It would be easy to dismiss Bernard-Henri Levy as a vainglorious douchebag, but he's a douchebag who still has a lot of schlep. The great BHL, as he styles himself, took credit early on for the liberation of Libya. Given how that triumph has worked out, one can only marvel that any reputable news platform would bother to publish his ruminations viz the latest Nations of Virtue operation, the liberation of Syria.
But there he was the other day, in Canada's national newspaper of record (and no, that's not the National Post), waxing wise on the whys and why-nots of the crusade against Assad. The paper earnestly informs us that BHL is a founder of the Nouveaux Philosophes movement.
Wow! Guess we are meant to be mightily impressed!
BHL's essay begins with a couple of highly speculative assertions presented as facts in the first paragraph, and goes downhill from there. Hey, he's a philosopher, not a journalist!
Here's one of the few real working journalists still working the Syria file, Patrick Cockburn, contradicting most of what the great BHL has to say.
So who are you going to believe?
Showing posts with label Syria war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Syria war. Show all posts
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Friday, January 3, 2014
Syria Intervention: running yet another possible casus belli up the pole...
...to see if enough people salute.
Make no mistake; the purpose of stories like this is to gauge public opinion re: direct US intervention. Those plucky Syrian freedom fighters that we organized are now taking on not only the evil Assad, but the even eviler al-Qaeda types who have stolen their revolution.
How can we possibly stand by? We have a moral obligation to intervene!
Get ready for the full court 24/7 propaganda blitz. We simply CANNOT turn our backs now on these courageous Syrian freedom fighters from London and Paris who are now fighting for their lives against the evil Syrian al-Qaeda freedom fighters from Libya and Saudi Arabia and Chechnya.
There's a wide range of folks who have a keen interest in stirring things up in Syria. When another US war means many more years of black ink on the bottom line, you can be sure there's going to be a propaganda campaign to make the sale.
Coming soon to a FOXABCBSNBCNN news outlet near you.
Don't say I didn't warn ya.
Make no mistake; the purpose of stories like this is to gauge public opinion re: direct US intervention. Those plucky Syrian freedom fighters that we organized are now taking on not only the evil Assad, but the even eviler al-Qaeda types who have stolen their revolution.
How can we possibly stand by? We have a moral obligation to intervene!
Get ready for the full court 24/7 propaganda blitz. We simply CANNOT turn our backs now on these courageous Syrian freedom fighters from London and Paris who are now fighting for their lives against the evil Syrian al-Qaeda freedom fighters from Libya and Saudi Arabia and Chechnya.
There's a wide range of folks who have a keen interest in stirring things up in Syria. When another US war means many more years of black ink on the bottom line, you can be sure there's going to be a propaganda campaign to make the sale.
Coming soon to a FOXABCBSNBCNN news outlet near you.
Don't say I didn't warn ya.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Senator McCain on the warpath
John McCain made a secret visit to Syria yesterday, there to meet with Free Syria Army officials who also had to be surreptitiously spirited into Syria in order to stage their photo-ops with McCain "in-country" as they say.
That's because the FSA "commanders" McCain met with don't normally spend much time "in-country," and they certainly have no command over the FSA units doing damage to the Assad regime on the ground.
They do however have neatly tailored and crisply laundered uniforms, at least in the photo-ops.
Perhaps because he was profoundly impressed with those uniforms, or perhaps because he has inadvertently begun to believe his own bullshit, McCain came away from the encounter convinced that the best thing America could do for the future of peace and democracy is to deliver heavy weapons, and lots of them, to the "Syrian opposition."
Just to prove that McCain's foray into the SFA PR sweepstakes didn't happen in a vacuum, headlines across the Western world have provided a timely resurrection of the claims that yes, Assad has once again crossed those red lines and used chemical weapons on his own people.
Which proves that even though the FSA has no clout on the ground in Syria, they still have plenty of schlep in the world of Western news media.
And it once again brings the aging Senator front and center in the "lets make war" sweeps. Nobody is hungrier for war than Senator McCain. He will go to his grave as America's number one war-monger.
Just what is it in his past that drives him to be America's number one uber-patriot today?
That's because the FSA "commanders" McCain met with don't normally spend much time "in-country," and they certainly have no command over the FSA units doing damage to the Assad regime on the ground.
They do however have neatly tailored and crisply laundered uniforms, at least in the photo-ops.
Perhaps because he was profoundly impressed with those uniforms, or perhaps because he has inadvertently begun to believe his own bullshit, McCain came away from the encounter convinced that the best thing America could do for the future of peace and democracy is to deliver heavy weapons, and lots of them, to the "Syrian opposition."
Just to prove that McCain's foray into the SFA PR sweepstakes didn't happen in a vacuum, headlines across the Western world have provided a timely resurrection of the claims that yes, Assad has once again crossed those red lines and used chemical weapons on his own people.
Which proves that even though the FSA has no clout on the ground in Syria, they still have plenty of schlep in the world of Western news media.
And it once again brings the aging Senator front and center in the "lets make war" sweeps. Nobody is hungrier for war than Senator McCain. He will go to his grave as America's number one war-monger.
Just what is it in his past that drives him to be America's number one uber-patriot today?
Friday, January 11, 2013
Huff Post hoists flag of Empire
This story has legs. It's shown here as it appears in Huffington Post Canadian edition, but I found it under "Israel English" in the Google news aggregator.
