Let’s go back to the beginning of September, when war fever was sweeping the U.S., and when Nobel Peace Prize winner President Obama was about to attack Syria. The hysterics coming forth from the neocons were a sight to see. They were about to get yet another war.
Here was the Grade A propaganda that Max Boot published on the alleged chemical weapons use by Syria’s Assad:
The result if the U.S. does nothing: Bashar Assad will get away with the most significant use of chemical weapons since Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds in 1988. This, in turn, will send a signal to weapons proliferators such as North Korea and Iran that the U.S. lacks the will to stop them. Any hopes of a negotiated stop to the Iranian nuclear program–admittedly slim to begin with–will disappear altogether. Israel will be left standing alone against the Iranians and their Hezbollah proxies. The opposition in Syria will suffer a substantial blow and Assad may well be emboldened to employ sarin gas again.
When it’s war propaganda time, neocons will say whatever it takes. One would think, that since an agreement has been made for Syria’s chemical weapons will be destroyed, that Boot would be elated with joy. The world will not be coming to an end!
In the past Obama has spoken of the need for the U.S. government to stop atrocities abroad…But in Syria he has confined his attention to preventing one small set of atrocities–those committed with chemical weapons…
Wait a second!…Stop the tape!
“One small set of atrocities”? What happened to all the Saddam Hussein talk, and throwing North Korea into the mix, and Israel being left out in the wilderness as Assad conquered the Middle East like a modern day Genghis Khan? This incident was being sold as anything but small!
Boot finishes his thought:
…while ignoring the far more pervasive atrocities carried out with conventional weaponry which might at least partially been stopped by American air strikes.
Of course. Syria is going through a civil war. Assad is fighting against various groups (which include Al-Qaeda) for control over the Syrian state. It has nothing whatsoever to do with defending America.
Boot and the Neocons had one objective: “American air strikes”. Chemical weapons were the pretext, and fortunately, it didn’t stick.
Putin should ask Obama to FedEx that Peace Prize over to the Kremlin. And Boot should cheer up, the chemical weapons are set to be destroyed.
