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April 9, 2018 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
31:39
4050 War In Syria: This Could Be The End

Trump considers military action against an unconfirmed "chemical attack" in Syria. WMDs being used as an excuse for war in the Middle East? How many times must this false lesson be learned?Your support is essential to Freedomain Radio, which is 100% funded by viewers like you. Please support the show by making a one time donation or signing up for a monthly recurring donation at: http://www.freedomainradio.com/donate

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Two sayings pop into mind in reviewing the response to the alleged supposed, and I argue largely imaginary or self-inflicted by the rebels, chemical attacks in Syria.
The first, of course, is the argument that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
Vigilance against what?
They can print their own money, they can raise whatever taxes they want, they can borrow.
They can draft, they can do whatever they want.
How are you supposed to fight?
The second, of course, is the idea that, or the argument put forward many years ago, that the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
But again, what can we do?
I feel in continuing to push back against the escalation of war that it is like trying to scream polysyllables at a tsunami in the hopes of freezing it in its tracks.
It feels that the words are no longer mightier than the swords.
The S of savagery wins.
So, it was just yesterday, of course, that These alleged chemical attacks on a rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta in Syria reportedly killed dozens of people.
This is according to US-linked medical services.
And Washington and Trump and the entire let-slip-the-dogs-of-war, baying-hounds-of-blood deep state military-industrial complex began to say, we must act!
We must have an international response!
Nothing about if confirmed, nothing about if verified, nothing about, well, this stuff has generally been proven to be complete bullcrap in the past, so maybe we should withhold judgment.
I mean, it was just about a year ago, April 7th, 2017, the US didn't even bother for any kinds of confirmation, just rained down a bunch of missiles on Syria.
So, the motivations behind all of this are pretty clear.
Trump recently said that he was going to withdraw troops from Syria.
The fight against ISIS was over.
Israeli officials, of course, say that America must respond, must escalate in Syria.
Well, of course.
I mean, if you have some big idiot bully to do your dirty work for you, I guess for some people that's pretty tempting.
And you've got midterms coming up, there may be a blue wave, and as the argument says, you don't change horses midstream.
If you're currently in a war, as America has been for 93% of its entire history, then it is easier to stay in power.
So Trump says it's time for U.S. troops to leave Syria.
And the Syrian government just fully liberated Eastern Ghouta.
So just understand how insane an argument this is, how insane an idea is.
This is basic motivation.
People, this is like an IQ test given to you by Satan.
And the result of passing it is the banishing of Satan and the survival of civilization.
So let's just dot a few I's and cross a few T's a little here, shall we?
So Bashar al-Assad, leader of Syria, has won with his ally Russia against the US-backed opposition forces, sedition forces.
People like to call them rebel forces because then everyone thinks that they're tousled-haired idiots firing at stormtroopers.
But the reality is that Assad has won.
America is going to withdraw and his power is consolidated.
So if the superpower that is arming your enemies is just about to leave, Why on earth would you then launch a chemical attack against women and children?
It makes, I mean, you know what the response is to these chemical attacks, which is that the U.S. is going to probably come back and rain hell's own heart run down on your spinal cord.
Why would you do it? It makes absolutely no sense.
And that it's not just a lack of motivation, it's the completely opposite of a motivation, should give people some pause, should give people some, huh, I wonder if this is true.
Now the U.S. has previously admitted that the Syrian rebels that they're funding and arming used chemical weapons.
So saying, oh, chemical weapons are being used in this war, that's terrible, we need an international response.
Hey America, the people that you funded and armed, you have admitted, have used chemical weapons.
Earlier this year, the now former Secretary of State blamed Russia for another one of these alleged Syrian chemical attacks and openly admitted he doesn't know who actually did it.
You know, innocent until proven guilty seems quite important in, I don't know, a shoplifting case.
The trigger point domino gravestone toppling that leads to World War III, it would seem to be just a little bit more important.
The US, of course, has finally admitted recently that there was no evidence that Bashar al-Assad used sarin gas.
And in 2016, it was reported that ISIS used chemical arms at least 52 times in Syria and Iraq.
