US Troops Came to Syria to Stay
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Wherever US forces show up, mass slaughter and destruction follow.
Syria is Obama’s war, inherited and escalated by Trump regime hardliners in charge of his geopolitical agenda.
The presence of troops from any country in another is flagrantly illegal unless invited by the ruling authorities of the nation in question.
No such invitation from Damascus was afforded Washington - why Bashar al-Assad correctly calls US and allied forces “invaders.”
Pentagon troops come to countries to stay. According to Tom Dispatch’s Nick Turse, US special forces are present in 149 nations - over 75% of UN member states, active missions ongoing in at least “133 countries.”
CIA operatives are everywhere, mostly operating from US embassies and consulates worldwide. Their mission, along with Pentagon forces, is advancing and sustaining America’s imperium at the expense of nation-state sovereignty and world peace.
Turse explained that around 70,000 US special forces comprise “America’s secret military…increasingly deployed to something startlingly close to all the countries on the planet (aside from a few obvious ones like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea). They are raiding and fighting from Syria to Afghanistan, Somalia to Niger,” adding:
“They are training allied special ops types and other forces across the globe. It’s increasingly hard to think of places where they don’t show up…”
They include Green Berets, Army Rangers, Navy Seals, and their Air Force and Marine counterparts.
They’re part of the Pentagon’s Special Operations Command (SOCOM). Their mission has nothing to do with “synchronizing (the) planning of global operations against terrorist networks” - just the opposite.
They’re involved in training, aiding, abetting, and directing ISIS, Al Qaeda, its Al Nusra offshoot, and other jihadists. The US uses them as imperial foot soldiers where they’re deployed - in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, the Philippines, and elsewhere.
US and other Western media explain nothing about what’s going on, suppressing vital information essential to report - how Washington wages dirty war globally, ongoing endlessly, peace and stability abhorrent notions for Republican and undemocratic Dem policymakers.
Virtually every day, almost everywhere, US forces are involved in waging “unconventional warfare,” Turse explained. Their missions are largely “in the shadows, unknown to all but a few Americans.”
Center for International Policy Arms and Security Project director William Hartung earlier explained the same thing saying, “(m)ost Americans would be amazed to learn that US Special Operations Forces (are) deployed to three quarters of the nations on the planet,” adding:
“There is little or no transparency as to what they are doing in these countries and whether their efforts are promoting security or provoking further tension and conflict” - clearly the latter, virtually never the former.
SOCOM commander General Raymond Thomas turned truth on its head, claiming forces he heads are involved in “opposing today’s threats to our nation, to protecting the American people, (and) securing our homeland…”
He failed to explain that America’s only enemies and foreign threats are invented. No real ones exist, none since Nazi Germany and imperial Japan were defeated in WW II.
Instead of a new era of peace and stability following the second world war, endless wars of aggression were waged by the US, multiple ones ongoing today - in all cases over the past near-75-year period against nations threatening no others.
That’s what imperialism is all about, a megalomaniacal aim to rule the world, control its resources, and exploit its people - carving up the entire planet for unchallenged dominance, endless wars America’s favorite strategy, the human toll of no consequence.
Millions of civilian casualties and countless trillions of dollars down a black hole of waste, fraud, and abuse go unreported in the mainstream.
For nearly eight years, Syria has been in the eye of the storm, the Obama and Trump regimes wanting the country transformed into another US vassal state, Assad toppled, replaced by pro-Western puppet rule.
ISIS and other jihadists are used as US proxy forces, supported by Pentagon-led terror-bombing, massacring countless tens of thousands of defenseless civilians, destroying vital infrastructure.
A previous article said Pentagon commanders consider illegally occupied northern and southern Syrian areas US territory, defying the nation’s sovereignty and fundamental rule of law principles - non-issues wherever US forces show up.
On December 14, the neocon/CIA-connected Washington Post reported on “America’s hidden war in Syria,” saying “US troops will now stay in Syria indefinitely, controlling a third of the country…”
Claiming they “fac(e) perils on many fronts” turned truth on its head. Their presence threatens the security, welfare, and lives of Syrian civilians, along with regional stability.
WaPo lied saying they “act as a bulwark against Iran’s expanding influence.” Its military advisors in Syria, invited by Assad, are involved in aiding government forces combat the scourge of US-supported terrorists - why Washington, NATO, and Israel oppose their presence.
It’s unclear how many US troops are in the country. Pentagon secrecy suppresses their numbers - at least thousands in occupied northern and southern areas, maybe many more.
Assad vowed to liberate all illegally occupied Syrian territory from foreign forces and jihadists they back.
US support for Kurdish YPG fighters is all about wanting Syria partitioned, a divide, conquer, and control strategy.
Washington’s aim includes waging forever war in the country, undermining Russian-spearheaded conflict resolution efforts.
They’ve been ongoing for over six years with no significant breakthroughs because achieving them conflicts with US imperial objectives.
Syria heads toward becoming another Afghanistan - endless war with no prospect of returning peace and stability to the country because bipartisan US policymakers oppose the notion.
Turkish occupation and aggression in northern Syria complicates things further. Wannabe sultan Erdogan wants Syrian territory bordering Turkey annexed, especially its oil-rich area, what US forces now control, the Pentagon aiming to keep things this way.
Damascus and ordinary Syrians deplore America’s illegal presence in the country.
Endless war continues because Washington opposes resolution. The same goes for virtually all US conflict theaters.
Perpetual war is longstanding US policy, firmly supported by the vast majority of Republicans and Dems.
Congressional legislation authorizes funding, countless trillions of dollars for Washington’s war machine at the expense of vital homeland needs gone begging.
There’s virtually no chance for turning a page for world peace and stability. America’s military, industrial, security, media complex opposes the notion.
A permanent state of war is hugely profitable for Wall Street and other corporate predators. Peace and stability defeat America’s imperial aims - why global wars won’t end in our lifetimes.
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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
