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Written by Caitlin Johnstone; Originally appeared at her blog
President Trump reiterated to the press today that the United States is maintaining its military presence in Syria not to patrol the nation’s border with Turkey, but to control its oil fields.
“We’ve kept the oil,” Trump said. “We’ve stayed back and kept the oil. Other people can patrol the border of Syria, frankly, and Turkey, let them — they’ve been fighting for a thousand years, let them do the border, we don’t want to do that. We want to bring our soldiers home. But we did leave soldiers because we’re keeping the oil. I like oil. We’re keeping the oil.”
This open “kick their ass and take their gas” policy is nothing new for America’s reality TV president; he’s been saying it for years. It was recently addressed head-on by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who said during an interview that it’s nice to have a US president who is honest about America’s true motives in the Middle East for once.
“As for Trump, you might ask me a question and I give you an answer that might sound strange,” Assad said. “I say that he is the best American President, not because his policies are good, but because he is the most transparent president. All American presidents perpetrate all kinds of political atrocities and all crimes and yet still win the Nobel Prize and project themselves as defenders of human rights and noble and unique American values, or Western values in general. The reality is that they are a group of criminals who represent the interests of American lobbies, i.e. the large oil and arms companies, and others. Trump talks transparently, saying that what we want is oil. This is the reality of American policy, at least since WWII. We want to get rid of such and such a person or we want to offer a service in return for money. This is the reality of American policy. What more do we need than a transparent opponent?”
Syrian President Assad said on Thursday that President Trump is the best type of president for a foe due to his open talk of annexing Middle Eastern oil. pic.twitter.com/F0ZHv7dEKd
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 1, 2019
Some establishment media chose to deliberately misinterpret Assad’s scathing criticism of US foreign policy as praise for Donald Trump, with The Hill tweeting out “Syrian President Assad praises Trump: He is ‘the best’ because he’s ‘most transparent president’”, and The Jerusalem Post running the headline “SYRIAN LEADER BASHAR ASSAD: DONALD TRUMP IS THE ‘BEST U.S. PRESIDENT’ — The Syrian leader, who allegedly committed war crimes against his own people to suppress public demands and win a bloody civil war, seemed to approve of Trump’s honesty.”
Many US foreign policy critics have been rightly attacking this administration’s open resource grab; if Russia had forcefully invaded a sovereign nation and seized its oil fields without permission the American political/media class would be shrieking hysterically and working to manufacture support for World War Three within minutes. Yet that is what American exceptionalism leads the empire to do without a second thought.
Assad’s comments mirror what I wrote more than a week ago (so please note that I’m not an Assadist — he’s a Caitlinist), but it’s important to point out that Trump’s oil narrative is just the latest in a long list of excuses that the US government and its apologists have been making to justify the illegal occupation of Syria.
We were told that the US must intervene in Syria because the Syrian government was massacring its people. We were told that the US must intervene in Syria in order to promote freedom and democracy in the Middle East. We were told that the US must intervene in Syria because Assad used chemical weapons. We were told that the US must occupy Syria to fight ISIS. We were told that the US must continue to occupy Syria to counter Iranian influence. We were told the US must continue to occupy Syria to protect the Kurds. Now the US must continue to occupy Syria because of oil.
These wildly different reasons the public has been given for America’s need to forcibly insert a military presence into Syria all have only one thing in common, and that’s America forcibly inserting a military presence into Syria. This is because they are not reasons, but excuses. The US forcibly inserted a military presence into Syria with the full intention of keeping it there, and then started diddling a bunch of completely different narratives in order to justify the thing it already wanted to do long before any of those excuses arose.
Others can 'patrol the border of #Syria,' US is 'keeping the oil' – #Trump pic.twitter.com/QNnxaip1rR
— Ruptly (@Ruptly) November 2, 2019
For eight years we’ve been spoonfed an assortment of radically different narratives explaining why the US needs to control Syria militarily, and it turns out that the US and its allies have been plotting to control Syria since long before then. This is because Syria occupies an extremely geostrategically valuable location that is in no way limited to its oil fields. In 2004 Assad launched his “Five Seas Vision”, a plan to use Syria’s supreme location to place itself at the center of a regional energy and transportation system and become an economic superpower. The nation was then plunged into chaos seven years later, but whoever manages to secure control over this location will be able to achieve the same lucrative energy and transportation control for themselves. The dispute over pipeline routes that many have highlighted is just one small example of this. There’s also the illegally occupied Golan Heights which the extremely shady Genie Energy corporation has a vested interest in, and which provides a third of Israel’s water supply, and which the US has decided to officially regard as Israeli property.