Back in October 2013, I'm going to read a quote here, I put the sources below, October October 31st, 2013 marked a major milestone in our determined effort to get rid of Syria's chemical weapons program.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced it is now confident that no additional chemical agents or munitions can be produced in Syria.
So here we have it.
Assad decided to gas some rebel children, despite the fact that he is overwhelmingly winning the war against these U.S.-backed insurgents, and despite, of course, knowing the basic fact that about a year ago, another alleged chemical attack prompted Trump to launch dozens of tomahawks at Syria.
Now Trump, of course, is in a binder.
This is part of the whole Mueller investigation.
This is the whole point of painting Trump into a corner with regards to diplomacy, international relationships, and seeking peace and accord with Russia.
Remember, the Democrats hate Russia.
They loved Russia when Russia was communist and international and seeking to overthrow and destroy capitalism around the world.
They hate Russia now that Russia is Christian, somewhat capitalist, has a very low tax rate, and is nationalistic.
Because, I don't know.
Well, we can get into this another time.
Like, they're very concerned that Russia is meddling in international affairs and might be meddling in US elections.
Yeah, remember how keen they were when Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon began pulling the wriggling worms of communism out from the State Department and other places that helped hand over China to Communist Mao after the Second World War, thus prompting, of course, the deaths of tens of millions, the slaughter of tens of millions of innocent peasants.
So Trump right now, how can he work for accord with Russia?
The interview with Mueller is somewhat imminent, according to some reports.
He's got to show that he's not happy with Putin, he's angry with Putin, and he's not going to take no guff from no one, no how.
Now, aside of course, I mean, the U.S. has been trying to overthrow this government in a six-year proxy war.
Why? I don't know. Maybe they want Qatari natural gas pipelines into Europe.
Who knows? But the U.S., which is very, very sensitive, you see, to foreign meddling in governmental affairs, has been trying to overthrow the Syrian regime in the six-year proxy war.
Because, Lord knows, it worked so well in Iraq.
It worked so well in Libya, where there are now open-air slave markets.
So, of course, the Syrian government says that its forces have not launched any chemical attacks.
And, of course, the rebels don't want the U.S. to leave.
The rebels want to keep fighting against Assad.
And if the U.S. leaves, they lose their major arms supplier and facilitator for their insurgency against Assad.
So if you are these insurgents and you know that a chemical attack is going to have the U.S. likely stay and bomb your opposition, well, what are a few women and children in this hellish calculus of by any means necessary?
The ends justify the means.
The Syrian state news agency said that the chemical attacks were fabricated.
Trying to obstruct advances by the Syrian Arab army.
Reuters said it could not independently verify the reports of a chemical attack.
Others did the same.
But what does it matter?
Confirmation. Confirmation?
That's for the weak. That's indecisiveness.
That's Hamlet. Doesn't matter.
Be nice to rewind back to Trump 2013 before the deep state got its hooks.
Deep into the orange fluff.
2013, Trump tweeted again to our very foolish leaders, do not attack Syria.
If you do, many very bad things will happen, and from that fight the U.S. gets nothing.
Nothing. And I remember, back in the campaign when Hillary Clinton threatened war with Russia over cybercrimes, because Lord knows it's impossible to spoof an IP address that comes from Russia.
Can't happen. Now, Trump responded just today to the suspected chemical attack, not with caution, not with, well, we've been down this road before, weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, let's go to war!
It's like this weird groundhog day, except the groundhog is death and he's digging the grave of the West.
So he responded, he blamed Bashar Assad and his international allies for the apparent attack.
And... He directed some very critical comments at, of course, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump threatened that there's a big price to pay!
For those who back the Assad regime.
And his tweet was today, many dead, including women and children, in mindless chemical attack in Syria.
Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world.
President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing animal Assad.
Big price to pay.
Open area immediately for medical help and verification.
Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever.
Sick!
So he says it's a mindless chemical attack, and how about then you say, open the area immediately for medical help and verification.
implementation.
And again, this is not brain surgery, people.
Let's say this is all correct.
I'm sure that they can see it from satellites.
It's entirely encircled by the Syrian army.
So what does that tell you?
This is, again, this is just like...
Brain sequence 101.
The area is entirely encircled by the Syrian army.
