Stephen Lendman

Endless war continues with no prospect for peace because Washington rejects it - wanting overwhelmingly popular Bashar al-Assad forcibly ousted, knowing he won’t step down voluntarily nor should he.

International law supports him. Syrians alone may decide who’ll lead them, free from foreign interference. All armed opposition groups in Syria engaged in combat against government forces along with slaughtering defenseless civilians are terrorists.

Washington and its rogue allies support them - imported death squads unable to exist without foreign backing.

No so-called “moderate rebels” exist. Speaking last October at the International Valdai Discussion Club’s annual meeting, Putin forthrightly said “(w)hy play with words dividing terrorists into moderate and not moderate. What’s the difference?”

Without naming them, he accused some countries of playing a double game, pretending to fight terrorism while supporting it.

“Success in fighting terrorists cannot be reached if (some of them are) us(ed) as a battering ram to overthrow disliked regimes. It’s just an illusion that they can be dealt with (later), removed from power and somehow negotiated with,” Putin stressed.

Russia intervened in Syria at the request of its government to defeat terrorism, prevent its spread and restore peace - goals distant from accomplishing because US imperial aims are polar opposite.

On June 5, Syria’s Foreign Ministry sent identical letters to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and current Security Council president Francois Delattre, France’s UN envoy.

It minced no words, saying armed groups anti-Syrian Western and regional countries call “moderate opposition” forces along with internationally designated Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists are indiscriminately attacking areas in and around Aleppo - shelling them with rockets, mortars and gas cylinder bombs, slaughtering civilians, injuring hundreds more.

These Western and regionally supported attacks are “part of the series of the systematic terrorist acts plotted and prepared by the Turkish regime and perpetrated by the ‘moderate opposition’ groups in cooperation and coordination with Jabhat al-Nusra and its affiliates such as Jaish al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Fatah among others,” the letters explained.

What’s ongoing represents “a blatant attempt by the regime of Erdogan and the other regimes supporting and sponsoring terrorism in Riyadh and Doha to undermine the efforts seeking to stop the bloodshed and to foil the Geneva talks and the truce arrangements.”

US, UK and French refusal to designate Jaish al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham, and other groups waging war on Syria and its people as terrorist organizations reveals their support for the scourge they claim to oppose.

Separately days earlier, Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said ongoing terrorist attacks “wouldn’t have been possible without support of the states that are financing and arming” these groups.

Damascus demands responsible Security Council action it won’t get because Washington wants war, not peace, pro-Western puppet governance replacing Syrian sovereignty. If Syria goes, Iran is next, its independence targeted the same way.

The time for Russia to challenge America’s regional imperial agenda is now. Failure to act likely means facing a greater threat later on.

Last October at the International Valdai Discussion Club, Putin said Russia intervened in Syria “(f)irst and foremost (to) protect the interests of Russia and the Russian people.”

At the same time, Syria’s collapse “will only mobilize terrorists,” he said, creating a greater problem than already.

“If the fight is inevitable, be the first to strike,” he stressed. It bears repeating. The time for Russia to act is now - without further delay!

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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