Written by Russel Johnsen   

Chemical Weapons have been used in the Syrian atrocity.

There's no question about this. And a "red line" has been drawn much in the same inane manner as the past President GHW Bush and his "line in the sand" nonsense. Tough words. No, not really, more like school-yard threats.

But the "red line" has not been crossed and not because chemical weapons have not been used. No! Only because the insurgents and mercenaries in this massacre of a war were the criminals that used these most horrid weapons.

Yes, because the USA has only applied the "red line" to the government forces the insurgents are being given the green light to do just as they please. Obama's Washington allows it; as do the minions that follow the American lead to allow atrocities to be ignored because the criminals are "on our side".

Will a Western country speak up? Very doubtful as they're all bought and paid for by the corporate elite. Must be the corporate elite because only blathering fools would march in step with the war criminal Obama. A war criminal in line with many past war criminals and as bad as both Bush presidents. Democrat - Republican? What's the difference?

It's not new for the USA to support the use of chemical weapons; nor is it unusual for them to not havetheir hands filthy with the chemicals themselves.

For instance, the Vietnam war.

Agent Orange as it was called to make it palatable for those at home and more difficult to fight against by those of us that fought for peace through the long and horrid war in Vietnam. Lots of movies were made too, about Vietnam. All propaganda to varying degrees - none taking upon the lives of the North Vietnamese Army nor the Viet Cong.

Agent Orange used, so they say, as a defoliant. Agent Orange was a range of defoliants - chemical herbicides and about 19 million gallons were sprayed over Vietnam to kill jungle and with no regard for the people living beneath those jungle trees.

Yes these are dangerous chemical weapons and $180 million has been paid out to American veterans having suffered the long term effects of these chemicals. No Vietnamese people have ever been compensated for these chemical damages and they were not the handlers of the poisons; also the International People's Tribunal of Conscience in Paris made its final judgement on 18 May 2009, concluding that the use of dioxin by the US military in Vietnam from 1961 and 1971 was a War Crime Against Humanity.

No American has been charged with War Crimes here.

Then we have President Reagan and the aid given Iraq as it invaded Iran very quickly after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. A war that lasted from 1980 to 1988 and was lengthened by the parade of aids given by the Reagan regime in Washington, D.C.

The New York Times quoting, unnamed senior military officer whistle blowers, told of the Reagan administration covertly aiding Saddam Hussein with full knowledge of the likelihood that the Iraqis would use chemical weapons. The story died a quick death. (August 18, 2002, the New York Times)

The story left out the repeated use of chemical weapons upon Iranian forces by Iraq which with one chemical attack killed 3 thousand Iranians soldiers defending Iran upon Iranian soil. Interesting, isn't it, that this is repeatedly ignored by the 'popular press'. Interesting, isn't it, how absolutely cruel the USA has been toward Iran since the USA coup of a democratic Iran in 1953!

Later, GW Bush (Bush the Younger) cited these atrocities to blame Iraq for the killing of many, many thousands of Kurds by chemicals that Reagan had allowed Iraq to get, along with everything needed to create chemical weapons and to deliver them. And, the American people fell for it again. And the beacons of honest world leaders ignored it again.

Now, the Kurdish peoples of Syria are suffering a genocide by the insurgents, backed by the USA and the West, and these poor people are being ignored again. Because of the USA and it gang of followers Kurds continue to be killed by the hundreds with little or nothing being said.

The Iraq war upon Iran, completely backed by the USA with the exception of having American soldiers upon the fields of battle, killed One Million plus people. A lot with Chemical Weapons made available by President Reagan and chemical companies in the USA and in Germany.

Today, chemical weapons are being supplied, covertly, to the insurgents and the mercenaries killing in rages of slaughter all with the backing of the USA and the backing of other people, now war criminals also by any count, of the mostly silent West. We are all war criminals if we back this slaughter.

Don't be confused. This is not a civil war this is a covert invasion; a giant pretence.

I ask the people of Canada, at the very least, to write to their representatives in Ottawa and to PM Harper and Baird to stop their backing and to act with reason to the crimes and the atrocities happening in our world and being ignored.

To not try to stop a crime of this nature is to support the crime.

RC Johnsen
Wpg
August 12, 2013