Less than a week after a cease-fire agreement had been brokered by Russia between the United States and Syrian government – the United States carried out an airstrike in Eastern Syria that killed forces of President Bashar Assad.Four U.S. Aircraft (Two F-16s and two A-10s) targeted six “troop carrier” vehicles and one tank against what it believes to be Islamic State insurgents near Deir Ezzor Airport. Syria and Russia claim that the United States actually struck a Syrian military base - which was itself surrounded by ISIS forces. The attack left between 62 and 83 Syrian soldiers dead and approximately 120 wounded. This attack marked the first known direct U.S. strike on the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Syrian military released a statement claiming the airstrikes were “conclusive evidence that the United States and its allies support ISIS and other terrorist organizations.”Sources: http://www.fdrurl.com/syria-airstrikeFreedomain Radio is 100% funded by viewers like you. Please support the show by signing up for a monthly subscription or making a one time donation at: http://www.freedomainradio.com/donate
Hi everybody, this is Stefan Molyneux from Freedom Aid Radio.
We are going to dive into the complex, n-dimensional chess game of death being waged by rebel groups in Syria and Russia and America and the Syrian government, which recently boiled to a head because of a disastrous U.S. raid that killed significant numbers of soldiers, at least according to the Syrians and the Russians, of the Syrian government's troops.
So, Quick backstory, over 430,000 people have been killed in Syria since 2011 due to the violence of the ongoing civil war.
Now this is, the fog of war really applies to this situation.
It seems like everyone is misrepresenting, texts are not being published, it's kind of a mess, everything is obfuscated, but we're going to do our best to sort of untangle what is going on because there are very essential principles that need to be understood in order to avoid this kind of mess that is going on in the future.
So, in general, The US wanted the Syrian government overthrown, and of course the US has been in their overthrowing and funding the overthrowing of various governments in the Middle East for the last 50 years, almost all of which have turned out to be complete, total, unmitigated, disastrous.
Hey, remember how Bush was going to go into the Middle East and create stable European-style democracies?
Well, it turns out, funny story, instead of exporting So the US wanted the Syrian government overthrown, ostensibly because the Syrian government had used...
Chemical weapons attacks.
This is disputed by the Kurds.
So America, through the CIA, started arming the rebels against the Syrian government.
CIA was delivering weapons.
And some of these rebels, in fact, it turned out, were ISIS. And there's a variety of ways of naming this group.
There's ISIL, ISIS, IS, Daesh.
I don't know.
If you can't even figure out what they're called, maybe it just shouldn't be over there in the first place.
So what happened was, after America started funding the rebels to destabilize and overthrow the Syrian government, the Russians came in and started defending and helping the Syrian government, perhaps because they had noticed what had happened in Iraq and, of course, what had happened in Iran decades previously and so on when the governments were meddled with or overthrown directly, as in the case of Iraq, by the U.S. government.
Bad things happened, and this, of course, is much closer to Russia than it is to America, so they would have to deal with the fallout.
So this is a kind of proxy war.
In other words, you have the US funding and arming the rebels, you have the Russians supporting the existing Syrian government.
So it's kind of like a proxy war as was going on in various places around the world in Vietnam and Korea and so on in the 20th century.
And there is the rebels, which the US likes, and then there's the rebels composed of ISIS, which nobody seems to like.
There is the government forces being supported by Russia, and it's just one of these big, complex masses.
So, Europe, of course, overwhelmed by the massive migrant crisis, partly as a result of this meddling.
Now, after being called the most valuable player of the Islamic State by Donald Trump, President Barack Obama, well, kind of continues to live up to this sarcastic label.
Because less than a week after a ceasefire agreement had been brokered by Russia between the United States and the Syrian government, the United States carried out an attack in eastern Syria that killed forces of President Bashar Assad.
Now, this has not happened before.
We'll get to this in a sec.
The U.S. has been arming the rebels but hasn't directly participated in attacks on President Assad's forces.
So what happened was four U.S. aircraft, two F-16s and two A-10s, targeted six troop carrier vehicles in one tank against what it believed to be Islamic State insurgents near Deir Ezzor Airport, which I guess begs the question, who's selling tanks to ISIS? But that probably is going to be a hole with no bottom.
