32

The Paris Attacks: how will the Empire strike back?

According to RT, ISIS, or someone calling themselves ISIS, are now claiming responsibility for the Paris attacks. Since it’s pretty much established by now that ISIS is both a NATO proxy army and corporate media-created bad guy, we’d be naive to think ISIS’ alleged change of strategy, from conventional war on the ground to old style terrorism is unconnected with Russia’s new presence in Syria. We’d be even more naive to think the terror attacks in Paris are unconnected with the Vienna talks currently underway, or with the Obama administration’s increasingly bellicose, if slightly incoherent, policy toward Assad.

No doubt there are factions in Washington, and probably fairly deep policy divisions between the lunatic war-crazies, such as Ashton Carter, and the less crazy realists, such as John Kerry, but current events suggest the war-crazies are re-seizing the initiative after the initial shock of Russian intervention. Ashton Carter is talking about more ground troops in Syria. He repeatedly accuses Russia of “aggression.” Some of this is just bluster no doubt, and intended only to give good copy and impress a domestic audience. But the Turkish president, Erdogan has made it plain the creation of “safe zones”, the partition of Syria and the removal of Assad are still on the table, with probable US support.

Any attempt to create “safe zones” would be an indirect declaration of war on Russia. So the people flirting with such ideas are either very stupid, completely out of touch, batshit crazy or some mix of all three. This needs to be pointed out firmly, but opposition to the lunatics in Washington and Europe is always halfhearted. Kerry is a flimsy and vacillating individual (witness his lamentable behaviour in Ukraine), and little can be hoped from him if the neocons get into full Strangelove mode. Merkel, despite much propaganda to the contrary, is a fool. Hollande is weak and fawns on Washington. Cameron is an Eton mess, with no morality and less brains.

So, we need to be very concerned about what the latest atrocities will be used to justify in terms of further illegal intervention. What is the next move going to be? It’s too soon to tell but if the US wants French troops in Syria to help enforce those “safe zones”, then it will likely get what it wants. And where France goes, the UK will surely follow (even if London doesn’t get its own ISIS-sponsored terrorist event in the next days or weeks).

In these circumstances it’s more important than ever that the alternative media rigorously interrogates the ISIS story, and refuses to be driven by the agenda of fear that lies behind it. If we are all stampeded at this point, it may well mean there is no effective voice of reason to oppose an insane drive toward WW3.

POST SCRIPT: In another of those inexplicable coincidences that seem to dog the Empire, France’s only aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle was scheduled to go to the Middle East days before the Paris attacks. It’s due to leave Toulon on November 18.

Does this bode well for world peace? You decide. But I think it’s worth reminding your under-informed friends that it’s just possible NATO could be about to risk direct confrontation with Russia – for the saving of American foreign policy.


SUPPORT OFFGUARDIAN

If you enjoy OffG's content, please help us make our monthly fund-raising goal and keep the site alive.

For other ways to donate, including direct-transfer bank details click HERE.

Categories: empire watch, Europe, France, latest
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

32 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Paul Rigby
Paul Rigby
Nov 15, 2015 1:44 PM

It’s a sick, narcissistic death cult but we will defeat them, writes The Mad Turk The Blackshirt on Sunday, 15 November 2015 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti…s-Johnson.html This was not just an attack on innocent life. It was an attack on my prospects for Number 10. And as such, when I look at the images from Paris, I feel not just grief and shock. I feel a deep and abiding sense of rage. So much so, that I have tasked not one, but two tame reptiles to cobble together this nonsense, in a desperate attempt to cover my candidacy in more Gallic blood than Gideon can. When the Islamist killers opened fire, they killed and maimed people who were entirely guilty of voting in huge numbers for the tyrant Assad. That was in Syria, however, and therefore admirable, particularly when they dressed the Christian ones up in orange boiler suits and sliced their heads… Read more »

