The
Syrian people are suffering under the ‘moderate rebels’ and
‘opposition forces’ backed by the US, NATO member states and
their allies in the Gulf states and Israel. Yet their suffering is
largely ignored in the mainstream media unless it furthers the agenda
dictated by the State Department.
This
article is the first in a two-part series of one Western journalist’s
journey to Aleppo, a city ravaged by an insurgency supported by the
United States, NATO member states, and their allies in the Gulf
states and Israel. In Part I, Vanessa Beeley lays out the mainstream
narrative on Syria, revealing a neoconservative agenda promoted by
NATO-funded NGOs. These NGOs paint the destruction of the historic
city as being caused by the Syrian government under Bashar Assad, not
the violent armed insurgents which receive arms, funding and training
from Western governments and their allies.
Aleppo
has become synonymous with destruction and “Syrian state-generated”
violence among those whose perception of the situation in the
war-torn nation is contained within the prism of mainstream media
narratives.
The
NATO-aligned media maintains a tight grip on information coming out
of this beleaguered city, ensuring that whatever comes out is
tailored to meet State Department requirements and advocacy for
regime change. The propaganda mill churns out familiar tales of
chemical weapons, siege, starvation and bombs targeting civilians–all
of which are attributed to the Syrian government and military, with
little variation on this theme.
The
purpose of this photo essay and my journey to Aleppo on Aug. 14 was
to discover for myself as a Western journalist the truth behind the
major storylines in the U.S. and NATO narrative on Syria.
The
weaponization of children
Amid the
terrorist attacks and the daily massacres of Syrian civilians by
Western-backed “moderate rebels,” the children maimed and
mutilated by these attacks are almost invisible to the mainstream
media. The mainstream media does, however, showcase stories like that
of Omran Daqneesh–stories which serve and propel the NATO narrative
despite the dubious sources from which they emanate.
If the
Western media is truly concerned about the children affected by war,
where was the outrage in July, when Harakat al-Nour al-Zenki, a
U.S.-backed terrorist group, beheaded a 12-year-old Palestinian boy
named Abdullah Issa?
Why did the
State Department find it so difficult to unequivocally condemn this
hideous crime against one innocent child, and yet another was
immediately described by that same State Department as “the real
face of what is going on in Syria?”
The Guardian
reported quoted State Department spokesman John Kirby as saying:
“That
little boy has never had a day in his life where there hasn’t been
war, death, destruction, poverty in his own country.”
According to
the Guardian, Kirby further “suggested Omran’s case should
spur efforts to secure a broad cessation of hostilities.” No
need for an investigation prior to catapulting this image into the
realms of propaganda designed to tug at the heartstrings.
Abdullah’s
brutal decapitation did not provoke calls for the cessation of
hostilities from Harakat al-Nour al-Zenki or a commitment from the
State Department to stop arming and supporting his “moderate”
murderers.
Video of
Abdullah’s brutal beheading gave the U.S. “pause about any
assistance” to his murderers; video of Omran, bloody and covered in
dust, elicited a range of calls to arms, including a no-fly zone,
military intervention, increased restrictions on humanitarian aid,
and reinforced sanctions.
It’s
important to understand where the story of Omran Daqneesh started. It
was broken by the aforementioned Aleppo Media Center and
“photojournalist” Mahmoud Raslan (sometimes spelled Rslan), who
has been identified as the militant in the following photo, taken
with the Harakat al-Nour al-Zenki members who executed Abdullah Issa.
The story of
Omran Daqneesh was produced by two highly questionable sources–and,
in the case of Raslan, possibly criminal–yet it was deemed credible
and worthy of mass promotion by Western media.
In an Aug.
31 opinion piece for teleSUR, Tim Anderson, an Australian academic
and writer, highlighted the difference in the media’s treatment of
Omran and Abdullah:
“The
images of little Omran, put out by jihadist support groups, gained
widespread attention from the western media, which has backed the
sectarian gangs through more than five years of brutal terrorist war.
On the other hand, video of the murder of little Abdallah was largely
ignored, or scorned with claims that the boy was really 18 years old,
or a spy for the pro-Syria Palestinian militia Liwa al-Quds.”
What is
perhaps most disturbing about the comparison between these two
stories, is the cynical abuse and weaponization of children that is
being supported by the NATO-aligned media machine. This is a
calculated use of one child as a psychological instrument to promote
and legitimize war, while the torture and cold-blooded execution of
another is marginalized to protect the U.S. agents who perpetuate
that war.
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