Saturday 02.25 BST
If you are reading the subscriber email before listening to the news - US, UK & France have launched strikes on Syria. The piece below was written before the strikes.
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"When your enemy is nearly defeated, and final victory is at hand, gas your own people so that nations greater than yours will intervene and destroy you" - Sun Tsu, The Art of War, Page: Never
That quote is from a Tweet by Robert Stuart. Robert is an independent researcher on Syria. He debunked the fake footage that riddled the BBC Panorama Programme from 2013: 'Saving Syria's Children'. He presents that work here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvjTeuSKTW0&feature=youtu.be
If you are short of time, there is a GIF link below which shows a brief clip from Panorama. It purports to show children with chemical burns. Anyone who remembers films of Vietnamese children suffering from US chemical attacks, will see the truth immediately. In short - the acting here makes Pierce Brosnan look authentic. People genuinely afflicted by chemicals DO NOT play to the camera:
https://twitter.com/druderadio/status/972618611863977985
But I digress, back to the the faked quote from Sun Tsu. This sums up a thought process that the UK and US governments would prefer you not to have right now. Once you have a thought like that one, it naturally leads on to other thoughts like: 'Why would Assad do this? Why would Putin allow it? Are there any other possibilities? Cui Bono? Would my government lie to me? Where else can I go to find answers? Hang on...is what the BBC just told me, really what the laboratory report said?...and so on.
It's no fun going down that rabbit hole...in fact it sucks...but it's better than being led by the nose...to war.
Of course your government would lie to you, they are lying to you right now. This has nothing to do with saving lives - bombing kills people. This is about preventing the Syrian government regaining total control of the country. It's about what it's always been about - breaking the country up, taking the oil, putting the Qatari pipeline through Syria to rival Russia's dominance of the European oil market. It's about keeping the region de-stabilsed so that the Apartheid regime in Tel-Aviv can take more of the energy resources in the Golan Heights...and sooner or later...take the water resources in southern Lebanon. This isn't about 'humanity' or 'God'...this is about 'mammon'...in the raw.
We are being fed propaganda...regularly, and in large doses. Over time the narrative convinces people that 'up is down', 'down is up', 'black is white', 'white is black', and so on. Orwell described it in 1984:
"...to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality..."
For an example of this, albeit a totally ham-fisted one, watch Boris Johnson's recent interview with DW in Germany:
You have to have a very good memory and be a master of detail in order to be a good liar. Boris is a terrible liar - utterly incompetent; May is better on content, although her facial expressions give her away whenever she's on shaky ground, and she comes apart under pressure; Blair was better than most...but even with him the adage holds true: 'through every living cell the truth will out'.
And yet they still get away with it! That is because propaganda is essentially a numbers game. Until the tipping point of 'common knowledge' is reached, i.e. we all know, that we all know, that this is 'bullshit'...the charade continues. However, when that tipping point is reached it's game over -there's no way back.
How is the narrative built? It comes down to this: 'causality' is reversed. That is how governments take their populations to war. If you already know this stuff, forgive me...but right now, when you're being bombarded with it...there's no harm in spelling it out. Here it is in 280 characters and three pictures:
That's what is going on, and it has been for the last 7 years - this go around. However, the US has had designs on Syria for decades. For an excellent take on this, I recommend you read this article by Caitlin Johnstone:
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/04/12/americas-long-history-of-trying-to-determine-who-rules-syria/
In terms of the specifics of the past couple of weeks, I recommend you read the following article by Philip Giraldi, a former member of the CIA, and thus someone who knows how the game is played on the inside:
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/04/11/liars-lying-about-nearly-everything/
Here is an appetiser, particularly for my fellow Brits:
"Donald Trump turns out to be a pretty good liar, even if he frequently has no idea what he’s talking about, says Phil Giraldi in this commentary. But the prize for lying has to go to the British"
Yes folks...we're more committed to lying than the Americans & the French. Ya gotta read it now, n'est-ce pas?
So, where are we, as I write this at 16.45 BST on Friday afternoon?
The OPCW has arrived in Douma having been provided with fast-tracked visas. In my view this is a blessing because it will prevent the 'allies' destroying the evidence with a couple of handily placed 'smart' missiles that Trump was bragging about a couple of days ago
Macron says he's got firm 'evidence'...yeah right. What he's probably got is a work of atrocious fiction from the White Helmets, but let's wait and see
Having gone off half-cocked with his braggadocio routine, Trump has had to back-pedal whilst the generals worry about escalation. Johnny 'I just love the smell of napalm in the morning' Bolton is allegedly at loggerheads with Mattis
Theresa May is hanging around waiting to be told what to do by Washington...no change there then. Allegedly the Brits are upset that Trump phoned the French first. Whether this is because Macron has a more convincing handshake than Saint Theresa who knows, but apparently it's upsetting for the 'special relationship' wimps in Whitehall
I'll leave you with a summary of my thoughts:
Firstly, on Syria: don't expect 'reason' from Theresa May. She has her own reasons, and they've got absolutely nothing to do with chemical weapons or saving lives.
Secondly, on Salisbury: don't expect 'evidence' from Boris Johnson. He doesn't seek evidence; he seeks 'justification', and lies will suit him better for that.
Thirdly, 'truth' is the only way to shame a lie. As I said in my New Year piece: "My wish for 2018 is a bull market in whistle blowers".
http://www.markgb.com/blog/2018/1/8/six-new-year-messages
There are people out there with the inside knowledge and proof necessary to bring this duplicity to an end. I hope they will find the courage to come forward.
Finally, on the subject of the British government, and in particular our Prime Minister, Theresa May - Downing Street released a statement late on Thursday evening:
"The cabinet (agreed)...on the need to take action to alleviate humanitarian distress and to deter the further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime"
Today, I sent the Prime Minister the following response:
Alleviate distress? Ever seen a bomb crater Theresa May? I hope I live to hear that statement read out at The Hague.
And I do. Along with the whole shower of Presidents, Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers, and 'Intelligence spooks' who have devastated the following countries in turn: Kosovo (Clinton & Blair), Iraq (Bush & Blair), Libya (Obama & Cameron), and now...quite possibly...Syria (Trump & May). War criminals all of them.
Postscript:
Saturday 00.11 - I just came across this. This is a short clip of a British General being interviewed by Sky News. Watch what happens when he starts giving the 'wrong' answer...
https://www.rt.com/news/424078-sky-news-general-shaw/
OK, I'm done. Despite all the horrible stuff that's happening in the world, I hope you have a very good weekend. It's important. I'm going to take my dog to the sand dunes for a very long walk in glorious nature...because 'Dunes help you breathe more easily'...that was a very bad British advert joke...sorry, I'll get me coat...