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<big><big><strong><font size="3"><big><big>Operation Tomahawk with
cheese</big></big></font></strong></big></big><br>
By Pepe Escobar
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-04-290813.html">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-04-290813.html</a><br>
<br>
This deafeningly hysterical show of Syria as Iraq 2.0 is only happening
because a president of the United States (POTUS) created a
''credibility'' problem when, recklessly, he pronounced the use of
chemical weapons in Syria a ''red line''. <br>
<br>
Thus the US government urgently needs to punish the transgressor - to
hell with evidence - to maintain its ''credibility''. But this time it
will be ''limited''. ''Tailored''. Only ''a few days''. A ''shot across
the bow'' - as POTUS qualified it. Still, some - but not all -
''high-value targets'', including command and control facilities and
delivery systems, in Syria will have to welcome a barrage of Tomahawk
cruise missiles (384 are already positioned in the eastern
Mediterranean). <br>
<br>
We all know how the Pentagon loves to christen its assorted
humanitarian liberations across the globe with names like Desert Fox,
Invincible Vulture or some other product of brainstorming idiocy. So
now it's time to call Operation Tomahawk With Cheese. <br>
<br>
It's like ordering a pizza delivery. ''Hello, I'd like a Tomahawk with
cheese.'' ''Of course, it will be ready in 20 minutes.'' ''Hold on,
wait! I need to fool the UN first. Can I pick it up next week? With
extra cheese?'' <br>
<br>
In 1988, Operation Desert Fox - launched by Bill ''I did not have sex
with that woman'' Clinton - was designed to ''degrade'', but not
destroy, Saddam Hussein's capacity to manufacture non-existent weapons
of mass destruction. Now, the deployment of those deeply moral
Tomahawks is also designed to ''degrade'' the Bashar al-Assad's
government capacity to unleash unproven chemical weapons attacks. <br>
<br>
Yet there's always that pesky problem of perennially ungrateful Arabs
who, according to the New York Times, ''are emotionally opposed to any
Western military action in the region no matter how humanitarian the
cause''.
<br>
<br>
The deeply humanitarian Operation Tomahawk With Cheese is running into
all sorts of problems with the calendar. POTUS leaves next Tuesday to
Sweden - and from there he will go to St Petersburg for the Group of 20
summit, on Thursday and Friday next week. The proverbial horde of
''unnamed White House officials'' has been spinning like mad
centrifuges, emphasizing that POTUS must wrap up Tomahawk With Cheese
before he musters the courage to face Russian President Vladimir Putin
and other leaders of emerging powers. <br>
<br>
Surveying his impossibilities - with one eye to the calendar and
another to the resistance to enlarge his mini-coalition of the willing
- now POTUS seems to be looking for an exit strategy that in fact would
all but abandon Operation Tomahawk With Cheese.
<br>
<br>
Others are way more resilient. A predictable bunch of 66 former
''government officials'' and ''foreign policy experts'' - all of them
Ziocons under the umbrella of the Foreign Policy Initiative - has
published a letter urging POTUS to go way beyond Operation Tomahawk
With Cheese, arguing for a pizza sparing no lethal ingredients. This
would be a true humanitarian mission, able to support ''moderate''
Syrian ''rebels'' and on top of it ''dissuade Iran from developing
nuclear weapons''. <br>
<br>
<b>A rebel, but not a jerk </b><br>
Let's see what a ''moderate'' Syrian ''rebel'' thinks about all this.
Haytahm Manna, in exile for 35 years, is a key member of the non-armed
Syrian opposition (yes, they do exist). But he's not following the
script; he's resolutely against Operation Tomahawk, with cheese or with
extra cheese. (See <a
href="http://www.levif.be/info/actualite/international/syrie-les-attaques-chimiques-sont-un-coup-monte/article-4000384171801.htm">here</a>
(in French).
<br>
<br>
Worse; he debunks the US government's ''evidence'' of a chemical
weapons attack as ''propaganda'' and ''psychological war''. He stresses
the chemicals were launched with ''artisanal weapons''; that ties up
with Russian intelligence, which is sure gas that it was delivered by a
homemade missile fired from a base under opposition control (extensive
details compiled <a
href="http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:Alleged_Chemical_Attack,_August_21,_2013#Qaboun_rocket_lauches">here</a>;
scroll down to ''Qaboun rocket launches''). <br>
<br>
Manna also points to ''videos and photos on the Internet before the
attacks''; to al-Qaeda's previous use of chemical weapons; and to the
Russians as ''seriously working for the Geneva II negotiations'',
unlike the Americans. <br>
<br>
Ooops. This is not exactly what the designers of Operation Tomahawk
With Cheese were expecting. If a Syrian exile draws these conclusions,
the same applies to Syria civilians who are about to be greeted by
those deeply moral Tomahawks. <br>
<br>
The Pentagon could always go for Plan B. A single Tomahawk costs at
least US$1.5 million. Multiply that for 384. That's not a great bang
for your buck - because even if they all go humanitarian, the Bashar
al-Assad government would still remain in place. <br>
<br>
So why not drop planeloads of sexy, Pininfarina-designed Ferrari
Californias? They retail for around $200.000. Imagine the frenzy among
Assad elite forces struggling to seize the Big Prize, one among 2,000
Californias. With their eyes off the ball, the ''rebels'' could easily
sneak in everywhere and take over Damascus. And perhaps even stage the
victory parade on a fleet of photogenic Ferraris. Call that an
improvement over Libya. <br>
<br>
Operation Tomahawk With Cheese may still happen; even with the calendar
pressing; even bypassing the UN; even with a mini-coalition of the
willing; even making a total mockery of international law. The White
House has made it clear that ''diplomatic paralysis'' cannot infringe
on its ''credibility''. <br>
<br>
As for what is happening 10 years after the invasion and occupation of
Iraq, it's about the US government, parts of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (Britain and France) and parts of the Gulf Cooperation
Council (Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) burying the
previous, much-lauded Euro-Arab ''dialogue'' and turning into a shady
Atlanticist-Islamist cabal bent on smashing yet another secular Arab
republic. Talk about rotten cheese. <br>
<br>
<i><b>Pepe Escobar</b> is the author of </i><a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0978813820/simpleproduction/ref=nosim">Globalistan:
How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War</a> <i>(Nimble
Books, 2007), </i><a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Red-Zone-Blues-snapshot-Baghdad/dp/0978813898">Red
Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge</a> <i>(Nimble
Books, 2007), and </i><a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Obama-Does-Globalistan-Pepe-Escobar/dp/1934840831">Obama
does Globalistan</a> <i>(Nimble Books, 2009).
<br>
<br>
He may be reached at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pepeasia@yahoo.com">pepeasia@yahoo.com</a>.
</i>
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