I woke up this morning with a dramatic NPR news report on my clock radio which claimed that the UN verified a report of an atrocity in which some 90 people were killed in Syria by forces of the Syrian government. They also reported that the matter was being sent to the UN for a special meeting.
Oh god, I thought, here we go again. Another Libyan style "humanitarian" NATO mission. And, of course, I had strong doubts about the accuracy of the reported atrocity.
Now I just read a report of the same incident from Al Jazeera. Here are the key paragraphs:
Major General Robert Mood, the chief of the UN observer mission deployed to Syria, said monitors touring the area had counted 85 bodies, including 34 children under the age of 10 and seven women.
"Whoever started, whoever responded and whoever supported this deplorable act of violence should be held responsible." Mood said about Friday's assault.
He told Al Jazeera that a residential area had been hit with a range of weapons, including "rifles, machine guns, artillery shells, tank shells," but stressed that the circumstances that "led to the tragic deaths" were still unclear.
"Whatever I learned on the ground in Syria ... is that I should not jump to conclusions."
Earlier, UN chief Ban Ki-moon and UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan condemned the assault, calling it an "appalling and brutal" breach of international law.
"This appalling and brutal crime, involving indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force, is a flagrant violation of international law and of the commitments of the Syrian government to cease the use of heavy weapons in population centres and violence in all its forms," a statement issued on behalf of the two officials said.The Syrian government completely denies being in any way responsible for this atrocity.
Just a few minutes ago, I read this breaking headline on Al Jazeera's website:
UN Security Council to meet on Syria later on Sunday: diplomats. More soon...Al Jazeera, which is essentially owned by the Emir of Qatar, has degenerated quite a bit into a propaganda outlet for the Empire, but their journalists still try to put out accurate reports--and I think this is one. The real facts of the incident will eventually leak out just like it has with Libya, but it may be too late to prevent another Libyan style invasion. And when they do leak out, you can be sure they will be ignored by US mainstream media.
I find it hard to believe that the other ruling classes of the NATO countries have the stomach for another contrived war in the Middle East given all the economic problems they are having. But then, haven't all capitalist ruling classes found wars to be a good way to distract the attention of their subjects away from economic problems?