Paul Dva (@zoolooy)
Paul Dva (@zoolooy)
Nov 15, 2015 11:47 AM

They say 128 were killed in Paris. Back in 2009 a German Lieutenant, “Oberst Klein” serving NATO/USA broke all rules of engagement in Afghanistan and ordered USA bombers to hit 2 stolen tanker trucks that were stuck in the sand near Kunduz, knowing the villagers were at the same time filling up their cans with “cheap” gas just like the Americans love. Even the USA pilots suggested flying low as a warning before bombing, but Lieutenant Klein ordered the bombing with no warning. Over 150 cilvilians died, most burned to death. What happened afterwards? Lieutenant Klein was PROMOTED. He is now a Gerneral. I guess those killers in Paris just had the wrong passport.

Le Ruscino (@LeRuscino)
Le Ruscino (@LeRuscino)
Nov 15, 2015 12:55 PM

It is inescapable that ISIS is a direct & fully intended result of US actions & is almost certainly a US creation to achieve nefarious purposes. The Paris attack happened on Friday 13th which means very little to the average Muslim so a white western finger print is evident. The appearance of a Syrian passport is no surprise but getting weapons & explosives to the attack sites takes a massive blank of French security services or state assistance – which state will be seen soon as the direction of aftermath will reveal somebodies desired course for gain. Why has Hollande not resigned? After Charlie Hebdo, Hollande’s capability or desire to protect his people is highly questionable & Merkel stands head & shoulders above all as an accomplice to the guilty party directing refugees to come en masse from a conflict zone of US terrorist training, US terrorist arming & US… Read more »

tek
tek
Nov 15, 2015 9:44 AM

Thing is…

Did you see how they (standard trope this is) “found a passport” of someone, said to have entered as a refugee.

Clearly they are hoping for a change of sentiment in the UK as well.

If not there will be another “attack” in the UK.

The Murdoch Tendency in the Labour Party will support the Eaton Mess and we will be in a ground war (not just rearranging the rubble).

The objective seems to be the partition of Syria and giving Israel the oil on the Golan.

I think russia knows this and is in there to at least preserve some viable remnant of Syria,

susannapanevin
susannapanevin
Nov 15, 2015 9:30 AM

Reblogged this on Susanna Panevin.

Marc Krizack
Marc Krizack
Nov 14, 2015 8:01 PM

Although recent events having to do with Syria clearly involve Russia, you can’t understand what’s going on only by looking through a Russian lens. The Neocon strategy is in total disarray, due to the nuclear agreement with Iran and Russia’s alliance with Assad, Iran, and Iraq and it’s intervention in Syria. The military options have also been limited, since it’s no longer possible to declare a no-fly zone. The Free Syrian Army is in big trouble, having lost many of its fighters to Al Nusra and other organizations and because it has been bombed by Russia. The US/French/British response has been to deter Russia from destroying their “good terrorist” FSA allies. The first thing done was to send American Special Ops forces into FSA areas. Russia would risk killing them if it continued to bomb those areas. But that has not been enough to stop the advance of the loyalist… Read more »

OffG Editor
OffG Editor
Nov 14, 2015 8:31 PM
Reply to  Marc Krizack

How much value do terms like “false flag” have when it’s become so apparent that ISIS is a NATO proxy force? This isn’t jus a band of terrorists gone rogue. It’s a group whose actions always coincide with US ambitions, whose resources are limitless, and whose image is sold almost admiringly in the corporate media. In every meaningful way, ISIS terrorism is NATO terrorism. Regardless of who personally planned this outrage, we can already see the NATO countries laying out plans to exploit it. The no-fly zone is clearly unfeasible to anyone not half mad or stupid, but there a plenty of mad and stupid people in the governments of the US and Europe. We can’t be sanguine and assume the unthinkable hasn’t already been decided upon. The relentless marketing of this atrocity is already creating a climate where people might approve an illegal NATO ground invasion of Syria. They… Read more »

Francis
Francis
Nov 14, 2015 11:04 PM
Reply to  OffG Editor

It may well be the case that there as been a consonance of shorter term objectives between ISIS’ and NATO/US, but it’s too much to say that the former is the latter’s proxy. They both use the other, when they can, to achieve their aims, and possibly even coordinate operations in Syria – all the actors in that conflict do – but they’re not one and the same.

