Jack A. Smith: What is Really Happening in Syria?

After several months of talking diplomacy, while simultaneously strenghtening rebel forces in Syria and demonizing the Damascus government, the Obama Administration has openly decided to go for the kill. Violent regime change will not happen immediately, but it is obviously President Obama's goal. The White House is now "redoubling efforts to rally a coalition of like-minded countries to forcibly bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad," the New York Times reported July 21. "Administration officials have been in talks with officials in Turkey and Israel over how to manage a Syrian government collapse." McClatchy Newspapers stated July 23 that "Despite reports last week that suggested rebel forces were on the verge of major triumphs in Syria, the last few days of fighting there show that a long battle still looms. Forces loyal to Assad in recent days have tightened their grip on the Lebanese border, re-established control over at least one neighborhood in Damascus and perhaps reached an accommodation with the country's Kurds that will free up more troops for battle." According to the US and its NATO allies, the Damascus regime is engaging in a one-sided, murderous war against its own people, who simply seek democracy. At the same time, the Tehran government is characterized as a "Terrorist" regime intent upon building and using nuclear weapons in order to destroy Israel and rule the Middle East. The US news media, as expected, propagates without question Washington's campaign against Syria and Iran. The United States suggests that its principal reason for seeking regime change in Syria is to promote "democracy", a tarnished rationale often employed in recent decades to undermine or destroy governments that displease the US superpower, such as in Iran in the 1950's, the Dominican Republic in the 1960's Chile in the 1970's, Nicaragua in the 1980's, Yugoslavia in the 1990's, Iraq in the 2000's, and Libya in the 2010s, among other instances.