I agree that those who are are *sure* that it is a false flag operation are as foolish or more so than those who are *sure* the chem attack was by Assad. However the argument that it is "Orientalist" is also foolish. The rebels have multiple factions, not only of them native to Syria. This is not about the possiblity of people killing their own women and children, but about killing the women and children of other into order to blame a third party. I don't know why we would assume that people who have engaged in other atrocities are above this one. The point is not the same as McGovern's who seems to be actually arguing that there is a high degree of certainty that this happened. The point is that we don't know what happened, and should not concede the ground to those who claim they do know. I'm even sympathetic to your point that at least some factions in the Syrian rebels are by far preferable to Assad's government. I'm not as sure as you are that those factions control any significant portion of the guns and weapons, but that is another argument.. Given the bloodiness of the combat at the moment, what I'd like to see is a truce, and arms embargo, though the latter would only make sense if supported and complied with by Russia and Iran as well as the Us, NATO, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. How you get to that point I don't know. But I just don't want to be too quick to concede something that may well be true, but has not been proven, not when it is a cause belli for war. No my opposition to Syrian bombing does not hinge on this. My basis is much the same as yours, even though seem certain that Assad was responsible for this latest attack. But given that the attack is being used as the current excuse for bombing, let those who want to bomb prove that the Assad regime was responsible. (I will add that the "rogue element" theory would still make the regime responsible. If you store chemical weapons, which nobody questions that the Syria regime does, you are responsible for seeing that your people don't use them without your permission. So, in terms of responsibility there is no distinction between an attack in line with official policy and an attack in defiance of it by field commanders.)
On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 6:20 AM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > http://warincontext.org/2013/09/08/the-folly-of-the-false-flag-brigade/ > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow Solving the Climate Crisis web page: SolvingTheClimateCrisis.com Grist Blog: http://grist.org/author/gar-lipow/ Online technical reference: http://www.nohairshirts.com
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