If we consider the war in Syria
not as a singular event, but as the culmination of a world war which has
persisted for a quarter of a century, we have to ask ourselves about the
consequences of the imminent end of hostilities. Its completion marks the defeat
of an ideology, that is to say globalisation and financial capitalism. The
people who have not understood this, particularly in Western Europe, are
defining their own exclusion from the rest of the world.
World
wars do not only end with a winner and a loser. Their termination defines the
contours of a new world.
The
First World War ended with the defeat of the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian
and Ottoman Empires. The cessation of hostilities was marked by the elaboration
of an international organisation, the League of Nations (LN), tasked with
abolishing secret diplomacy and settling any conflicts between the
member-states by arbitration.
The Second World War ended
with the victory of the Soviet Union over the Nazi Reich and the Japanese
Empire of hakkō ichiu [1], followed by a frantic chase between the
Allies to occupy what was left of the vanquished Coalition. It gave birth to a
new structure, the United Nations Organisation (UNO), tasked with preventing
new wars by establishing international Law around a double legitimacy – the
General Assembly, where each state has a voice, irrespective of its size, and a
directorate composed of the five main victors, the Security Council.
The
Cold War was not the Third World War. It did not end with the defeat of the
Soviet Union, but by its collapse in and onto itself. It was not followed by
the creation of new structures, but by the integration of the states of the
USSR into pre-existing organisations.
The
Third World War began in Yugoslavia, continued in Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia,
Libya and Yemen, and ended in Syria. Its battle-grounds were confined to the
Balkans, the Caucasus and what we now call the « Greater Middle East ». It has
cost the lives of countless Muslim and Orthodox Christian populations, without
spilling over too much into the Western world. It is in the process of drawing
to a close since the Putin-Trump Summit in Helsinki.
The profound changes which
have transformed the world over the last 26 years transferred a part of the
power of governments towards other entities, both administrative and private –
and also vice versa. For example, we saw a private army, Daesh, proclaim itself
a sovereign state. Or again, we watched General David Petraeus organise the
most voluminous arms traffic in History when he directed the CIA, and then
continue it after his resignation on behalf of a private company, the hedge
fund KKR [2].
This
situation may be described as a confrontation between, on the one hand, a
transnational ruling class and, on the other, the governments responsible to
their people.
Contrary
to the imputations of propaganda, which attribute the causes of war to
immediate circumstances, the true causes are to be found in rivalries and in
deep-seated, ancient ambitions. States take years to challenge one another.
Often, it is only with the passage of time that we are able to understand the
conflicts which devour us.
For example, very few people
understood what was happening during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (1931)
and waited until the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Germany(1938) to understand
that it was racist ideologies which provoked the Second World War. Identically,
rare are those who understood that by the war of Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992) the
alliance between NATO and political Islam opened the way for the destruction of
the Muslim world [3].
And today, despite the work
of journalists and historians, many people have still not understood the
enormity of the manipulation of which we have all been victims. They refuse to
admit that NATO coordinated its Saudi and Iranian auxiliaries on the European
continent. And yet this is a fact which is impossible to contest [4].
Similarly, they refuse to
admit that Al-Qaïda, accused by the United States of having perpetrated the
terrorist attacks of 9/11, fought under the orders of NATO in Libya and Syria.
And yet this is another fact that is impossible to contradict [5].
The
initial plan, which was intended to set the Muslim world against the Orthodox
world, became transformed as it unfolded. There was no « war of civilisations
». Shiite Iran turned against NATO, which it had served in Yugoslavia, and
allied with Orthodox Russia in order to save multi-confessional Syria.
We
must open our eyes to History and prepare ourselves for the dawn of a new world
system in which certain of our friends of yesterday have become our enemies of
today, and vice-versa.
In
Helsinki, it was not the United States which drew up an agreement with the
Federation of Russia. It was the White House alone. Because the common enemy is
a transnational group which exercises authority in the United States. Since
this group considers itself, and not the elected President, to be the
representative of the USA, it did not hesitate to immediately accuse President
Trump of treason.
This
transnational group has succeeded in making us believe that ideologies are dead
and that History is finished. It presents globalisation, in other words
Anglo-Saxon domination by way of the extension of the US language and
life-style, as the consequence of the technical development of transport and
communication. It assures us that a single political system is the ideal for
all humanity – democracy (in other words « government of the People, by the
People, for the People ») – and that it is possible to impose this ideal by
force on all humanity. Finally, it presents the freedom of circulation of
people and capitals as the solution to all problems of labour and investment.
However, these assertions,
which we all accept in the course of our daily lives, do not stand up to a
minute of thought.
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Behind
these lies, the transnational group has systematically worn down the Power of
states and amassed fortunes.
The
side which will be the victor of this long war defends, on the contrary, the
idea that in order to chose their destiny, people must organise themselves into
clearly-defined Nations, based either on a land or else on a common history or
project. Consequently, it supports national economies rather than transnational
finance.
We
have just experienced the World Football Cup. If the ideology of globalisation
had won the war, we should have supported not only our national team, but also
the teams of other countries according to their membership of our common
supra-national structures. For example, the Belgians and the French would have
had to support one another mutually by waving the flag of the European Union.
But this did not occur to a single supporter. This fact shows the chasm which
separates the propaganda with which we are force-fed and which we repeat, and
our spontaneous behaviour. Despite appearances, the superficial victory of
globalism has not modified what we are.
It is
obviously no coincidence if Syria, where the idea of a state was first imagined
and developed several thousand years ago, is the land upon which this war will
end. It is because they benefited from a true state which never stopped
functioning that Syria, its people, its army and its President were able to
resist against the most gigantic coalition in History, constituted by 114
member states of the United Nations.
—
[1] Hakkō ichiu (the
eight corners of the world under one roof) is the ideology of the Japanese
Empire. It claims the superiority of the Japanese race and its right to dominate
Asia.
[2] “[Billions of dollars’ worth of arms
against Syria]”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 18 July 2017.
[3] Les Dollars de la terreur : Les États-Unis et les
islamistes, Richard Labévière, Grasset, 1999. English
version : Dollars for Terror: The United States and
Islam, Algora Publishing, 2000.
[4] Wie der Dschihad nach Europa
kam. Gotteskrieger und Geheimdienste auf dem Balkan, Jürgen
Elsässer, Kai Homilius Verlag, 2006.
[5] Sous nos yeux. Du 11-septembre à Donald Trump,
Thierry Meyssan, Demi-Lune 2017.
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
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