This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Bhumika : What this article series is about? and What article series is not about..
In the 2016 US election debates, the terms like Warmongers, FakeNews, Genocide, Deep State, Swamp, Establishment etc started becoming part of American mainstream discussion, highlighted by a sharp public exchange between former US Secretary of State and Senator from New York, Ms. Hillary Clinton, and the then Presidential Candidate, National Guard Major and Hon. Congresswoman from Hawaii, Ms. Tulsi Gabbard. This article series recollects observations over the past decade from the US public media in an attempt to understand some of these issues. I feel that I, observing from India, but having lived in west for many years have a comparatively objective perspective on the situation. This is about how all this looked to a student of religion, history and geopolitics sitting in Mumbai looking keenly at the changes in public discourse in the west. It started from 2012 in India (having keenly participated in NaMo campaign of 2014 on social media front), the term like mainstream media, fake-news, "ecosystem" had become part of Indian SM-lexicon by then. So, I felt like certain elements and memes from NaMo 2014 campaign replaying on western stage and the stark difference between how Hindus of India reacted to those elements and memes as opposed to how US society did the same in 2016 (and British populace did the same during Brexit).
Now that my bhumika (perspective) is clarified, let us dive down the rabbit hole.
The ’mainstream media’ narrative then (in 2015/16) was that "America is supporting the People of Syria to fight against oppression - from the ‘Regime’ of the ‘Brutal Dictator Assad’ and the Islamic State (ISIS)". The ISIS also attacked the people of Iraq. Iranian ‘terrorists’ were interfering by helping the ‘Regime’ to oppress the Syrian people between poison gas attacks and bombing children. They were also impeding American efforts to save the Iraqi people from the ISIS. Saudi Arabia and Turkey were still Allies of America, who were helping in the Coalition along with NATO nations and Israel, to fight.... Someone!
This glorious Coalition was also simultaneously bombing Yemen. And Libya. And Syria. The Russians were also meddling by helping the Brutal Dictator (Assad) and the Iranians. All of this impeded President Obama’s (Nobel Peace Prize Awardee!!) sworn mission to degrade and eventually to destroy the ISIS. But despite all this, the Coalition was seen to be winning. The ISIS was defeated. All was well.
Against this narrative, few maverick voices struck a discordant note. Senator Black of Virginia, before he retired, pointed out that the Christian minority in Syria was depending on President Assad’s protection for their very survival against the Islamic extremists. He was ignored. US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard criticized the ”Regime Change Wars”, and was attacked even to the point of being called a ‘Russian asset’. Some of us who were following the Syrian War, were trying to include reports on Twitter to give diverse perspectives both local from the war zone and from around the world. This increasingly become essential, given the extreme polarization that was developing in the US and European media between anti-President Trump and not-anti- President Trump camps that made both unreliable.
But, neutral observer who wishes to see a dhaarmik world, these discrepancies need to be understood and remembered.
In 2024, this has again become an utterly critical issue. If the above entities are allowed to resume their genocide and other machinations, November 2024 may be the last election in the United States of America as we know it. The United Kingdom is already accelerating in its slide towards a Sharia-run Mediaeval Theocracy, and Europe despite some last-minute wake-up screams, is being dragged down by overwhelming force.
Christmas 2019 Celebrations in Liberated Syria
Flashy firework displays and bright lit Christmas trees popped up all across Syria to celebrate Christmas, a joyous day not only for the Christian minority, but to people of other faiths living in the country. Christians were among the minority groups persecuted by various Islamist militant forces, which tore Syria into pieces since 2011. The central government has managed to regain control over most of the country, and life there is slowly returning to normality. That includes celebrating Christmas openly and without fear of sectarian violence. (ref: https://www.rt.com/news/476797-syria-christmas-celebration-photos/)
The web channel RT.com was banned in some countries as “Fake News”. But on the topic of the war in Syria, as on an increasing number of controversial topics, it proved to be superior by far to such proclaimed Defenders of the Free Press and Purveyors of the Truth as CNN, BBC, ABCnews, the New York Times and the Washington Post. So as a neutral observer, I will risk showing my gullibility by quoting from them and from others who were rarely cited in the western Mainstream Media of the Free World.
Tim Anderson has been closely associated with Hands Off Syria. movement. That hardly earned him the friendship of the US government – one of four national entities still occupying parts of the nation of Syria, a member of the United Nations. As declared by the then US President Trump - all this was for the express purpose of taking and selling their oil (Ref : https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trumps-baffling-plan-to-pillage-syrias-oil and https://www.newsweek.com/syria-bashar-al-assad-us-working-terrorists-selling-oil-stolen-country-turkey-1477451).
The relevant troika in the region : Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel. A remarkable convergence of interests was seen between these three when it comes to oil. President Trump’s possible sarcasm in innocently ‘outing’ the policy rationale was lost on those who cited him as a (unique) war criminal and pirate – ignoring the genesis and history of the war in Syria. Top officers of the United States Armed Forces confirmed in no uncertain terms their knowledge of the rules: that the oil in Syria belongs to Syria, and for anyone else to take it out and sell it without Syria’s express permission, is ‘Piracy’. To ”the Syrian people” was the way the State Department spun it, apparently unaware of the United Nations position that the government led by President Assad was the only Syrian authority of the Syrian People recognized by the United Nations.
Cognitive Dissonance
Reading reports from Syria and comparing them with those in the mainstream media of the Free World’s leaders (two links cited above), still induces extreme cognitive dissonance in me. Consider this :
The tweets cited above where Christians were celebrating with the SAA (Syrian Arab Army), the official Armed forces of President Assad’s “regime”. This is the so called “brutal regime” that the US Government has been trying for many years to overthrow - or denies ever having wanted to overthrow, depending on the day and the entity making the declaration du jour. While the reports from Putin’s Russia and Assad’s Syria may be dismissed as those from the repressed media of Authoritarian Regimes, the question remains - why were the Christians in Iraq, so recently liberated by the USA and NATO, repeating the same?
Allied with the USA against President Assad were the United Kingdom, NATO, Germany, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Canada, Australia, the Islamic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Sultanate of Qatar, the Islamic United Arab Emirates, the Islamic Republic of Turkey, and the Jewish Republic of Israel
(Ref : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_intervention_in_the_Syrian_civil_war ; https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35002733 ; https://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2019/10/19/german-troops-deployment-and-ops-in-syria-fall-within-right-of-self-defense-germanys-top-court-rules and https://www.vice.com/en/article/syria-deraa-usa-jordan-fsa-regime-cia/).
And of course the Islamic States in Iraq, Syria and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL) were also allied with above coalition (since goals of both the parties were the same). To call the Syrian government a ‘Brutal Regime’ while allied with some of the above, provides some food for thought, where thought is not punishable by death. One might wonder about their record as protectors of the Freedom to dissent and of Belief. Several of the militias or gangs operating in Syria as Allies of the above team, were and some still are funded using US taxpayer money.
In next part, I will deal with history and geography of the region, the Shia-Sunni Faultlines and the colour revolutions that were propping up everywhere in the region like mushrooms do on dung heap.
Remember - similar colour revolution was attempted in India too - First during Anna Hazare-Kejriwal movement in 2012, then in Farmer protest 4 years ago. Albeit unsuccessfully. They were just successful in pulling this off in Bangladesh recently. So while this is history and that of region far away from India, we Hindus are not immune to its fallout - same things are being tried out in India against Hindus as we speak. So it is always good to remember the mistakes others have committed.
To be Continued....
No comments:
Post a Comment