Anyone Else Find the Threat of Syrian Chemical Weapons Eerily Familiar?

[marmar]

from truthdig:



Anyone Else Find the Threat of Syrian Chemical Weapons Eerily Familiar?

Posted on Dec 11, 2012
By William Pfaff


Since the beginning of December, military gas (sarin, a nerve agent) has claimed a major place in discussion of the civil war in Syria. The Syrian government has admitted to holding major stocks of (unidentified military) gas in or near the areas of fighting the insurrectionary movement.

According to Natalie Nougayrede of the sober French newspaper Le Monde, a dinner last week in Brussels united representatives of the major NATO powers to discuss the Syrian situation and address the question of NATO intervention to deal with the threat that gas might be employed by the government, or that it might in one way or another fall into the hands of terrorist groups, freelance radicals or other governments.

Does NATO intend to intervene?

In the past, the accusation of WMD possession has been the usual formulation when threatening foreign intervention or an attack. We heard the same thing after 9/11 concerning a U.S. invasion of Iraq, at the U.N. no less, from Gen. Colin Powell, then the American secretary of state. He subsequently confessed his lasting shame. There were no nuclear weapons in Iraq.

Is this Syrian story another hoax? In the Iraq case, it was well known that an important group inside the George W. Bush administration wanted invasion of Iraq, some of them to please Israel, which wanted Iraq destroyed as a major Arab military actor, and whose formidable propaganda operation in the U.S. worked hard to promote the invasion. There also were American nationalist and acquisitive resource motives: searching for control of Iraq’s oil resources and of Baghdad as a U.S. strategic military base (both goals eventual failures). ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_threat_of_syrian_chemical_weapons_eerily_familiar_20121211/

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[MrYikes]

2. It certainly crossed my mind. nt

[pipoman]

3. First, I certainly don't want

the US to become entangled in Syria. That said, it is NATO's job to rein in out-of-control dictators and try to eliminate threats of genocide. Maybe if NATO sent a couple of cruise missiles through the bedroom window of any dictator who threatens use of chem/bio, the remaining dictators would get the idea that such threats are unacceptable to the rest of the world?

Shall the world wait until someone threatening to use chem/bio acts? Or is the possibility of use of these weapons, combined with the likely possession of the weapons enough for the world to act preemptively because the result of use is irreversible and unthinkable?

[Nay]

4. Of course not! That's never happened before! What are you going on about?

[RC]

5. These chemical weapons, where were they made?

Like as in Iraq, made in the USA?
Did anyone bother to obliterate the country of origin on the containers? Or destroy the bills of lading, or otherwise try to hide the trail?
What of the money trail? All shenanigans seem to lead back to WDC.

[jsr]

6. And then, they took babies out of the incubators and let them die on the cold floor

[polly7]

7. But weren't we told Saddam had managed to move his

chemical weapons to Syria? I remember seeing pictures of trucks loaded up and heading out.

See, right here:



http://www.jeremyrhammond.com/2012/07/25/resurrecting-the-iraqi-wmd-to-syria-myth/

[yurbud]

9. Dear GOD! They have a forklift?! That means they are only days away from Zamboni capability

[The Stranger]

11. There's a Tyrannosaurus Rex hulking in the lower left quadrant of that photo!

[yurbud]

8. is a mall Santa really a fat, homeless alcoholic?

[yurbud]

10. Did anybody vote for Obama to get more of this shit at a slightly lower volume?

[Warren Religion]

12. Well...

I haven't heard anyone claiming such weapons are a threat to us, as was vigorously claimed vis-a-vis Saddam. If Assad has them and uses them against Syrians, I honest-to-fuck don't know whether we should bomb or not.