[News] World powers rush to plunge Syria into war

[Anti-Imperialist News]

World powers rush to plunge Syria into war
By Pepe Escobar

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NE10Ak03.html

(Satire alert)

DAMASCUS - World powers are racing against time to plunge Syria into 
all-out civil war, United Nations leader Ban Ki-moon advised, as a 
watchdog reported "thousands" of killings of civilians on YouTube by 
the Syrian regime.

Speaking after a key United Nations Security Council meeting on 
Syria, officials described in detail the "brutality" of President 
Bashar al-Assad's forces and said attacks by opposition groups are 
"non-existent".

We are in a race against time to promote full-scale civil war - 
"death on a potentially massive scale," officials guaranteed. The UN 
already estimates that well over 9,000 people have died in the 
14-month uprising against Assad while rights groups have put the 
number at more than 11,000, every single one of them a victim of the 
ruthless Assad regime.

"The government continues to assault its people," the UN secretary 
general said. He also criticized the Syrian government for holding 
parliamentary elections on Monday. Observers instead evoked the 
example of the Saudi royal family, when it appointed a committee of 
princes to decide on their succession. Western powers at the time 
praised it as the most important step in the history of democracy 
since the 1789 French Revolution.

Iran, a staunch ally of the Assad regime, said the elections were a 
step towards reform - something immediately dismissed by world powers 
as "mullah propaganda".

At least 100 people were killed on YouTube across Syria by regime 
forces as the vote was taking place, the one-man, one-legged, 
London-based, Gulf-financed Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Troops swept through al-Tamanaa village in Idlib province during the 
night, firing shells and bursts of gunfire at random. Scores of 
civilians died at the hands of battalions of snipers in the central 
city of Homs.

Regime forces also carried out raids and arrests in the town of Douma 
in Damascus province, taking scores of young men to an undisclosed 
location, according to the Observatory.

The UN-backed truce that went into effect April 12 has failed to take 
hold as it was expected, considering it was just a stopgap measure to 
prepare for full civil war.

"The international community is facing tremendous difficulties", an 
unnamed official said. "We tried regime change via a UN Security 
Council resolution, twice, but we were blocked by the Soviets and 
communist China. Now our only hope is for NATO [North Atlantic Treaty 
Organization] to decide on unilateral action."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing thousands in 
southern Turkey, refused to be deterred by the "difficulties". He 
declared, "The glorious day of regime change is at hand". Erdogan 
added, "We won't deviate from our all-encompassing policy of neo-Ottomanism."

Pro-government Syrian media said turnout was high in the election 
that marked the first time Syria has held a vote since the adoption 
in February of a new constitution allowing for multi-party polls.

"Millions of Syrians defied terrorism and chose their representatives 
in parliament," said the daily Al-Watan, which estimated voter 
turnout at 60%. Yet pictures of crowds outside polling stations in 
Damascus were dismissed by world powers as crude forgeries.

In an avalanche of YouTube videos posted online from Deraa, where the 
uprising started in March 2011, the Syrian National Council showed 
empty streets and all shops closed in protest against the elections.

The opposition dismissed the vote as a ploy by the regime to buy time 
and derail the international community from its serious commitment to 
civil war.

The new 24-hour Arabic-language channel, Sky News Arabia, a joint 
venture between Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahayan, owner of the 
English football club Manchester City, and British broadcaster BSkyB, 
owned by phone-hacking enabler Rupert Murdoch, described the events 
in Syria as "a hopeful precedent towards regime change".

Sky News Arabia - which boasts an impartial "editorial advisory 
committee" including two members from the stable of Rupert Murdoch's 
News Corp - has promised to outmaneuver Qatar-based al-Jazeera into 
depicting the Assad regime as "worse than Hitler".

Sheikh Mansour, reached for comments in Abu Dhabi, said, "Next 
weekend we [Manchester City] will be crowned Premier League 
champions. Then we will be able to concentrate on winning Syria. We 
should not waiver; the future of democracy is at stake."

Pepe Escobar is the author of 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0978813820/simpleproduction/ref=nosim>Globalistan: 
How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 
2007) and 
<http://www.amazon.com/Red-Zone-Blues-snapshot-Baghdad/dp/0978813898>Red 
Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His most recent 
book, just out, is 
<http://www.amazon.com/Obama-Does-Globalistan-Pepe-Escobar/dp/1934840831/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233698286&sr=8-1>Obama 
does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

He may be reached at pepeasia at yahoo.com



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