Robert Fisk: Western Politicians, Experts and Journalists Should Now Tell Real Narrative about Aleppo
LONDON-Robert Fisk, the renowned British Writer and journalist, has stressed that after the Syrian army has retaken control of Aleppo eastern neighborhoods and as more facts are being revealed with the exit of tens of thousands of civilians, who were trapped by the terrorists in the city, western politicians, experts, and journalists, who used to talk about the “besieged city” and the “Syrian rebels” supported by Washington, London and the head-chopping mates in the Gulf, are going to have to reboot their stories over the next few days and say the truth about the city.
In an article published by “The Independent” British newspaper yesterday under the title “There is more than one truth to tell in the awful story of Aleppo”, Fisk said those “rebels” included al-Qaeda, which appeared in Syria under the name of “Jabhat al-Nusra”, or “Jabhat Fateh al-Sham”. Those al-Qaeda affiliates have for long accused by the West of committing the crimes against humanity in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on 11 September 2001 and because of who the West launched a relentless war against terrorism, said Fisk.
However, according to Fisk, the west doesn’t apply the same description in Syria as the western media has managed to weave a powerful tale about heroism, democracy and suffering while talking about those “rebels”.
“A narrative of good guys versus bad guys as explosive and dishonest as the tale of “weapons of mass destruction” fabricated by the West against Iraq, the British writer clarified.
The writer went on to say that the western media, before and during the illegal invasion of Iraq, kept describing the Iraqi government as one of the “Triple Pillars of the Axis of Evil”, adding that “here goes the usual mantra again, which we must repeat ad nauseam to avoid the usual hate mail and abuse that will today be cast at anyone veering away from the West-approved and deeply flawed version of Syria events.”
Fisk reiterated that “it’s time to tell the truth: that many of the “rebels” whom we in the West have been supporting – and which our preposterous Prime Minister Theresa May indirectly blessed when she groveled to the Gulf head-choppers last week – are among the cruelest and most ruthless of fighters in the Middle East.”
The British writer also talked about the terrorists’ return and seizure of the historical Syrian city of Palmyra.
“In three vast columns of suicide trucks and thousands of armed supporters, Isis has swarmed across the desert from Mosul in Iraq, and from Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour in eastern Syria to attack and seize the beautiful city of Palmyra all over again,” Fisk said.
“It is highly instructive to look at our reporting of these two parallel events. Almost every headline today speaks of the “fall” of Aleppo to the Syrian army – when in any other circumstances, we would have surely said that the army had “recaptured” it from the “rebels” – while Isis was reported to have “recaptured” Palmyra when (given their own murderous behavior) we should surely have announced that the Roman city had “fallen” once more under their grotesque rule,” he added.
He wondered why the American air force didn’t bombard ISIS convoys coming from Mosul given the huge columns of dust thrown up by these convoys. He said that the US air force claimed that “the US satellites and drones and intelligence just didn’t spot them – any more than they did when Isis drove identical convoys of suicide trucks to seize Palmyra when they first took the city in May 2015.”
Hamda Mustafa