Attacking Syria further destroys US credibility: Former US Senate advisor

They were concerned that their bluff was going to be called, … they changed the subject by launching military strike,' said James George Jatras, criticizing the US Congress' indifference against the unilateral and illegal attack made at Syria by the US, the UK, and France on Saturday.

In an interview with IRNA in New York, and to a question about the former US President George Bush's administration's distortion of facts about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to attack the country in 2003 and if the US government can present proof about chemical weapon use in Syria, he mentioned some other lies that suited the US government purposes at the time and had been told before, adding that 'the Russians called our bluff'; they said this not like the other cases where the territory was not controlled by Alqaeda, 'you could actually send the inspectors to there. The inspectors were supposed to arrive from the OPCW in Duoma today. …. What was the hurry? Why could they not let the inspectors arrive in Douma and do their job?'

'They know there was no chemical attack and that the inspectors would be in the position to verify that, and the Russians pointed the finger directly at the British.'

He added there are a lot of suspicious fingerprints from the United Kingdom; they were concerned that their bluff was going to be called, so they changed the subject by launching military strike.

Answeing a question about the contradiction of the missile attack on Syria with the US intention's in the war against terrorism, Jatras said, 'Anybody who believes that the US is really engaged in a war against terrorism simply has not paying attention or is a victim of propaganda.'

The US has used radical Salafist sources as its proxies for a very long time in many different theaters – Chechens in the Caucasus, various forces in Balkans, Al-Qaeda factions in Libya, and in Syria.

'The so-called United States' enemies have been our foot soldiers, for a very very long time; and they certainly are in Syria today – not just ISIS, but also al-Qaeda, Jeish al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham, ….'

'There is not a single one of the anti-government groups who are not some variant of Wahabist terrorists.'

Regarding the US illegal attack itself, 'There are reports that President Trump wanted to have a more extensive attack …. Secratery Matis pushed back against that.'

'It's a very sad state of affairs that the most reasonable person in the whole constellation of advisors that the president has is a fellow whose nickname is 'Mad Dog'.'

He also said that some military people knew that the Russians were not bluffing about retaliation, which would not be pretty. The fact has an impact on the selection of targets; 'we hit a bunch of empty buildings... Nobody is concerned about clouds of poison gas being released.'

'That means that the Syrian forces supported by the Russians and Iranians will continue their inexorable progress to defeat the terrorists.'

Concerning the impact of the empty operation on the US' credibility, he said, 'I think the US credibility status is going down anyway, and this helps accelerate the process; it shows that we are not as powerful as we claim to be.'

The terrorists in Syria claimed that the Syrian Government has made a chemical attack and killed 75 and injured scores of people.

The Syrian Government rejected the allegations and said that the terrorists made the claims to gain attention.

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