The Syrian Hoax
by Harry Browne
March 3, 2005
Once again the Bush propaganda machine has swung into action, inciting
America to believe there’s a terrible threat to the world’s future — a
threat that must be destroyed, by force if necessary.
And that threat is Syria.
Syria has 13,000 soldiers in Lebanon — impeding the burning desire of
the Lebanese people to be free. "Freedom is on the march," thanks to
all those people the U.S. military killed in Iraq, and we must act now
to be sure that nothing stops the great march.
According to the propaganda machine, the Syrian troops in Lebanon are
a threat to democracy, and so the White House is demanding that Syria
withdraw its troops immediately.
And there’s more: it’s common knowledge that the Syrians were behind
the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the ex-Prime Minister of Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the pro-Syrian government in Lebanon has left office, and
the Lebanese people are cheering in the streets — demonstrating that
they want nothing to do with Syria — as well as protesting the
assassination of Hariri.
In addition, Condoleezza Rice says she has "firm evidence" that the
Islamic Jihad militant group in Syria helped plan the recent Tel Aviv
suicide bombing. She went even further: "There is firm evidence that
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, sitting in Damascus, not only knew about
the attacks, but was involved in the planning, . . . And so the
Syrians have a lot to answer for."
Finally, the U.S. State Department just released its annual report on
human rights abuses in all the countries of the world (except the
United States), and the story of torture and other crimes in Syria is
a mile long.
The indictment of Syria is lengthy and frightening. Obviously, Syria
is a living hell, a threat to peace in the Middle East, and a rogue
state that supports terrorism.
So load your gun and let’s get ready to kill some more bad guys.
On the Other Hand . . .
If the mainstream press and TV news channels were to get their
information from somewhere other than the U.S. government, they might
help us to understand that the situation isn’t as black and white as
the Bush administration is trying to make it out to be.
Yesterday (March 2nd) I listened to National Public Radio and heard
the Syrian ambassador to the United States in an extraordinary
interview.
Here are some of the things he said . . .
Regarding Rice’s demand that Syrian troops leave Lebanon immediately:
Actually, if anyone with a sense of fairness would look at the history
of our presence in Lebanon, you could easily tell that we had 42,000
troops in Lebanon 10 years ago, and we started a series of withdrawals
and redeployments. Today, we have only 13,000 troops, and they — all
of them are outside major Lebanese cities. So we have done this in the
past, and we have explicitly said that we will continue doing this. .
.. .
And we have repeatedly said on the record in the past three years, not
because of this pressure now, the moment the Lebanese government will
ask us to leave, we will leave. And we are leaving, absolutely.
Regarding Rice’s statement that she had "firm evidence that
Palestinian Islamic Jihad sitting in Damascus not only knew about the
attacks, but was involved in the planning":
This is extremely disappointing. First, let me say that we condemn
what has happened. Second, Syria is providing every possible political
support to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, so that he can
enhance the peace process. There is a window of opportunity for peace
in the Middle East. We are actually supporting his efforts. Mahmoud
Abbas has said something 180 percent contradictory to what Secretary
Rice has said. He said there is no evidence whatsoever linking Syria
to that attack.
We feel disappointed because this is reminiscent to the series of
accusations that used to be leveled against Iraq before the invasion
on Iraq.
As to terrorist groups based in Syria:
What we said to the Americans in the past two years — and now I am
repeating this, on the record — is "The moment you bring us a shred of
evidence that anybody, anybody is doing this, we will act upon it." I
will repeat: "We will act upon it."
But the problem is they never come to us and tell us, "Look, this is
what we have." They only go to the media and say, "We think that this
is happening," or "We believe that this is happening out of Damascus."
Now we do not allow this. We do not believe this is happening, but we
do not stop here. We tell our American counterparts, "Whenever you
want to really find a solution to this problem, come and discuss it
with us. Show us what evidence you have, and we will act upon it."
You can hear the interview free of charge, or you can order a written
transcript for $4.95.)
I must remind you that 90% of what we know about foreign affairs is
information that has come from the U.S. government. That’s where CNN,
Fox TV News, ABC, NBC, CBS, The Washington Post, The New York Times,
The Los Angeles Times, and almost all the rest of the American media
get almost all their information. And we’ve seen plenty of evidence
that the Bush administration has no qualms whatsoever about spreading
disinformation to further its political programs.
So What’s Doing in Syria & the Rest of the Middle East?
What, then, do we really know about the march to freedom and the
Syrian threat?
1. There are 13,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon. There are 150,000
American troops in Iraq. Which is more of an invading, occupying army?
2. The Syrian troops in Lebanon are all in the countryside — ready to
help restore order if needed, but generally out of sight of the
Lebanese people. The American troops in Iraq are all over the place —
killing insurgents and civilians alike while devastating cities like
Fallujah.
3. There are no reports of Lebanese insurgents fighting the Syrian
troops, while there are daily clashes between Iraqi insurgents and
American troops.
4. As Pat Buchanan has pointed out, it would make no sense for the
Syrians to have assassinated the Lebanese ex-Prime Minister — since
they had to know that they would automatically become the #1 suspect
and bring the wrath of Bush down upon their heads.
5. Syrian troops first invaded Lebanon at the time of the Gulf War.
And while Syria was overrunning Lebanon, President George H.W. Bush
was proudly listing Syria as a member of the coalition of nations
fighting Saddam Hussein.
6. The Bush administration, as usual, won’t negotiate anything with
anyone. The Bushies prefer to make accusations in the media, assert
that they have evidence that no one ever gets to see, and incite
Americans to hate another nation of human beings.
7. The claims that recent democratic developments in Arab countries
prove that the Bush doctrine has succeeded are as premature as the
"Mission Accomplished" banner on the USS Lincoln. I’m not aware of a
single country in the Middle East in which the citizens have one iota
more liberty than they did three years ago. All we’ve seen are tiny
baby steps toward democracy — meaning that some people might get the
opportunity to vote on who will officiate in their police states, just
as the citizens of Iraq got to vote under the Hussein regime.
8. The TV pictures of a Lebanese crowd celebrating the fall of the
pro-Syrian Lebanese government no more demonstrate the attitudes of
all Lebanese than do the TV pictures of U.S. pro-abortion rallies
demonstrate that all Americans (or even a majority) are in favor of
abortions.
9. Despite the State Department’s human rights report of torture and
other ghastly conditions inside Syria, the U.S. government has sent
some of its "War on Terror" prisoners to Syria for interrogation —
and, presumably, torture. And not one American politician is
embarrassed by the contradiction.
Once again, the Bush administration has cried "Havoc!" and is gearing
up to unleash the Dogs of War.
And if we’re smart, we won’t believe a word of it.
"Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one,some bigger than others"
.
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