Caitlin Johnstone

The western propaganda machine is endlessly impressive. People are so pervasively brainwashed by mass media psyops that they now find it easier to believe that Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin are deliberately killing civilians with poisonous gas for no reason whatsoever than to believe that the same empire which deceived us into Iraq is deceiving us into Iraq’s next-door neighbor Syria.

There are early reports of another mass casualty chemical weapons attack in Syria, as usual in a region crawling with known terrorist forces, and as usual just as those terrorists are suffering critical defeats. As usual, the attack is placed in a location replete with children and cameras. As usual, all the expected high-profile pro-regime change propagandists are all over it, from the White Helmets to Charles Lister to Eliot Higgins to Julian Röpcke.

Details are sketchy and unconfirmed, but the early narrative being promulgated is clear.

“If 30+ died in the CW attack in Douma, then it would be the most fatalities in a chemical attack in Syria since Khan Sheikhoun just over a year ago,” said the Atlantic Council’s Eliot Higgins of the attack. “This could be another major moment in the conflict, something depressingly dependent on whether or not Fox and Friends covers it.”

“Much attention was paid to #Trump’s desire to withdraw troops from #Syria, but tonight’s CW attack in #Douma relates to an *entirely* different area of U.S. policy,” tweeted Lister. “There is *agreement* in the White House than a ‘mass casualty chemical attack’ *would* be grounds for action.”

Much attention was paid to #Trump’s desire to withdraw troops from #Syria, but tonight’s CW attack in #Douma relates to an *entirely* different area of U.S. policy.

There is *agreement* in the White House than a “mass casualty chemical attack” *would* be grounds for action. pic.twitter.com/XlC7YQuTak

— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) April 7, 2018

So to be clear, we’re being asked by these people to believe that Bashar al-Assad launched a “mass casualty chemical attack”, the thing which would provoke the wrath of the US war machine, just as Trump was seeking a withdrawal from Syria and just as Assad was approaching victory in Douma. We are being asked to ignore the fact that the area is crawling with actual, literal terrorists, to ignore the western empire’s extensive history of using lies, propaganda and false flags to manufacture support for military aggression, to ignore the extremely suspicious western funding and terrorist ties of the White Helmets who are circulating these photos and information, and to ignore the fact that Syria has been a target of imperialist regime change for many years. We are being asked to ignore all that and believe instead that Assad spontaneously began acting against his own self-interest so that he could kill children for no discernible reason.

It says so much about the power of western media psyops that this has a strong chance of being believed.

There have been reports from the Russian government in the last few weeks claiming they have received intel that the US and its terrorist lackeys in Syria are preparing a major chemical weapons attack in southern Syria for the purposes of implicating Assad. Since a major chemical weapons attack in southern Syria appears to be what we are seeing, this could mean one of two things: either the Russians and Syrians just really, really wanted to kill some babies and planted a preemptive narrative to blame the US for it, or there was indeed a false flag planned and carried out by terrorist forces in some degree of coordination with the US government.

This is still early on, and it remains to be seen where this is headed, but I wanted to sound the alarm now for all the clear-eyed rebels out there in case this is used as justification for a NATO military campaign against the Syrian government. The western empire has been trying to get its talons into Iraq’s next-door neighbor for a long time now, and it appears to have set up the most sophisticated psyops campaign in modern history to advance that agenda.

The very first thing I'd do if I witnessed my neighbors being killed with poison gas is start tagging neoconservative Atlantic Council propagandists on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/EGpJhYVgKx

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) April 7, 2018

In my opinion, the US and its allies preference chemical weapons false flags because there’s not much else they can accuse a disobedient government of doing that they themselves don’t do constantly. They can’t accuse Assad of simply using conventional munitions to kill civilians, because the US kills civilians with conventional munitions every day. It’s got to be a reviled and internationally banned weapon that makes for gruesome photographs to plaster on screens throughout the world.

Nobody was ever punished for the Iraq invasion. A million people dead over lies, and nobody responsible for it suffered any consequences at all. No changes whatsoever were made to prevent such a great evil from being inflicted upon our world again. This is because the western empire never had any intention of changing, and has every intention of repeating those same evils in any way it can.

When a known compulsive liar asks you to place your faith in him on a very important matter, you tell him to piss off. When war propagandists for the western empire tells you Assad is using chemical weapons for no discernible reason, you take it with an Iraq-sized grain of salt.

Stay skeptical.

There has been no investigation of any kind into an alleged chemical weapons attack in an area crawling with known terrorists, and yet the @StateDept has already concluded that "the Assad regime must be held accountable" and Russia "ultimately bears responsibility". Sounds legit. pic.twitter.com/wOQcOAbNAb

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) April 8, 2018

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