In 2013, a Sarin gas attack in Syria caused President Obama to almost invade Syria; he did not, in spite of Bashar Al Assad crossing a “red line”, and was lambasted by both right and left for weakness. Unfortunately, he never explained his hesitation to the American people that his intelligence people doubted the surety of Assad’s guilt. Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books, Seymour Hersh showed convincingly that the attack was most likely a false flag carried out by Turkish intelligence and designed to draw the US fully into the war on the side of the so-called rebels, Al Qaeda affiliates. The result was an agreement to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal by the UN.
Years later, there is another chemical weapons attack, followed by an American air attack on a Syrian airfield. Intelligence is shaky (no one seems to know what kind of chemical), but the assumption is that Assad did it, although some commentators express wonder that Assad would attack his own people. Well, the answer to that wonderment is that Assad probably did not order the attack, and it is highly doubtful that some ground commander would order the attack. Next to consider is the legal doctrine of cui bono, who stands to gain from this attack. It is not Assad. He had already come fearfully close to the full wrath of the mighty US air force, which, like in Libya, surely would have sunk his regime. Furthermore, there were UN inspectors in the country at the time. Finally, to believe that Assad hid weapons from the UN inspectors in 2014 is just more of the same fancy that caused Trump to order the attack.
American and NATO air forces were very successful in bringing down Gaddafi in Libya, much to the joy of neocons everywhere, and French bankers as well as Western oilmen in particular. They did not care that Libya would be riven by factions including Al Qaeda and ISIS. This is the same desired result for Syria which would bring joy to neocons, Wahabists, Israel, and Western oilmen. The chemical weapons attack is just a provocation for terror, land, and gold.
