Iran not Syria is the West's real target

On 30 August 2013, Robert Fisk opined thus in The Independent:

“Iran, not Syria, is the West's real target... Iran is Israel’s enemy. Iran is therefore, naturally, America’s enemy…

When Iraq, then America’s ally, used gas against the Kurds of Hallabjah in 1988, we did not assault Baghdad... I also happen to remember that the CIA put it about in 1988 that Iran was responsible for the Hallabjah gassings, a palpable lie that focused on America’s enemy whom Saddam was then fighting on our behalf…

Didn’t Iraq, when it was 'our' ally against Iran, also use gas on the Iranian army? It did. I saw the Ypres-like wounded of this foul attack by Saddam, US officers, I should add, toured the battlefield later and reported back to Washington, and we didn’t care a tinker’s curse about it. Thousands of Iranian soldiers in the 1980-88 war were poisoned to death by this vile weapon…

I think that Bashar al-Assad’s ruthless army might just be winning against the rebels WHOM WE SECRETLY ARM... A victory for Bashar is a victory for Iran. And Iranian victories cannot be tolerated by the West."

Fisk concluded:

"We will be attacking Shia Muslims and their allies to the hand-clapping of Sunni Muslims. And that’s what civil war is made of.” 

He also told us this:

"When Israel killed up to 17,000 men, women and children in Lebanon in 1982... America merely called for both sides to exercise ‘restraint’." 

And posed this question:

“What happened to those magnificent Palestinian-Israeli negotiations that John Kerry was boasting about?" 

Which he answered, himself, thus:

"While we express our anguish at the hideous gassings in Syria, the land of Palestine continues to be gobbled up. Israel’s Likudist policy, to negotiate for peace until there is no Palestine left, continues apace.” 

The powers-that-be don't like Robert Fisk. Unfortunately for them he's not one of those common-or-garden hacks that you can do with impunity whenever they stray too far into the actuality zone.

You see, he has been voted International Journalist of the Year seven times and possesses more British and International Journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent. It'd be like polishing off the Pope. Some things just aren't done in polite society.

John Paul 1?

Oh, yeah. I was forgetting.