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"This time it could easily get out of hand," said Pat Lang, a former Vietnam Green Beret who later spent a couple decades in the Mideast. (See this debunking of the co-called "white helmets" on his site.)From the linked report, here's that Russian statement:
Back in 2013 the war was mainly between the Syrian government and the rebels. Now Russia is a major supporter of the Syrian government.
"The Russians have made it very clear that if we attack Syria again that they're going to fight our attack," Lang said. "There will be a war between the United States and Russia over Syria."
Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Monday that Moscow has warned the United States of "grave repercussions" if it carries out an attack against Syrian government forces over reports of a deadly chemical weapons attack.If no one backs down, U.S. and Russian troops and pilots could start killing each other in Syria.
The nicely named "white helmets" (could they hope for a better brand?) are suspected of lying-with-an-agenda by many of those not in favor of this war. This means, of course, they're praised on corporate-owned cable news.
More critically, Rick Sterling writes this, from a longer piece at Robert Parry's Consortium News (emphasis added):
Not only do they only operate in rebel-controlled areas but they are a source of propaganda about the war, indeed their very existence is an element in the larger propaganda campaign to rally international support for a "regime change" war in Syria. The "White Helmets" brand was conceived and directed by a New York-based marketing company named "The Syria Campaign," which itself was "incubated" by a larger politically oriented marketing company called Purpose.If that's true, it's damning, both for them and those who, for their own reasons and interests, promote them. Which means they're praised on corporate-owned cable news.
Along with managing the online and social media promotion of the White Helmets, the Syria Campaign has parallel efforts in support of "regime change" in Syria. One of these efforts has been to criticize United Nations and humanitarian relief organizations that supply aid to displaced persons living in areas protected by the Syrian government.
Conclusions
From all this we can conclude:
* Defense Secretary James Mattis, knowing the evidence for the Trump's 2017 Tomahawk missile strike was ginned up, still wants war with Syria.
* The entire foreign policy and military establishment also wants war -- the Joint Chiefs, the State Department and the nation's security services, presumably the CIA, DIA and FBI among them.
* We will indeed end up fighting Russians if Trump keeps his word and the Russians keep theirs.
* That fact seems to stop no one on our side.
In other words:
* The world just got less safe.
* The bipartisan DC establishment pretty much wants it that way.
Questions
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