For years now, the Western elite have been incessantly pushing the slogan that ‘Assad must go.’ Under the pretext of removing an ‘evil’ dictator and helping the people of Syria, the West has been funding, arming and training an array of Al-Qaeda affiliated legions to force regime change in the country. Contrary to helping the people of Syria however, this has only worked to bring pain, misery and tragedy to Syria.
Even the former US Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel, admitted that the insistence on ‘Assad must go’ has “paralyzed” any rationale Syrian strategy. Whenever the West appears to have moved on from this demand in any negotiations, it always seems to be brought up again at future talks. The persistence in trying to direct the blame for the Syrian crisis on Bashar al-Assad only serves to distract from the central problem in the conflict; namely Western imperialism. Syria is only the most recent imperial venture pursued by the Western cabal, following the disasters of Ukraine; Libya; Iraq; and Afghanistan (to name a few).
Saudi and Israel: Creatures of British Imperialism
Saudi Arabia and Israel are two of the most barbarous, despotic and corrupt nations in the world, who both share a common master; in the form of the British Empire. Following the end of the Great War, Britain was territorially at its zenith; stretching from the mountainous peaks of Canada to the crown in jewel, India. The actions of the British strategists around the time of the Great War have profoundly shaped the modern-day map of the Middle East, and the Western establishment is again in the process of trying to redraw the map today.
Supporting Ibn Saud
For control of Arabia, Britain supported both Hussein bin Ali and Abdulaziz Ibn Saud during and following the First World War. Hussein was an instrumental figure in the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule, which began in the summer of 1916, shortly after the Sykes-Picot agreement was signed to divide the Middle East between Britain and France. Both London and Paris sent agents over to assist the revolt, including Thomas Edward Lawrence (more famously known as Lawrence of Arabia).
The revolt accelerated the partition and eventual fall of the Ottoman Empire, and resulted in the two prospective rulers clashing over control of the territory. Initially, the British favoured a Hussein victory for control of Arabia; but after Ibn Saud defeated Hussein during the 1920s, London fully backed the founder of Saudi Arabia. As the British author and historian, Mark Curtis, wrote in his book, Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam:
Britain had already provided arms and money to Ibn Saud during the First World War, signing a treaty with him in 1915… By the end of the war, he was receiving a British subsidy of £5,000 a month – considerably less than the £12,000 a month doled out to Hussein, whom the British government at first continued to favour… In 1919 London used aircraft in the Hijaz in support of Hussein’s confrontation with Ibn Saud. It was to little avail: after accepting a temporary ceasefire in 1920, Ibn Saud’s 150,000-strong Ikhwan advanced relentlessly, and by the mid-1920s had gained control of Arabia, including the Hijaz and the Holy Places, defeating Hussein for supremacy in the region. Ibn Saud established Saudi Arabia in an orgy of murder… The British recognised Ibn Saud’s control of Arabia, and by 1922 his subsidy was raised to £100,000 a year by Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill.
The British were well aware that Ibn Saud was heavily influenced by Wahhabism, an extreme branch of Sunni Islam. Today, Saudi is one of the main forces involved in funding and arming terror groups – including the terrorists in Syria. Saudi’s human rights record is appalling, perhaps unrivaled by any other nation on the planet; but as a Western puppet, it’s allowed to operate with total impunity.
The New Ulster
Israel is another product of British imperialism. Israel’s violations of international law are relentless, and the incremental genocide perpetuated by the Israeli establishment against the people of Palestine is one of the greatest crimes of our time. Similar to Saudi and many other powers that are part of the Western cabal, Israel has also played a dirty role in the destabilisation of Syria.
Founded in 1948, one of the most significant documents in the creation of Israel is the 1917 Balfour Declaration – a letter from the Foreign Secretary of Great Britain, Arthur Balfour, to the banker and top Zionist, Walter Rothschild. The Balfour Declaration articulated that the British government strongly supported the creation of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.
Despite much of the debate surrounding Israel being focused on religious arguments and the horrors inflicted on the Jewish people for millennia, an important piece of historical evidence is usually omitted. Ronald Storrs, Britain’s first Governor of Jerusalem, referred to a potential Jewish state in 1937 as a “little loyal Jewish Ulster.” Storrs’ remark is an important one; as it reveals that the creation of Israel was designed from its very inception to be antagonistic and divisive.
Ulster of course refers to the province in the north of Ireland which was a pivotal part in England’s strategy for colonising Ireland. In the early seventeenth century, Scottish and English (mainly Protestant) settlers were moved into Ulster, displacing many of the native people of those lands. Prior to the plantation, the people of Ulster were predominantly Catholic and Gaelic speaking, and it was one of the strongest regions in Ireland that resisted English rule. Flooding Ulster with loyal serfs to King James I was an attempt to dilute the Gaelic culture and the anti-unionist sentiment that was so prevalent in that region, in addition to exacerbating and creating new divisions within Ireland.
Despite the West’s attempts to blame Assad for the Syrian crisis, the blame should instead be directed against Western imperialism. For centuries, Western imperialism has been causing devastation around the globe, as European colonial powers have ravaged and pillaged every region of the globe. Two of the most despotic regimes on earth are the direct creation of the British Empire; with both Saudi Arabia and Israel major obstacles to any stability in the Middle East. The people of Syria should decide whether Assad stays or goes – not the political elite of any foreign country. Western imperialism ‘must go’ however, if peace is to be achieved in the world.
Steven MacMillan is an independent writer, researcher, geopolitical analyst and editor of The Analyst Report, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