So this ceasefire was brokered with the hope of getting humanitarian aid into a trapped population and the text had not been published.
Apparently the U.S. doesn't want the ceasefire terms published.
Russia says that the ceasefire terms are after seven days of reduced violence Russia and the U.S. would gang up on ISIS. Russia's frustration is that the U.S. doesn't seem to be responding Two coordination efforts coming out from the Russians.
And so that is a challenge to have a ceasefire with people who aren't returning your phone calls and won't allow the tax of the ceasefire to be published.
So, Syria and Russia claim that this recent US airstrike actually struck a Syrian military base, which was itself surrounded by ISIS forces.
The U.S. attack left between 62 and 83 Syrian soldiers dead and approximately 120 wounded.
Now, according to James Longman of the BBC, Russia has said militants from IS took the opportunity of the strike on Syrian military to launch an offensive immediately afterwards, right?
So the goal was have a ceasefire and then we can focus on ISIS. And what happened was...
America, according to Russia and Syria, bombed the Syrian government forces which allowed ISIS to launch an offensive.
So, this attack marked the first known direct US strike on the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Syrian military released a statement claiming the airstrikes were, quote, conclusive evidence that the United States and its allies support ISIS and other terrorist organizations.
A United States defense official commented that the strike appears to be an intelligence failure.
Going into the Middle East as a whole, it's not called the graveyard of empires for nothing.
It's not that going into Afghanistan was one of the things that brought down the remaining socialized remnants of the Russian economy before the end of communism.
So yeah, the strike appears to be an intelligence failure.
U.S. Central Command said, Syria is a complex situation with various military forces and militias in close proximity.
But coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit.
See, this is the thing.
If you're in the middle of a ceasefire, and you're trying to reduce the amount of violence so that you can coordinate with Russia to focus on ISIS, if you're in the middle of a ceasefire...
I don't know that dropping massive amounts of bombs in a particular location where everyone's kind of webbed in together, I don't know that that's the very best idea.
But what do I know?
I'm not in the military.
Now, the U.S. So Obama actually asked Congress for money some years back to fund a program which allowed US military personnel to teach these rebels marksmanship, navigation and other skills essential for overthrowing the Syrian government.
So the goal was to train about 15,000 rebels in Jordan and other countries so that they could return to Syria and fight.
However, sometime after this, you know, we're going to train 15,000 people to go and fight the Syrian government, U.S. defense officials admitted that only four or five of the recruits in the program had actually returned to the battle.
So they taught a whole bunch of other people who departed for parts unknown.
I guess we'll find out over time where they may have ended up.
The coalition airstrike was halted immediately when coalition officials were informed by Russian officials that it was possible the personnel and vehicles targeted were part of the Syrian military.
The coalition will review this strike and the circumstances surrounding it to see if any lessons, any lessons can be learned.
So, yeah, that's the way it works in the U.S. military.
You take a selfie on a sub, you go to jail.
But killing 80-odd people during a ceasefire?
Oops!
We'll review, see if we can figure out how to do less or perhaps even ideally none in the future.
The Obama administration said, The United States has relayed our regret through the Russian Federation for the unintentional loss of life of Syrian forces.
So, yeah, Syria is a complex situation.
Apparently too complex for any kind of reliable bombing.
And if you coordinate with the Russians, maybe, just maybe, you can figure out who not to bomb.
Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said, While we are still trying to determine all the facts, if we mistakenly struck a Syrian military position, we regret doing so, especially the loss of lives.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said, This comes from the problems the US is facing on the Syrian track.
They still cannot separate the so-called healthy part of the opposition from the half criminal and terrorist elements.
In my opinion, this comes from the desire to keep the combat potential in fighting the legitimate government of Bashar Assad But this is a very dangerous route.
So if I can translate the translation, I think what he's saying is the US will just arm anyone who says that they're against the Syrian government or support anyone who says that they're against the Syrian government.
And they're not separating, quote, legitimate rebels from just, you know, crazy people and terrorists who just say, oh yeah, if you arm me, if I say that I'm against the Syrian government, hey, guess what?
I'm against the Syrian government.
Love to be armed.
And that is a mess.
And so I think this is what Putin is saying.