OffG Editor
OffG Editor
Nov 14, 2015 11:29 PM
Reply to  Francis

No, not one and the same, but ISIS has shown very little will to do anything that undermines US/NATO interests hasn’t it? If Washington and its allies are picking up a large part of ISIS’ tab (and they must be unless we really believe ISIS has managed to create a vast oil empire under its own steam), and training its combatants, and if western media are complicit in promoting the bizarre ISIS media image (as they clearly are), we can probably term ISIS a western proxy in a way that even the Mujahideen never was, even if relationships are fuzzy. Which is why – especially given the willingness NATO countries are already showing to exploit this tragedy – “false flag” seems like a redundant term. Not suggesting false flags don’t occur, but that you don’t need a false flag if you have willing perps accustomed to acting in ways broadly… Read more »

mar77i
mar77i
Nov 14, 2015 6:37 PM

Nobody’s trust in any disputably insane politician or policy is broken. Whatever moron thinks by spreading terror might increase a majority’s freedom on our precious little rock we call our world is wrong. And only the most restricted minds would act to make other people less free, and we should not make more fun of those broken beings, fuck you Charlie. I’m not that surprised to see France like this, after what they had going for them in regard to those other incidents. The only actors in the west that benefit from such shit is corporations that sell such beautifully useless additional securities to people and governments like yet more surveillance and body scanners for our sacred juridical manipulation, abduction and anal inspection, producing your tin foil hats. Then there are those who pile up more and more weapons in the armories of whoever the loving fuck just happens to… Read more »

Evelyn Becerra (@pureason)
Evelyn Becerra (@pureason)
Nov 14, 2015 3:07 PM

Such a horrendous event has theater written all over…it was amazing last night how bbc kept showing the same video for hours… intentionally withholding information…waiting for the careful editing of the story… anglokhazar mob impatient for ww3 to start…

Come On Now
Come On Now
Nov 14, 2015 2:11 PM

Whoever wrote this is pretty stupid. If you think that yet another terrorist attack claimed by ISIS is a “change of strategy” you are moronic, bringing Russia into it makes you seem deluded.

Joe Staten
Joe Staten
Nov 14, 2015 3:02 PM
Reply to  Come On Now

Wow, Langley trolls have found us guys!

Shatnersrug
Shatnersrug
Nov 14, 2015 5:25 PM
Reply to  Come On Now

Wrong place – you need to find CIF, that’s where the numpties go these days

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Nov 14, 2015 8:49 PM
Reply to  Come On Now

Status indeed!

misericordia
misericordia
Nov 14, 2015 2:09 PM

“Eton mess.” That is truly inspired. A much-needed laugh in these dark times.

tek
tek
Nov 15, 2015 9:30 AM
Reply to  misericordia
balthazarb71b
balthazarb71b
Nov 14, 2015 1:23 PM

Sounds like you are the one who is batshit crazy. Putin just sent Hollande a message saying he is willing to sit down with the west and talk out an anti ISIS the muhajideen run brand of lunacy with Jihadists from all over the world who hold the west as their enemy. If you seriously think the US wants a ground war against Russia in Syria you really need to get your meds dosage adjusted. ihttp://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/PolicyFocus138_Smyth-2.pdf

Shatnersrug
Shatnersrug
Nov 14, 2015 1:44 PM
Reply to  balthazarb71b

Your comment would only make sense if Hollande had asked Putin not the other way round. We know Putin doesn’t want a war with the west he has diffused several neo-con driven skirmishes already.

Whilst I don’t believe O or Kerry want a war with Russia there are plenty of Saudi back US hardliners that think it’s a risk worth taking.

