“The U.S. Embassy continues to urge U.S. citizens in Syria to depart immediately while commercial transportation is available.”-U.S. Embassy in Syria
On November 23, the U.S. Embassy in Syria restated a warning they’ve been giving since September 30; U.S. citizens need to leave. CBS News reported it as if it was something new.
Then Forbes reported the United States has positioned a naval strike force, lead by the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush (aka CVN 77), off the coast of Syria.
According to Forbes, the carrier strike group number two (COMCARSTRKGRU TWO, Commander of the Carrier Strike Group number two) had been patrolling the Strait of Hormuz, which is the narrow inlet leading from the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf, south of Iran. Suddenly they were shifted, all the way round to the Mediterranean Sea. The implication being that something is going to happen.
Forbes later updated their story saying CVN 77’s Facebook page had them in France for R&R. Lets not forget that deals have already been made regarding French control of Syria after any war (Syria and Lebanon were controlled by France after World War 1).
On November 23, the Virginian-Pilot reported that CVN 77 was heading back home to the United States. The home port of USS George HW Bush is Norfolk, Virginia.
The Virginia newspaper also reported that CVN 77, along with the other ships of the strike force, had held up in the Mediterranean to “…conduct a range of operations and help maintain maritime security…”.
If a naval force, based on the east coast of the U.S., was returning from the Persian Gulf, the shortest route would be through the Strait of Hormuz, through the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean heading west to the U.S.
This seems to me to be a clear case of hopeful warmongering on the part of CBS News and Forbes. CBS simply took a U.S. Embassy warning, that’s been issued since September 30 (unchanged even, word for word the same as on Sep. 30), and made it sound like it was something new.
Forbes took the CBS story, and a report on the position of the COMCARSTRKGRU TWO and insinuated that ‘war were declared’ (a quote from Futurama). The position of the strike group in the Mediterranean Sea was correct, but also outdated because by the time Forbes published their story the strike group had already sailed to French ports for R&R. The strike group is probably already in the Atlantic Ocean by now.
The sad thing is that foreign media are now running with the CBS/Forbes story. What was that ancient warning sign about the end of the world? “Wars, and rumors of wars”?
Don’t get me wrong, I think war is coming for Syria, especially since French warmonger Sarkozy want it, and Lebanon, back under French control.
Regarding the Spanish American War, which most people in the U.S. know nothing about it (it’s how we got Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines, etc). That war is a classic example of how the warmongering U.S. media (led by William Randolph Hearst) convinced the general public that war was the only answer, and they did it while most Federal officials worked for a peaceful solution.
A peaceful solution was reached. Spain promised Cuba independence and made other concessions, but a U.S. Navy ship exploded while off the coast of Cuba. The mainstream U.S. media said the back stabbing Spanish did it, even though initial USN investigation said it was an accident. The U.S. public demanded war, and the warmongering politicians overruled the doves and ‘war were declared’. Investigations done during the 20th Century revealed that the USN ship had indeed gone down due to faulty design, not a sneak attack by the Spanish.