By Sarah Abed
Exactly two weeks after announcing a thousand US troops would be withdrawn from northeastern Syria with a portion relocated to Syria’s Jordanian and Israeli borders and others sent to Iraq, US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday plans to keep US soldiers in Syria to “secure” oil fields. President Trump even mentioned that he intended to make a deal with ExxonMobil or another company to go in there and do it “properly”, that the goal would be to “spread the wealth” from “massive amounts of oil”. With 500 US troops, Trump also said if need be, they would fight for the oil.
It’s truly amazing that the leader of a superpower would be so honest and transparent about his overly arrogant and entirely illegal aspirations to pillage and plunder a sovereign foreign nation. Publicly stating in advance and with abundant clarity, the violations he is prepared to commit on the world stage.
There no longer exists a need for Washington’s intentions to be hidden under a cloak of morality by claiming that their actions are intended to protect their nation’s security by allegedly fighting terrorism. Or that its “heroic” ambitions are to spread democracy and liberty for all, one bomb at a time. Or that their purely humanitarian motivations to save babies from being thrown out of incubators or kitten sanctuaries by being barrel bombed by ruthless dictators are entirely warranted and that these threats do in fact exist. There’s no need to continue using these fabricated recycled pretexts because by now the vast majority of people understand that fairytales have more truth to them.
People are waking up to the fact that the most rampant of war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed by the most powerful nations including the United States, France, Canada, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, and other members of the UN and NATO. For many decades vulnerable nations have been attacked so that larger and more powerful nations can grow and thrive.
Make no mistake, Pirate Trump wants to seize, pillage, and outright steal a sovereign nation’s oil, just two weeks after clearly stating he was ready for the majority of US troops to leave Syria. At that point he had wanted the nations in the region to work out their own problems and no longer have the US acting as the “world police” he wanted to stop the hemorrhaging of funds to the tune of over eight trillions of dollars which has been spent on endless wars in the Middle East.
Trump seemed entirely uninterested in getting involved in any further confrontations between the Kurdish militias and NATO ally Turkey in northeastern Syria. Trump was even approving of the Turkish-Russian agreement which was negotiated on the same day that the 120-hour ceasefire ended between the Kurdish militias and Turkish forces. So much so that he took all the credit for de-escalating the situation and supposedly saving the lives of Kurds. Trump even lifted sanctions on Turkey after they discontinued their “Operation Peace Spring”, the third cross border military operation to push back Kurdish militias from their borders in as many years.
Trump’s honesty in this case is refreshing especially after dealing with Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama who used his charisma to sell war to the masses. Here’s a guy that didn’t let a single day go by where he wasn’t bombing at least a few out of the seven countries he ended up destroying during his eight years in office, and yet he was and continues to be praised like he’s some sort of saint, totally neglecting all the death and destruction that he is responsible for.
Trump hasn’t necessarily started any new wars, war hawks around him pushed for “regime change” in Venezuela and Iran and were pushing for war with North Korea, but thankfully nothing came to fruition, unfortunately he is still bombing five of the seven nations.
Why does Trump want Syria’s oil? Trump thinks there was a missed opportunity in Iraq, and that previous administrations were foolish for not “taking the oil” after bombing third world countries back to the stone age. One has to wonder whether he understands the legal ramifications of his actions, were they explained to him? Was a plan even drawn out or was he given advice that could land him in hot water?
Another reason for this newfound obsession with controlling or “securing” Syrian oil fields is that the Kurdish militias and in turn Israel would benefit. Kurdish militias in both Iraq and Syria have been selling oil to Israel for cheap for years, in addition to sharing intelligence.
Before Trump continues to violate international laws, treaties, Geneva conventions and even the very same military authorization from Congress that was used to enter Syria, by trying to expropriate Syrian oil by pillaging it, it might be a good idea for him to understand that Syria’s oil isn’t the vast amounts he envisions, it’s barely enough to help get the country back in order.
During the war production significantly decreased and is barely enough to run the country. The US has absolutely no right to be let alone take any of Syria’s oil. If anything, the US should offer to repair, at no cost, the oil fields it has destroyed with its illegal airstrikes.
The excuse that the US is protecting the oil fields from ISIS is also bogus. Especially since Trump claims he has destroyed 100% of their territorial caliphate and just killed their leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, which is still debatable since we have nothing to go off other than Trump’s words.
When deciding between a military confrontation to restore rightful ownership of the oil fields currently occupied by US and Kurdish forces and fomenting a united resistance front by restoring patriotism to counter aggressors and occupiers, the Syrian state prefers the latter.
*Sarah Abed is an independent journalist and political commentator. Focused on exposing the lies and propaganda in mainstream media news, as it relates to domestic and foreign policy with an emphasis on the Middle East. Contributed to various radio shows, news publications and spoken at forums.
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