Syria: The New US Narrative — “Choose Assad or Choose The Extremists”

EAworldview – 15-12-2013 – A video analysis of the new narrative in Washington, “It’s Assad or It’s The Extremists in Syria” — a narrative now being put out by a former high-level US Ambassador, probably on behalf of officials in the Obama Administration, as well as by American media and analysts:

The analysis was spurred by articles in Time Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Since it has been filmed, the narrative has been fed by distorted reports in outlets such as Reuters and The Wall Street Journal, which said — wrongly — that the Supreme Military Council’s head Salem Idriss had been forced to flee Syria because of an attack on the Free Syrian Army by the recently-formed Islamic Front.

This week, when you read stories about Syria, count how many times you read the word “jihadist”, “extremist”, “Al Qa’eda-linked”.

Then count how many times you read the line, “On August 21, 2013, the Assad regime carried out chemical attacks that left hundreds of its people dead. Count how many times you see the line that, in the last week, the Assad regime has carried out aerial attacks and shelling across the country that have killed hundreds more people.

About the Author – Scott Lucas Scott Lucas is a professor of American Studies at the University of Birmingham and editor-in-chief of EA WorldView. He is a specialist in US and British foreign policy and international relations, especially the Middle East and Iran. Formerly he worked as a journalist in the US, writing for newspapers including the Guardian and The Independent and was an essayist for The New Statesman before he founded EA WorldView in 2009.