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Page added on August 28, 2013
Assad: Failure Awaits the USA
Syrian President Bachar al-Assad has warned President Obama not to take military action against his country since: “Failure awaits the United States as in all previous wars it has unleashed, starting with Vietnam and up to the present day”. Assad’s declaration will probably be more damaging to the over-inflated ego of the world’s policeman that believes that it has to export democracy to countries around the world. At least that’s the official version as to the invasion of countries. The non-official version is much more down-to-earth and crossing the line is far more mercantile. But is Assad right? Does failure await the USA? It all depends from which angle you look at it. Has the USA lost every single war since the Vietnam War?
It all depends on where you decide to place ‘lost’ along the scale, doesn’t it?
Every one of the wars was a loss in terms of military personnel, for sure. Every one of the wars was a loss in terms of money that was wasted trying to gain control of countries, either to set up democracy or to eradicate Communism or the political regime there and to set up a capitalist economy. Every one of the wars was a failure in some sense of the term; so technically-speaking Assad is correct. But, even more so today, the Obama administration will have to think very carefully about undertaking an invasion and launching an attack on Syria today. Assad will more than likely respond to that and it won’t be with a rose sticking out of the end of his rifle. They don’t do flower power in Syria it seems.
The USA has attempted many different types of style of warfare of the past decades since the Vietnam War. We have witnessed the no-holds barred and gloves-off fights till the bitter end in countries like Afghanistan with small skirmishes and flirting with the enemy all over the Middle East. But, all of the wars that the US has fought since the date that Assad mentions are indeed failures because they ended in stalematepositions. Two small tentative steps forward were made and then a couple back. The US is preparing to pull out of Afghanistan. For more than a decade they have struggled to bring so-called democracy to a country (despite the fact that the US is undemocratic itself as revealed by the recent NSA scandals). But, nothing has occurred of any democratic nature. Al-Qaeda still exists and has not been eradicated despite President Bush’s promises to destroy the ‘rogue states’ and pull down the great ‘axis of evil’. The only result was that for decades the terrorist groups have retrenched themselves in secluded places on the outskirts of the country and in the mountainous terrain that is impossible for the USA to gain control of. Women are still veiled in all but the capital. Women still ‘prefer’ to wear the veil where fundamentalists control the area. That looks like failure, doesn’t it?
- Troops will leave Afghanistan in 2014.
- President Obama sent 17, 000 extra troops in 2009 to try to stabilize the impossible situation in Afghanistan.
- It had little effect except boosting the 36, 000 troops stationed there by 50%.
- The drawdown began on 31st July 2011 and 650 troops were pulled out of the country and returned home to the USA.
But, Assad failed himself in seeing the gains that were made by the US in going to war somewhere in the world.
- Private companies have made billions from the US interventions.
- One such example: Halliburton’s KBR Inc. gained $17.2 billion in Iraq from revenue made there between 2003and 2006 alone.
- That represented 20% of their total revenue for 2006.
- But, we were told by the then Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in 2003 that Iraq was a country “that can really finance its own construction, and relatively soon”. The definition of relatively soon leaves a lot to be desired.
- In one decade alone, the US government awarded Halliburton (once run by Dick Cheney, vice-president to G.W. Bush) a total of $39.5 billion in contracts.
- There were more private companies and contractors in Iraq than in any other war in the history of the US to date and there were sometimes more of those people than the military personnel fighting the damn war.
- Taxpayers’ money financed yet again in a complex and insidious manner the private companies of the cronies that had chums in high places.
- The Commission on Wartime Contracting in 2011 estimated that in Iraq and Afghanistan $60 billion had been wasted by or defrauded from the US administration.
- That works out to $12 million every day.
- The last troops pulled out of Iraq in 2011.
- But, there are still 14, 000 contractors there reaping the benefits, along with protection afforded by 5, 500 security personnel.
Assad may well be right when he says that the US has lost every single war since Vietnam.
But, there are not only losers in those wars. The winners will be the private companies that will again increase in number and that will once again be granted federal contracts to dip deeply into the riches as the country focuses on the boys on the front that are fighting for such ‘noble causes’ as humanitarian aid and people’s lives. The US will reap the benefits from such an invasion. There is just the waiting around for the right moment, making it look as if the United Nations Security Council still actually does have an ounce of authority left in the world today. We all know that it doesn’t. Antiquated and an old man in carpet slippers from a bygone era catapulted into modernity that just can’t keep up with the pace these days.
It won’t just be Obama, but he’ll simply be another in a long line of successive administrators that will enter a war for official and unofficial reasons. But, the UK-based defense contractor Britam was hacked months again now revealing that the red line needed to be crossed. An email revealed: “Phil We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington. We’ll have to deliver a CW to Homs, a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have. They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record. Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion?”
