Journalism is the first casualty of wars, propaganda substituting for truth-telling.
Whenever America goes to war or plans one, media scoundrels march in lockstep - cheerleading aggression, ongoing or coming.
A culture of deceit persists, wars glorified in the name of peace. Propaganda wars precede hot ones, one nation after another targeted for regime change, rule of law principles ignored, accountability lacking for the highest of high crimes.
A New York Times report read like a Pentagon press release, saying Trump ordered “missile strike(s) in Syria in response to the Syrian government’s chemical weapons attack this week…”
“The missiles were aimed at Syrian fighter jets, hardened aircraft shelters, radar equipment, ammunition bunkers, sites for storing fuel and air defense systems.”
“Administration officials described the strikes Mr. Trump ordered as a graphic message to the world that the president was no longer willing to stand idly by as Mr. Assad used horrific weapons in his country’s long civil war.”
Fact: Tuesday’s Kahn Sheikhoun CW attack was a false flag, wrongfully blamed on Syrian forces.
Fact: Trump’s aggression was premeditated, the target chosen before Tuesday’s incident, used as a pretext for naked aggression.
Fact: Targeting Syria’s Shayrat airfield aimed to weaken its ability to combat US-supported terrorists.
Fact: Syria is Obama’s war, now Trump’s. Calling it “civil” is one of many Big Lies about the conflict - naked aggression from inception against a sovereign independent state threatening no one, using terrorists as imperial foot soldiers, supported by US terror-bombing.
A separate Times article claimed “Trump was right to strike” Syria - justified by falsely accusing its military of “using a weapon of mass destruction…”
“(W)hen a tyrant blatantly violates a basic norm of international conduct…the world looks to America to act. Mr. Trump did, and for that he should be commended.”
Fact: He launched naked aggression - based on a Big Lie. At no time during over six years of war did Syria use CWs against terrorists or civilians. No evidence proves otherwise.
Fact: Assad is no tyrant. He’s overwhelmingly popular. Syrians want no one else leading them.
Fact: Trump is a war criminal like his predecessors. Instead of ending imperial conflicts, he’s dangerously escalating them.
A neocon/CIA-connected Washington Post propaganda piece headlined “Trump enforces the ‘red line’ on chemical weapons.”
It lied blaming Assad for “us(ing) (sarin) nerve gas in Idlib,” claiming most likely it was in response to “Secretary of State Rex Tillerson say(ing) a few days earlier…that (his) future ‘will be decided by the Syrian people…’ ”
It praised Trump for taking “a decisive step that Obama resisted” - supporting what demands universal condemnation.
The Wall Street Journal ranted about Trump “order(ing) a military strike that the world’s thugs will notice” - calling naked US aggression “an important first step to save lives, enforce global order, and improve the strategic outlook for the US and its allies.”
Instead of denouncing Trump’s naked aggression, the Journal praised it - a despicable act, perhaps prelude for much worse to come.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