So it’s a geostrategically crucial region, and it happens to have no interest at all in allowing itself to be absorbed into the blob of the US-centralized power alliance, allying itself instead with the unabsorbed nations of Russia and Iran. This has made it the epicenter of a giant global imperialist struggle the implications of which stretch far beyond its borders to the rest of the world.
This is the real reason why half a million Syrians have died in an imperialist proxy war, and why many more Syrians continue to suffer under US-led sanctions and the deprivation of their nation’s valuable natural resources. Not because of humanitarianism, not because of democracy, not because of chemical weapons, not because of Iran, not because of Kurds, and not even really just because of oil, but because there’s a globe-spanning oligarchic empire to which Syria has refused to submit. Everything else is empty narrative.
The President of the United States of America eloquently describing the US foreign policy in the Middle East. pic.twitter.com/Q63t7guSQu
— Bassem (@BBassem7) November 2, 2019
Whenever you see anyone arguing for keeping troops in Syria that aren’t there with the permission of the Syrian government, this is all they’re really supporting: a campaign to annex a strategically valuable location into the US-centralized empire. This is true regardless of whatever reason they are offering for that support. And notice how all the different reasons we’ve been inundated with all appeal to different political sectors: the oil and Iran narratives appeal to rank-and-file Republicans, the humanitarian arguments appeal to liberals, and the Kurds narrative appeals to many leftists and anarchists like Noam Chomsky. But the end result is always the same: keeping military force in a location that the empire has long sought to absorb.
By providing many different narratives as to why the military presence must continue, the propagandists get us all arguing over which narratives are the correct ones rather than whether or not there should be an illegal military occupation of a sovereign nation at all. This is just one of many examples of how the incredibly shrinking Overton window of acceptable debate is used to keep us arguing not over whether the empire should be doing evil things, but how and why it should do them them.
Don’t fall for it. It is not legitimate for the US empire to occupy Syria for any reason. At all. “Because oil” is not a legitimate reason. “Because Kurds” is not a legitimate reason. “Because ISIS” is not a legitimate reason. “Because Iran” is not a legitimate reason. “Because Russia” is not a legitimate reason. “Because freedom and democracy” is not a legitimate reason. “Because chemical weapons” is not a legitimate reason. And those who are driving this illegal occupation know it, which is why they keep shifting to whatever’s the most convenient narrative in any given moment.
US has absolutely no need of Syrian oil – production before the war barely covered Syrian internal needs. Yes few well connected Trump’s corporate gangster buddies would get rich(er) on stolen oil provided that the cost of security is covered by US tax payers – otherwise the whole deal would make net loss rather then profit. Enter US special forces – babysitting outright piracy. This move is just Trump balancing between his election promise of getting out of ME wars and his Zio masters strategy of making Syria a failed state akin to Libya – by any means necessary. In this case, by cutting most of it’s gas and oil revenues and making Assad’s rebuilding efforts impossible.
Antisemitic rubbish. Your point is moot. These oil fields will create more jobs for Americans
Aha..More jobs for US special forces, private security contractors and CIA spooks – all covered by US Treasury with cash provided by FED charging only 1,75% – a bargain…Only i don’t see how John Smith from Idaho will benefit from this deal – other than signing up as a security contractor and getting his balls shot off in a desert half way around the globe…But I guess local Boise undertaker or wheel chair salesman would make some money after all…
whatever
his bioMASSIVE nose makes up at least 50% of that mass
LR is right, keeping syrian oil from syrians benefits not a single soul on mainstreet america, sur it pads up wall street a bit, but its not even that much oil!
Quit wasting everyone’s time and money, its over america needs to go home.
