The latest western UN Security Council resolution about Syria was, as expected, vetoed by Russia and China. South Africa and Pakistan made a point by abstaining. The resolution threatened the Syrian state with sanctions should it not withdraw its troops from population centers while saying nothing about a withdrawal of the western supported insurgents or any consequences to them.
The Ambassador to the UN for the Russian Federation Vitaly Churkin made the point that the issue of Syria is about much more than Syria. It is a global geopolitical conflict.
There is no transcript yet of the press stakeout where Chrukin elaborated on that but the gist was caught by the valuable Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press:
Then Churkin went bigger picture, paraphrasing Bill Clinton by saying “It’s all about Iran, stupid” (and striking the last word).
He said that after the US invasion of Iraq worked out differently than the US expected — with an expanded Shi’a and Iranian role, that is — now they had to try to contain Iran, by way of Syria.
After the failed policy of the war on Iraq the U.S. is now trying to correct the outcome through another catastrophic attack on another middle eastern country.
But this is even about more than Iran. It is about resistance against Israel and its occupation of Arab land. U.S. politics, under Israeli pressure, can not longer acquiesce to resistance. It has to be snuffed out. No matter what happens next.
The ongoing attack on Syria, if successful and after a long bloody sectarian civil war, will lead to the installation of another fundamentalist Sunni government in a geographically critical state. This is lunacy. Even imperial stalwarts like the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Pat Lang ask:
Are we really happy that Sunni jihadis are disassembling a government that does not represent Sunni fanatics in the likelihood that it will be replaced by one that will?
The humanitarian interventionists in the Obama administration, especially the female ones, seem to be fine with that. They will of course deny any responsibility when the predictable consequences of their action, especially for the women in Syria, will become visible for all.
