75 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 25 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds    H1'ed 9/28/15

The Power of False Narrative

By       (Page 2 of 4 pages) Become a premium member to see this article and all articles as one long page.   4 comments
Message Robert Parry
Become a Fan
  (84 fans)

The cruel irony was that the neocon pundits, who had promoted the Iraq War and then covered their failure by hailing the "surge," had little or no regard for "the troops" who mostly came for lower socio-economic classes and were largely abstractions to the well-dressed, well-schooled and well-paid talking heads who populate the think tanks and op-ed pages.

Safely ensconced behind the "successful surge" myth, the Iraq War devotees largely escaped any accountability for the chaos and bloodshed they helped cause. Thus, the same "smart people" were in place for the Obama presidency and just as ready to buy into new interventionist "group thinks" -- gluing black hats on old and new adversaries, such as Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, Syria's Bashar al-Assad and, most significantly, Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Causing Chaos

In 2011, led this time by the liberal interventionists -- the likes of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and White House aide Samantha Power -- the U.S. military and some NATO allies took aim at Libya, scoffing at Gaddafi's claim that his country was threatened by Islamic terrorists. It was not until Gaddafi's military was destroyed by Western airstrikes (and he was tortured and murdered) that it became clear that he wasn't entirely wrong about the Islamic extremists.

The jihadists seized large swaths of Libyan territory, killed the U.S. ambassador and three other diplomatic personnel in Benghazi, and forced the closing of U.S. and other Western embassies in Tripoli. For good measure, Islamic State terrorists forced captured Coptic Christians to kneel on a Libyan beach before beheading them.

Amid this state of anarchy, Libya has been the source of hundreds of thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe by boat. Thousands have drowned in the Mediterranean. But, again, the leading U.S. interventionists faced no accountability. Clinton is the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Power is now U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Also, in 2011, a similar uprising occurred in Syria against the secular regime headed by President Assad, with nearly identical one-sided reporting about the "white-hatted" opposition and the "black-hatted" government. Though many protesters indeed appear to have been well-meaning opponents of Assad, Sunni terrorists penetrated the opposition from the beginning.

This gray reality was almost completely ignored in the Western press, which almost universally denounced government when it retaliated against opposition forces for killing police and soldiers. The West depicted the government response as unprovoked attacks on "peaceful protesters." [See Consortiumnews.com's "Hidden Origins of Syria's Civil War."]

This one-sided narrative nearly brought the U.S. military to the point of another intervention after Aug. 21, 2013, when a mysterious sarin gas attack killed hundreds in a suburb of Damascus. Official Washington's neocons and the pro-interventionists in the State Department immediately blamed Assad's forces for the atrocity and demanded a bombing campaign.

But some U.S. intelligence analysts suspected a "false-flag" provocation by Islamic terrorists seeking to get the U.S. air force to destroy Assad's army for them. At the last minute, President Obama steered away from that cliff and -- with the help of President Putin -- got Assad to surrender Syria's chemical arsenal, while Assad continued to deny a role in the sarin attack. [See Consortiumnews.com's "The Collapsing Syria-Sarin Case."]

Upset over Iran

Putin also assisted Obama on another front with another demonized "enemy," Iran. In late 2013, the two leaders collaborated in getting Iran to make significant concessions on its nuclear program, clearing the way for negotiations that eventually led to stringent international controls.

These two diplomatic initiatives alarmed the neocons and their right-wing Israeli friends. Since the mid-1990s, the neocons had worked closely with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in plotting a "regime change" strategy for countries that were viewed as troublesome to Israel, with Iraq, Syria and Iran topping the list.

Putin's interference with that agenda -- by preventing U.S. bombing campaigns against Syria and Iran -- was viewed as a threat to this longstanding Israeli/neocon strategy. There was also fear that the Obama-Putin teamwork could lead to renewed pressure on Israel to recognize a Palestinian state. So, that relationship had to be blown up.

The detonation occurred in early 2014 when a neocon-orchestrated coup overthrew elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and replaced him with a fiercely anti-Russian regime which included neo-Nazi and other ultra-nationalist elements as well as free-market extremists.

Ukraine had been on the neocon radar at least since September 2013, just after Putin undercut plans for bombing Syria. Neocon Carl Gershman, president of the U.S.-government-funded National Endowment for Democracy, wrote a Washington Post op-ed deeming Ukraine "the biggest prize" and a key steppingstone toward another regime change in Moscow, removing the troublesome Putin.

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3  |  4

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Must Read 6   Valuable 4   Well Said 3  
Rate It | View Ratings

Robert Parry Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at
(more...)
 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

The CIA/Likud Sinking of Jimmy Carter

What Did US Spy Satellites See in Ukraine?

Ron Paul's Appalling World View

Ronald Reagan: Worst President Ever?

The Disappearance of Keith Olbermann

A Perjurer on the US Supreme Court

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend