While confrontation between Russia and the
West was, until recently, confined to
the polite ambit of international
diplomacy, within the confines of the UN Nations
Security Council, an
uncertain and perilous situation is now unfolding in the
Eastern
Mediterranean.
Allied forces including intelligence operatives
and special forces have reinforced
their presence on the ground in Syria
following the UN stalemate. Meanwhile,
coinciding with the UN Security
Council deadlock, Moscow has dispatched to
the Mediterranean a flotilla
of ten Russian warships and escort vessels led by the
Admiral Chabanenko
anti-submarine destroyer. Russia's flotilla is currently
stationed off
the Southern Syrian coastline.
"Polite Diplomacy" (without smiles). Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) and Russia's Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov meet in St. Petersbourg, June 29, 2012
Back in August of last year, Russia's Deputy Prime
Minister Dmitry Rogozin warned
that "NATO is planning a military
campaign against Syria to help overthrow the
regime of President Bashar
al-Assad with a long-reaching goal of preparing a beachhead
for an
attack on Iran,..." In relation to the current naval deployment,
Russia’s navy chief,
Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov, confirmed, however,
that while the [Russian] flotilla was
carrying marines, the warships
would "not be engaged in Syria Tasks". "The ships will
perform "planned military manoeuvres", said the [Russian Defense] ministry"
The US-NATO alliance has retorted to Russia's
naval initiative, with a much larger naval
deployment, a formidable
Western armada, consisting of British, French and American
warships,
slated to be deployed later this Summer in the Eastern Mediterranean,
leading
to a potential "Cold War style confrontation" between Russian
and Western naval forces.
Meanwhile, US-NATO military planners have
announced that various "military options"
and "intervention scenarios"
are being contemplated in the wake of the Russian-Chinese
veto in the UN
Security Council.
The planned naval deployment is coordinated
with allied ground operations in support
of the US-NATO sponsored "Free
Syrian Army"(FSA). In this regard, US-NATO has speeded
up the
recruitment of foreign fighters trained in Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia
and Qatar.
Franco-British War Games: "Warship Diplomacy"
France and Britain will be participating later this Summer in war games codenamed
Exercise Cougar 12 [2012]. The games will be conducted in the Eastern Mediterranean
as part of a Franco-British "Response Force Task Group"
involving Britain's HMS
Bulwark and France's Charles De Gaulle carrier
battle group. The focus of these naval
exercises will be on amphibious
operations involving the (planned simulated) landing
ashore of troops on
"enemy territory".
Britain's HMS Bulwark
France's Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier
Smokescreen: The Proposed Evacuation of Western Nationals "Using a Humanitarian
Naval Fleet of WMDs"
Barely mentioned by the mainstream media, the
warships involved in the Cougar 12
naval exercise will also participate
in the planned evacuation of "British nationals from
the Middle East,
should the ongoing conflict in Syria further spill across borders into
neighboring Lebanon and Jordan.":
The British would
likely send the HMS Illustrious, a helicopter carrier, along with
the
HMS Bulwark, an amphibious ship, as well as an advanced destroyer to
provide
defenses for the task force. On board will be several hundred
Royal Marine
commandos, as well as a complement of AH-64 attack
helicopters (the same ones
used in Libya last year). A fleet of French
ships, including the Charles De Gaulle
aircraft carrier, carrying a
complement of Rafale fighter aircraft, are expected
to join them.
Those
forces are expected stay offshore and could escort specially chartered
civilian ships meant to pick up foreign nationals fleeing Syria and
surrounding
countries. (
ibtimes.com, 24 July 2012).
Sources in the British Ministry of Defense, while
confirming the Royal Navy's
"humanitarian mandate" in the planned
evacuation program, have categorically
denied "any intention of a combat
role for British forces [against Syria]".
