Trump Regime’s Syria/Afghan Moves Leave US Imperial Agenda Unchanged
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
US wars have nothing to do with combating terrorism Republicans and undemocratic Dems support - using ISIS, al-Qaeda, its al-Nusra offshoot, and other jihadists as proxy foot soldiers in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, and elsewhere.
Whatever the twists and turns in daily events, announced or otherwise, Washington’s global imperial agenda remains unchanged.
It’s unclear what will follow Trump’s ordered pullout of US forces from Syria and partial withdrawal from Afghanistan. It’s very clear that US policymakers want Syria’s Bashar al-Assad replaced by pro-Western puppet rule - why the Obama regime launched naked aggression in March 2011.
It’s just as clear that the US came to Afghanistan to stay, part of Washington’s permanent war agenda - intending to remain in the country longterm, not winning an unwinnable war.
US policymakers want Afghanistan used as a land-based aircraft carrier, part of their aim to encircle Russia, China, and Iran with US military bases.
They want the country’s vast resources controlled and exploited, a treasure trove of barite, chromite, coal, cobalt, copper, gold, iron ore, lead, enormous amounts of highly-valued lithium and other rare earth metals vital for high tech products, natural gas, oil, precious and semi-precious stones, potash, salt, sulfur, talc, zinc, among other minerals - likely worth trillions of dollars.
The 1999 US Silk Road Strategy Act aimed to develop US regional business opportunities, along with undermining, destabilizing, and isolating Russia, China and Iran – a new Great Game to control vital resources in this strategic part of the world.
US policymakers also want Afghanistan used for oil and gas pipelines Washington controls. The presence of US forces made the country the world’s largest opium producer.
Heroin from opium and other illicit drugs produce hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenues – a US government-supported bonanza for corrupt officials and their cronies, the CIA, organized crime, and Western financial institutions, profiting hugely from involvement in money laundering.
Pre-9/11, Afghanistan under Taliban rule eradicated the vast majority opium production, according to UN estimates, one of various reasons why Bush/Cheney launched naked aggression on the country in October 2001.
Things most often aren’t as they’re seen. Most people are unaware of objectives behind endless US wars of aggression.
Syria was attacked with the aim of isolating Iran, ahead of a similar scheme to topple its government. The road to Tehran runs through Damascus. Russia’s intervention in September 2015 foiled the best laid plans of US policymakers.
By no means have they abandoned what they set out to achieve, tactics alone changing to further the same objectives.
On Thursday, Netanyahu said his regime will “continue to act aggressively in Syria to prevent Iran’s efforts to militarily entrench itself against us.”
“We are not reducing our efforts. We will increase our efforts. I know that we do so with the full support and backing of the US.”
Iranian military advisers are involved in Syria legally by invitation of its government, not combat troops - solely to help defeat the scourge of US-supported terrorism, unrelated to Netanyahu’s bogus claim.
According to Israeli military intelligence-connected DEBKAfile (DF), citing unnamed senior Trump regime officials, “US troops will leave eastern and northern Syria, but America is not deserting this part of the country, said the officials, without revealing the nature of its continuing presence.”
Trump’s announced pullout may take “4 to 6 months,” not the shorter time frame indicated. An unnamed US official said “(d)uring that time, Syria is bound to see many developments that may require Washington to revise its plans.”
The US is “in advanced negotiations (with its installed puppet Iraq regime) for the deployment to the Iraqi-Syria border of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF)…”
The Pentagon is building a new base “30km north of the Euphrates River and near the Syrian border” - likely where US forces will be redeployed if, in fact, they’re withdrawn from Syria.
Reportedly, the Pentagon intends maintaining unknown numbers of special forces in Syria if other US troops are withdrawn. Pentagon terror-bombing operations will continue unchanged - on the phony pretext of combating ISIS the US supports.
According to Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White, “(t)he campaign against ISIS is not over (sic).” The US “will continue working with our partners and allies to defeat ISIS wherever it operates (sic).”
What unfolds ahead in Syria, the region, and elsewhere militarily remains uncertain. There’s no ambiguity about US global imperial aims remaining firm.
A Final Comment
Will Trump regime hardliners, the Pentagon and CIA replace US forces in Syria and Afghanistan, if withdrawn, with private military contractors (PMCs) - notably paramilitary hired guns like Blackwater USA (now Academi)?
Wherever deployed, they’re largely unaccountable under international and domestic laws. They operate unregulated and unchecked, free from criminal or civil accountability, pretty much doing as they please. Rare exceptions prove the rule.
In the new year, will they show up in Syria and Afghanistan on US bases, aiding ISIS, al-Nusra, and other US-supported terrorists, not combatting them?
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."
