David Cameron has been defeated after his war-cry for Syria fell on deaf ears in the parliament.

Despite trying to pull at the heart strings of the public by milking the chemical weapons attacks in the country for all they were worth, the bitter memories of being lied to over Iraq were all too fresh in the public psyche.

Shortly after the hysterical media reports claiming that the US government claimed “Britain cannot be relied upon”, Obama decided to try and give the facade of democracy a go afterall, and invited congress to vote on the matter before trying out their new bomb toys on innocent people.

But despite MPs voting a resounding “No” over the strikes on Syria, Lord Howard, a former Conservative leader, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former Foreign Secretary, and Lord Ashdown, a former Liberal Democrat leader, led calls to vote again on Sunday.

In otherwords, they did not get the vote they want, so they are determined to drag MPs kicking and screaming back to the ballot until they get the vote they want.

Democracy indeed – but with a little extra “pressure” applied.

Anyone with a memory left will remember the ridiculous graphic images of Saddam’s underground super bunkers and the deadly arsenal within which were paraded in front of the public, in order to justify the Iraq war. Of course, it was utter fantasy but clever propaganda. And this current fiasco with Syria appears to run parallel to that.

Over the last few weeks, it has been reported by the corporate media that Assad launched weapons attacks on his own people. So far, this has not been confirmed, at the time this paper was going to press.

But even if that was the case, the question remains, is bombing people a way to teach others not to kill…other people?

And if we go ahead and do that, should we be surprised if they happily come over to the Western world and return the favour?

But here are the facts. During the Iraqi war, in 2004, the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004.

The incident hit the headlines at the time, and was vehemently denied by the USA as “widespread myths”.

Then, the corporate PR machine went into overdrive again, and claimed that in fact they did use the deadly chemical, but not to kill the enemy, only to make it easier to see them. Think I’m joking? According to the USInfo site: “US forces have used them very sparingly in Fallujah, for illumination purposes.They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters.”

But shortly after that, new information surfaced, including hideous photographs, videos and interviews with American soldiers who took part in the Fallujah attack, which provides graphic proof that phosphorus shells were widely deployed in the city as a weapon.

In a documentary, produced by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, a former American soldier who fought at Fallujah says: “I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it’s known as Willy Pete.

“Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone … I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres is done for.”

But despite this horrendous attacks, nobody launched missile attacks on US soil and called for war to break out. But if the US presses ahead with the war in Syria – which Obama seems determined to – that may all be about to change.
Let me explain why. Syria is a close ally of Iran and in 2005 they declared that they had a mutual defence pact, so if one was attacked, the other would intervene.

It is also worth noting here that Iran has some of the third largest oil reserves in the world, and therefore if an attack were to go ahead on Syria, it would also provide the US with a gateway into Iran. Go figure.

A similar pact exists between Israel and the US. On April 17th of this year, the US senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to endorse resolution 65 which said the US will firmly back Israel militarily and financially should it attack Iran.

The resolution states: “If the Government of Israel is compelled to take military action in legitimate self defense against Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the United States Government should stand with Israel and provide, in accordance with United States law and the constitutional responsibility of Congress to authorize the use of military force, diplomatic, military, and economic support to the Government of Israel in its defense of its territory, people, and existence.”

And then of course, if Russia and China jump on the bandwagon, then world peace will be a distinct memory – not just for those in war-torn regions, but for the west as well.

So any attack on Syria from the West could leave us on the precipice of worldwide catastrophe, unless intense pressure is placed upon the political puppets that operate on behalf of their paymasters.

After backing down in Parliament, the “special relationship” propaganda that is trotted out by the political elites and spoon fed to the masses appeared to be in full swing.

It was also widely reported that Tory cabinet ministers were concerned that Britain’s decision not to go to war with Syria, could cause tension between the US and UK, with one Whitehall source saying Britain was ‘handing back its deputy sheriff’s badge’ to Washington.

Therefore, it leaves open the question whether the war was truly on humanitarian grounds as is claimed, or just to appease the alliance that has been created between the world superpowers, as a propaganda and control tool.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the ongoing Syrian conflict. Nato backed rebels have already been implicated in chemical weapons attacks on the Syrian population, but despite this, both the UK and US governments indicated their desire to arm the ‘Al-Qaeda’ backed rebels, from early on in the crisis.

But chemical weapons attacks are not the only tool they have used to terrorize their population with.

Another weapon has also been used by soldiers on both sides of the conflict which has had a devastating, yet unspoken impact on women and children caught up in the crisis. And that is mass rape. Thousands of women have been kidnapped and taken to detention centres where they are stripped naked in front of other women and gang-raped – with the others forced to watch, knowing that it would be their turn next.

This kind of brutality is not just committed by the rebels however, soldiers working on behalf of Assad’s army have also been implicated in this brutality committed against women.

One woman, Alma Abdulrahman was left paralysed from the waist down after such an attack.
She described the level of torture at the hands of the military who also broke part of her spine and her neckbone. During her ordeal, she was injected repeatedly with an unknown drug and beaten with barbed wire.

She said that the ‘men’ were told by their commanding officer to “take their portion.”
Her full story is documented on the Women Under Seige website.

Alma Abdulrahman

This is one of the little-known side-effects of war that is very often not publicised in the media – particularly not when convincing people to get involved in military action.

In almost every conflict known to man – including the second world war, the Rwandan genocide, the Yugoslavian war, Vietnam and currently, the Congo and Iraq, rape has been used as a form of ‘ethnic cleansing’ and a way to dominate the opposing side.

It destroys communities, and also prevents women from giving birth to those who may well come back and avenge their forefathers later. At least this is the logic deduced by those who give the go-ahead to these barbaric acts.

Meanwhile, the US, under the leadership of the warmonger Obama, has stated its intention to press ahead with the military action in Syria, along with France.

This will not only increase the body-count of the Syrian population, but will ultimately lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and eventually people, across the world. That is, unless people stand up against those who are leading down the long, slow route to tyranny.

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