The evacuation plan
using the most advanced military hardware including the HMS
Bulwark, the
Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is an obvious smokescreen. The not
so
hidden agenda is military threat and intimidation directed against a
sovereign nation
located in the historical cradle of civilization in
Mespotamia:
"The Charles De Gaulle alone is a nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier with an entire
squadron of jets more advanced than
anything the Syrians have -- is sparking
speculation that those forces
could become involved in a NATO operation against
Syrian forces loyal to
Bashar al-Assad...
The HMS Illustrious, which is currently
sitting on the Thames in central London,
will likely only be sent to the
region after the end of the Olympics." (Ibid)
This impressive deployment of Franco-British naval
power could also include the USS
John C. Stennis aircraft carrier, which
is to be sent back to the Middle East:
[On July 16, 2912], the Pentagon also confirmed that
it would be redeploying the
USS John C. Stennis, a nuclear-powered
supercarrier capable of carrying 90
aircraft, to the Middle East... The
Stennis would be arriving in the region with an
advanced
missile-launching cruiser, .... The carrier USS Eisenhower is already
expected to be in the Middle East by that time (two carriers currently
in the region
are to be relieved and sent back to the U.S.).
Amid unpredictable situations in both Syria and
Iran, that would have left
U.S. forces stretched and overly burdened if a
firm military response were
needed in either circumstance. (Ibid, emphasis added)
USS Stennis aircraft carrier
The USS Stennis strike group is to be sent back to
the Middle East "by an unspecified
date in the late summer" to be
deployed to the Central Command area of responsibility:
"The Defense Department said that the early
deployment had come from a
request made by Marine Corps General James N.
Mattis, the commander for
Central Command (the U.S. military authority
area that covers the Middle East),
partly out of concern that there
would be a short period where only one carrier
would be located in the
region." ((
Strike group headed to Central Command
early - Stripes Central - Stripes, July 16, 2012)
Marine Gen. James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central
Command, "asked to move up
the strike group’s deployment based on “a
range of factors,” and Defense Secretary
Leon Panetta approved it"...
(Ibid)
A Pentagon spokesman stated that the deployment shift
of the USS Stennis strike
group pertained to "a wide range of U.S.
security interests in the region". "We’re
always mindful of the
challenges posed by Iran. Let me be very clear: This is not a
decision
that is based solely on the challenges posed by Iran, ... " This is not about
any one particular country or one particular threat.” intimating that Syria was also
part of planned deployment. (Ibid, emphasis added)
"Intervention Scenarios"
This massive deployment of naval power is an act of
coercion with a view to terrorizing
the Syrian people. The threat of
military intervention purports to destabilize Syria as a
nation state as
well as confront and weaken Russia's role in brokering the Syrian
crisis.
The UN diplomatic game is at an impasse. The UN
Security Council is defunct. The
transition is towards Twenty-first
Century "Warship Diplomacy".
While an all out allied military operation directed
against Syria is not "officially"
contemplated, military planners are
currently involved in preparing various
"intervention scenarios":
‘Western political leaders may have no appetite for
deeper intervention. But
as history has shown, we do not always choose
which wars to fight - sometimes
wars choose us. ‘
Military planners
have a responsibility to prepare for
intervention options in Syria for
their political masters in case this conflict
chooses them. ‘Preparation
will be proceeding today in several Western
capitals and on the ground
in Syria and in Turkey. ‘Up to the point of Assad’s
collapse, we are
most likely to see a continuation or intensification of the
under-the-radar options of financial support, arming and advising the
rebels,
clandestine operations and perhaps cyber warfare from the West.
‘After any
collapse, however, the military options will be seen in a
different light.’
(
Daily Mail, July 24, 2012, emphasis added)
Concluding Remarks
The World is at a dangerous crossroads.
The
shape of this planned naval deployment in the Eastern Mediterranean with
US-NATO warships contiguous to those of Russia is unprecedented in
recent history.
History tells us that wars are often triggered
unexpectedly as a result of "political
mistakes" and human error. The
latter are all the more likely within the realm of a
divisive and
corrupt political system in the US and Western Europe.
