In pursuing the truth about the war in Syria, we could begin by examining a pivotal month in the war: August 2013.

In doing so, we may come to realize that supporting the people of Syria might require us to re-assess our assumptions about the war, our allies’ actions in the war, and the direction of our government’s foreign policy.

Pursuing the truth might put us in step with millions of Syrians who may or may not support the current president but who definitely don’t support the US and UK foreign policies toward their country, nor support the aims of armed groups wishing to establish a Caliphate across the region, starting with Syria.

August 2013 was a pivotal month in the Syrian war. Events in that month encapsulate the Syrian war as a whole: it has been a dirty, covert war of aggression against a sovereign country and its people.

Attention to those events in August 2013 could

– not only challenge our assumptions about the war in Syria but better equip us to respond to other conflicts in a responsible and well-informed manner

– enable us to watch the backs of Australian defense personnel so they are not sent into wars that put them on the side of the aggressors

– lead us to a truer understanding of the suffering endured by the people of Syria these past 8 years

– pave the way for our politicians to pursue a more independent Australian foreign policy.

Looking closely at events in Syria that occurred in August 2013 points to the nature of the war as a whole.

A. In early August 2013, armed groups from ISIS to the Free Syrian Army were willing to ignore ideological differences they may have had in order to come together to massacre scores of Alawite women and children in villages not far from the Mediterranean. As well as the killings, many women and children were kidnapped during this coordinated action by insurgent groups. [1]B. On 21 August 2013, insurgents were able to stage the killing of hundreds of civilians – including scores of children – and pass it off as a ‘sarin’ attack committed by Syrian government forces. Presumably, insurgents could only get away with such subterfuge if UK and US intelligence personnel, among others, provided support. [2]C. On 29 August 2013, when UK politicians were voting on whether to support military strikes against Syria, the BBC broadcasted a seemingly graphic news report from a BBC team on the ground in northern Syria. The BBC team had worked with ‘activists’ to film scenes allegedly showing victims of a ‘napalm’ bombing of a school being treated in a local hospital. There are strong grounds for believing the scenes were fabricated. [3]One aspect of the Syrian war rarely examined is the alliance between the CIA and MI6 personnel in Syria and leaders of insurgent groups and ‘activists’ for the so-called ‘revolution’ in Syria. They are not natural allies. Perhaps part of the answer can be gleaned from an interview Julian Assange conducted with two UK ‘activists’. In that interview, they expressed their idealistic belief in a Caliphate that would unite Arabic-speaking, predominantly Muslim countries.

http://youtu.be/VB6mZRXe2GM

One body in the US and UK which is funded, I contend, to subvert serious, objective analysis of the war in Syria is Bellingcat. Because it is supported by the current US and UK ‘establishment’, it has had an extraordinary influence on shaping people’s beliefs on Syria.

War has impacted the lives of over 23 million Syrians. The experiences and views of so many will vary. However, this shouldn’t prevent us from putting ourselves in the shoes of people in Syria still, who want an end to the war.

Endnotes

[1] ‘You can still see their blood’, Human Rights Watch report into massacre and abductions in Latakia, August 2013

[2] ’Murder in the Sun Morgue’, by Dr Denis O’Brien (retired lawyer and former neuropharmacologist) ‘Possible Implications of Faulty US Technical Intelligence in the Damascus Nerve Agent Attack of 21 August 2013 ‘, by MIT Professor Ted Postol and former UN weapons inspector Richard Lloyd ‘A Fact-Resistant Group Think on Syria’, by award-winning investigative journalist Robert Parry

[3] ’Fabrication in BBC Panorama ‘Saving Syria’s Children’, by Robert Stuart

*(Top image: A Syrian woman and child walk down a destroyed street. Credit: Abdulmonam Eassa / AFP/ flickr)