The Syrian crisis today

Syria: Waiting for Obama
Seemorerocks

There are lots of headlines today, but essentially we will have to wait until Tuesday (Wednesday NZT) to learn what Obama has to say and how the US Congress has to say.

There continues to be escalation and a build-up of naval forces in the eastern Meditteranean. The Turks, it is reported today,a re moving their forces into position.

In the meantime in the west we are being bombarded with fairly crude propaganda. Every morning I wake up to some speech of Kerry or Obama, which always repeats the lie that a 'red line' has to crossed and the Syrians have to be punished and whole world is behind them except for the dastardly Russians.

This morning's dose woul d be typical:

Meanwhile public opinion in the US, Europe and here in New Zealnd is not taken in and is solidly against war even thoough people are not coming out into the streets in the numbers that they did in 2003.

The American empire has been shown at the G-20 to have lost much of its power over the world: moral power has long gone; all that remains is its overwhelming military power.

Obama is backed into to a corner. Either he is going to ignore the court of world opinion and act totally illegally (and risk WW111) or he is going to back down and be seen as a coward by politiicians in his own country.

My guess (and it is only that) is that the increasingly desperate Obama will pull out a rabbit at the last minute in his desperate attempt to win over public and congressional support.

This could be a second false flag, a chemical weapons attack that will again be ascribed to Assad. This has been reported by Saudi al-Arabiya and so far has had very little attention.

This possibility has been raised in this video:

This opinion is as good as any for the time being. To see what happens we will have to wait and see.

In the meantime here are some of the headlines from today:

Syria chemical weapons attack not ordered by Assad, says German press

Bild am Sonntag cites high-level German surveillance source suggesting Syrian president was not personally behind attacks

Arab League chief speaks against Syria strike

Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Araby has denied that AL’s recent call for action on Syria translated into their endorsement of a military intervention. He also warned in an interview to al-Ahram newspaper that an operation against Syria would “explode” the entire Middle East.

Turks Oppose War in Syria

On Sept. 6, a public opinion poll was released, giving the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government a headache. The Transatlantic Trends survey, prepared annually by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, revealed that the Turkish public’s opposition to an intervention in Syria has dramatically increased since last year.

According to the poll, conducted between June 3 and July 2, 72% of Turkish people oppose an intervention in Syria, up from 57% last year.

Internal Syrian Opposition Group Rejects US Strike

Amid what is going on in Syria, big questions surround the Syrian opposition’s options. The political opposition inside Syria rejects a US strike, is determined to find a political solution and insists on convening the Geneva II conference, according to lawyer Hassan Abdel Azim, the general coordinator

Syria's Assad denies chemical weapons use; U.S. presses case for strike

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied that he was behind a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian people, as the White House on Sunday pressed ahead with the uphill effort of persuading Congress to approve a military strike to punish Assad.

Syria: western activists volunteer to become 'human shields'

Hundreds of western peace activists, including from Britain and from the US, have volunteered to become "human shields" in government-held parts of Syria, the Daily Telegraph has learned.