U.S. Brinksmanship Over Syria: On a War Footing with Russia

• U.S. Brinksmanship Over Syria: On a War Footing with Russia
  by Michael Welch, Stephen Lendman, Mark Taliano, and Chris Cook, http://www.globalresearch.ca/
  Global Research News Hour Episode 153
  “Since 2011, the Assad regime has been intentionally striking civilian targets with horrifying, predictable regularity….And yet in the face of none of these atrocities has Russia expressed outrage nor has it demanded investigations nor has it ever called for a Saturday night emergency consultation in the Security Council …” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power[1]
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  “In all my years in international life, which is over forty years, I’ve never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness as we are witnessing today.”Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin[2]
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  While the attention of the American public has been diverted by the Trump-Clinton presidential soap opera, events of historic, perhaps even world-ending magnitude have been erupting in Syria.
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  In the month of September, Russia and the U.S. helped broker a cease-fire agreement which would have halted the violence between the Syrian military and armed-rebel insurgents, allowing for humanitarian aid to be transferred to the embattled city of Alleppo. The same agreement was also to have enabled joint action by Russian and U.S. forces in crushing ISIL and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (known until late July as the Al-Nusra Front). [3][4]
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  Barely a week into the cease-fire, the U.S.-led coalition forces struck Syrian government forces’ positions near Deir Ez-Zor killing 62 troops and injuring 100 others. [5]The U.S. Central command claimed that the attack on Syrian troops was accidental, even though an ISIS offensive launched within 7 minutes on Syrian army positions in the city suggested coordination between the U.S. and the militants. [6]An audio recording provided by Syrian intelligence revealing a conversation between the ISIS militants and the U.S. military would appear to confirm this suspicion. [7]
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  A hastily called emergency meeting of the UN Security Council the same night as the Deir Ez-Zor attacks saw a further breakdown in diplomatic relations. U.S. representative Samantha Power chastised her Russian counterpart for calling the meeting describing it as ‘cheap point scoring’ and ‘grandstanding.’ Each Ambassador walked out on the other’s speeches before the Council. [8]
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