McCain, “The Caliph”, ISIS, And Syria.

 

Posted on September 25, 2014

by Jerry Alatalo

Has John McCain responded honorably to the internet viral photograph of him sitting with the so-called “Caliph” of ISIS: al-Baghdadi? What would have happened if Franklin Delano Roosevelt were photographed sitting in the same room as Adolf Hitler? Or Lyndon Johnson or Barry Goldwater having a sit-down talk with North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh?

The choice of videos to include in this post boiled down to four. The Real News Network posted a one hour and 27-minute documentary made by Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue in 2008 on the second Iraq War titled “Body of War”. The film is a masterpiece which followed the life of an Iraq Veteran shot by an AK-47 under his collar-bone five days after arriving in Iraq, his paralysis requiring intense medical and lifestyle-altering attention afterward, and his becoming a powerful peace activist – joining Veterans For Peace and speaking at a variety of venues to end the war.

“Body of War”, while following the life and extremely difficult circumstances of a paralyzed Iraq veteran turned peace activist, inserts consistent scenes in the United States Congress of the debate, including John McCain warning about “how close” Saddam Hussein was to making a nuclear bomb, held before voting to grant George W. Bush virtual unlimited authority to carry out one of the United States’ most disastrous foreign policy decisions in history: Iraq War II. The way the film’s editors went back and forth throughout the film between the Iraq War veteran and the Congress was brilliant, and the man who came out as a hero for his opposition to the war was the late Senator Robert Byrd.

Another possible video insertion was one made by Storm Clouds Gathering (SCG) about ISIS, which has become viewed on its YouTube channel over 600,000 times and runs 23 minutes. If “Body of War” is a masterpiece full-length documentary film about the Iraq War, then SCG’s short film is a masterpiece in the “short documentary” category. The fellow who makes the videos at SCG has become excellent in editing into his films published articles from respected news and websites along with visuals of men and woman speaking in public – such as General Wesley Clark sitting on a stage talking about the “seven nations in five years”. His video points out that overthrowing Bashar al-Assad of Syria is the main reason behind creating ISIS.

The third option was a short three-minute interview of geopolitical analyst William Engdahl on RT recently, where he states that ISIS is a “false flag” designed to, in concert with SCG’s analysis, overthrow Assad in Syria. Mr. Engdahl talked about his hypothesis that perhaps Vladimir Putin of Russia is operating behind the scenes with Barack Obama or Assad, or both, in the same manner as a year ago when major escalation of violence through an air bombing campaign against Syria became prevented through an agreement to remove all chemical weapons from Syria.

The video included here is a fourteen minute segment of historian/geopolitical analyst Webster Tarpley’s weekly radio program “World Crisis Radio”. Most men and women who’ve ever watched C-SPAN recall those moments where Congressmen or Senators use “props” to help deliver their messages. These most times are charts and graphs showing trends in the economy or statistics related to current debates on proposed legislation. Outside of C-SPAN and the United States, many will remember the visual aid used by Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations a few years ago, where he held up a comic-like, “Roadrunner” cartoon-looking bomb with a fuse on top for helping him make a bogus claim about Iran’s nuclear intentions.

One of the reasons for deciding to go with the Tarpley radio segment is that the photo of Senator John McCain is there/displayed for the full fourteen minutes while Mr. Tarpley is speaking. One wonders how soon any man or woman elected representative in the United States Congress will display a blowup of Mr. McCain’s photograph with the “Caliph” of the Islamic State al-Baghdadi – the Hitler of our time – on the floors of Congress. Or perhaps one or more of the many men and women candidates around America seeking election to national office in the November elections will use Senator McCain’s photograph while speaking to crowds of potential voters, as a way to highlight their messages.

Thus far, John McCain and his spokespersons aren’t talking about the very perplexing, clearly highly compromising photograph.

Maybe Senator McCain’s Republican running mate in 2008’s presidential election – Sarah Palin – will “go rogue” and make a few public statements.

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(Thank you to Webster Tarpley Radio at YouTube)