The world is keenly following on, and attempting to grasp, news of the events that brought to an end the ruling regime in Syria. I say “events that brought to an end the regime” and not “events that brought to an end stability” in Syria, because it has been some 15 years now that the country has been among the Arab countries in which ethnic and racial conflict was fomented, and armed militias marshalled to confront legitimate authority, in the Syrian case the authority led by Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian army. The result was the bitter reality that the Syria we got to know was no longer the Syria we always knew. The country shrunk to a third of what it was, with the remaining parts controlled by armed militias and terrorist groups which served the interests of world superpowers that armed and funded them, for no reason but to bring Syria and the entire Middle East under the dominion of these superpowers. Syria was fragmented so that it would no longer be among the regional powers that stand up to Israel. The country was divided between the terrorist militias associated with the US and its European allies on one side, and Russia and Iran on the other. Some strategic military balance was maintained between the sides throughout the last 15 years until the recent events that blew it up, the fallout of which we are all observing.
Today, I introduce to my readers an analysis of the Syrian situation by American journalist, author, blogger, and filmmaker Max Blumenthal, 47, who was hosted by Judge Andrew Napolitano on his show ++Judging Freedom++ on 12 December 2024.
Judge Napolitano started by asking: “What role did the US play in toppling the Assad government in Syria?”
Mr Blumenthal’s reply: “The main role the US played was destroying the Syrian economy after financing and arming a dirty war with one out of every USD13 in the CIA’s black budget for about seven or eight years, if not a decade. Trump kind of cut it off in 2017/2018, but the US remained in northeastern Syria… in order to starve the Syrian State and deprive it of its wheat fields, and to syphon off the oil from the oil fields to sell off on the black market. Basically, controlled demolition of the Syrian State began in 2011 / 2012, and the US was right behind it. Following the US occupation of Syria, the US imposed the so-called Syrian sanctions based on an intelligence deception spearheaded by Qatar, displaying atrocity propaganda in Congress to mobilise a vote to sanction the Syrian National Bank and delink Syria from world economy. impoverishing the majority of Syrians.” Mr Blumenthal went on to explain the role played by Turkey in seducing the impoverished Syrians with financial benefits and university degrees to join the US-backed militias; the entire situation led to empower al-Qaeda-affiliated military groups led by Daesh (ISIS) former deputy leader Muhammad al-Julani to seize the city of Aleppo.
Seizing Aleppo, Mr Blumenthal said, opened the door for the Turkish armed forces, backed by Turkish intelligence, to loot Syrian factories, medical warehouses and assets, and send them off to Turkey. Julani’s HTS, stationed in Idlib and supported by Turkey and NATO, carved out a significant segment of Syria’s northwest, right next to the Alawite heartland of Latakia, a large population that are now threatened with ethnic cleansing.
Judge Napolitano asked if the Israel Hezbollah ceasefire agreement was drafted as a fraud, a facade to divert attention from Israeli goals and its intention to eliminate Assad? Mr Blumenthal said: “Let’s go back to Netanyahu’s speech announcing the ceasefire. He issued a blunt warning to Syria and said he would attack the country if they participated in any resistance-related activity, while declaring he would now turn his attention to Iran. Just a few days later HTS, the rebranded al-Qaeda, initiates its offensive on Aleppo and then begins storming into other cities across the country. Netenyahu then appears in the Syrian Golan Heights, violating the 1974 UN agreement. Israel begins to take over al-Quneitra and the whole Syrian Golan Heights which had, up to that time, been unoccupied land. Netenyahu declares that the toppling of the Syrian regime would not have happened without Israeli’s help. He was 100 per cent right… hundreds of attacks by Israel, Turkey and its HTS proxies against Syrian military, aircraft, research facilities, and others had totally weakened Syria.”
Was the Turkish Israeli pincher attack on Damascus planned or was it a surprise attack? Judge Napolitano asked. Mr Blumenthal replied that, even though the Syrian government had been forewarned of an expected attack, they were not prepared for it when it came, despite their alliance with Iran. Russia, which maintains the Hmeimim air base, was forced to direct a lot of its air power to Ukraine, which weakened its Syrian alliance. Hence the lightening attack by Turkey-supported HTS on Aleppo and Homs, facing no resistance. It’s been almost confirmed that, at that point, he said, Russia took Assad to Hmeimim air base and flew him to Moscow. “There are rumours that Assad’s farewell speech which he had already delivered was axed and never broadcast. All these intrigues have yet to be determined, but what is clear is that what happened is a disaster to the Syrian State and Syrian people.”
Judge Napolitano then asked how much real estate, meaning land, did Israel seize from Syria? To which Mr Blumenthal replied that Israel has taken almost the entire Syrian side of the non-occupied part that Syria had got in the 1974 agreement. The Israeli forces destroyed all Syrian bases without any resistance… “Syrian sovereignty has been terminated; Syrian heritage has been destroyed; Syria’s deterrent capacity has been eradicated; Syria has not been liberated; there’s nothing but a bunch of bandits and gangs occupying offices they didn’t even build; they’re destroying what Hafez al-Assad, the father of the modern Syrian State no matter what you think of him, built. Israel is the ultimate beneficiary,” he said.
Yet, Judge Napolitano asked, how does the US justify supporting Julani when the State Department has a USD10 million bounty on his head for cutting people’s heads and hands off? Mr Blumenthal’s reply: “The US doesn’t care who it supports; it cares who it destroys.” That was all a war about Russia, he said, Syria was Russia’s last ally within the Arab League, so destroying Syria was a top priority.
Judge Napolitano asked Mr Blumenthal: “Were you surprised that Russia was indifferent at one point?” Had they had enough of Assad? “We’re going to have to hear from Assad directly, and he’s now in Moscow,” Mr Blumenthal said. The Russian media will eventually interview him, he said, then it will be known for sure whether or not his Russian and Iranian allies had supported him in the face of the US and NATO, and Turkey and Israel.