US-NATO military planning is overseen by a
centralised military hierarchy. Command
and Control operations are in
theory "coordinated" but in practice they are often
marked by human
error. Intelligence operatives often function independently and
outside
the realm of political accountability.
Military planners are acutely aware of the dangers of
escalation. Syria has significant
air defense capabilities as well as
ground forces. Syria has been building up its air
defense system with
the delivery of Russian Pantsir S1 air-defense missiles.
Any form of US-NATO direct military intervention
against Syria would destabilize the
entire region, potentially leading
to escalation over a vast geographical area, extending
from the Eastern
Mediterranean to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border with Tajikistan
and
China.
Military planning involves intricate scenarios and
war games by both sides including
military options pertaining to
advanced weapons systems. A Third World War scenario
has been
contemplated by US-NATO-Israeli military planners since early 2000.
Escalation is an integral part of the military
agenda. War preparations to attack Syria
and Iran have been in "an
advanced state of readiness" for several years.
We are dealing with complex political and strategic
decision-making involving the
interplay of powerful economic interest
groups, the actions of covert intelligence
operatives.
The role of war propaganda is paramount not only in
moulding public opinion into
accepting a war agenda, but also in
establishing a consensus within the upper echelons
of the
decision-making process. A selective form of war propaganda intended for
"Top Officials" (TOPOFF) in government agencies, intelligence, the
Military, law
enforcement, etc. is intended to create an unbending consensus in favor of War
and the Police State.
For the war project to go ahead, it is essential that
both politicians and military
planners are rightfully committed to
leading the war "in the name of justice and
democracy". For this to
occur, they must firmly believe in their own propaganda,
namely that war
is "an instrument of peace and democracy".
They have no concern for the devastating impacts of
advanced weapons systems,
routinely categorized as "collateral damage",
let alone the meaning and significance
of pre-emptive warfare, using
nuclear weapons.
Wars are invariably decided upon by civilian leaders
and interest groups rather
than by the military. War serves dominant
economic interests which operate from
behind the scenes, behind closed
doors in corporate boardrooms, in the Washington
think tanks, etc.
Realities are turned upside down. War is peace. The Lie becomes the Truth.
War propaganda, namely media lies, constitutes the most powerful instrument of
warfare.
Without media disinformation, the US-NATO led war
agenda would collapse like a
deck of cards. The legitimacy of the war
criminals in high office would be broken.
It is therefore essential to disarm not only the
mainstream media but also a segment
of the self proclaimed "progressive"
alternative media, which has provided legitimacy
to NATO's
"Responsibility to protect" (R2P) mandate, largely with a view to
dismantling
the antiwar movement.
The road to Tehran goes through Damascus. A US-NATO
sponsored war on Iran would
involve, as a first step, the
destabilization of Syria as a nation state. Military planning
pertaining
to Syria is an integral part of the war on Iran agenda.
A war on Syria could evolve towards a US-NATO
military campaign directed against
Iran, in which Turkey and Israel
would be directly involved.
It is crucial to spread the word and break the channels of media disinformation.
A critical and unbiased understanding of what is
happening in Syria is of crucial
importance in reversing the tide of
military escalation towards a broader regional war.
Our objective is ultimately to dismantle the US-NATO-Israeli military arsenal and restore
World Peace.
It
is essential that people in the UK, France and the US prevent "the late
Summer"
naval WMD deployment to the Eastern Mediterraean from
occurring.
It is essential that people in the UK, France
and the US prevent "the late Summer"
naval WMD deployment to the Eastern
Mediterraean from occurring.
The British Ministry of
Defense has announced that several British warships are required
"to
ensure the security" of the Olympic Games. HMS Bulwark is stationed in
Weymouth
Bay for the duration of the games. HMS Illustrious
is "currently sitting on the Thames in
central London". The deployment
of British warships including HMS Bulwark and HMS
Illustrious to the
Middle East is envisaged "after" the Olympic Games.
source: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32079
