Civil War and Intervention in Syria

By OSD.news

This ebook shows the main events that led up to, fueled and still fueling the bloody civil war in Syria through overlooked and forgotten articles published by the mainstream media and respected organisations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: OSD.news
• Release date: Jul 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005985882

OSD.news

OSD.news started publishing e-books and will cover different subjects, based on news of the time. All the information comes from sources that the general public would consider trustworthy, respectable, and all due credits are given including live links. More titles will be available soon.

Book preview

Civil War and Intervention in Syria

main events as told by the media

Edited by OSD.news

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2022, OSD.news

osd.news/publications

ISBN 9781005985882

Cover artwork is based on the following event, using a Wikimedia Commons image:

Syrian Demonstration against French Mandate During 1940

The banner reads La Syrie aux Syrien, that is, Syria for the Syrians.

Source: wikipedia.org

Table of contents

Introduction

Decades of Western Meddling

Armed Revolt with Outside Support

The Rise of ISIS and Other Extremists

White Helmets

Chemical Attacks

Death and Destruction

Occuppation, Ethnic Cleansing and Stealing Resources

Sanctions and Normalisation

Introduction

In life, and in global politics even more so, nothing is black and white, and the West is very much complicit in Syria’s catastrophic Civil War. Even the mainstream media and respected organisations reported on many such incidents, but in the age of propaganda and short attention span we tend to overlook and forget these news. And even if we remember vaguely something, we may not find the article anymore as it may have been removed from the internet – censorship is very real! It is the modern version of book burning in order to rewrite history. In this e-book which will be promptly shadow banned, no doubt, we selected over 160 articles from respected and trustworthy sources which show how this conflict was in the making for decades before the Arab Spring and how the West and its allies fueled and are still fueling it. While criticizing the West for its many mistakes and faults, it has to be pointed out that the publication is not meant to whitewash the crimes of the Assad regime and its Russian ally – we just focus on what is less talked about in the West, and that is our own governments’ involvement in a war that killed around 600,000 people.

Decades of Western Meddling

Ottomans, the French, and independence

Understanding Syria: From Pre-Civil War to Post-Assad

by William R. Polk

The Atlantic, 10 December 2013

During most of the last five centuries, when what is today Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire, groups of Orthodox, Catholic, and other Christians; Alawis, Ismailis, and other sorts of Shia Muslims; and Yazidis, Kurds, Jews, and Druze lived in enclaves and in neighborhoods in the various cities and towns alongside Sunni Muslim Arabs.

Whether in enclaves or in neighborhoods, each non-Muslim community dressed according to its custom, spoke its own languages, and lived according to its unique cultural pattern; it appointed or elected its own officials, who divided the taxes it owed to the empire, ran its schools, and provided such health facilities and social welfare as it thought proper or could afford. Since this system was spelled out in the Quran and the Traditions (Hadiths) of the Prophet, respecting it was legally obligatory for Muslims. Consequently, when the Syrian state took shape, it inherited a rich, diverse, and tolerant social tradition.

During the First World War, Great Britain and France were at war with the Ottoman Empire, which had sided with Germany and Austria. The war was hard fought, but long before victory was in sight, the British and French concluded what became known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement to divide the Middle East between them. 

During the latter part of the war, the leaders of the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire established a kingdom at Damascus and at the Paris Peace Conference sought recognition of their independence. France was determined, however, to effect its deal with Britain, so in 1920 it invaded and regime-changed the Damascus government, making Syria a de facto colony of France but legally, under the League of Nations, a mandate. The terms of the League mandate required France to prepare it for independence, but the French showed little intention to do that. They spent the next three years actually conquering the country and reformulating the territory.

When French policies did not work and nationalism began to offer an alternate vision of political life, the French colonial administration fell back on violence. Indeed throughout the French period—in contrast to the relatively laissez-faire rule of the Ottoman Empire—violence was never far below the outward face of French rule. The French bombarded Damascus, which they had regime-changed in 1920, in 1925, 1926, and 1945, and they pacified the city with martial law during most of the peaceful intervals. Constitutions were proclaimed periodically, only to be revoked, and independence was promised time after time until it was finally gained—not by the Syrians nor given by the French but bestowed on Syria by the British army. Because the French administration was under the control of the Vichy government and had abetted German activities, the British invaded in 1941 and overthrew Vichy France’s administration. However, they left behind the Free French who continued essentially the Vichy regime. The last French soldier did not leave until April 17, 1946, which became Syria’s national day.

Source: theatlantic.com

The 1950s were a decade of U.S. conspiracies in Damascus

Washington's Long History in Syria

by Ernesto J. Sanchez

National Interest, 12 July 2013

Pro-American sentiments in Syria … peaked after World War II when the Truman administration thwarted France’s attempts to reestablish its Syrian mandate, enabling Syria to become a fledgling independent democracy in 1946, as well as one of the UN Charter’s original signatories.

Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli, however, faced difficulties in getting some firebrands in parliament to support passage rights for an Arabian American Oil Company pipeline—on which postwar European recovery depended—from Saudi Arabia’s Dhahran oil fields to the Mediterranean. Like so many leaders in the region, Quwatli did not question the economic benefit to his country. But the pipeline’s opponents in parliament simply could not get over U.S. recognition of the state of Israel. Ignoring more benign options, Truman consequently authorized the CIA’s very first coup.

