Trump Calls US Rape of Raqqa Liberation
by Stephen Lendman
Whatever geopolitical agenda he might have wished to pursue if elected president went out the window after inauguration.
As Trump organization head, he was boss with final say on policymaking. As US president, dark forces in Washington co-opted him straightaway.
He serves their interests, not the nation or public - a front man for powerful elements running things, doing their bidding.
The results are disastrous - domestically and geopolitically, including escalated wars of aggression, perhaps others against targeted nations, the risk of catastrophic nuclear war, a potential doomsday scenario if launched.
Obama’s war in Syria, now Trump’s, continues raging - despite significant progress by Syrian and allied forces, greatly aided by Russian airpower, to liberate the country from US-supported terrorists.
Pre-war Raqqa in north-central Syria was the country’s sixth largest city - occupied by US-supported ISIS from January 2014 to October 2017, its pre-war population either dead or displaced under deplorable conditions.
Its residents lost everything, largely from US-led terror-bombing, turning the city into a desolate graveyard, thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of civilians buried under rubble.
In November 2016, Operation Wrath of Euphrates was launched by US-supported terrorists infesting the misnamed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against US-supported ISIS fighters in the city - most of their ranks redeployed to Deir Ezzor by the Pentagon, their key commanders airlifted out of harm’s way.
US-led terror-bombing raged from early June 2017 through last week - around four-and-a-half months, destroying or badly damaging virtually every structure in the city, many thousands of defenseless civilians massacred from the onslaught.
Their corpses bear testimony to America’s ruthlessness, waging war without mercy, the human toll of no consequence.
By contrast, Syrian and Russian forces liberated Deir Ezzor in 10 days. Great care was taken to minimize civilian casualties.
No residential areas were bombed, ISIS fighters routed responsibly, a campaign polar opposite America’s in virtually all its war theaters.
On October 21, Trump issued a deplorable misstatement on Raqqa, saying:
“I am pleased to announce that…our forces have liberated the entire city from ISIS control.”
Fact: US-led terror-bombing willfully and maliciously raped and destroyed the city, indiscriminately massacring many thousands of civilians - the operation a Nuremberg-level high crimes by any standard.
Trump: “The defeat of ISIS in Raqqah represents a critical breakthrough in our worldwide campaign to defeat ISIS and its wicked ideology. With the liberation of ISIS’s capital and the vast majority of its territory, the end of the ISIS caliphate is in sight.”
Fact: America created and supports ISIS. No US breakthrough was achieved in Raqqa, no liberation of anything except the lives of thousands of its residents.
Fact: Syrian and allied forces, together with Russian airpower, alone get credit for liberating over 90% of the nation’s territory from ISIS control - their ongoing campaign defeating America’s imperial agenda.
Trump: “We will soon transition into a new phase in which we will support local security forces, de-escalate violence across Syria, and advance the conditions for lasting peace, so that the terrorists cannot return to threaten our collective security again.”
“Together, with our allies and partners, we will support diplomatic negotiations that end the violence, allow refugees to return safely home, and yield a political transition that honors the will of the Syrian people.”
Fact: Trump’s “new phase” is the old phase, tactics alone changing - endless US aggression to destroy Syrian sovereign independence, wanting Assad replaced by pro-Western puppet rule, a foiled objective by Russia’s September 2015 intervention at the request of Damascus.
Trump: “One of my core campaign promises to the American people was to defeat ISIS and to counter the spread of hateful ideology.”
Fact: Campaign pledges were abandoned straightaway on entering the White House. Wall-Street-led corporate and imperial objectives replaced them.
Americans and humanity are defrauded by the nation’s diabolical agenda - too debauched to fix. Elections are farcical when held, voting a waste of time, democracy pure illusion.
The only solution is nonviolent resolution. Nothing else can work. If things don’t change, we’re all doomed.
VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
