August 26, 2016

Since When Did An Invasion Become A Plunge?


The New York Times headline for the video report below on NATO's invasion of Syria is so ridiculous. You get the impression that the Turkish government has been sucked into the war against its own will when in reality this was a decision long in the making. This is an invasion, not a plunge. But leave it to The Paper of Official Bullshit to use absurd language to hide the truth. It is in a class of its own when it comes to state propaganda.

An excerpt from, "Turkey Invades Northern Syria — Truth of Turkish "Coup" Revealed?" The New Atlas, August 24, 2016:
It would be likewise difficult to believe that Turkey truly suspected the US of an attempted decapitation of the nation's senior leadership in a violent, abortive coup just last month, only to be conducting joint operations with the US inside Syria with US military forces still based within Turkish territory.

What is much more likely is that the coup was staged to feign a US-Turkish fallout, draw in Russia and allow Turkey to make sweeping purges of any elements within the Turkish armed forces that might oppose a cross-border foray into Syria, a foray that is now unfolding.
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The participation of US airpower in the ongoing operation also makes clear the lack of strategic and political depth of US loyalty to its supposed Kurdish allies, a betrayal in motion even as Kurdish forces are being marshalled and directed against Syrian forces by the US in eastern Syria.

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This included Ankara itself plotting attacks on its own territory to look like cross-border terrorism that could be used as impetus for the creation of a Turkish-controlled Jarabulus-Azaz corridor.

It may just be a coincidence that a similar provocation unfolded just ahead of the current Turkish cross-border operation. The New York Times in its article, "Wedding Bombing is the Latest in a Series of Deadly Terror Attacks in Turkey," would detail the provocation now being cited for Turkey's current operation:
A bombing on Saturday night at a Kurdish wedding in Gaziantep, a Turkish town near the Syrian border, was one of the deadliest in a string of terrorist attacks that have struck Turkey. Since June 2015, Kurdish and Islamic State militants have staged at least 15 major attacks across Turkey, killing more than 330 people.
Thus, Turkey's government and a complicit Western media have helped place the blame equally on both the Islamic State and Kurdish militants ahead of the now ongoing cross-border operation.
Video Title: Turkey's Army Plunges Into Syria | The New York Times. Date Published: August 26, 2016. Description: 
Turkey launched its largest military push into the Syrian conflict and against the Islamic State on Wednesday, sending tanks, warplanes and special operations ground forces over the border.

Produced by: MEGAN SPECIA