December 13, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Bipartisan hardliners in Washington consider all areas occupied by Pentagon forces virtual US territory, subject to its will under its rules, defying the sovereign rights of nations, fundamental international law, and its own Constitution.

Northern and southern parts of Syrian territory are illegally occupied by US forces, intending to stay indefinitely. More on this below.

Hubris and arrogance, along with contempt for democracy and rule of law principles, define how hegemons operate.

It’s true for the US most of all, the way it’s been since bankers, lawyers, politicians, judges, merchants, planters, and slave owners – a virtual Wall Street crowd – founded the country, installing self-serving leadership.

Throughout its history, US governance has always been of, by, and for the privileged few alone – truer today than ever before.

Rage by Republicans and undemocratic Dems to rule the world unchallenged is humanity’s greatest threat – what Western media never explain, what most people don’t understand.

They’re distracted by sports and other entertainment bread and circuses – what Neil Postman explained in his book, titled “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” saying “Americans are the most entertained and least informed people in the world.”

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The curse of television may doom us – explained in a June 1950 commencement address by Boston University President Daniel Marsh, saying:

“If the (television) craze continues…we are destined to have a nation of morons.” Before the age of television, columnist Walter Lippmann called the public “the bewildered herd,” adding:

Their function is to be policymaking “spectators (not) “participants…The common interests elude public opinion entirely,” claiming that’s the way it should be.

Most Americans fail to focus on what’s most important, making it easy for dark forces in Washington to undermine their rights and well-being – notably since the neoliberal 90s under the Clinton crime family co-presidency.

What’s ongoing today under Republicans and undemocratic Dems, in cahoots with powerful monied interests, is what America is all about, a fantasy democracy, never the real thing.

The myth of American exceptionalism, the indispensable state, an illusory moral superiority, and military supremacy persist despite hard evidence debunking these notions. Public ignorance and apathy sustains what’s unsustainable longterm. A day of reckoning awaits.

A warrior state disdaining peace – devoting the vast majority of its discretionary spending to militarism, belligerence and corporate handouts – serving its privileged class exclusively, shows a nation in decline.

Its modus operandi includes pressuring, bullying, bribing, and smashing other countries, trying to maintain global dominance, losing what it aims to sustain by unacceptable, counterproductive policies.

Hypocrisy, not democracy, defines how America is governed – an increasingly totalitarian plutocracy, oligarchy and kleptocracy, a one-party state with two extremist right wings, a nation hostile to ordinary people everywhere, including at home.

It’s heading toward full-blown tyranny on the phony pretext of protecting national security at a time its only enemies and threats are invented ones.

Ukraine and Syria share the eye of the storm. US armed and trained Kiev forces, mobilized along the border with Donbass, are poised to attack on orders from the Trump regime.

US-installed Ukrainian “president” Petro Poroshenko declared “war” on Russia and his own people. The November 25 Kerch Strait provocation was likely prelude for what’s planned.

Washington controls the puppet regime, using it as a dagger against Russia and the people of Donbass, rejecting illegitimate fascist rule.

Syria is the world’s other key hotspot. The Pentagon declared territory its forces illegally occupy in northern and southern parts of the country off-limits to Damascus.

Throughout the war, the Obama regime, and now Trump hardliners, have and continue to support the scourge of ISIS US officials pretend to oppose – along with al-Nusra and other jihadists in the country, used as imperial foot soldiers, waging war on sovereign Syria for regime change.

Washington intends permanent occupation of the country. It warned Assad against attempting to liberate territory it controls.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Robertson issued a statement, saying “(u)nilateral military action into northeast Syria (southwest occupied territory) by any party, particularly as US personnel may be present or in the vicinity, is of grave concern. We would find any such actions unacceptable.”

Assad called uninvited US forces in Syria “invaders,” illegally occupying territory where they don’t belong – flagrantly flouting international, constitutional, and US statute laws.

Months earlier, Sergey Lavrov slammed Washington’s agenda in Syria, saying:

“(T)he Americans have taken a course of dividing the country. They just gave up their assurances, given to us, that the only goal of their presence in Syria – without an invitation of the legitimate government – was to defeat Islamic State and the terrorists.”

Vladimir Putin, Lavrov, and other Russian officials know the US supports ISIS and other terrorists in Syria, as well as in other countries. There’s no ambiguity about it

Months earlier, Russia’s Defense Ministry released satellite video images showing US-supported troops together with terrorists comprising the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), moving freely in ISIS-controlled parts of Deir Ezzor province.

“Without resistance from ISIS militants, (these forces) are moving along the left bank of the Euphrates river towards the town of Deir Ezzor,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said, adding:

“Despite strongholds of the US armed forces…located where ISIS troops are currently deployed, there are not even signs of organization of a battle outpost.”

“Russian drones and intelligence have not recorded any confrontation between” US forces and ISIS terrorists Washington pretends to be combatting.

Separately, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov accused US forces in southern Syria of letting ISIS and other terrorists use its illegally established al-Tanf base as a platform for launching attacks on Syrian troops and civilians.

Endless US aggression in Syria continues. Despite years of Geneva, Astana, and Sochi conflict resolution talks, begun in 2012, restoring peace and stability to the country remains unattainable because Washington rejects ending the war it launched for regime change.

Western media fail to explain the cold, hard reality of what war in Syria is all about – part of Washington’s aim to replace all sovereign independent governments with pro-Western puppet rule.

Visit stephenlendman.org. Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Mr. Lendman's newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

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