60 of them with huge taxpayer-funded security operations. Sure. It’s a moot point.
Again with the anti-Semitic card. Israelis have clearly stated their preference for ISIS to control Syria.
more jobs for amerikan morticians to bury the 22 daily suicides by US vets and psychotherapists to treat the guilt crated PTSD that infects these mercenaries…LOL
Lol good !one!!!
Is that the best answer you got?
Wtf are you doing up at 4am commenting on southfront anyway on a sunday? Fucken loser .
The americans are denying the syrian people the ressources needed to rebuild, this includes oil, but also all kinds of other goods, be it construction materials,.medical supplies, you name it!
Not a singlenjob will be created for americans in Syria, not one, matter of fact, its a money bleeding operation, operations that you know too well about.
Poor little cheerleaders hasent had much to cheer about lately, while we have been spoiled, seeing some white helmets get blown to bits at that ammo depot in idlib, glorious justice.
Thats why your in a frenzy, because glorious justice is catching up.
And stop using the word anti semite, we see how your chums treat the black etheopian jews, your just as racist a south carolina white hog farmer with his truck painted general Lee.
So bitch please we see right through you and laugh at your nonsense.
Such nonsene im beginning to suspect your a robot!
Only a robot programmed by Israeli assets would be that stupid, Mike :)
Tel-Aviv’s elite Pedo-defence brigade has been deployed behind an impregnable wall of computer keyboards.
These so-called “jews” aren’t semites. They’re Turkic/mongol-ish people whose origins are in and around the areas north of the Baltic and Caspian seas. Their Taludmic mysticism “religion” is a cult as is Mormonism, Scientology, Quakerism, etc. God’s chosen my foot! Star of “David” my other foot. It’s the symbol of an ancient Egyptian “deity”, Remphan. A mythic “god” to whom children were sacrificed. Oh, and these so-called “jews” still haven’t stopped sacrificing children of non so-called “jews”. https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/14/nyregion/a-long-lost-skeleton-in-a-synagogue-cellar.html
Edit: https://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/04/29/historys-cruelest-hoax-semitic-khazars/
LOL
Sh– for brains here thinks that throwing the Zionist Kurds under the bus, circular filing Israelistan KRG2, and getting kicked out of half of the territory that they once controlled in Syria is some type of great victory for Israel and their US lackeys.
“Antisemitic rubbish.” Before you start tossing terms around you should be aware as to just who “semites” are. Semite refers to the Semitic language group that included Hebrew, Arabic, Assyrian and even Gnostic Christians. Arab speaking Semites outnumber Israeli jews in the middle east 60:1. Syria is full of Semitic Arabs so conducting or supporting war against Semitic Arabs is anti-semetic.
Now if you would have said Anti-zionist, you would have an argument.
BTW who pays the wages for these jobs created for Americans? These oil fields are spread across a wide area and don’t even supply enough oil to make Syria self sufficient. The security OH is going to be ridiculous. The USA doesn’t have near enough troops to secure this vast area so they need to use air patrols. The average cost of putting one F-15 in the air is $22,000/hr. Fuel cost $400/gal. for the US forces in Syria. Water costs $4/l.
It would be cheaper to pay oil workers to stay home and air drop a pallet of cash to them every Friday than pay them to extract oil in Syria.
As far as the Semites part of you comment is concerned, you are leaving out 1 important factor: 75% of world Jews are Ashkenazis, and they are NOT Semites, they are European converts, incl. Khazars who wandered over from the Russian/Hungarian steppes.
Ironically it is only the non-Semitic Jews who whine and wail about antisemitism. LOL.
Antisemitic? In what way? Please define the term and explain how the comment conforms with the definition.
I think you should be concerned about tel aviv. Bombs away!
Just shut up and come back to twitter. You wont find any room for zioNazi scums like you here. Leave now! Your Ip says : Hebron in Occupied Palestine.
it will not inhibit Iranian, Russian and Chinese assistance to Syria; on balance it will cost the US more…private mercenary forces and the US military costs will exceed those of any revenue received from stolen oil
Syrian oil fields are now 100% property of the US Government and Exxon Mobil! Take that butcher regime :-]
you wish
I think you overrate US troops these days :)
The Russian air and missile capability would also be a deterrent for such a US invasion.
your MASSIVE NOSE is now 100% property of the Smithsonian Museum and Nasal Researchers! Take that Plastic Surgeons :=====]
XD holy shit I spat out my drink. u owe me a keyboard
Good tip, thank you.
