John Chuckman

EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS

 

“Turkey’s pledge to ‘take custody’ of ISIS prisoner camps called precarious by experts

“About 30 Canadian men, women and children are thought to be held in these camps”

 

This is just one more bit of peripheral noise about what’s going on in northeast Syria. No one, on any side, gives a damn about the mercenaries of ISIS.

What really concerns Washington is the failure of its plan to support the hiving off of the area as a Kurdish rump state, which is what the American troops there have been doing, training and supplying Syrian Kurds to fight against Syria’s government. The effort represented Israel’s consolation prize for the loss of the American-run proxy war intended to topple Syria.

Fighting ISIS has been the consistent cover story for this operation which involves American troops illegally in Syria doing things like building bases and supplying Syrian Kurds with weapons.

Not only was the effort a very nasty piece of business to be doing in someone else’s country, but a rather foolish one, considering the well-known attitude of Turkey’s Erdogan about having any Kurdish-run entities on Turkey’s border.

It represents just one more embarrassing mishap in the running of the American empire, whose affairs often are handled with the aplomb and dignity of the Keystone Cops.

 

AFTER WORD:

The real interests at work in northeastern Syria project are easily understood from various comments following Trump’s initial moving of some American troops, effectively allowing Turkey’s Erdogan to invade the region.

We had the Congress’s most vigilant defender of all the interests of Israel, Senator Lindsey Graham, blowing huge clouds of steam almost immediately, but of course speaking in disguised terms about concerns for “allied” Kurds.

Other members of Congress quickly chimed in, also with concerns for the Kurds and various suggested punitive measures to be brought against Turkey.

Trump did one of his typical clownish flip-flops by starting to talk about the need for maybe something stronger than sanctions against Turkey.

And this morning, Netanyahu, who of course should have nothing to say about what happens in northeastern Syria, made threats about Israel maybe assisting the “valiant Kurds.” Oh, sure, Israel as defender of valiant Kurds.

Then, we have stories like the one above, from CBC, suggesting concern for the Kurds’ ISIS prisoners coming under Turkey’s charge. About thirty are thought to be Canadians. The irony is almost overwhelming since Canada has only recently spoken against repatriating Canadian members of ISIS.

Something from Russia brings things together nicely.

There are two notorious Russian pranksters, Alexey Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, very clever fellows who have a number of times pulled off the stunt of calling someone famous while pretending to be someone else famous and getting the person they call to answer sensitive and embarrassing questions, recording the answers.

I suspect they are with Russian security services, given all the special knowledge required to place such calls, and their efforts often provide real insight along with some laughs.

They called Lindsey Graham twice, pretending to be the Turkish Defense Minister, and they recorded him saying: “I told President Trump that Obama made a huge mistake in relying on the YPG Kurds. Everything I worried about has come true, and now we have to make sure Turkey is protected from this threat in Syria. I’m sympathetic to the YPG problem, and so is the president, quite frankly.”

Talk about hypocrisy, the man says the very opposite in confidence to his public words.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MARKO MARJANOVIC IN CHECKPOINT ASIA

 

“Senator Graham Threatens Turkey With Sanctions He Failed to Enact on MBS

“When have we heard Lindsey Graham thunder like this before?”

 

https://www.checkpointasia.net/having-failed-to-enact-promised-sanctions-on-mbs-senator-graham-issues-more-sanctions-threat-vs-turkey/

 

Lindsey Graham is likely the most absurd man in the US Senate, although there is ferocious competition for that title.

Extremely dishonest, too, because he doesn’t talk about what really motivates him, bringing to the boil all that sputtering righteous indignation.

I think he must have received a call from Netanyahu advising him that it was time to perform. Graham is Israel’s official junkyard dog in the Senate, always creating a stir when the interests of that state are being mentioned.

It is Israel who wants some kind of rump Kurdish state created in northeastern Syria as a way to weaken the Syria emerging from an unsuccessful proxy war that was intended to topple it.

The concept had multiple attractions for Israel: depriving Syria of its crude oil deposits, offering rule on the far end of Syria by a group who might prove very friendly to Israeli interests, giving a further sense of legitimacy to Israel’s own stolen piece of Syria, Golan, and annoying the hell out of Turkey’s Erdogan, a man truly hated in Tel Aviv.

