Washington looting Syrian oil

Recently released satellite images by the Russian Defense Ministry show tank trucks guarded by US military servicemen and private military companies were busy in smuggling oil from fields in the eastern part of Syria to other countries. It suggests that Washington is looting Syrian oil and transporting it to outside Syrian territories under American military guard. The revenues of the US government from the theft were estimated more than US$30 million per month.

Washington is capturing and holding oil fields under its control in the eastern part of Syria. This is a clear international state-sponsored gangsterism, say Russians. These resources inside the Syrian territories belong to the Syrian Arab Republic. They neither belong to Daesh nor to the American protectors. The cost of one barrel of oil smuggled from Syria estimated at US$38 generates monthly revenue for the private business exceeds US$30 million.

While US President Donald Trump has ordered a partial withdrawal of the approximately 1,000 US troops from Syrian territory, who have been enforcing an illegal military occupation under international law. The US President himself and US officials have admitted that some will be staying in Syrian. They will remain on Syrian soil not to ensure the safety of any group of people, but rather to maintain control over oil and gas fields. Donald said openly, “We want to keep the oil.”

The US military has already killed hundreds of Syrians, and possibly even some Russians, precisely in order to hold on to these Syrian fossil fuel reserves. Washington’s obsession with toppling the Syrian government refuses to die. The US remains committed to preventing Damascus from retaking its own oil, as well as its wheat-producing breadbasket region, in order to starve the government of revenue and prevent it from funding reconstruction efforts.

It is for the first time, Trump has openly confirmed the imperialist ulterior motives behind maintaining a US military presence in Syria. “We want to keep the oil,” Trump confessed in a cabinet meeting on October 21. “Maybe we’ll have one of our big oil companies to go in and do it properly.”

Few days earlier, the president had tweeted, “The US has secured the Oil.” “President Trump is leaning in favor of a new Pentagon plan to keep a small contingent of American troops in eastern Syria, perhaps numbering about 200, to combat the Islamic State and block the advance of Syrian government and Russian forces into the region’s coveted oil fields.

“We secured the oil (in Syria), and therefore a small number of US troops will remain in the area where they have the oil,” Trump said. “And we’re going to be protecting it. And we’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future.”

“We have troops in towns in northeast Syria that are located next to the oil fields. The troops in those towns are not in the present phase of withdrawal. Our forces will remain in the towns that are located near the oil fields.

Unlike Trump, others offer an excuse to justify the continued US military occupation of Syria’s oil fields. He insisted that American soldiers remain to help the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) hold on to the resources and prevent ISIS jihadists from taking them over.

But any observer who carefully witnessed the press confirmation during his press conference would have been able to detect the real goal behind the prolonged US presence in northeastern Syria. It seems the purpose of those troops, working with the SDF, is to deny access to those oil fields by ISIS and others who may benefit from revenues that could be earned.

It is clear that the US strategy is to prevent Syria’s UN-recognized government and the Syrian majority that lives under its control from retaking their own oil fields and reaping the benefits of their revenue. US military massacred hundreds to keep control of Syrian oil fields. This is not just speculation. CNN made it plain when reported the following in an undeniably blunt passage, citing anonymous US senior military officials:

The oil fields are assets that have also been long sought after by Russia and the Assad regime, which is strapped for cash after years of civil war. Both Moscow and Damascus hope to use oil revenues to help rebuild western Syria and solidify the regime’s hold. CNN acknowledged that the US military had killed up to “hundreds” of Syrian and Russia-backed fighters seeking to gain access to Syria’s oil fields. It massacred these fighters not for humanitarian reasons, but to prevent the Syrian government from using “oil revenues to help rebuild western Syria.”

This shockingly direct admission flew in the face of the popular myth that the US was keeping troops in Syria to protect Kurds from an assault by NATO member Turkey. The CNN report was an apparent reference to the Battle of Khasham, a little known but important episode in the eight-year international proxy war in Syria.

The battle unfolded on February 7, 2018, when the Syrian military and its allies launched an attack to try to retake major oil and gas reserves in Syria’s Deir ez-Zour governorate, which were being occupied by American troops and their Kurdish proxies. The US has aimed to prevent Damascus from retaking profitable territory, starving it of natural resources from fossil fuels to basic foodstuffs.