Jacob : You miss an important point. Those actions, the sanctions, the bombing and so on don´t hurt the “butcher regime”, they hurt mainly the Syrian people, destroying their lives, denying the country any possibility of economic regeneration.
The butchers are the US, its despicable coalition “partners,” and Israel. Turkey too if it’s not part of that coalition.
Wow US values are not so great then when a country descends to plunder – it just tells any country with resources beware the US
apparently the US controls 70% of Syrian oil–it is doubtful that it will benefit anyone except Turk supported jihadis
butcher regime=USA…finally u have something right
LOL https://s.hdnux.com/photos/26/11/03/5804237/16/920×920.jpg
Syrian Oil will benefit Americans by providing more jobs to employers such as Exxon and Shell, and will grow the economy thus increasing the DOW jones! MAGA 2020
By one point. If that.
It wont benefit US companies when they get sued in US courts for dealing in stolen property. It wont provide any benefit if servicemen get killed over oil
Shell is an Anglo-Dutch company.
The author does miss the point.
The Syrian War has always been about toppling or at least dividing Syria.
And that is something strongly advocated and materially supported by Israel for years.
Well, the long and costly proxy war is mainly over and it was lost by Israel’s side.
Israel has pressed Trump to keep at least some consolation prize which cripples Syria.
And facing reelection and in need of lots of funds from lobby interests, Trump is glad to provide.
The oil fields are it.
The huge job of reconstruction is ahead and Syria is to be deprived on its own land of a valuable resource.
Trump has always acted unhelpfully on all matters related to Syrian reconstruction.
He is, without question, the most faithful American president to Israel’s narrow interests since Lyndon Johnson.
After all, he gave away what was not his to give, Jerusalem and the Golan, he arbitrarily tore up a working treaty with Iran and started immense hostilities against its 80 million people, and he appointed dangerous men like Bolton and Pompeo to high office.
While a weak piece on the whole, this little crescendo of American excuses is very effective:
“We were told that the US must intervene in Syria because the Syrian government was massacring its people. We were told that the US must intervene in Syria in order to promote freedom and democracy in the Middle East. We were told that the US must intervene in Syria because Assad used chemical weapons. We were told that the US must occupy Syria to fight ISIS. We were told that the US must continue to occupy Syria to counter Iranian influence. We were told the US must continue to occupy Syria to protect the Kurds. Now the US must continue to occupy Syria because of oil.”
Over time, though, I think the American hold on the fields is not sustainable.
It even works against American interests in the Middle East with the appearance of open piracy by the American military in a region extremely sensitive about the ownership of oil.
With Russian influence rising and American influence waning in the region, it would be pretty foolish over any extended time period to hang on to this booty.
But the superficial explanation for occupying the oil fields gave Trump something to crow about – and being a crude man, crowing and bellowing about unsavory things is something he enjoys – instead of telling the simple truth about Israel’s clear influence.
No heavy-duty American supporter of Israel’s interests admits in public to such things because the cumulative effect over time of such admissions would be to cast Israel in a very poor light.
During all the years of the Neocon Wars, we rarely heard the fundamental reason for them articulated. However, there was a moment with George Bush – after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and hearing that Ariel Sharon was lobbying for another country being invaded – was quoted along the lines of, “Geez, I invaded Iraq for him. What more does he want?”
The quote was not given big play but was in some of the corporate press, and it is one of the fundamental pieces of evidence we have concerning the true nature of America’s bloody efforts in the Middle East over the last fifteen years or so.
The huge job of reconstruction is ahead and Syria is to be deprived on its own land of a valuable resource.
The huge Reconstruction will not take place. The West is blocking every possible funding by the UN, European countries, especially Germany shamefully sticks to the position that there will be no effort by the EU to provide the needs to rebuild, just as long there is no “political process”, meaning “Assad must go”.