OffG Editor
OffG Editor
Nov 14, 2015 2:02 PM
Reply to  balthazarb71b

“The US” doesn’t want a war with Russia, if you regard the US as a monolith. But it isn’t a monolith. The people of America don’t want a war with Russia, this is true. The saner portions of Washington don’t want a war with Russia, this is also true. Obama is probably one of them, in so much as he has any independent thought. Kerry is likely another. But we are hopelessly naive if we don’t recognise there are crazy/stupid elements that believe a risk of war with Russia is worth taking, and that will go to lunatic lengths to provoke such an outcome. A worryingly large part of the US political establishment is infected with aspects of clinical insanity, and a dying empire is a dangerous commodity.

BTW – ad hom is not encouraged here, please try to remain polite.

Shatnersrug
Shatnersrug
Nov 14, 2015 2:24 PM
Reply to  OffG Editor

It’s all very easy to consider war with a superpower when you live 3000 miles away, we in Europe, however, live on the door step.

It’s in our self interest not to believe the media spin

Thanks Off-G don’t know what I’d do without you! Keep up the vital work!

T

Leon Lindsey Espino
Leon Lindsey Espino
Nov 14, 2015 2:34 PM
Reply to  Shatnersrug

lameduck NATO and the United States wake up annihilate Russia and ISIS they are disease in the global environment..Putin is crazy poor Russia.

Evelyn Becerra (@pureason)
Evelyn Becerra (@pureason)
Nov 14, 2015 2:58 PM

you should seek professional help but not in the us where they´ll continue to brainwash and control the three neurons left in your brain…

Joe Staten
Joe Staten
Nov 14, 2015 3:00 PM

Err….the Guardian is that way —->

We only do grown up real world discussion here

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Nov 14, 2015 8:52 PM

I wish our rulers were ‘crazy’ like Putin.

Rusty
Rusty
Nov 14, 2015 5:13 PM
Reply to  OffG Editor

I have to admit i predicted that an atrocity would occur in the UK to boost a war weary population into accepting another humanitarian crusade in Syria I still havn’t ruled it out, a double whammy ,IMO is still a possibility

As it stands pro Le Penn and anti EU seems to be the prevailing train of thought in the aftermath of this atrocity, definitely not what TPTB desire. A united EU, and the backing for military intervention of a war weary EU public is probably preferable to them
We live in interesting and dangerous times ,and if you want total retard insanity look no further than those in US Zionist think tanks, who seem to have a monopoly on US Foreign policy ,are not rational, or that clever. Are they stupid enough to start ww3 YES Smart enough to keep us out of it ,I have my doubts

Rusty
Rusty
Nov 14, 2015 6:04 PM
Reply to  balthazarb71b

1 Their never was a civil war in Syria

2 US think tanks are frequented by the less desirable elements of neo colonials devoid of rationale

3 Why are you not using your wit and charm on the Guardian trolling on here won’t b much fun

4 Don’t come on here ad pollute the place ,as iv’e said get on your bike and go back where you belong. Guardian la la land

Rusty
Rusty
Nov 14, 2015 1:13 PM

They will guage public reaction and try and push them into Syria regime change mode, no doubt the Guardian will go full retard on it
ATM a lot of people are blaming the EU’S immigration policicy

Shatnersrug
Shatnersrug
Nov 15, 2015 3:58 AM
Reply to  Rusty

Oh Rusty,

I’m sure they’ll draft in “Old” Nick Cohen to write some sulphur tinged hate, whilst accusing us of being hitler apologists for not joining him in wishing death from above on Muslims of the Middle East in the name of Liberalism.

Rusty
Rusty
Nov 15, 2015 10:59 AM
Reply to  Shatnersrug

Nick cohen another of those exceptional people .We haf ways of making you think

shatnersrug
shatnersrug
Nov 15, 2015 2:48 PM
Reply to  Rusty

Wow, I wrote a comment about Nick Cohen that didn’t get did
Modded – how liberating!

Thanks Off-G

OffG Editor
OffG Editor
Nov 15, 2015 2:10 PM
Reply to  Shatnersrug

Cohen is indeed in the Graun today.