washington want to deliver humanitarian aid
to war-torn cities across Syria, and to move towards a “political transition”
although both sides are deeply divided over Assad’s role in any future
government. According to the Washington Post:
“One of the many problems to be overcome is a
differing definition of what constitutes a terrorist group. In addition to the
Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, Russia and
Syria have labeled the entire opposition as terrorists.
Jabhat al-Nusra, whose forces are intermingled
with moderate rebel groups in the northwest near the Turkish border, is
particularly problematic. Russia was said to have rejected a U.S. proposal to
leave Jabhat al-Nusra off-limits to bombing as part of a cease-fire, at least
temporarily, until the groups can be sorted out.” (“U.S., Russia hold Syria
cease-fire talks as deadline passes without action“, Washington Post)
Repeat: “Russia was said to have rejected a U.S.
proposal to leave Jabhat al-Nusra (al Qaida) off-limits to bombing as part of a
cease-fire, at least temporarily, until the groups can be sorted out.” In other
words, the Obama administration wanted to protect an affiliate of the group
that killed 3,000 Americans in the terror attacks on 9-11 and that is
responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Syrian civilians
whose only fault was that they happen to occupy country that these Wahhabi
mercenaries wanted to transform into an Islamic Caliphate. Naturally, Moscow
refused to go along with this charade.
Even so, Secretary of State John F. Kerry
announced on Sunday that he and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov,
“had reached a ‘provisional agreement in principle’ for a temporary truce in
the Syrian civil war and that it could start within days” although no one
really knows how the “cease-fire would be enforced and how breaches would be
resolved.”
Consider how hypocritical it is for Obama to
reject Russia’s draft resolution at the UN and, just hours later, try to
put Al Qaida under the protective umbrella of a US-Russia brokered ceasefire.
What does that say about America’s so called “war on terror”?
Meanwhile in Turkey, Erdogan’s threats to invade
Syria have intensified following a car bombing in Ankara last week that killed
28 and wounded 61 others. The Turkish government blamed a young activist, Salih
Neccar, who had links to the Turkish militia (YPG) in Syria of being the
perpetrator. But less than 24 hours after the blast, the government’s version
of events began to fall apart. In a story that has been scarcely reported in
the western media, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed full
responsibility for the bombing according to a statement on its website. (The
Freedom Hawks are linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK.) Then,
on Monday, the Erdogan regime was slammed with more damning news: DNA samples
demonstrated conclusively that Neccar was not perpetrator, but rather Abdulbaki
Sömer, a member of the group that had claimed responsibility from the
beginning. (TAK) As of this writing, the government still hasn’t admitted
that it lied to the public to build their case for war. Erdogan and
his extremist colleagues continue to use thoroughly discredited information to
threaten to invade Syria. As he said on Saturday at a UNESCO meeting in
Gaziantep:
“Turkey has every right to conduct operations in
Syria and the places where terror organizations are nested with regards to the
struggle against the threats that Turkey faces…No one can restrict Turkey’s
right to self-defense in the face of terror acts that have targeted Turkey.”
This explains why Turkey has been shelling
Syrian territory for the last week. It also explains why Erdogan has given
Sunni jihadists a free pass to traverse Turkey and reenter the war zone in
areas that improve their chances of success against the Syrian Army. Check this
out from the New York Times:
“Syrian rebels have brought at least 2,000
reinforcements through Turkey in the past week to bolster the fight against
Kurdish-led militias north of Aleppo, rebel sources said on Thursday.
Turkish forces facilitated the transfer from one
front to another over several nights, covertly escorting rebels as they exited
Syria’s Idlib governorate, traveled four hours across Turkey, and re-entered
Syria to support the embattled rebel stronghold of Azaz, the sources said.
“We have been allowed to move everything from
light weapons to heavy equipment, mortars and missiles and our tanks,” Abu
Issa, a commander in the Levant Front, the rebel group that runs the border
crossing of Bab al-Salama, told Reuters, giving his alias and talking on
condition of anonymity.” (“Syrian Rebels Say
Reinforcements Get Free Passage via Turkey“, New York Times)
The Obama administration knows that
Erdogan is fueling the conflict, but has chosen to look the other way. And
while Obama has (weakly) admonished Turkey for shelling Syrian territory, he
has, at the same time, acknowledged Turkey’s “right to defend itself”, which is
an expression the US reserves for Israel when it conducting one of
its murderous rampages in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Now, Obama has
bestowed that same honor on Erdogan. This alone speaks volumes about the
duplicity of Washington’s approach.
So what is Washington’s gameplan in Syria? Is
the administration serious about defeating ISIS and ending the hostilities or
does Obama have something else up his sleeve?
First of all, Washington is not the least
bit concerned about ISIS. The group is merely a straw-man that allows the US to
conduct military operations in a region that is vital to its national
interests. If the ISIS boogieman disappeared tomorrow, the White House would
conjure up some other phantom–like the drug war or something equally
ridiculous–so it could continue its depredations uninterrupted. What
matters to Washington is breaking up the strong, secular Arab governments that
pose a long-term threat to US-Israeli ambitions. That’s what really matters.
The other obvious goal is to control critical resources and pipeline corridors
to the EU and make sure those resources continue to be denominated in US
dollars.
We continue to believe that the US-Kurdish (YPG)
alliance does not really advance US strategic interests in Syria. The US
is not interested in Kurdish statehood nor do they care if jihadist militias
control the northern quadrant of Syria’s border-region. The real purpose of the
US-YPG alliance is to enrage Turkey and provoke them into a cross-border
conflict with the Russian-led coalition. If Turkey deploys ground troops to
Syria, then Moscow could face the quagmire it has tried so hard to avoid.
Turkish forces would serve as a replacement army for the US-backed jihadists
and other proxies that have prosecuted the war for the last five years but now
appear to be in full retreat.
More importantly, a Turkish invasion would
exacerbate divisions inside Turkey seriously eroding Erdogan’s grip on power
while creating vulnerabilities the US could exploit by working with its agents
in the Turkish military and Intel agency (MIT). The ultimate objective would be
to foment sufficient social unrest to incite a color-coded revolution that
would dispose of the troublemaking Erdogan in a Washington-orchestrated coup,
much like the one the CIA executed in Kiev.
It is not hard to imagine Obama secretly giving
Erdogan the greenlight, and then pulling the rug out from under him as
soon as his troops crossed over into Syria. A similar
scam was carried out in 1990 when U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, April
Glaspie, gave Saddam Hussein the nod to invade Kuwait. The Iraqi Army had
barely reached its destination before the US launched a massive military
campaign (Operation Desert Storm) that forced Saddam to speedily withdraw along
the infamous Highway of Death where upwards of 10,000 Iraqi regulars were
annihilated like sitting ducks in a vicious and homicidal display of
American firepower. That was the first phase of
Washington’s plan to overthrow Saddam and replace him with a compliant
Arab stooge.
Is the same regime change trap now being set for Erdogan?
It sure
looks like it.
MIKE WHITNEY- counterpunch.org / February
24, 2016
MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be
reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.
