European Union signals support for military strike against Syria

Leslie M. of Los Angeles stands with other opponents
of a United States military strike against Syria as she
and others protest at Times Square in New York. (AP)

Johannes Stern ■ Ashton echoed the Obama administration’s claims, declaring that there is “strong evidence that the Syrian regime is responsible for these attacks, as it is the only one that possesses chemical weapons agents and means of their delivery in a sufficient quantity.” The bald assertion that the Syrian regime is the only force in the civil war capable of carrying out a chemical attack on the scale of last month’s alleged attack outside of Damascus is not evidence of anything. As a matter of fact, the so-called “rebels” have been blamed by the United Nations for previous chemical attacks. And their allies and enablers, including the CIA and US Special Forces, are certainly capable of mounting such attacks. Such are the lies being used by the EU to justify a military attack against Syria.

Patrick Martin: Pentagon expands war plans against Syria ■ In his multiple television appearances on Sunday, White House Chief of Staff McDonough admitted that the Obama administration did not have “irrefutable, beyond-a-reasonable-doubt” evidence. “This is not a court of law,” he said, a remarkable statement from someone who is promoting a war that will kill untold thousands of Syrians, soldiers and civilians alike, and prepare the way for an even more bloody attack on Iran and an eventual military confrontation with Russia and China.

Mike Rivero: BUMP BACK TO THE TOP ■ So now the White House admits they don't have actual evidence against Assad. All they have is evidence of an attack (which nobody disputes). The White House, urged by Israel, is saying it is just "common sense" that Assad did it. Of course, "common sense" make for poor policy. "Common sense" once said witches had to be burned. "Common sense" once said slavery was acceptable. In the case of the Syrian gas attack, Common Sense in fact points in a different direction.

David Swanson: Associated Press Admits White House Has No Evidence Whatsoever ■ The U.S. government insists it has the intelligence to prove it, but the public has yet to see a single piece of concrete evidence produced by U.S. intelligence – no satellite imagery, no transcripts of Syrian military communications – connecting the government of President Bashar Assad to the alleged chemical weapons attack last month that killed hundreds of people.

Alan Grayson: On Syria Vote, Trust, but Verify ■ Over the last week the administration has run a full-court press on Capitol Hill, lobbying members from both parties in both houses to vote in support of its plan to attack Syria. And yet we members are supposed to accept, without question, that the proponents of a strike on Syria have accurately depicted the underlying evidence, even though the proponents refuse to show any of it to us or to the American public. By refusing to disclose the underlying data even to members of Congress, the administration is making it impossible for anyone to judge, independently, whether that statement is correct. Perhaps the edict of an earlier administration applies: “Trust, but verify.”

Kate Randall: Nonstop media lies in drive to war against Syria ■ The outrage felt by millions in the US and internationally over the prospect of dragging the American people into another war of aggression has been met by a mounting drumbeat for war by the Obama administration, accompanied by a non-stop media barrage of pro-war propaganda and lies. Nowhere is this propaganda more crude than on US network and cable television. For the talking heads, former government officials, retired military officers and other hacks who populate these TV newsrooms, no lie is too big, whether told with a straight face or a smirk. Not since the Nazis has a war propaganda machine been ramped up to such heights of intensity and depths of dishonesty. Having spent much of the previous week flicking through the news channels, this reporter can relay to the reader only a fraction of the misinformation that is presented as “fact” on US television. If one over-arching characteristic of this coverage is to be singled out, it is the degree to which the media uncritically accepts the government lies used to fan the flames of war — lies that the media personalities dutifully seek to shove down the throats of an increasingly distrustful public.

Market Watch: Obama in TV blitz to build Syria support