Gearing up for war?
September 15th, 2007 by Torstein Schiøtz Worren
I don’t know if this case has made much of an appearance in the Norwegian media, but the Israeli bombing of something in eastern Syria last week and the speculation of what actually happened later is not a good sign for the Middle East or peaceful resolutions of any of the numerous conflicts in the region.
Israeli military and official sources have kept quiet about what their target was, which means that either it was not successful as they would have triumphantly told the world if they had taken out anything that could “threaten world peace” or it was successful but too controversial to admit. This is especially interesting since the Israelis throughout the summer have been claiming that they do not want the much-anticipated conflict between the two countries and have said that their strengthening of their forces and military exercises in the occupied Golan heights are for defensive purposes only. Israel has been claiming that the country does not think that Syria is going to attack, but that Israeli actions could be misread and thus accidentally leading to war. And then they send fighters to bomb something in Syria instead.
Here is a good article on this in Israel’s Jerusalem Post.
At the same time as Israel is keeping a tight lid on any information and making sure that censorship laws prevent the newspapers from using military sources, the US is admitting that an attack has taken place while stories and speculations are leaked about possible nuclear weapon technology being transferred from North Korea now that that evil country is negotiating about dismantling its nuclear programme.
Quoted from http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/6251
Joseph Cirincione, senior fellow and director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress, author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, and a frequent FP contributor, says:
“This story is nonsense. The Washington Post story should have been headlined “White House Officials Try to Push North Korea-Syria Connection.” This is a political story, not a threat story. The mainstream media seems to have learned nothing from the run-up to war in Iraq. It is a sad commentary on how selective leaks from administration officials who have repeatedly misled the press are still treated as if they were absolute truth.
…
Few reporters appear to have done even basic investigation of the miniscule Syrian nuclear program (though this seems to be filtering into some stories running Friday). There is a reason that Syria is not included in most proliferation studies, including mine: It doesn’t amount to much. Begun almost 40 years ago, the Syrian program is a rudimentary research program built around a tiny 30-kilowatt research reactor that produces isotopes and neutrons. It is nowhere near a program for nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel. Over a dozen countries have aided the program including Belgium, Germany, Russia, China, and the United States (where several Syrian scientists trained) as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). If North Korea gave them anything short of nuclear weapons it is of little consequence. Syria does not have the financial, technical or industrial base to develop a serious nuclear program anytime in the foreseeable future.
…
The real story is how quickly the New York Times and the Washington Post snapped up the bait and ran exactly the story the officials wanted, thereby feeding a mini-media frenzy. It appears that nothing, not even a disastrous and unnecessary war, can break this Pavlovian response to an “intelligence scoop.”For information on the Syrian nuclear program that any reporter should have read, see the Web site of the Nuclear Threat Initiative.”
And exactly this is the problem. Even if there is nothing to the story at all apart from wild speculation from Bolton and his neocon friends in the Bush administration, just putting this out there and letting the gullible media repeat it, a story they obviously does not follow up on as there is nothing to report, creates yet another idea in people’s minds about the evil people in power in ‘The Axis of Evil.’ Next time your average American or European hears Syria mentioned, he will remember that there is supposed to be some kind of connection to nuclear weapons. And then, being an Arab/Muslim country, those folks are a dangerous bunch that has whatever might happen coming.
So what is really going on? It sounds too much like the run-up to the invasion of Iraq four years ago. So-called ‘intelligence’ on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction programme, his co-operation with al-Qaida, his burrying of WMDs across the border in Syria etc etc etc was only there to create an image of a country that needed to be bombed to keep us in the West safe from crazy and evil people who want to kill us(!). That it was not true was of no consequence as many Americans still believe the above claims to be true even four years later.
The Americans (in cahoots with the Israelis) are probably getting ready to hit Iran and its nuclear programme (and they will probably take the opportunity to hit other targets as well, including government ones) after a relentless media campaign to portray Iran and its leaders and complete maniacs and turning most of the Arab world against them through their claims that Iran is waging war on Sunni Muslims all over the Middle East and in Iraq in particular. Syria, being an ally (out of circumstance more than anything else) of Iran, ties neatly into this and will willingly or not be dragged into this whole mess. If we are to believe the American administration, Syria controls not only Hizbullah, but also Hamas and the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. To drag them down with Iran will thus be a propaganda victory now that there is only a year left until presidential elections in the US. That’s why Bush and Cheney and the rest of the henchmen have made sure to block any attempts at peace negotiations between Israel and Syria since it became known that secret talks were held last year. One cannot bomb a country trying to make peace with its neighbour…
Guess we’re in for an interesting autumn. Not that the Middle East (or Europe or the US for that matter) will be a better place once the whole thing is over.
Yet, the media’s ability to uncritically copy each other and cite dubious sources and having learned nothing from the 2003 invasion makes me want to cry.