Quwatli was overthrown in March 1949 by General Za’im, a man that U.S. officials viewed as a ‘Banana Republic’ dictator type who did not have the competence of a French corporal, but did have a strong anti-Soviet attitude. Za’im only lasted until August, when he was killed in another coup, the second of three that year. What followed was a six-year political tug-of-war, with the CIA and U.S. allies like General Adib al-Shishakli on one side and nationalist coalitions including such notables as Hashim al-Atassi on the other. It ended with Quwatli’s 1955 reelection to the Syrian presidency.

Renewed U.S. diplomatic initiatives proved unable to distance Quwatli from the similarly Arab-nationalist and Soviet-leaning government of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt. So in 1956 the Eisenhower administration commenced Operation Straggle, which sought to foment Quwatli’s second collapse via staged border incidents in Turkey, the mobilization of various rural tribes and right-wing Syrian Social Nationalist Party guerillas by U.S. and British operatives, and if necessary, Iraqi military support. But Straggle was delayed while the British government, unbeknownst to the United States, began its unsuccessful attempt with France and Israel to retake the Suez Canal. Indeed, declassified documents indicate that President Eisenhower pushed for the ceasefire ending the Anglo-French-Israeli Suez adventure in part because Syrian counterintelligence had discovered Straggle and consequently sought Soviet military aid.

In August 1957, after U.S. assistance stopped a Syrian and Egyptian-backed coup attempt against King Hussein of Jordan, the Eisenhower administration implemented Operation Wappen, a last-ditch effort to coordinate with dissidents in the Syrian military and reinstall former president Shishakli. Syria not only infiltrated this operation and broke diplomatic relations with the United States, but also entered into its ill-fated 1958-61 United Arab Republic union with Egypt. Additionally, Syria colluded with Egypt in supporting restive Muslim groups during the 1958 Lebanon Crisis and backing Iraq’s 14 July Revolution, when Iraqi General Abd al-Karim Qasim overthrew Iraq’s U.S.-backed monarchy.

Excellent accounts of these events are provided by a 1990 article in the Middle East Journal by Clark University history professor Douglas Little (an excerpt of which is available here) and Syrian historian Sami Moubayed. 

Source: nationalinterest.org

Documents show White House and No 10 conspired over oil-fuelled plan to invade Syria and assassinate its leaders in 1957

Macmillan backed Syria assassination plot

by Ben Fenton

The Guardian, 27 September 2003

Newly discovered documents show how in 1957 Harold Macmillan and President Dwight Eisenhower approved a CIA-MI6 plan to stage fake border incidents as an excuse for an invasion by Syria's pro-western neighbours, and then to eliminate the most influential triumvirate in Damascus.

Although historians know that intelligence services had sought to topple the Syrian regime in the autumn of 1957, this is the first time any document has been found showing that the assassination of three leading figures was at the heart of the scheme.

President Eisenhower felt he could no longer ignore the danger of Syria becoming a centre for Moscow to spread communism throughout the Middle East. He and Mr Macmillan feared Syria would destabilise pro-western neighbours by exporting terrorism and encouraging internal dissent. More importantly, Syria also had control of one of the main oil arteries of the Middle East, the pipeline which connected pro-western Iraq's oilfields to Turkey.

The report said that once the necessary degree of fear had been created, frontier incidents and border clashes would be staged to provide a pretext for Iraqi and Jordanian military intervention. Syria had to be made to appear as the sponsor of plots, sabotage and violence directed against neighbouring governments, the report says. CIA and SIS should use their capabilities in both the psychological and action fields to augment tension. That meant operations in Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon, taking the form of sabotage, national conspiracies and various strong-arm activities to be blamed on Damascus.

The plan called for funding of a Free Syria Committee, and the arming of political factions with paramilitary or other actionist capabilities within Syria. The CIA and MI6 would instigate internal uprisings, for instance by the Druze in the south, help to free political prisoners held in the Mezze prison, and stir up the Muslim Brotherhood in Damascus.

The plan was never used, chiefly because Syria's Arab neighbours could not be persuaded to take action and an attack from Turkey alone was thought to be unacceptable. 

Source: theguardian.com

Coups and Countercoups, 1961-70

U.S. Library of Congress

In December 1961, all political groups, except the Communists and pro-Nasser factions, participated in a general election for a constituent assembly.

The new assembly elected Nazim al Qudsi president of the republic, and he in turn named a conservative, Maruf Dawalibi, prime minister.

The new government succeeded in pleasing few and alienating many, and, on March 28, 1962, there was another military coup. President Qudsi resigned, as did the prime minister and the cabinet, and the executive and legislative functions of the government were taken over by an organization called the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces. Demonstrations against this new coup broke out in several of the major cities and, on April 5, the seven military officers who had organized and implemented the coup were sent into exile by other military leaders. On April 10 Qudsi resumed the presidency.

by early 1963, four of the seven military officers who had been exiled after their successful coup in March 1962 made another coup attempt. This time they were unsuccessful, and they again went into exile. … On March 8 there was yet another coup by the military, and on March 9 Salah al Din al Bitar, who with Michel Aflaq had founded the Baath Party in the 1940s, became prime minister for the first of several times.

On May 11 Bitar resigned, but a week later he returned to form a new government. During May and June 1963, the situation continued to be confused, and on July 17