[Debate] There will be hell to pay for NATO's Holy War - Pepe Escobar

[Riaz K Tayob]

There will be hell to pay for NATO's Holy War
By Pepe Escobar

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is running out of rhetorical 
ammunition in the US's Holy War against Syria. Perhaps it's the strain 
of launching a NATO war bypassing the UN Security Council. Perhaps it's 
the strain of being eaten for breakfast routinely by Russian Foreign 
Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Hillary has just called on "Western powers" and their Arab stooges - the 
NATOGCC compound [1] that passes for the "international community" - to 
"make it clear that Russia and China will pay a price because they are 
holding up progress" regarding weaponized regime change in Syria.

In non-newspeak, this means, "If you block our new war, there will be 
payback".

Howls of laughter in the corridors of the Kremlin and the Zhongnanhai 
notwithstanding, this shows how desperate the NATOGCC (1) compound is to 
force regime change in Syria as a stopover in cutting off Iran's 
privileged connection with the Arab world. And this while Turkey's Prime 
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan - leading NATO's eastern flank - itches to 
attack Syria but can't find a way to sell it to Turkish public opinion.

Into this incandescent context plunges WikiLeaks - releasing a batch of 
very embarrassing emails against the Assad system and the NATO rebels as 
well. A possible side effect will be to inspire waves of so-called 
progressives all across the West to start supporting the Holy War on 
Syria. A realistic effect will be to show how unsavory both sides - the 
police state Assad system and the armed opposition - really are.

Car bombing tourism, anyone?
It's useful to examine what price Washington itself, not to mention its 
NATO subjects, could be paying for this Holy War branch-out fought with 
- who else - the same bunch of "terrorists" who until yesterday were 
about to destroy Western civilization and turn it into a giant Caliphate.

Washington, London and Paris have tried - twice - to twist the UN 
Security Council into yet another war. They were blocked by Russia and 
China. So plan B was to bypass the UN and launch a NATO war. Problem is 
NATO has no stomach - and no funds - for a very risky war with a country 
that can actually defend itself.

Thus plan C is to bet on a prolonged civil war, using the Far-from-Free 
Syrian Army (FSA), crammed with mercenaries and jihadists, and the band 
of opportunistic exiles known as the Syrian National Council (SNC).

The SNC has actually called for a Libya-style no-fly zone over Syria - 
shorthand for a NATO war. Turkey also formally asked NATO for a no-fly 
zone. NATO commanders may be inept - but they have a certain amount of 
experience with major embarrassment (see Afghanistan). They flatly 
refused it.

The SNC - and the FSA - could not be more un-representative. The 
"Friends of Syria" - as in Hillary and the Arab stooges - barely 
acknowledge the existence of the National Coordination Body for 
Democratic Change (NCB), the main indigenous opposition movement in 
Syria, composed of 13 political parties, mostly from the Left, Arab 
nationalists and including one Kurdish party. The NCB firmly denounces 
any form of militarization and totally dismisses the FSA.

Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari - a Kurd - has warned that 
Salafi-jihadists of the al-Qaeda mould are moving into Syria in droves. 
Apparently this bunch still listens very closely to "invisible" al-Qaeda 
ideologue Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri; five months ago he issued these marching 
orders to jihadis in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. It also helps 
that many of them are being weaponized - via different networks - by the 
House of Saud and Qatar.

For months everybody knows that the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) 
of al-Qaeda-linked Abdul Hakim Belhaj has been active in Syria - as well 
as remnants of al-Qaeda in Iraq now responsible for car bombings even in 
Damascus.

In the event of a post-Assad Syria dominated by hardcore Sunnis 
infiltrated by Wahhabis and Salafi-jihadists, guaranteed blowback will 
leave Afghanistan after the 1980s anti-Soviet jihad looking like a ride 
on Disneyland Hong Kong.

We accept yuan and rubles
As for China, it's laughing about Hillary's desperation all the way to 
the bank. As the House of Saud becomes ever more paranoid with what it 
sees as the Obama administration flirting with democracy in the Arab 
world, Beijing jacked up trade ties by delivering a bunch of new 
missiles to Riyadh.

And while the "West" flirts with Holy War, Beijing's state-sponsored 
corporations have been buying commodities like crazy all across the 
Middle East, North Africa and South America - as well as stockpiling 
rare earths for strategic reserves. China produces no less than 97% of 
the world's rare earths - used on everything from iPads to those shiny 
new missiles now frying in the Arabian desert.

Other side effects as in "the price to pay" for the bypassing of the UN 
and the obsession on NATO as global Robocop will be inevitable. It 
shouldn't be forgotten that the Holy War on Syria is a stopover on the 
way to Tehran. For instance, a new system of maritime insurance, as well 
as a new international exchange mechanism - bypassing Western diktats - 
may be about to be born.

Yet the most important element may be a concerted move by Russia, Iran 
and China to reorganize the global energy market by transacting outside 
of the petrodollar.

So Washington cuts Iran off from SWIFT - the international bank clearing 
system? Iran's central bank counterpunches; if you want to do business 
with us, you can pay in any currency apart from the US dollar, or you 
can pay with gold.

This is the Holy Grail of the Holy War - not Syria; one thing is for 
Tehran to accept euros as payment for its oil and gas; another thing is 
to accept gold. On top of it with full support from both Russia and China.

In a nutshell; the whole Holy War syndrome is accelerating the end of 
the US dollar as global reserve currency. And when it happens, will 
there be an American Spring? Or will US elites - like the Mob - have the 
guts, and the muscle, to force Russia and China to pay the price?

Note:
1. NATOGCC is a compound of the North Atlantic treaty Organization and 
the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Asia Times




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