Media coverage of the Syrian civil war rarely contains the sort of in-depth reporting required to stimulate an honest questioning of this country’s role in a five-year conflict that has caused an estimated 470,000 Syrians to lose their lives and forced another 11 million to flee their homes.
“Putin Closing In,” the Bloomberg News story published in the Gazette Aug. 8, provides a superficial overview of the failed coup in Turkey and that country’s recent rapprochement with Russia, especially as the latter pertains to its negative impact on the U.S. agenda in Syria.
While the article does mention Turkish President Erdogan’s accusations of U.S. involvement, the glaring indications that he’s probably on to something are ignored.
The coup was organized from the Incirlik air base serving as the center of U.S. air operations for Syria and Iraq.
It was activated after Erdogan had initiated a sudden and radical foreign policy shift that was widely perceived to be damaging to U.S. interests.
Erdogan is now being harshly criticized in the West because of his government’s human rights abuses — the same abuses that were conveniently ignored when he was the valuable enemy of Putin helping the Western cause in Syria.
The relentless demonization of Putin fuels a mindless strain of Cold War hysteria that can only makes sense in the context of advanced preparations for dangerously escalated levels of military confrontation.
In this politically toxic atmosphere, leaked emails exposing the sleazy machinations of the DNC are smoothly incorporated into an orchestrated McCarthyite smear campaign. The spectacle of recklessly hurled accusations of treason buries the less juicy condemnations of the DNC’s arrogant corruption of the electoral process.
The exposed DNC conspiracy of “dirty tricks” that was designed to ensure the safe containment of the Bernie Sanders campaign, culminated with the token “socialist’s” groveling surrender. The combined impact of Sanders’ sell-out humiliation and Trump’s erratic meltdowns has allowed Clinton to ignore the messy issues that Sanders raised during the primary.
Hillary Clinton is, by virtual default, the officially endorsed reliable enemy of Putin “who can be trusted to keep our nation safe.”
Mitchell Sieser
Florence