The author does miss the point.
I think the point about american imperialism is the most important one, but only for the US, all the other players have also their own agenda and game to play…
EDIT: I may add, Germany does send material and humanitarian aid to Syria, but only to Idlib…
Reconstruction doesn’t depend solely on the west China has already said it would provide help along with Russia & Iran
China only helps where there have a vested material or geo political interest.Syria is of no interest to them in this regard, and the little oil they have, far from the oil infrastructure in the Gulf , is of no importance to China. Syria is also not a market for Chinse consumer goods as they have very limited purchasing power; besides, knowing that the sphere of influence is already divided between Russia, Iran and more recently Turkey, makes Syria as a totally unappealing target for aid ( from Chinse perspective)
Incorrect Syria is of key interest to China for the belt & road project
So why has China expressed an interest in the reconstruction?
At declarative level they can say whatever. Talk is cheap. Chinese are a lot more ruthless and pragmatic when it comes to money and investments than the Russians or the Arabs. If they see a return on investment ( material or political influence, they will do it, otherwise, they prefer to let others spend their money
Oh boy, those perfidious Chinese, only interested in money, unlike the trans-Atlantic empire-in-decline that does everything free of charge by only spreading democracy and freedom.
You got it sorted, haven’t you.
The Saudi regime should also be very worried that the US regime could easily ‘ secure all the Saudi oilfields and ports’. Especially now that a Trojan Horse full of US troops has been INVITED into saudi Arabia :)
No, Saudi Arabia does not need to be worried about it since it is already a fait accompli. Kissinger to SA: you charge USD for your oil, buy our weapons which you won’t need because we’ll protect you. Done.
Not just USD, the previous deal for 60 years was a fixed rate at 10$ the barrel no matter the international price. I dont know what the new-extended contract had as monetary value per barrel (preferential fixed rate). And of course using USD, the Us gov. is ready to wage war on al saud if they dont do that.
The US does not need to wage war on SA because SA is already doing what the US dictates, which is all that matters.
The Saudi oil are already US secured through a 60 years old contracts that was renewed for another 60 years under Bush jr. The US does get a “preferential” rate from Saudi-penguins, in exchange for defense, and unconditional support vis-a-vis the brutal dictactorial regime of Ryiad. And the US sells back the oil at the World market price through oil companies that are making a killing with the camel-pee-drinkers that is why we allow them to slaughter journalists inside their embassy in Turkey instead of issuing a inter-pol warrant on MBS.
trump merely exposes Americans to be immoral thieves, beggars—the ruse that they care about democracy and human rights is transparently evident to be a lie. This stolen oil will only benefit the jihadi head choppers that amerikans so admire
I agree with the basic in the article, but this is just holding ground because of future prospects, like the coming intresses of China and Russia. The key word is the new silk road prodject, look what happened when Iraq started to signal their intress into this prodject, look what happened, and then we have other aspects as Turks, and Syrians future prodjects regarding everything from rebuiling to pipe lines, etc, and this, the latest stunt from an ISISraeli bitch isnt a surpice, at all, just nails the truth on the wall for everybody to behold, and not an single word in our MSM, nothing, and that alone is becoming more and more telling. The other intresting thing is India and Pakistan, what is happening since suddenly even Khan is becomed an liabilty, because we all know whom is behind the Takfirs, the Wahabis, the mercs of the west and now they are been realigned into do something about Pakistan, yeah, India the dump, isnt anything other than an western bitch, nothing have changed since the present Gov as before have always done the biddings of the Imperial banana republic and others before, and like Pakistan, feed their mercs to fight for the Empire of Chaos, karma is an bitch isnt it, Pakis.
And on top of it, the downfall of the imperial banana republics own industry, etc, to indefenite QE, yeah, its more or less irrelevant whom actually winns the coming election, to me, UssA is dying, and of course it will take some time, but the downfall is obvious, and Trumpstein havent done anything, but I am aware of what He have stated before, incl Venezuela, etc, where the Oil was the goal, an cash deprived empire is stealing where ever they can, to feed the machine of their MIC an f…. the rest. And the creation of a New Palestina, we warned you years ago, now, they are militirasing their own police, the MIC needs new markeds, and surveilance is becoming more and more like an totalitarian nightmare state. Iran can just sitt this out, and realign as others are doing, the future belongs to the world of the near east, and all the way to China, and simultaniously other regions are finaly waking up to the ugly truth, the UssA is defacto insane, evil and untrustwurthy.