The first thing to catch my eye was the claim that Syria is such a complicated scenario that it precludes "US-led action to topple another Middle-East dictator."
That sentence leaves the impression that the US is in the business of toppling dictators. By my count Saddam was the only Middle East dictator ever to be toppled by the US, and before that the most recent toppling of a dictator by the US was Hitler, and the Red Army did most of the heavy lifting on that job.
As anyone remotely acquainted with the arc of history over the last hundred years will know, the US is far more inclined to topple democratic governments than dictatorships.
Then the writer, after speculating about a quid-pro-quo arrangement with Russia that may or may not have greenlighted their seizure of Syrian chemical weapons stockpiles, declares this "a model of understanding how power begets principle in today's world."
Power begets principle? What kind of horseshit are we reading here?
The reason that America cannot intervene in Syria, let alone Iran, is because the country is broke and broken. Yes, American power may have toppled a dictator in Iraq. What principles did that beget?
The only principle one can draw from the last fifty years of American meddling in other countries is that the unprincipled use of power leaves mayhem and anarchy and death and destruction in its wake.
And it creates far more enemies for America than it destroys.
The Huffington Post has long enjoyed the reputation of being a left-of-mainstream journal of current events. If this article is any indication, it has joined the mainstream chorus of pro-Empire cheerleaders.
The first thing to catch my eye was the claim that Syria is such a complicated scenario that it precludes "US-led action to topple another Middle-East dictator."
That sentence leaves the impression that the US is in the business of toppling dictators. By my count Saddam was the only Middle East dictator ever to be toppled by the US, and before that the most recent toppling of a dictator by the US was Hitler, and the Red Army did most of the heavy lifting on that job.
As anyone remotely acquainted with the arc of history over the last hundred years will know, the US is far more inclined to topple democratic governments than dictatorships.
Then the writer, after speculating about a quid-pro-quo arrangement with Russia that may or may not have greenlighted their seizure of Syrian chemical weapons stockpiles, declares this "a model of understanding how power begets principle in today's world."
Power begets principle? What kind of horseshit are we reading here?
The reason that America cannot intervene in Syria, let alone Iran, is because the country is broke and broken. Yes, American power may have toppled a dictator in Iraq. What principles did that beget?
The only principle one can draw from the last fifty years of American meddling in other countries is that the unprincipled use of power leaves mayhem and anarchy and death and destruction in its wake.
And it creates far more enemies for America than it destroys.
The Huffington Post has long enjoyed the reputation of being a left-of-mainstream journal of current events. If this article is any indication, it has joined the mainstream chorus of pro-Empire cheerleaders.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Proof that Syria's evil dictator will use CHEMICAL WEAPONS on his own people
Here it is, straight from the Telegraph. Syrian troops seen packing bombs with sarin gas. If it's in the Telegraph it must be true...
Oh, wait a minute... I see they got the story from NBC.
NBC never has true stories. Or hardly ever.
How does the Telegraph know this story is true?
They don't, and they admit they don't.
So in what way is this "news?"
It isn't.
But you have to admit it makes for a compelling headline.
Oh, wait a minute... I see they got the story from NBC.
NBC never has true stories. Or hardly ever.
How does the Telegraph know this story is true?
They don't, and they admit they don't.
So in what way is this "news?"
It isn't.
But you have to admit it makes for a compelling headline.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Leading French buffoon calls for immediate invasion of Syria
Yes, that would be none other than Bernard-Henri Levy, the "Oaf of Tobruk" who single-handedly brought democracy to Libya last year.
He is now ready for an encore performance. He has retained a film crew to record his high-level diplomatic publicity stunts as he lobbies all and sundry to implement his plans for the salvation of Syria. Hopefully the ensuing documentary, tentatively titled "The Oaf of Aleppo", will be ready in time for Cannes.
Writing in Le Monde today, BHL envisions a joint Franco-American invasion force that combines French leadership and intelligence and Yankee boots on the ground. The mission must by-pass the UN, he informs us, because there remain people in that institution who are not convinced of his towering genius.
The Franco American invaders will ensure that only rebels with "genuinely democratic ideals" will be given weapons. Perhaps he has learned something from the Libya debacle after all, where a year after liberation the country is wracked with internecine violence and is less stable than at anytime in the past 43 years.
That's a minor quibble though. When one is as overwhelmingly brilliant as the great BHL there is no need to allow oneself to be encumbered with triffles like "facts" and "reality".
He is now ready for an encore performance. He has retained a film crew to record his high-level diplomatic publicity stunts as he lobbies all and sundry to implement his plans for the salvation of Syria. Hopefully the ensuing documentary, tentatively titled "The Oaf of Aleppo", will be ready in time for Cannes.
Writing in Le Monde today, BHL envisions a joint Franco-American invasion force that combines French leadership and intelligence and Yankee boots on the ground. The mission must by-pass the UN, he informs us, because there remain people in that institution who are not convinced of his towering genius.
The Franco American invaders will ensure that only rebels with "genuinely democratic ideals" will be given weapons. Perhaps he has learned something from the Libya debacle after all, where a year after liberation the country is wracked with internecine violence and is less stable than at anytime in the past 43 years.
That's a minor quibble though. When one is as overwhelmingly brilliant as the great BHL there is no need to allow oneself to be encumbered with triffles like "facts" and "reality".
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