Donald Trump, who was built by elements of the mafia early in his career, was elected on the slogan of bringing U.S. troops home, of disengaging the U.S. from wars abroad, and of having friendly relations with Russia. On April 6, 2017, exactly 100 years later to the date, Trump completely went against his campaign promises and attacked Syria, sending tremors among the global community. This attack on Syria has raised the spectre of a highly probable global war, an immensely destructive WWIII. Is the choice of the date of the attack on Syria a coincidence? Or does it adumbrate the beginning of WWIII, a possibility often mentioned in literature pertaining to the hidden or secret societies?
On April 6, 2017 U.S. naval ships USS Porter and USS Ross launched 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles at al-Shayrat airbase inside Syria from the eastern Mediterranean. One of the missiles fell in the sea. The missiles were launched as punishment for the alleged and unproved use of chemical weapons by Syria on its own town named Khan Shaykhun. The Syrians have denied using chemical weapons. In the past the jihadis backed by the U.S., UK and Israel have been known to have used chemical weapons.
The U.S. sources claimed that 58 of the 59 these Tomahawk missiles Shad hit the base whereas the Syrians claimed that more than half of the missiles had missed the target leaving its runways intact. A Russian drone footage shows that only 23 of the 59 missiles hit the air base. It is also important, in view of the gathering war clouds, to point out that the accuracy of military weapons is not as great as is touted by the military industrial complex. A stray nuclear weapon can cause havoc in unintended locations. It is an important piece of information, first revealed publicly by U.S. intelligence officer Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, that of the 5000 helicopters lost by the U.S. in Vietnam, 43% just fell out of the sky without enemy fire. Manufacturing defects can plague all strategic and non-strategic weapons. Incidentally each Tomahawk missile costs about $1.41 million so that the cost of 60 Tomahawks is around 85 million U.S. dollars. Mr. Trump has stocks in Raytheon which manufactures these missiles. The stocks of Raytheon increased by 1.5% bringing Mr. Trump some profit as well. The Department of Defence has asked for $ 2billion over a five-year period to buy 4000 Tomahawk missiles.
The illegal attack by the U.S. on a Syrian airbase could have led to deaths of, or injury to, Russian and Iranian personnel stationed in Syria on the request of the Syrian government. The attack immediately reversed Trump’s pre-election stance of getting out of mid-east wars and escalated matters in the direction of a highly enhanced U.S. military commitment in Syria. There has been talk of sending an additional 150,000 U.S. troops to the region!
The Russians have reacted very strongly to the U.S. attack, both diplomatically and in physical terms. Mr. Putin has denounced the American attack as “an illegal act of aggression.” Russia has suspended the US-Russia Memorandum of Mutual Understanding that was meant to avoid clashes or collisions between Russian and U.S. aircraft over Syrian territory Russia has also announced that it will immediately strengthen Syria’s air defences. The Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has stated that the U.S. attack has “completely ruined” relations between the U.S. and Russia and that the two countries had “come within an inch” of direct military clash on account of the airstrike. He accused America of “barely avoiding combat clashes with Russia.”
On April 12, five hours of talks in Moscow between the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Russian President Putin, as well as the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, ended with their differences unresolved. In fact, the Russian Foreign Minister categorically rejected any “false choice, such as ‘you are either with us or against us’.” The Russians also stated that the Nusra was being protected by the Americans. Mr. Lavrov said: “We have a persistent suspicion, which no one has yet been able to dispel, that Nusra is still being guarded in order to use Plan B at some point and try to overthrow the regime of Bashar-al-Assad by force.” By Plan B the Russian minister obviously meant that in case the “jihadi” proxies of U.S. and Israel failed to bring about regime change in Syria the Americans would do it as they did in Iraq. The Russians have, in the wake of this illegal attack, dispatched a cruise-missile armed frigate (Admiral Grigorovich) and two Steregushchiy-class corvettes, capable of launching long range cruise missiles, to the eastern Mediterranean, where they will join six other Russian warships and support vessels. This is a very grave situation.
It is highly important to note that there have been aggressive encounters between Iranian speedboats and U.S. vessels in the Persian Gulf during the first months of 2017 as well as in late 2016. On January 9, 2017 CNN reported that the USS Mahan had to fire warning shots as Iranian speed boats came within 900 yards of it in the Strait of Hormuz. It was reported on March 6, 2017 that a swarm of Iranian speedboats came within 600 yards of an American navy ship USNS Invincible and forced it to change course. Invincible is classified as a “missile range scientific instrumentation ship” by the U.S. Navy. It was probably carrying out espionage regarding Iranian missile tests. The U.S. Navy is now acutely aware of the danger posed by swarms of Iranian boats and has reportedly tested A 10 Warthog guns and precision guided munitions to be dropped from jets on Iranian speed boats. It is therefore clear that tension is high and adrenalin is flowing in the Persian Gulf. Further Trump’s dislike of Iran is no secret. Nikki Haley, the US. representative to the UN, has stated that her country needs to get Iranian influence out of Syria. This sends a very dangerous signal to Iran. Syrian state media has reported that Russia and Iran are ready to meet any attack on Syria.
The writer is the vice chancellor of University of South Asia and he can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]