‘CW’ stands for chemical weapons. Exposure of the truth or intoxication? Who knows? Of course the email could have been created to discredit the US authorities and the West. But, the email does emanate from the IP range of Britam, and according to experts, that means that it is much harder to do so, but not impossible. Since 2009 Halliburton has been the parent company of Britam.
Was the plan ‘Washington approved’? If it is true, then it makes a shoddy hash of principles. Waving the false flagwould mean that the whole system from A to Z is corrupt. The US, the West, NATO, the UN, the Security Council. Not one of them to save any of the others. Those people had principles instilled in them, they may have just chosen not to abide by them. But, as Gandhi once stated on the roots of violence in the world; it only stems from: “Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles”.
Wealth doesn’t necessarily need work, just warfare it would seem, and some people’s conscience went long ago along with morality. Politics never had principles, did it?
16 Comments on "Assad: Failure Awaits the USA"
BillT on Wed, 28th Aug 2013 1:24 am
Of course all of that death was to make money. The Us main export is death. Without it, the Us would no longer exist.
But, this time, it is not a weak 3rd world country, it is also Russia and China and the nukes they hold. I think this war will come to the homeland big time. That has not happened for a long, long time. Americans believe they are immune to suffering under bombs and destruction. For my grand kids sake, I hope I am wrong, but…
TIKIMAN on Wed, 28th Aug 2013 2:03 am
Failure awaits Assad with a cruise missile. However the middle east isn’t worth it to waste one more bullet. Let them kill themselves.
Arthur on Wed, 28th Aug 2013 6:53 am
Bill, I doubt Russia and China are going to confront the US over Syria. Iran will be different.
I hope Assad before he goes will at least be able to sink a carrier or two with his Sunburn missiles. And let mad dog Israel concentrate on Iran and bring Sunni fundamentalism to it’s own doorstep, a far greater risk to it’s own security. But this war is not about the security of Israel, it is about the desire of the US zionised globalist elite that since 1933 tries to establish a world state and destroys everything it finds on it’s way. Roosevelt had hoped to finish the job together with Stalin, but after 1945 Stalin and Gromyko constantly sold ‘Njet’ against the US and meanwhile Stalin started to destroy the zionists in their own country, a job completed in 1953, although Stalin himself got killed by it. Now it is hightime for a similar cleanup operation in the US and 9/11 truth provides an excellent opportunity to do it on the cheap. If not, these fanatics will blow up the entire world.
DC on Wed, 28th Aug 2013 7:09 am
Let us hope that the Russians got those air-defence batteries fully installed and operational by now. It would be justice to see jewish and amerikan pilots and there planes being knocked out of the sky like so many locusts. The world needs to draw a line a sand and say no to the amerikan terror state. Will this be it?
Probably not, the EU is still under US control and refuses to declare its independence from washington and the pentagon.
I guess well see. The puppet obomber and his corporate bankster handlers want their war and want it now.
I feel badly for the people of Syria, they did nothing to deserve the terror the US has unleashed on them.
Arthur on Wed, 28th Aug 2013 8:08 am
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/08/paul-craig-roberts/more-war-crimes-in-the-making%E2%80%A8/
Paul Craig Roberts hits the nail on the head, as usual.
Arthur on Wed, 28th Aug 2013 9:52 am
The coming war will probably show that this is the age of the missile, at the cost of the navy, the navies that reigned supreme during 19th and 20nd century, the two centuries of Anglo domination. Anglosphere=fossil fuel=navy. Already in 1980 Argentina would have sunk the entire British Taskforce to the bottom of the sea if they could have laid there their hands on a few extra exocet missiles, but diplomacy of Alexander Haig prevented that. Now the truth about naval warfare will come out.
Assad will be encouraged to setup an Alawite state, he might even do so. If he manages to sink a carrier, his fate will be sealed, but in Moscow and Beijing from then on they know where the US is vulnerable and that US naval power is like a potemkin facade.
BillT on Wed, 28th Aug 2013 12:27 pm
China and Russia already know that they can sink carriers from 1,000 miles away. Nothing new there. Assad may have a few Russian built surprises up his sleeve.
bobinget on Wed, 28th Aug 2013 6:29 pm
Fifty years ago today I stood on the DC Mall for the “March on Washington”..
On October 21st 1967 I returned to DC with 100,000 others to march against the Vietnam War.
As nasty and mean spirited as things got, our intentions at the time was getting equal rights, employment for ‘Negros’ in the first instance and
end a war that was killing our brothers and sisters.