So due to this attack, Russia called an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Saturday evening to discuss the strike and their belief that it was, quote, not accidental.
So, basically, we'll probably never know whether it was or wasn't accidental, but I think the perspective from Russia and maybe Syria as well is something like this.
So, the U.S. bombed soldiers they oppose and helped forces they support.
And then they say, oops!
And, you know, oops doesn't usually get you too far.
And of course, the U.S. has been arming and funding and aiding ISIS and other terrorist affiliates either directly or through Saudi, Qatari, Jordanian or Turkish proxies since, at a bare minimum, about 2011.
I will put the sources to all of this below.
Russia's permanent U.N. representative Vitaly Churkin said, In all my years of international life, over 40 years, I have never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness.
It is extremely tragic that this is the state of political play in the United States.
It is quite significant and frankly suspicious that the United States chose to conduct this particular airstrike at this time.
I would suggest it is not accidental that it happened just two days before the Russia-America arrangement was supposed to come into force.
So that's their perspective, not exactly what you want across the table from people you're attempting to have a ceasefire with.
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said, Even by Russia's standards, tonight's stunt, a stunt replete with moralism and grandstanding, is uniquely cynical and hypocritical.
Well, of course, it's never, not like America has ever done any kind of moral grandstanding and cynical and hypocritical and so on.
I mean, the U.S. has never even declared war in this country, and so...
She went on to say, So,
just a reminder, this woman who's incredibly concerned about civilian tragedies and deaths in Syria, well, America gets involved, starts arming rebels, and 430,000 Syrians have been killed since 2011.
So, I don't know, is she saying, you're doing our job for us and not as well?
Hard to say.
She went on to say, and yet in the face of none of these atrocities has Russia expressed outrage, nor has it demanded investigations, nor has it ever called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council.
She said, seriously?
And they're calling this emergency meeting?
Really?
Because of a single airstrike in error, which we have quickly called for investigating?
Now of all times, Russia calls for an emergency meeting so it can stand up here and express outrage?
Now, the goal of the ceasefire, as I mentioned, was to allow humanitarian aid to reach the Syrian people who have been torn apart by the ongoing civil war within the country.
Once the humanitarian relief was on site and after violence was reduced, the agreement was for the United States and Russia to work together to target terrorist factions, including Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
So, of course, there's going to be outrage.
Of course, there's going to be frustration.
And it's interesting to me because the liberals as a whole in America have this crazy hostility towards Russia.
Now, when I grew up, there was, of course, communists in Russia.
And the lefties or the liberals or the dems, the democrats, well, they seem to be quite positive towards Russia because they're socialists or some of them are communists and fellow travelers and so on.
So they were quite positive on Russia when people like Stalin were in charge of But after communism fell, I think that there's arguments, and some people have put these forward, I'll put the links again below, that liberals don't like Russia anymore because they feel it screwed up the wonderful...
Possibility of communism and also because the church plays a pretty prominent role in Russia these days.
Russia has become quite conservative, quite religious, and it doesn't really seem to follow the leftist rabbit hole down to a whole bunch of non-issues like, I don't know, transgender bathrooms and so on.
They're actually a bit more serious than all of that when it comes to protecting their people.
So naturally, now that Russia is kind of focused on the welfare of its own people, And not bowing to all of these crazy leftist causes, the leftists seem to really despise Russia, and that's not good.
So according to military analyst Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, quote, This might put in danger this joint implementation center the US and the Russians are supposed to set up in the next few days to coordinate just these kinds of strikes against ISIS and to prevent just what happened.
So again, what is the motive?
What is the goal?
We don't know.
We may never know.
Is there reason to be suspicious?
Well, certainly, some of the interested parties in the region seem to think so, and that's worth considering.
Sorry to interrupt.
This is late-breaking, just as we were about to publish this analysis.
We got news that the Syrian ceasefire is virtually dead in the water.
This is from Zero Hedge, but the link below, quote, barely a week into the latest hard-fought Syrian ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia last weekend.
The deal seemed on the verge of collapse on Monday.
As a rebel official said, it had practically failed and signaled insurgents were preparing for a full resumption of fighting.
Already widely violated since it took effect.