In 2015, the then President Barack Obama deployed US troops to northeastern Syria on the grounds of helping the Kurdish militia the People’s Protection Units (YPG) fight ISIS. What started as several dozen US special operations forces quickly ballooned into some 2,000 troops, largely stationed in northeastern Syria.

While Trump has pledged to bring US soldiers home and end their military occupation of Syrian territory, it is evident that the broader regime change war continues. A brutal economic war on Damascus is escalating, not only through sanctions but through the theft of Syria’s natural treasures by foreign powers.

Eight Years of Corrosive Lies about Syria

The western media, under the clutches of Zionists, is never tired of promoting United States as the biggest democracy and peacekeeper on this planet. The bitter reality is opposite and only displayed in social media, which is often not liked by those at the top of helm of affairs even in the United States. The most recent evidences are ongoing turmoil being created in Venezuela and the failed efforts to topple the incumbent government in Syria of the United States.  

The hallmark of the US administration is telling lies and spreading disinformation with such a frequency that often a person with average wit is misled and start believing in lies. It may be said that the US spy agencies tell lies the way authoritarians do to demonstrate and expand their power. Three of the most glaring examples of blatant lies of spy agencies are presence of OBL in Afghanistan, manufacturing of WMD by Iraq and nuclear program of Iran. All this could be best understood if one just has a cursory look at eight years of corrosive lies of the US administration about Syrian war.

Let us begin with a story published in the Wall Street Journal about Syria telling that the United States may leave 1,000 troops in that country after all. If one can recall, the US president had announced a complete withdrawal of troops from Syria months ago. Then, weeks later the White House announced that a small force of 200 would stay behind. Now, the Journal was reporting that it would actually be 1,000. A few hours later the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the original plan remained unchanged.

Reviewing three assertions routinely made about Syria by pundits, politicians, and policymakers show complete hypocrisy: 1) Syria shows the perils of U.S. non-intervention; 2) We’re only in Syria to fight ISIS and 3) U.S. withdrawal from Syria would mean handing a victory to Vladimir Putin. All of the above statements have become conventional wisdom. The same people sometimes repeat more than one of them, but they are entirely irreconcilable with one another.

If withdrawing from Syria means handing a victory to Vladimir Putin, then the US is doing something other than fighting ISIS there, something that certainly can’t be described as non-intervention.

CIA began the US mission in the Syrian Civil War years before ISIS came into being, and a full year before President Barak Obama began talking up his red lines and proposing a congressional vote to authorize intervention in Syria.

The world was told that the US was arming moderate rebels, but these moderate rebels fought side by side Al Nusra fighters who were often known to be using weapons brought in by the CIA or the Department of Defense to fight this war in which the US was not intervening. The US also funded a group called Nour al-Din al-Zenki, until its members showed up on YouTube beheading a child, at which point the moderate label no longer quite fit.

Apparently the Congress refused to authorize US military intervention in Syria, which was already ongoing. Did the intervention stopped? No, it continued under the 2001 AUMF that authorized the president to make war on al-Qaeda. The US is now using the legal authority to hunt and destroy al-Qaeda to fund and arm al-Qaeda’s allies on the ground in Syria.

World must oppose US assaults in Syria and Iraq

I have repeatedly stated in my blogs that a proxy war is being fought in Syria. The objective is not as stated by the US, ‘change in regime in Syria’ but to continuously keep the neighboring Muslim countries in state of war.

The engagement on one hand forces these countries to buy more of ‘Made in USA armaments’ and on the other hand make them ‘war maniacs’ usually termed militants by the western media. Bulk of petrodollars are being spent on purchase of arms rather than on the welfare of people,

Ironically, western media, which once enjoyed the honor of being independent, can at best be termed ‘propagators of policies of hawks’. In the past some of the icons questioned policies of the then US president towards Vietnam, which left him with no option, but to step down, as against Bush and Obama have thrived on wars.

It seems that kind of critics have vanished or have been replaced by the cronies, constantly playing war mantra. The latest addition to the long list is Secretary of Defense; Ashton Carter who recently appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee to outline a new US military strategy for the Middle East.