AT NO TIME did we wish harm to befall American Forces that had been swindled into a place none wanted to be. Today, The Idea that we might sustain thousands of casualties in the sinking of one aircraft carrier is so horrifying I cannot begin to go into the pain, both national and individual this sort of military
adventurism may cause.
I posted that (Sunbeam) anti war blog in self same spirit.Hoping a tiny portion of the American Public might implore congress not to vote for this war.
(if that vote comes up)
WE have not been attacked. In point of fact we (the US)
were not attacked in Korea, Vietnam or the Iraq wars.
Only Israel might benefit provided everything goes as planned attacking Syria. When was the last time that happened in a military action?
Please, if for no other reason then more people might read your contributions when you have something to say, lighten up on the anti American rhetoric..
sandu635 on Wed, 28th Aug 2013 8:29 pm
BillT, you can sink carriers 3000 miles away with missiles if you have accurate coordinates. This means that the carrier’s defence zone is compromise for 30 min or more depending on the distance that missile has to travel (not easy 🙂 )
What i think you are hinting at is that today carriers are very vulnerable in offensive position near the coasts. The classic case is defending Taiwan with carrier battle groups against a Chinese invasion.
GregT on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 1:19 am
“Please, if for no other reason then more people might read your contributions when you have something to say, lighten up on the anti American rhetoric..”
It is unfortunate that the American people are hated throughout much of the world. As it is also unfortunate that millions of innocent people have been brutally slaughtered by the hand of American corporatism, and empirialism.
People around the world have very good reason to spread “anti American rhetoric”. I am sure that if it were you, that had your loved ones brutally massacured by foreign invaders, that you would feel the same way.
I have many good friends that are American. I do not wish harm on them in any way, as I do not wish harm on anyone, anywhere. It is the American imperialist attitude that needs to be put to rest.
You are either FOR American military adventure, or you are AGAINST it. If you are against it, you better start spreading “anti American rhetoric” yourself, before the next war comes to your own hometown.
There are billions of people on this planet, that are hoping for it to happen. I am not one of them.
BillT on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 2:14 am
GregT, I am an American, as you know. I don’t wish it on my country either, but it is coming and that is because we have allowed ourselves to deteriorate into a mass of greedy sloths that want to ‘let someone else do it’.
Nothing is going to change the course now. Nothing will stop the coming war and this time it WILL come to the heartland of America. When it is over, the world could have lost all of its major cities and much of it’s infrastructure and people. We are capable of that in less than 24 hours.
I hope it does not happen, for my grand kids sake,but I don’t see anything that can change the course of the 1/100th percent to dominate the world through the American military, the European banking cabal and the Jews wanting Armageddon.
Arthur on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 6:15 am
“Please, if for no other reason then more people might read your contributions when you have something to say, lighten up on the anti American rhetoric..”
I do not hate ordinary Americans, yesterday I watched Leon the Professional (1994) and now I am typing this on my iPad.lol On Dutch forums I have written thousands of posts under a nick with positive reference to Ron Paul. I probably read more (American) English than Dutch. The issues I have are with the zionist dominated mafia that tries to set the world on fire, again. Shouldn’t be too difficult to understand.
KingM on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 11:03 am
Assad may be right that the Americans would lose the war, but that doesn’t mean that Syrian would win.
The Syrian regime would fight for about 30 seconds and roll over. All this talk of surprises and shooting down carriers is a joke. They couldn’t have done it two years ago and they certainly couldn’t do it now, with their nation in ruins.
None of this is to say that it would be remotely a good idea to attack the country, but defeating the Syrian military forces is the least of the worries.
curlyq3 on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 11:29 am
Sinking a reasonably hard target like an aircraft carrier of the US Navy is going to take some skill and luck … if you really want to “F” things up why not just gather a few of the boys here state side (those hidden Islamic cell guys we hear about) with a good stout mortar and knock out a few of our vulnerable spent fuel pools … they probably could slip away without even being detected ! … This scenario should worry the people of France and the rest of the EU because when the nuclear fires really get burning where are they going to run to! … curlyq3
GregT on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 3:21 pm
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Words to seriously think about…….
Arthur on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 5:00 pm
For the moment it looks like the UK and US are hesitating. I remember very well the feeling of hybris in the US population, beginning 2003. That feeling is totally absent now. But the stakes are much higher now. China is much stronger, Russia has recovered. Only France is now leaning more towards the US, unlike 2003, when Villepin and Chiraq lead the anti-US coalition. In Europe the US is mainly supported by the left. Germany has zero interest in war and is lying low. Germany is relatively secure as it gets most of its fossil from Russia. Western Europe will be hit most, with Britain unlikely to receive any fossil at all, when Iran closes the Gulf. Russia will not deliver to Britain. The Atlantic alliance could break apart if the Iranian blockade cannot be broken in time.