So why on earth would they need to use chemical weapons on women and children if they've already encircled the entire area?
Why? It makes no sense.
They can just wait it out. They can just...
They've won!
They've entirely encircled them, which means there's no fight back or escape that's probably possible.
So why on earth would you then use chemical weapons when you've completely encircled your enemy and have won?
And then he says, mindless chemical attack by animal Assad.
And then he says, open area immediately for medical help and what?
Verification. Verification.
Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever.
See, that's the telling phrase as well.
First of all, he says it's happened, and then he says, well, we need to verify it.
And then he says, another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever.
See, that's kind of an important point there, President Trump.
For no reason whatsoever.
Does that not give you pause at all?
No reason whatsoever.
That's true.
So doesn't that make you think a little bit?
Reports of the latest attack, which appeared to target civilians and young children, could not be independently verified.
Yeah, because that's what you do when you've circled your enemy.
You target them with chemical weapons, women and children, knowing that that's going to provoke a massive response against your forces.
Now, what's going to happen?
With regards to a counter-response, Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert told ABC's This Week on Sunday, I wouldn't take anything off the table.
He said the State Department put out a statement last night and the President's Senior National Security Cabinet has been talking with him and each other all throughout the evening and this morning.
Senator Lindsey Graham Called out Trump's testosterone, he told ABC in response to Mr.
Trump's tweets, that this was a defining moment for the president.
Graham said he has challenged, Trump has challenged Assad in the past not to use chemical weapons.
If it becomes a tweet without meaning, then he's hurt himself in North Korea.
If he doesn't follow through and live up to that tweet, he's going to look weak in the eyes of Russia and Iran.
Lindsay Gray emerged from to, quote, show a resolve that Obama never did to get this right.
Now this, again, is just calling out, put up or shut up, man!
I mean, it's just stupid things that can get hundreds of thousands of people killed, an entire region destabilized, and unleash a second, third, fourth, fifth migrant wave into Europe.
Russia has reportedly had reliable information about militants preparing to falsify a government chemical attack against civilians.
So here's the deal.
Trump is waging war against ISIS. ISIS has used chemical weapons.
The rebels are surrounded.
The rebels used chemical weapons.
That's not an implausible scenario at all, especially given the pieces in play.
So if there's a US strike on Syria, what happens if it hits Russian servicemen?
Russia has said that they're going to respond if there's a US strike.
If the lives of Russian servicemen are threatened, not even extinguished, but threatened, then Russia will respond by targeting any missiles and launchers involved.
And this is how it all might happen.
Right? Trump orders a strike.
The strike imperils Russian servicemen.
Russia strikes back against the missiles and launchers involved, thus killing American servicemen.
And there we have it.
The unforgettable fire, restrained by words of mutually assured destruction.
Lo, these many decades might be uncorked and unleashed.
America also said that Russia is ultimately bearing responsibility for all of the chemical incidents in Syria, regardless of who carried them out.
So in other words, this is the logic that is currently being put forward to a blind, frightened, docile, emotionally reactive U.S. population.
So this is what the U.S. is saying.
That even if the supposed chemical attack was carried out by the rebels backed by the US, or even ISIS, it's still Putin's fault.
Any use of chemical weapons is Putin's fault.
The US State Department said the regime's history of using chemical weapons against its own people is not in dispute.
But they said they're relying on reports of being unable to confirm the incident.
Quote, Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the brutal targeting of countless Syrians with chemical weapons.
The Russians said, we strongly refuse this information.
We declare our readiness after Duma is liberated from the militants to immediately send Russian radiation, chemical and biological protection specialists to collect data that will confirm the fabricated nature of these allegations.
Russia warned the US not to strike Syria after the chemical attack.
And I quote, military intervention under false and fabricated pretexts in Syria, where Russian servicemen stay at the request of the legitimate government is absolutely unacceptable and may trigger the gravest consequences.
The Russians added, and I quote, the goal of such reports is to aid terrorists and justify possible military strikes from outside Syria.
This is very, very risky stuff.
And the idea that we would be dragged to a superpower confrontation through a bunch of ragtag rebels, funded and armed by the US, encircled by the Syrian army, and vague reports of chemical weapons with no verification.
