![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/syria.jpg\" "\\"syria\\"")
America\u2019s business isn\u2019t just war and grand theft. It\u2019s also regime change by whatever means.<\/strong><\/p>\nA previous article mentioned General Wesley Clark, from his book, \u201cWinning Modern Wars,\u201d<\/em> saying that Pentagon sources told him two months after 9\/11 that war plans were being prepared against Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Somalia, Sudan and Libya.<\/em> Months earlier, they were finalized against Afghanistan.<\/strong><\/p>\n Clark added:<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what about the real sources of terrorists \u2013 US allies in the region like Egypt, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia? <\/em>Wasn\u2019t it repressive policies of the first, and the corruption and poverty of the second, that were generating many of the angry young men who became terrorists? And what of the radical ideology and direct funding spewing from Saudi Arabia?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt seemed that we were being taken into a strategy more likely to make us the enemy \u2013 encouraging what could look like a \u2018clash of civilizations\u2019 \u2013 not a good strategy for winning the war on terror.\u201d<\/p>\n On September 5, Nil Nikandrov\u2019s Global Research.ca article asked if \u201cAfter Libya: Is Venezuela Next?\u201d <\/span><\/strong>saying:<\/p>\n NATO insurgents attack on Venezuela\u2019s Tripoli embassy and compound narrowly missed claiming casualties as \u201cambassador Afif Tajeldine and the embassy staff moved to a safer location at the last moment and left Libya shortly thereafter.\u201d<\/p>\n Nikandrov added that Venezuela\u2019s embassy was the only one looted, suggesting perhaps a message threatening Chavez as America\u2019s next target.<\/p>\n He certainly was in April 2002 for two days by a Washington instigated coup, aborted by mass street protests and support from many in Venezuela\u2019s military, especially from its middle-ranking officer corp.<\/p>\n Later in December 2002 and early 2003, he was again by a general strike and oil management lockout, causing severe economic disruption, and by an August 2004 national recall referendum he won handily with 59% of the vote.<\/p>\n Chavez knows Washington targets him for removal, yet he remains Venezuela\u2019s democratically elected president since first taking office on February 2, 1999, and still popular.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, last June, the Republican controlled House Foreign Relations Committee wanted the Obama administration to aggressively \u201ccontain (his) dangerous influence (and) his relations with Iran,\u201d according to Rep. Connie Mack (R. FL), chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs for the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n He and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R. FL), another right-wing extremist, got the White House to impose sanctions on Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), its state oil company even though America relies on imported oil it supplies.<\/p>\n They and others also want Venezuela designated a supporter of state terrorism with greater consequences if they succeed, unfriendly to US business interests very much opposed.<\/p>\n As a result, whether other actions follow bears close watching. Moreover, Venezuela\u2019s late 2012 presidential election is important, especially with Chavez recovering from cancer, so perhaps is more vulnerable than earlier.<\/p>\n Ahead of the precise date to be announced, Washington is funding his opposition as done previously, meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign country, what\u2019s illegal in US elections.<\/p>\n Since 2002, in fact, America\u2019s State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) <\/em>directed over $100 million to anti-Chavez groups, candidates, and media campaigns.<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite America\u2019s debt and budget problems, it continues perhaps in amounts greater than known, and may increase substantially next year as part of a greater regime change campaign.<\/p>\n Are more aggressive actions planned? Only the fullness of time will tell, but given the Obama\u2019s penchant for regime change, events ahead bear close watching.<\/p>\n In Syria also since externally generated uprisings began last March, then intensified, suggesting regime change there as in Libya. Both countries were targeted with violence, so far, however, without NATO intervening against the Assad government or able to get a Security Council resolution passed to facilitate it.<\/p>\n However, according to National Security Council director of strategic communications Ben Rhodes, the Libya model is a template for future US\/NATO interventions, but \u201c(h)ow much we translate to Syria remains to be seen. The Syrian opposition doesn\u2019t want foreign military forces but do want more countries to cut of trade with the regime and break with it politically.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n By opposition perhaps he means Washington, NATO allies, and supportive regional regimes, not Syrians or its business leaders, harmed most by sanctions and other tactics.<\/p>\n On August 31, Corbett Report editor James Corbett told Russia Today that manipulated video footage is being used to falsify events on the ground, saying:<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s even been the implication that some of the images being shown have been digitally manipulated,\u201d online reports discussing it. One instance cited video footage from Bahrain. Claimed to be from Hama, various stations airing it used different digitally \u201cdropped in backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo there are some very strange things going on, and unfortunately we live in an age when media manipulation is so easy.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s thus harder to distinguish between reality and fiction. It was true in Tripoli when alleged rebel-supportive euphoric celebrations were, in fact, produced at a Doha, Qatar Green Square Hollywood-style sound stage mockup. In other words, they were staged and untrue. Apparently, the same deception is now repeated in Syria.<\/p>\n A September 3 Corbett Report video with Michel Chossudovsky focused on destabilizing Syria, suggesting a greater global war could result, involving Russia and China.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever the nature of the Syrian government,\u201d he said, falsely intervening based on \u201cthe doctrine of the responsibility to protect is a derogation of the sovereign rights of a country,\u201d <\/strong>according to fundamental international law prohibiting it.