The billowing wheat fields of Syria once were a staple that kept the people sated through times of struggle. Until the beginning of the war, Syria was a net food exporter, providing grain to neighboring countries and enjoying a healthy supply more than sufficient to feed its population. When the attempted overthrow of Bashar al-Assad began in 2011 [in a CIA directed operation], the nation collapsed into chaos and food production plummeted. Syria’s borders shrank to a third of their pre-war size as ISIS took over huge swathes of desert, and US-backed Kurdish forces invaded the country’s northeast under the cover of fighting terrorism.
Syria’s occupied [by US and Kurdish forces] northeast region produces
60% of the country’s wheat and 95% of the country’s oil: 400,000 barrels
per day of oil production has been lost due to the Kurdish invasion.
The formerly oil-rich nation now pumps a mere 20,000 barrels per day and
relies on Iranian tankers to import energy. These tankers are
increasingly intercepted by Western powers as part of this war of
starvation. Additionally, in the last two years five separate sanctions
bills have been passed in Washington, targeting the country’s oil and
grain trade.
Merely one day after the inauguration of the Biden administration in Washington, the US began transferring hundreds of soldiers from Iraq to northeastern Syria in order to harden the imperial presence. Even under the Trump administration a ninth US army base in Deir Ezzor was commissioned in October, directly facing Syrian military positions west of the Euphrates. The new [Biden] cabinet is stacked with career advocates of regime change, so we can foresee that the border in northeast Syria will be a debut at which the forces of imperialism seek to demonstrate their fanatical commitment to “involvement in the region.”
While unheard of by most Americans, this northern governorate is a litmus test for what is to come in the next four years of foreign policy.
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