The
Syrian people are suffering under the ‘moderate rebels’ and
‘opposition forces’ backed by the US, NATO member states and
their allies in the Gulf states and Israel. Yet their suffering is
largely ignored in the mainstream media unless it furthers the agenda
dictated by the State Department.
This
article is the first in a two-part series of one Western journalist’s
journey to Aleppo, a city ravaged by an insurgency supported by the
United States, NATO member states, and their allies in the Gulf
states and Israel. In Part I, Vanessa Beeley lays out the mainstream
narrative on Syria, revealing a neoconservative agenda promoted by
NATO-funded NGOs. These NGOs paint the destruction of the historic
city as being caused by the Syrian government under Bashar Assad, not
the violent armed insurgents which receive arms, funding and training
from Western governments and their allies.
Aleppo has
become synonymous with destruction and “Syrian state-generated”
violence among those whose perception of the situation in the
war-torn nation is contained within the prism of mainstream media
narratives.
The
NATO-aligned media maintains a tight grip on information coming out
of this beleaguered city, ensuring that whatever comes out is
tailored to meet State Department requirements and advocacy for
regime change. The propaganda mill churns out familiar tales of
chemical weapons, siege, starvation and bombs targeting civilians–all
of which are attributed to the Syrian government and military, with
little variation on this theme.
The purpose
of this photo essay and my journey to Aleppo on Aug. 14 was to
discover for myself as a Western journalist the truth behind the
major storylines in the U.S. and NATO narrative on Syria.
East and
west Aleppo
Most Western
media fail to highlight the “tale of two cities” playing out
between eastern and western Aleppo. The east is occupied by a number
of groups backed by the United States, NATO and their allies in the
Gulf, like Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Civilians in the government-held
area of western Aleppo describe these groups broadly as “terrorists,”
often without noting any specific group.
Over 1.5
million civilians live in the government-held areas of western
Aleppo, including 600,000 civilians who fled eastern Aleppo in 2012.
Of the 200,000 to 220,000 people living in the terrorist-occupied
areas in the eastern parts of the city, an estimated 50,000 or more
are members of the so-called “rebel” factions and their families,
according to the Aleppo Medical Association.
In most
Western media reports, little mention is made of this division of
Aleppo which was created by the incursion of factions of armed
insurgents (or, as the mainstream media and U.S. government call
them, “moderate rebels”) which drove hordes of civilians out of
the eastern parts of the city into the safety of the Syrian
government-held western area.
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