The Syrian Itch

Syria is the new 'itch' of the West. The script seems all too familiar. The US and its European allies look for an excuse to meddle in a West Asian country and it does not take long for them to prise open a window of opportunity. They are egged on by regional satraps like Saudi Arabia, and of late Turkey, who have their own axes to grind.

Of course, being democracies the West is saddled with the burden of 'manufacturing consent' (apology to Noam Chomsky) among the populace that it is a 'just war' and worth shedding the blood of some promising youngsters, though not those from affluent background. Good old white man's burden theory gets reloaded with some new characteristics.

However, what is disappointing is that it is happening during the tenure of a US President who came to power on an anti-war platform. He seemed more than eager to bring back his troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

But now we have his lieutenant John Kerry play Donald Rumsfeld by hoisting Bashar Al Assad to the evil pantheon of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Being Democrats one was lulled into believing they won't be as economical on truth as their Republican rivals. But looks like the corroding influence of White House is a great leveller.

While marshalling his case against Syria, Kerry revealed a picture of rows of dead bodies lying on the floor, wrapped in white shrouds, and claimed they were victims of Bashar Al Assad's alleged chemical attack. A claim refuted by the photographer Marco di Lauro, who actually took that photo, saying it was from Iraq in 2003 and adds that he nearly "fell off his chair" when he saw it being used to promote a war in Syria. As of now the only ray of hope is that America's trusted camp follower Britain has not fallen in line yet. Not because it does not want to, but because the opposition is proving to be a hard nut to crack.

As for the media, which is now at best an extended arm of corporate communications, the less said the better. In this era of embedded war correspondents we cannot even dream of expose like Pentagon papers that happened during Vietnam war.

And thankfully for our leaders, the attention span of our modern day youth is as narrow as their smartphone screens and their sense of history is next to nothing. Hence things like Vietnam war, Napalm attacks and My Lai massacre hardly ring a bell. So they needn't fear any needling questions from them and continue selling the same old snake oil of 'national interest' to further the agenda of their real constituency - the arms dealers.

Cartoon source: Facebook

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