The more time passes since the
allied attack against Syria on 14 April 2018, the more the available
information reveals the amplitude of the disaster. While the United States
still manage to prevent leaks from their armies, those from France are
irrevocable. Washington, Paris and London clearly demonstrated that they still
intend to rule the world, but they also showed that they no longer have the
means to do so.
One
week after the allied attack against Syria, very many questions remain
unanswered concerning the objectives of this operation and its implementation.
And the few established facts contradict the official Western declarations.
The objectives of the bombing
According
to the Western version of the story, these bombing attacks were not aimed at
overthrowing the Syrian Arab Republic (which they call « Bachar’s régime »),
but to sanction the use of chemical weapons.
However, no proof of the use
of such weapons has been published. Instead, the three allies each broadcast
evaluations based on the original video published by the White Helmets [1] — a video which was itself later
contradicted by many of the people who appear in it, as well as the personnel
of the hospital where it was filmed [2].
On the contrary, we are
justified in asking whether the real objective of these raids may indeed have
been to overthrow the Republic. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that
missiles were fired at the Presidential palace in Damascus. This is also the
interpretation by Russia, for whom the real Allied objective was to counter the
« success of the Syrian armed forces in the fight to liberate their territory
from international terrorism ».
The destruction of the
pharmaceutical research centre in Barzeh remains a mystery. This installation
was in no way secret. It had been created with the help of France. The
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inspected it five times
and found nothing that could be linked to research on chemical weapons [3]. According to officials, in the context of
international sanctions, the laboratory was carrying out research on
anti-cancer products. It was not guarded, and there were no victims in the
collapse of the buildings. Neither did the collapse cause the dispersion of
chemical agents into the atmosphere. This situation can not help but remind us
of the destruction by the United States of the Al-Shifa factory in Sudan. In
1998, President Bill Clinton ordered its destruction, implemented by a salvo of
four Tomahawk missiles, for a cost of one dead and ten wounded. The US
intelligence services had assured that the laboratory was developing nerve
gases for Oussama Ben Laden. It turned out later that it was Sudan’s main
centre for the production of generic medicines [4]. In particular, it made anti-AIDS medicine
without paying the license to Gilead Science, a company directed by Donald
Rumsfeld and George Schultz [5].
The implementation of the
operation
The Allies claim to have
fired 105 missiles, while the Russians counted 103 [6]. The coordination between the different armies
was handled by NATO, although it claimed no responsibility [7]. In conformity with its statutes, the
Organisation acted with the approval of the North Atlantic Council, although
this is not yet certain. Indeed, the Council had not been consulted before the
bombing of Tripoli (Libya), in 2011, and no-one protested. The aim of this
coordination was to ensure that all the missiles fired, whether from the
Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the air, would all hit their targets at the
same moment. However, things did not go as planned – although the Allied
operation was to have been finished within half an hour, in fact it took 1 hour
and 46 minutes between the first and final shot.
Prior
to the attack, Russia had announced that it would riposte if any of its
soldiers were killed. The Allied armies were therefore tasked with the mission
of being careful to spare them.
However,
the Russian army observed the shots and transmitted the coordinates of the
Allied missiles to the Syrian Arab Army in real time, in order to allow the
Syrians to destroy them. Besides this, when the Syrians became swamped by the
number of allied missiles, the Russian army deployed its system for inhibiting
the commands and controls of NATO, which paralysed most of their launchers.
This was the first time that the French were confronted with this system, which
had already caused problems for the United States and the British in the
Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Kaliningrad.
Besides this, two Russian
ships left the port of Tartus to play cat and mouse with a British nuclear
attack submarine. [8].
According
to the Russian and Syrian staff, 73 missiles were destroyed in flight, a figure
which is haughtily contested by the Allied staff. Yet, on the ground, everyone
– including myself – could see the activity of the anti-aircraft defense, and
no-one saw the impacts of the 105 allied missiles announced.
The Allies immediately
specified that any more precise information was classified. However, the
specialised forums proffered all sorts of unverifiable revelations about the
massive failure of this operation. The most that we know for certain is that a
French plane was unable to fire one of its missiles, and was obliged to jettison
it out to sea without triggering it [9], and that two French multi-mission frigates
suffered a computer failure and were unable to fire their naval Cruise
missiles [10] — these are symptoms that are well known
by anyone who has had to face up to the Russian inhibitor weapon.
