Stephen Lendman

Lies, deceptions, distortions and misinformation provide bedrock justification for all wars - naked aggression when preemptively waged against countries threatening no one.

Syria was invaded and attacked. Its war isn’t civil. Its military is combating US-supported terrorists. Its survival as a nation depends on defeating them.

No evidence suggests Syria carried out CW attacks on civilians or militants any time throughout over six years of war - including on April 4 in Khan Sheikhoun, a likely CIA-orchestrated incident, using terrorists to do its dirty work. The attack came from the ground, not the air - likely from rockets filled with toxins.

Assad was falsely blamed for crimes committed by US-supported terrorists. It’s one of the oldest dirty tricks in the book - a US specialty, blaming victims for its high crimes, along with inventing phony pretexts for wars.

In response to the Khan Sheikhoun incident, America’s liar-in-chief said the following:

“…Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children.”

“There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons violated its obligations under the chemical weapons convention and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council.”

“Tonight I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria. And also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types.”

Fact: Assad is no despot. In June 2014, he was overwhelmingly reelected Syria’s president, the process called open, free and fair by international observers.

Fact: He remains overwhelmingly popular. Syrians want no one else leading them.

Fact: He’s doing his job responsibly - combating US-supported terrorists, including ISIS, al-Nusra and others.

Fact: Accusing him of using CWs “on innocent civilians” or anyone else is a malicious Big Lie.

Fact: “There can be no dispute that Syria” DID NOT use CWs any time against anyone throughout Obama’s war, now Trump’s.

Fact: Trump’s vow to combat terrorism was a Big Lie. Like his predecessors, he supports the scourge he pretends to oppose.

Fact: He’s an unindicted war criminal for high crimes against peace in multiple war theaters - escalating Bush/Cheney/Obama wars, risking nuclear war with Russia, China and North Korea, a shocking indictment of a rogue presidency this early in its tenure.

Fact: What’s possibly coming should terrify everyone. Trump, along with neocons infesting his administration and
Congress, may kill us all.

Big Lies by anonymous senior White House officials:

“Assad’s government carried out the April 4 sarin nerve gas attack attack on civilians in Syria’s Idlib province…”

Fact: FALSE! Details of the attack remain unknown until a credible independent investigation releases its findings.

“It’s clear that the Russians are trying to cover up what happened there.”

Fact: FALSE! It’s very clear that US and other Western officials, along with media scoundrels, blame Assad irresponsibly for something his government or military had nothing to do with.

Secretary of State Tillerson’s Big Lies:

“We have a very high level of confidence that the attacks were carried out (by) aircraft under the direction of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”

“We have very high confidence that the attacks involved the use of sarin nerve gas.”

“It’s important that some action be taken on behalf of the international community so we make clear this is a violation of international norms.”

On April 11 with other G7 foreign ministers in Lucca, Italy, Tillerson lied, saying: “Last week Bashar al-Assad’s regime killed even more of its own people using banned chemical weapons.”

He tried justifying Trump’s unjustifiable naked aggression, striking Syria’s Shayrat airbase, killing at least 14 civilians and military personnel.

He irresponsibly blamed Russia for complicity in the April 4 incident, claiming its government “failed…to deliver on (its) commitment” to assure all Syrian CWs were destroyed.

Like other administration and congressional officials, Tillerson’s account of the April 4 incident was a bald-faced Big Lie.

Defense Secretary James Mattis’ Big Lies:

“There is no doubt the Syrian regime is responsible for the decision to attack (Khan Sheikhoun) and for the attack itself.”

Fact: “There is no doubt” that America’s dirty hands were directly or indirectly involved in what happened, not Syria, as falsely claimed.

National Security Advisor HR McMaster’s Big Lies:

“(I)n this particular case, the use of prohibited chemical weapons, which violates a number of international norms and violates existing agreements, called for this type of a response, which is a kinetic military response.”

Fact: Trump’s “kinetic military response” was naked aggression - based on a Big Lie.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s Big Lies:

The April 4 “chemical attacks in Syria against innocent people including women and children is reprehensible and cannot be ignored by the civilized world.”

“These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution.”

On Tuesday, he shameless reinvented history, saying “(w)e had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”

He “was not using the gas on his own people the same way Assad is doing” - despicably portraying Syria’s leader as worse than Nazi Germany’s dictator, a shocking display of ignorance, maliciousness, deception and lying.

Trump is at war in multiple theaters, massacring civilians ruthlessly, using cluster bombs and other illegal weapons.

America has a sordid history of using chemical, biological and radiological weapons in warfare - including blankets infected with smallpox against its Native people, Agent Orange in Southeast Asia, and depleted uranium in all active war theaters.

During WW II and subsequent wars, civilians were and continue to be indiscriminately massacred.

No country threatens America. Yet it’s waging wars in multiple theaters - lawless aggression without Security Counsel authorization.

Instead of winding down current conflicts as promised, Trump continues escalating them.

The risk of possible nuclear war on his watch is ominously real. At stake is humanity’s survival.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at http://www.sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.