They're so thirsty for war.
They wake up every morning, rub their hands with glee at the potential of disassembling vast swaths of humanity with population shredding weapons.
They thirst, they lust for this.
And how can we stop them?
I'm beyond skepticism, I'll be perfectly frank with you.
I believe none of it. I believe none of it.
It's not like, well, we should wait.
I just... I believe none of it.
But it looks like John Bolton's back on the job.
And this was just breaking as I started to record this.
Joint Chiefs of Staff prepare possible Syrian attack options and target lists to present to Trump within hours following the chemical attack in Douma, according to military officials.
And this is the result of an emotion-based education.
This is the result of not teaching children to think critically, to not place the giant wet wall of rationality between the dogs of war and the hearts, minds and balls of a trembling and vulnerable humanity.
This is what happens when we turn our education to emotion-based life forms who react and cry and rage and are horrified and shocked and easily tweakable.
By propaganda. This is why.
This is why men are absent from the education of children.
This is why removing men from the household, removing men from the education system, removing men from the culture is so essential.
Because if you want to propagandize, the population has to be trained by emotionally reactive people.
This is the price we pay for abandoning philosophy, for abandoning thought, skepticism, morals.
This is the price we pay, and the price for abandoning philosophy may be the greatest price possible in the history of humanity, the possibly short history of humanity.
This is an interesting question.
Trump has a macho button.
We've always known this. You hammer that macho button.
Are you going to do what Obama didn't?
Are you going to take a stand? Are you going to be tough?
Are you going to push back? Are you going to stand up against these horrors?
What happens if Trump pushes back against the military-industrial complex?
What happens if Trump pushes back against the deep state?
What happens if Trump tweets, well, we've been lied to before, these may all be lies, they probably are, we're going to wait and see, and I'm not blaming Russia for everything that happens in Syria, because we're in their arming as well.
Or maybe the plan is to say, yes, it's terrible, military-industrial complex, why don't you drop another 50 tomahawks and we'll call it a day?
You know, like getting your husband to kick the cat instead of beat you.
Let him blow off a little steam in the desert.
Let him raise a few dust plumes and shatter a few buildings.
Let him blow off a little steam so that they don't escalate to the end of everything.
I don't know. I don't know.
This is grimly repetitive.
I mean, we're not just talking about the 17 years since Afghanistan and the 15 years since Iraq.
America. People say, ah, you know, it was founded as a small limited government and Congress has to declare war and the government answers to the people and is bound by the chains of the Constitution.
America. 242 years.
It's been around. Of those 242 years, give or take, it's been at war for 225 of them.
In other words, America has been at war 93% of the time it's been in existence.
If you pick any year since 1776, there's about a 91% chance that America was involved in some kind of war during that particular calendar year.
I remember growing up here in the phrase peacetime president.
It's a lie. There's not one single U.S. president who truly qualifies as a peacetime president.
They're all war presidents.
The U.S. has never gone even one single decade without a war.
It did manage five years without a war from 1935 to 1940 during the isolationist period of the Great Depression.
In other words, when The Federal Reserve and hyper-regulation and FDR's growing socialism and economic controls and central planning was rapidly and rapidly dismantling and destroying the US economy.
It managed not to get to war for five whole years!
It is monstrous.
And this is what they call the success of a small government program called government.
This is what they call the success of the Republic.
There are weapons of mass destruction out there.
We must act now. Depending on how you count it, the Western powers have been involved in the Middle East for about 150 years.
The sum total of it is what?
Is what? Why on earth would you want to stay?
Why on earth would you want to be there?
Is there nothing that needs fixing at home?
Washington has one of the highest murder rates in America.
In other words, Congress cannot fix the crime and the violence and the brutality outside their own windows, stained with the blood of drive-by shootings, random head beatings, knifings.
They can't solve the problems of criminality and violence where they have massive control, similar histories, similar cultures, the same language.
They can't fix Washington.
What makes you think they can fix Syria?
How many Americans have died from these chemical attacks in Syria?
Zero! No Americans have died from chemical attacks in Syria.