A week ago, the ceasefire came under added strain at the weekend when Russia said jets from the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State killed at least 62 Syrian soldiers in eastern Syria.
Making matters worse, the Russian general staff said Monday that US-backed Syrian rebels have not separated from terrorists but united with al-Nusra Front and are preparing for an offensive, according to To the Russian military, the only parties adhering to the truce are Moscow and the Syrian government forces, while the United States and opposition groups it controls have not fulfilled a single obligation according to...
The Russia-U.S. agreement, the general staff said.
This is Lieutenant General Sergei Rotsky at a briefing, quote, The United States and so-called moderate opposition groups under its control have not fulfilled a single commitment taking on under the Geneva agreements.
Above all, the moderate opposition has not been separated from al-Nusra Front, also known as Jabhat Fata al-Sham.
So, Syrian opposition forces, they claim, violated the truce more than 300 times since the ceasefire came into force, killing 153 Syrian personnel and 63 civilians, according to the Russian general staff.
And, by the by, the humanitarian aid that was the entire purpose of the ceasefire, at least in the short run, has not been delivered.
Let's do our usual zoom back to the big picture.
So, There is a problem with understanding the horrors that are going on in the Middle East.
There's a study that US media find the terror deaths that occur in Europe 19 times more interesting than the terror deaths that occur in the Middle East.
And that is...
A problem.
The fact that all of this militarism is going on in the Middle East, very few of which have formal declarations of war and so on, is a big problem.
Because war has particularly horrifying consequences, in particular for civilian populations.
And if everyone doesn't recognize or realize the degree to which Western powers are at war in the Middle East, then there's a lot of confusion about migrants and people fleeing conflict and so on.
I mean, if you're at war with a group or a region taking young military-aged men, It's not always the wisest decision.
It wasn't like when England was at war with Germany, they wanted to bring a lot of young German men over to come and live in England and be paid to stay there.
So, and I've talked about this before on this show, but that is a confusing problem.
The failure to declare war, of course, is unconstitutional.
Only Congress can declare war, but presidents seem to find regularly ways of bypassing that pretty simple restriction.
So there is a gruesome amount of death and destruction and dismantling of formerly repressive, though stable, societies.
That is a big problem.
If people want to overthrow their governments, well...
That's a risky business as a whole, but that really fundamentally comes down to their choice.
Arming people, funding people and so on is a way of interfering with a process that the majority of the population probably prefers repression but stability to the kind of chaos that is occurring in the Middle East, in many places in the Middle East at the moment.
So yeah, the US foreign policy has been pretty disastrous.
Foreign policy is just another government program and it's no better than any of the government programs that It's sort of like getting a woman to love you by stalking her.
Well, you're going to end up with some restraining orders and not a lot of roses and chocolates.
So George Bush started two wars.
Was there any real plan on how to prosecute or finish them properly?
Barack Obama pulled out from Iraq a Too soon, arguably, given the collapse of the government control over various sections of the country and the incursions of ISIS. Barack Obama didn't seem to have any particular plans for Libya after the war, and these are just a mess.
Just look back in history.
Just take a half century.
Just slice and dice a half century.
Is there any example of America successfully training some local group to prosecute a war against insurgents or funding insurgents to prosecute a war against someone else?
I mean, it's a complete mess.
Look at Libya.
A complete disaster.
America helped get rid of Muammar Gaddafi, and what do you get?
You get a massive failed state in return.
And Gaddafi, of course, said, if you take me out, all of the migrants and all of the economic migrants are going to reach Europe.
Look at Yemen, prosecuting years of drone warfare.
Houthi rebels have now overthrown and taken over the government.
And Iraq backs the rebels, so I guess they're in favor of it.
And al-Qaeda may result from the resulting chaos.
So that is a complete and total mess that is going on there in the Middle East.
The United States is helping Saudi Arabia conduct its war in Yemen.
Yemen and all of this is resulting in untold, incalculable amounts of human death and suffering in the Middle East.
And, you know, there's always blowback and there's always frustration.
And this is...
One of the causes, of course, of the attacks in Europe.
And this is something that Noam Chomsky, who's been on this show a couple of times, has mentioned.
And it's worth mulling over.
I mean, it's complex, but it's worth mulling over.