But it has never seemed realistic, given especially Erdogan’s acute allergy to Kurds and Turkey’s keystone position in NATO at a time of so many disagreements between Turkey and the US.

As to Graham’s propensity to explode over the concerns of Israel, I think there are several contributing factors. First, he is simply one of the most knee-jerk imperialists in the Senate, always ready immediately to send in the “boyz” and do bombing runs for dear old America and the cause of freedom.

Second, he may be reflecting the interests of some of his Southern Baptist constituency, fundamentalists with their own special “Second Coming” attitudes towards Israel.

And, third, I’ve long suspected that he was once the target of an Israeli honey-trap and that he knows some very compromising photos exist, photos that would deeply trouble Southern Baptists since Lindsey is gay.

Actually, contrary to the opening lines, we have heard Lindsey Graham like this before. But of course, not about anything like the Saudi Crown Prince’s many bloody crimes. After all, the Crown Prince is a Netanyahu favorite, a genuine “blood brother.”

John Chuckman

EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN AP ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS

 

“Trump decided to withdraw troops from Syria without consulting advisers”

 

I think at best that is only technically accurate.

Everyone knew Trump’s original position on this.

And many reports point to advisors telling him not to go that way. Over and over.

Indeed, I ‘ve seen a piece that says his sudden impulse was in part a reaction to his hearing the same stuff over and again from advisors. There does come a point when there’s not much point in asking the same people the same question again.

Perhaps Trump had reached that, although it remains easy to paint him as impulsive and erratic in this decision because he has been impulsive and erratic so very many times. It is part of his basic nature. But you can be impulsive and erratic in executing a sound decision, or you can be erratic and impulsive in even making the decision. Opponents are suggesting the latter.

Well, that all means he knew their positions, and they knew his. So, I view this kind of report as echoing a kind of disinformation from insider opponents.

This would be by far Trump’s worthiest act, keeping his word on a very important matter from two years ago.

There can be no question he has made his Neocon officials angry – folks like Bolton and Pompeo – but who cares? They are some of the most deplorable people in the government. People always ready to see others die in the name of ideology.

I don’t like Trump, but I completely support him here. We all should.  I only hope he is sincere, but that is not at all certain. Nor is it certain that even if he is sincere, he will not be diverted from his purpose by powerful forces.

Of course, his blubbering about defeating ISIS is just defensive posturing. The best comment I’ve read on that claim is: “Actually, ISIS Isn’t Beaten Yet Because the US Prevented Syrians From Doing So”

That reflects the truth about most of the American activity in a war that has seen half a million die and millions made refugees. The secret aim of all the effort was to remove a popularly-supported government and weaken a country that Israel does not like having on its border, and the effort has failed. Yes, in the recent past, America did engage in actually bombing ISIS, but that has not been its record for the war.

ISIS has been bombed by Western governments recently because they could no longer resist the public clamor over this horrible gang which went out of its way to terrify opponents with brutal acts. Before that, they were a useful tool. Anyway, they’ve served their purpose and failed. And no one involved in Realpolitik and the war business has sympathy or use for failed hired thugs. You might as well try to earn some public relations credit by killing some of them off.

American bombing of ISIS in places like Raqqa, Syria, has been the most brutal by anyone in the war, killing very large numbers of civilians. It appears the Pentagon put the emphasis on just quickly getting the job done.

Of course, the same pattern has been seen in Afghanistan, a place which endlessly frustrates an American invader whose purpose, beyond vengeance, was never quite clear from the start.

The entire record of American involvement in Syria is shameful, and, of course, all of it is completely illegal since America has no one’s permission even to fly over the country, let alone bomb and build bases and provide weapons to rebellion.

The Syrian army, greatly helped by Russia and Iran, in fact defeated ISIS and some of the other terrorists. Perhaps, soon they can finish the job in the Northeast, and all the refugees can begin going home to rebuild?

But Turkey is promising to do the job for them in its determination to prevent a Kurdish rump state on its border. It is anybody’s guess how that will all sort out, vis-à-vis Syria and Russia.