Compare that to a chemical attack coming from the Mexican border in the form of endless waves and chains and mules of drug dealers carrying opioids.
no americans have died from the chemical attacks in syria but the chemical attacks coming in from mexico cost the lives of tens of thousands of americans every single year they say nothing is certain but death and taxes Taxes facilitate death.
Taxes. Close the gates and put the line up for the electric bolt that goes through the population.
If you can raise taxes, if you can take taxes, if you can borrow against future tax receipts, if you can print money, then you can wage war without the cost of that war impacting the population in the moment.
It allows for subsidized hysterical bloodlust.
Nobody sends you a bill.
Your taxes do not get raised.
Just look at the warfare welfare state that came in in the 1960s when massive amounts, trillions of dollars, were rained down upon the poor in the hopes of ending poverty at the same time as the Vietnam War was consuming American resources overseas.
Of course, the destruction of the last ties of the American currency to any kind of objective medium like gold So when you can indulge the population's hysterical bloodlust without having to temper that bloodlust by sending them an actual bill, what they used to call the butcher's bill.
What is the butcher's bill at the end of the day?
It does not accrue.
It does not show up. To the general population and therefore anyone who rails against it.
It's like mass immigration.
The costs of it are not borne by the population.
They don't say, well, if we bring all these people in, we have to double your taxes because that would give people some sense of a cost-benefit analysis.
Cost-benefit analyses vanish when the government can print its own money.
Central banking is the health of the state.
And war is the health of the state.
And the state is the health of war.
When you can create imaginary resources out of nothing, you blow past the natural pushback of the population who cannot find its ethics but can at least find its vanishing wallet.
And this is what the state does all the time, and this is the price we're paying for the great unholy bargain struck by the state over a hundred years ago when it said to the population as a whole, give us control over the currency and all will be well.
There won't be any bank runs, you see.
We're going to smooth out the economic cycle, give us control over the currency, let us create money out of nothing, let us fart value into the high winds of history.
And then, in the post-war period, post-Second World War period, into the 1960s, they said, let us socially engineer an end to poverty.
And Jesus said, the poor will always be with us, because sometimes poverty is a choice.
And it is a choice that should be respected.
A monk does not need welfare.
Somebody working a part-time job so they can write the great American novel does not need welfare.
Somebody who makes irresponsible decisions needs charity for her children, but not welfare for herself.
And there was this great lie that the government will step up to you, having washed the red off its face and hands.
It will step up to you as a glowing servant of the public good and say to you, Give me the power and I will give you paradise.
Surrender your property.
Surrender your freedoms.
Surrender your capacity to speak and defend yourself.
Surrender to me and I will knit for you a womb of well-fed, bone-decaying irresponsibility.
Make me the vicious parent and you shall live forever in the bosom of childhood.
Give me the power and you never have to grow up.
Let me deal with poverty.
Let me deal with security. Let me deal with ignorance.
Let me deal with a lack of education.
Let me deal with the sick!
Hand it all over to me.
And you never, ever have to grow up.
You never have to be responsible, and you never have to carefully weigh decisions, and you never have to do anything unpleasant.
The soul is freedom.
The soul is morality.
The soul is responsibility.
Give those three things up to the unholy trinity.
Of the state and coercion and money printing.
You lose everything. You lose your soul and you have nothing left to defend.
And your children are birthed into the horrifying halls of this unholy bargain and must fight a greatly strengthened set of devils as a result of you succumbing to the temptation of an infinite childhood, a consequence-free life.
The consequences is you are not free in your life.
And I know it's tiring.
I know I feel it.
I know it's tiring, my friends.
Once more under the breach, we must go and wield with words and passion and conviction and the salty syllables of mere truth and skepticism we must close up the wall through which the blood and the bones flow, through which the gasoline flows, That surround our houses, our schools, our children for one flash of ignition.
Everything is prepared.
Everything is in readiness for the great depopulation that we must push back against it.
I know it's tiring. But what else can we do?
Sometimes we must fight with little hope of victory because the alternative Our fighting is to give up.
We must push back.
Or where is there to retreat to?
The only thing behind us is an infinite grave.
We are in the corner of the graveyard.
We must push back with passion and words.
Because there's nowhere left to go.
Nowhere left to retreat to.
We must push back.
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