Why Syria Matters

This episode provides a little bit of context that can more adequately inform the events that are currently unfolding than you may get from a TV news report.  To understand what's really going on, at a bare minimum we need to visit 1953 when the US overthrows the Mosaddegh regime in Iran and installs the Shah.  When you peal back the onion to figure out the truth of what's happening in the Middle East, we uncover layers of proxy wars and in fighting within each given syndicate in struggles to power.  A region of the world torn by a century of war, ever since the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire in World War One. There's a lot of history and context to these conflicts that even the most outspoken of us can struggle to comprehend, but at the very least we could at least agree that we don't know enough to start toppling power structures in this tenuous part of the world. Despite having the largest military in the world, Americans have resigned to cowering in fear of a country with an economy the size of Manhattan.  This conflict has America and Russia written all over it, and the events we've witnessed in the past decade should tell us very well that the Cold War may have never ended, just was on hiatus. I have plenty of links for you: My discussion with Will Porter on the Iran Nuclear Deal.  I neglected to mention how this is also a crucial component, but there wasn't any more time to devote anyway in this episode. Seymour Hersh on describing Al Qaeda's access to sarin gas  Hersh again on the 2017 attack on Khan Sheikhoun Immersion News links on congress reactions to Syrian strike Immersion News links on the strikes on Syria in general Hillary Clinton's e-mails show that benefiting Israel was in mind during the planning of overthrowing Bashar Al Assad The Atlantic showing how Syrian Rebels, in fact, used chemical weapons on Assad allied forces, as opposed to the hawkish narrative which claims the contrary