The Secretary admitted the failure of the US “train and equip” program for rebels in Syria, but instead of taking the appropriate lessons from that failure and get out of the “regime change” obsession, he announced the opposite.

According to the Secretary the US military would for the first time become directly and overtly involved in combat in Syria and Iraq. Under this program the US would begin supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIS or conducting such missions directly, either by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground.

Direct action on the ground means US boots on the ground, even though President Obama had ruled out that possibility when he launched air strikes against Iraq and Syria last year. But promises are made and broken to achieve the vested interests; no one can deny this harsh reality.

The entire world needs to condemn the US decision at attack Syria in the strongest words, the ill-advised US military escalation in the Middle East. Whoever concluded that it was a good idea to send US troops into an area already being bombed by Russian military forces must be relieved of his duty on ‘medical grounds’ for being completely devoid of rationale thinking.

The fact is those who run US foreign policy don’t have the courage to accept their clear defeat in almost every war. They are so obsessed with their regime change plan in Syria that they are willing to risk the lives of US soldiers and initiate another mega war in the region — or even beyond.

These hawks insist that Russian strikes against ISIS and al-Qaeda must be resisted, because these are seen as helping the Assad government remain in power, and the US administration is determined that Assad must go. Why can’t the US just walk out of the Arabian Peninsula, which is no longer a source of cheap oil?

I believe building heat in MENA is just to divert attention of the world from South China Sea, where the US has already started minor encounters with China. I am forced to reiterate my words ‘US is the biggest warmonger’, I deliberately avoided using the term ‘terrorist’ often used by Iran.

Syria: US War Mania

It seems that after having failed in mulling support from other countries, except Saudi Arabia for attack on Syria the United States is intends to undertake the assault at its own, even contrary to the wishes of US citizens.

The major setback came when British Parliament rejected the move and other countries also followed its footprints. The decision of the Britain parliament should have been an eye opener for the sole surviving super power.

It is feared that any direct involvement of United States can plunge many countries in a zero sum game that has became the hallmark of the US foreign and military policies. At present US soldiers wearing combat uniform are present in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and their sole purpose seems to be killing the locals rather than maintain peace.

Ironically, the US Congress has hardly asked its President and his advisers why do they wish to bring regime change, topple governments and worst of all keep on supplying arms to the rebels in various countries.

The US administration hasn’t learn any lesson even after the killing of its ambassadors/diplomats, the most recent being in Libya and earlier in the blowing up of aircraft of Pakistan’s President Ziaul Haq.

A closer look at the ongoing proxy US war in Syria, clearly establishes that despite supplying millions of dollars and tons or lethal weapons to the rebels President Assad has remained in power.

Over the last two years nearly one hundred thousand Syrians have been killed and the entire country has become a heap of debris.

It is feared that the rebels supported by the US have used gas with an ultimate objective of maligning Assad’s regime. This perception seems to carry weight if one looks at whatever has happened in the recent in Egypt.

The United States followed it often repeated mantra of declaring Hosni Mubarak, a failed and corrupt ruler, only after after he became redundant.

Elections were held and public verdict came contrary to the US expectations, it was never thought that Muslim Brotherhood could win the election.

First attempts were made to keep Morsi under pressure but ultimately Egyptian Army Chief was asked to topple and arrest the elected president. When public came out on streets army was advised by the US to open fire and now army chief is being used as scapegoat.

It has been highlighted repeatedly that a proxy war is being fought in Syria, where most of the countries aspiring to be the regional or world super powers are supporting Syria, only because they want to inflict defeat on the United States, the sole surviving super power.

Ironically, the US is losing its patience because it considered Assad another Saddam. It may not be wrong to say that since Saddam killed hundreds and thousands of Iraqis, he had lost public support, as against that Assad continues to enjoy support of Syrians. 

One needs to find reply to a question, why the US is adamant at destroying Syria?

The reply is simple without destroying Syria the United States can’t get the entire region under its claws. The involvement of Russia, China, some GCC countries, Iran and Lebanon has made it difficult for the US to get a walkover.

Not only that the US is getting desperate its also completely ignoring the possible fallout of attack on Syria.

Even a small mistake can destroy peace of the region and also affect countries that have been supporting terrorism around the globe, in the name of Jihad.