<\/p>\n In fact, Western media suppress reports of well armed insurgents, brought in from the outside, stoking violence since last March. At the same time, Assad\u2019s forces were blamed for responding.<\/p>\n In all anti-government demonstrations, disruptive \u201cIslamists, snipers, and armed gangs are involved in acts of arson directed against government buildings,\u201d including a \u201ccourt house and the agricultural bank in Hama.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, nonviolent civilians, legitimately protesting grievances, are trapped between waring sides, resulting in deaths and other casualties.<\/p>\n At issue, however, is \u201can armed insurrection, spreading from one city to another. We now have very firm evidence that both Turkey and Israel are\u201d supporting militia groups (financially and with weapons), some of them, in fact, used as death squads.<\/strong><\/p>\n At the same time, \u201cthey\u2019re using this a pretext to demonize the Syrian regime, and demand the resignation of Bashar al-Assad,\u201d perhaps heading toward NATO intervention and greater war.<\/p>\n On September 2, Chossudovsky\u2019s Global Research.ca article headlined, \u201cThe Al Qaeda Insurgency in Syria: Recruiting Jihadists to Wage NATO\u2019s \u2018Humanitarian Wars,\u2019 Part III,\u201d <\/span>saying:<\/p>\n Despite its authoritarian nature, Assad\u2019s government is \u201cthe only (remaining) independent secular state in the Arab world. Its populist, anti-Imperialist and secular base is inherited from the dominant Baath party,\u201d supportive of Occupied Palestinians as is Iran and Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah.<\/strong><\/p>\n At issue is the US\/NATO plan to \u201cdisplace and destroy the Syrian secular State, displace or co-opt the national economic elites and eventually replace the\u201d current government \u201cwith an Arab sheikdom, a pro-US Islamic republic\u201d<\/em> or US-style democracy meaning one in name only.<\/strong><\/p>\n As always, America\u2019s pack journalism produces one-sided falsified report, supporting US imperial wars and disruptive insurgencies preceding them.<\/strong><\/p>\n As a result, accounts and commentaries suppress information about efforts to recruit thousands of jihadist \u201cfreedom fighters\u201d like earlier in Afghanistan against Soviet Russia, and currently a de facto NATO invasion force in Libya, massacring anyone thought to be pro-Gaddafi.<\/p>\n Already battling an outside instigated insurrection, is Syria\u2019s turn next, a topic MK Bhadrakumar addressed in his August 30 article, saying:<\/p>\n If earlier events in Iraq and current ones in Libya are \u201cany indication, the future of (Syria\u2019s) sovereignty might be hanging by a thread.\u201d In fact, as he and others believe, regime change in one form or other is core regional US policy for strategic gains against rivals Russia and China.<\/p>\n Images from Syria now are all too familiar, including falsified reports hyping them, as well as claims about people yearning for Western liberators to free them.<\/p>\n As a result, expect Libya to replicate post-Iraq and Afghanistan occupations, highlighted by protracted conflict and violence, including insurgent forces warring amonst themselves, innocent civilians harmed most as a result.<\/p>\n Moreover, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg ominously said:<\/p>\n \u201cI want to make it absolutely clear: the UK will not turn its back on the millions of Arab states looking to open up their societies, looking for a better life?\u201d<\/p>\n After destroying and preparing to loot Libya, did he mean Syria is next? Surely not Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, other Gulf States, Yemen, or other loyal regional allies, according to Bhadrakumar and other analysts.<\/strong><\/p>\n Although accomplishing regime change in Syria may be harder than in Libya, never underestimate the ability of Western plotters to find a way. Perhaps what\u2019s now ongoing mere prelude to greater planned disruption politically, financially or by direct military intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cSustained efforts are afoot to bring about a unified Syrian opposition.\u201d A Turkey-held meeting, \u201cthird in a row, finally elected a \u2018council\u2019 ostensibly representing the voice of the Syrian people.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, it represents predominantly Western interests as well as Turkey\u2019s and Israel\u2019s. \u201cThe fig-leaf of Arab League support is also available,\u201d pro-West autocratic regimes now \u201cin the forefront\u201d for regime change in Syria.<\/p>\n Key ahead is getting another Security Council mandate for intervention. \u201cThe heart of the matter is that regime change in Syria is imperative for the advancement of\u201d America\u2019s Middle East strategy.<\/strong><\/p>\n It includes delinking Syria from Iran, then Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, isolating the Islamic Republic, while at the same time, strengthening Israel\u2019s position, and weakening that of Russia and China.<\/strong><\/p>\n Portraying both countries as being on the \u201cwrong side of history,\u201d Bhadrakumar calls the strategy a \u201cclever ideological twist to the hugely successful Cold-War era blueprint that pitted communism against Islam.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Western body language and supportive media rhetoric suggest \u201cno conceivable way the US would let go the opportunity (for regime change) in Syria.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s coming, only time will tell. In the meantime, regional violence continues subverting Arab spring aspirations everywhere from blooming.<\/p>\n ABOUT THE AUTHOR: <\/strong>Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his\u00a0blog and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the\u00a0Progressive Radio News Hour<\/span> on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. He is also the author of \u201cHow Wall Street Fleeces America\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n by\u00a0Stephen Lendman America\u2019s business isn\u2019t just war and grand theft. It\u2019s also regime change by whatever means. A previous article mentioned General Wesley Clark, from his book, \u201cWinning Modern Wars,\u201d saying that Pentagon sources told him two months after 9\/11 that war plans were being prepared against Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Somalia, Sudan and Libya. 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\nwww.veteranstoday.com,\u00a0September 7th, 2011<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"