Last weekend, Trump's Make America Great Again move was airstrikes on what was reportedly the Syrian government's chemical weapons facility.  The Pentagon could show no proof that chemical weapons had been used by the Syrian government in Douma, and said so; then suddenly the Pentagon had "proof," although it did not and could not wait for international inspectors to search for it. Journalist Robert Fisk, in Douma, reported on a horrific scene, with civilians at the mercy of all forces in the conflict, living in underground tunnels at the edge of survival.  Doctors he interviewed said people were treated for hypoxia from dust storms not gas but that rumors spread it was poison gas.

revcom.us | October 10, 2016

Here’s a question for you: Why do some wars—like Syria—get more coverage in the U.S. media than others—like Yemen?

The American press is full of Syria coverage: not a day goes by without another gut-wrenching description of life under siege in what’s left of the city of Aleppo and stern denunciations of the savage crimes carried out by Russian and Syrian government warplanes, such as bombing hospitals and reducing whole neighborhoods to rubble. Pictures of wounded Syrian children go viral, some of their tweets get global media coverage.

Swedish photographer Magnu Wennman has been photographing Syrian refugees in refugee camps across the Middle East and in Europe. He captures the heartbreak and the horror of these youth who are caught in the crosshairs of U.S. Imperialism and Islamic Fundamentalism.

On October 30, Barack Obama ordered 50 U.S. troops into Syria. To listen to the news and politicians in America you would think the only problem with Obama’s move is that it puts 50 Americans “in harm's way.” Here’s a reality check and a morality check: American lives are not more important than other people’s lives. Obama’s move will intensify the living hell for millions of people in Syria and beyond, and ratchet up a whole set of deadly and dangerous conflicts.

The British paper, Daily Mail Online, reported on October 9, 2014:

Harvard students believe that American [sic] is a bigger threat to world peace than ISIS, according to a recent survey of attendees at the prestigious Cambridge university.

On October 2, 2014, The New York Times published an editorial entitled: “The Fundamental Horror of ISIS.” In it the editorial board states,

Comparisons are meaningless at this level of evil, as are attempts to explain the horror by delving into the psychology or rationale of the perpetrators. Even to call what this group does “crimes against humanity” is to put a legalistic spin on raw evil; as Roger Cohen, the New York Times columnist, wrote in a recent piece about ISIS, there is no “why” in the heart of darkness.

The Guardian reports today, October 5, 2014, citing Syrian Kurdish officials, that US airstrikes against ISIS are not working:

For every one militant killed, forty-nine innocents are killed.

Two key elements in the current popularity in the US of Obama's "relentless" airstrikes upon Syrians and Iraqis is that they are not jeopardizing American lives - since it's only Syrians and Iraqis who are being killed - and that these "relentless" airstrikes are allegedly "surgical."

These attacks are not surgical. They are evenmore indiscriminate than drone attacks. And drone attacks, as a 2012 authoritative study by Stanford and New York Universities concluded, are exceptionally indiscriminate.

“There's no force too reactionary, backward, or depraved for the U.S. to ally with when it suits its interests.”

This seems like a good time to sort out what's true in the public discourse over Iraq and Syria, and what's not. The United States, apparently with at this point some significant level of public support, is embarking on an extremely dangerous and provocative war, possibly with the help of allies in NATO, and certainly with an alliance of countries targeted by protesters during the Arab Spring.

It is a testament to the bankruptcy of those who now run the world that they relentlessly ridicule and suppress the values that must guide humanity and the planet. The planet is being systematically destroyed by capitalist values. The need is dire for brave individuals here and there, and small groups of people, to chart a radically different course and to win scores and eventually millions to their path. The planet ‘s fate hangs in the balance.