Basically, his argument is that when we do it over there, it's legitimate foreign policy.
And when we attack them, and when they do it over here, well, it's just plain terrorism.
And...
As far as the death count goes, I don't think that the people in the Middle East are doing better than the people in the West.
I think they're doing far, far worse.
So, this question of what's going to go on in the fall, right?
Because we've got Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton.
Well, now, as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton helped orchestrate regime change in the Ukraine and then championed the provision of military aid To this new government that was created, or helped, created by the U.S. to fight Russia.
Now this is right in Russia's front yard.
Hillary Clinton supports expanded U.S. military presence in the Baltic States.
And Poland, which again, right on Russia's doorstep.
It would be like Russia helping to arm anti-American rebels in Mexico or some other country that's very, very close.
Now, this hatred that comes out of Hillary Clinton and other leftists towards Russia is significant.
You know, there's all this talk about, well, if Donald Trump got his hands on the nuclear button and code, it's all projection.
Who's actually talking about conflict with Russia?
Former U.S. diplomat James Jatras has warned repeatedly that Hillary Clinton would start numerous regional wars if she's elected president.
And he says that she may well escalate to a potential nuclear confrontation with China or Russia or both.
Now that, my friends, is a potential planet-ending World War III. And...
The idea that somehow Trump is the loose cannon in this?
Good heavens.
So, this former U.S. diplomat, Jatras, told Sputnik Radio, Hillary has never met a war she does not like.
She is a true believer in the idea that the U.S. can, as this vanguard of all progressive humanity, use military force to transform the world.
We are looking at numerous regional wars and very possible at nuclear war with Russia or China or both.
Barack Obama has threatened a cyber war against Russia.
Hillary is openly threatened to use military force against Russia if Moscow is even merely suspected of any involvement in hacking or cyber attacks.
So we are talking.
About World War III, two nuclear armed, or maybe even three if China's involved, three nuclear armed powers all facing each other off.
So Trump says he wants to work with Russia, and Hillary says that she wants to use military force against Russia if they're even suspected of any kind of hacking or cyber attack.
What does that even mean?
Even suspected?
So if you wanted to start a war, you would, you know, if you were some third party who wanted America and Russia to go at it, you would simply, of course, try and set up Russia to look like it was doing cyber attacks and boom, bango, bango, bongo.
Now the smoking gun does in fact come in the form of a mushroom cloud.
So...
When it comes to this particular incident, what is going on?
If it was an accident, in other words, if the US bombed the wrong people, I don't know, is that a war crime?
I'm not an expert, but it seems pretty bad.
Shouldn't everyone involved be prosecuted or fired or something like that?
If that doesn't happen, then what are the negative consequences for ordering airstrikes that kill people you're not supposed to kill?
So, this is why people suspect that it was not accidental, but rather a way of continuing the war.
Perhaps, does the American military-industrial complex really want a cessation of war around the world?
Well, they don't have to appeal to you.
They don't have to say to you, listen, we're going to go do this wonderful thing in Russia.
Would you like to write us a check?
Because really great things are going to come out of it.
And would you like to keep writing us checks?
Because we're doing wonderful work over there and everything's getting better.
Well, they can just take your money or borrow the money or print the money.
or sell bonds or whatever and they can just fund the war that way.
So you're out of the loop as far as that goes.
The only chance you have to be in the loop is perhaps in November.
So the upshot is that Foreign policy, bringing peace and stability to the Middle East is just another government program.
The ceasefire, just another government program.
And once you kind of understand that everything the government touches turns to crap and hopefully not in the future massive slags and mounds of radioactive crap, then you'll understand that America, uniquely blessed by circumstances in history with the potential for a peaceful civilization with peaceful neighbors to the north and south and massive oceans to the east and west,
It's got its thumbs in every bloody pie around the world, 700-plus military bases around the world, status of forces agreements with I don't even know how many countries around the world, but it's quite a few, has very little excuse for its constant meddling in world affairs.
And imagine just how powerful it would be if America decided to stay home.
And fix its own problems, or as was said in Voltaire's Candide many, many years ago, tend its own garden, rather than sowing the seeds of demon fire all across the world.
This is Stefan Molyneux for Freedom Main Radio.
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