The only drawback is that same nations, like Russia is pussy footing the terror state ISISrael and Saudi-barbaria, make one wounder, how stupid are the Russians after all, the fake Joohos are the enemy of Man, there is an reason for them been thrown out of over 100 nations the past milleniums, and yet people denie reality, just look at the people behind the new world order, the names behind the MSM, the names of those that wants europa to bleed and is crashed from within, and people are to coward to even speak about it, Trumpstein is doing exactly what NothingButYahoho, stated years ago, suck em dry and let em blow away, in that, Trump is their best tool in decades, He will be the one that runs the empire down the drain, and I am in an sense glad I live in an time where I can watch the largest empire ever crublle, all because of two things, ignorance and arrogance, spinkled with some greed. Of course UssA isnt there basically for the oil, its there to make shure the region remins Balkanised, and make shure the silk road prodjects are keept abay thru medling internaly into this nations politics aka color revolutions, and for Eretzh ISISrael, from the Euphrat to the Nile, so in that sense, Trump is just doing what His masters tells Him to do, just an ISISraeli bitch.
Gods speed to the bottom of the pit, nobody will miss you.
peace
This is another example of an author dancing around the Jew issue. It’s like ignoring the elephant in the room. We’re in Syria for Jews, Israel and their Zionist Jew world order hegemony insanity. Syria is, and has been from the beginning a Yinon plan exercise in perpetual regional turmoil. So that the regional governments don’t work together to get the Jew problem corrected.
Syria’s known reserves of gas and oil are largely untouched and this is mainly because of US and Europe being the main expertise of how to tap it, and the denial of expertise goes back further in years than this author mentions, think Lebanon, Syrian peacekeepers, an unproven charge of assassination of Lebanon money Laundering figure for Europe and mainly French banking concerns, and US led Lebanon military and UN demand Syria leave, and Syria obliged but seen no let up by propanda in US/Israel and Europes WtO and IMF. Lots of sanctions put in place, Syrian embassies being left unprotected and attacked, with Assad’s dad and all Syrians becoming little horn headed, cloven hoofed, forked tailed little heathens. Syria was not a one source wealth economy, and although it allowed oil and gas exports it did so at its own pace, refusing the foreign pressures to let them fully exploit even to denial of extra pipelines being built. Syria bad but look at how Israel/US and European interference, even shelling and invading, had destroyed a once wealthy nation into being a debtor, Lebanon. US and Europe have in truth two seperate financial systems, one for keeping ordinary citizens complacent, and the other being a form of Roman economics. Roman and Greek economics is where a minor portion of leaders financial investments are financed directly by sovereign wealth, use of commoners taxes to fund military adventurism, in order to profit those leaders, leaving commoners to struggle by financing own economic interest. The primary benefactors of todays wars are not the common citizens, but the immense wealth, and in US case the Petro Dollars strength allows it to borrow way beyond its actual ability to pay back, financing the vast seperation of 2% ers owning 80+% of all US assets. True US does not need foreign oil and gas, it is world’s largest and still growing exporter of them, but it’s allies sure do so behind the scenes they aid the Empires growth. Syria is a destroyed nation, an example for many nations that dream of real Sovereignty, it would take by its own efforts two or three generations to reach its old affluence. Who controls the water flow of Syria’s major waterway, and source of its once huge garden exports irrigation fields that are in mainly Kurd US hands, that River that is new Border between Syria proper military and US military backed Kurds. You cannot eat oil!
Good article, Caitlin. 1 thing you have not mentioned: everything the US does in the Middle East is controlled by “israel”, with the ultimate objective of creating a Greater “israel” as per the Yinon Plan, or even bigger, the kingdom of David and Solomon.
may the US, trump, its allies, whoever is responsible for all this thievery and horribleness, get the absolute worst karmic justice they deserve