The Syrian defence was
over-run by the number of missiles which were fired from every direction. It
therefore chose to defend in priority certain targets, like the Presidential
palace, and to sacrifice others like the research centre in Bazeh. Since then,
Russia has announced that it will be delivering new anti-missile batteries to
Syria.
In
any case, this operation is clearly the greatest military fiasco since the
Second World War.
Western rhetoric
These
bombings are certainly illegal from the point of view of international law –
none of the three aggressors has been attacked by the Syrian Arab Republic, and
their action was not authorised by the Security Council.
The Allies therefore
communicated about the legality of their initiative. This was denied by the
legal service of the German Bundestag. [11]. Indeed, apart from the fantastical
character of the supposed attack in the Ghouta, this type of bombing in no way
guarantees an end to the suffering of the civil population.
As
for France, it continually stressed that it was not going to war against «
Bachar’s regime » – comments that were immediately contradicted by Syria, which
returned President al-Assad’s Grand Cross of the Légion d’Honneur to the
Romanian ambassador, who represents French interests in Damascus. « There is no
honour for President Assad in wearing a decoration attributed by a slave régime
of the United States which supports terrorists », declared the Presidential
spokesman.
Some
authors close to NATO evoke the « responsibility of protection » (R2P)
proclaimed by the UNO. Once again, that’s not the point. In fact, the R2P only
applies in order to compensate failed states, which is clearly not the case of
the Syrian Arab Republic, whose public services are still functioning after 7
years of war.
Finally,
while the United States, France and the United Kingdom showed with this
operation that they exist outside of international law, they also showed that
their armies are not what they used to be.
—
[1] “United
States Assessment of the Assad Regime’s Chemical Weapons Use”, Voltaire Network, 13 April 2018. « Évaluation
nationale du ministère français de la Défense sur l’attaque chimique du 7 avril
2018 », Réseau Voltaire, 14
avril 2018. “Syria action – UK government legal position”, Voltaire Network, 14 April 2018.
[2] “Witnesses
take the sting out of the charge made by the White Helmets”,
Translation Anoosha Boralessa, Voltaire Network, 14
April 2018.
[3] Last inspection : “Progress
in the elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons programme”, by
Ahmet Üzümcü , Voltaire Network, 23 March 2018.
[4] “Universalism and the West. An Agenda for Understanding”,
in «The Future of War», Werner Daum, Harvard International Review,
Vol. 23 (2) – Summer 2001.
[5] “War
as a World Strategy”, Voltaire Network, 19
March 2003.
[6] “General
Staff Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy holds briefing dealing with western attack
against Syria”, by Sergei Rudskoy, Voltaire Network, 14
April 2018.
[7] “Fake
“made in USA” and lies “made in Italy””, by Manlio Dinucci, Il Manifesto (Italy) , Voltaire Network, 17 April 2018.
[8] “British submarine in duel with Kremlin’s ‘Black Hole’
hunter-killer”, Mark Hookham & Tim Ripley, The Times, 16 avril 2018.
[9] «Frappes en Syrie : un des missiles Scalp « n’est pas
parti » du Rafale», Guerric Poncet, Le Point,
18 avril 2018.
[10] «Couacs inexpliqués pour les missiles de MBDA au large des
côtes syriennes», La Lettre A, 17
avril 2018. «Frappes en Syrie : un couac dans la marine a empêché le
tirs de plusieurs missiles», Pierre Julien, RTL, 19 avril 2018.
[11] “Völkerrechtliche Implikationen des
amerikanisch-britischfranzösischen Militärschlags vom 14. April 2018 gegen
Chemiewaffeneinrichtungen in Syrien”, Bundestag, 18.
April 2018.
French
intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace
Conference. His columns specializing in international relations feature in
daily newspapers and weekly magazines in Arabic, Spanish and Russian. His last
two books published in English : 9/11 the Big Lie and Pentagate.
The
articles on Voltaire Network may be freely reproduced provided the source is
cited, their integrity is respected and they are not used for commercial
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