Tensions in Syria are escalating once again and war hawks are cheering on the idea of the U.S. sending missiles into Syria to take out President Bashar al-Assad, the evil Syrian dictator, and his military. But is President al-Assad really the evil dictator the U.S. wants him to be or is he a leader of a country caught up in a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia?

As they say, the only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain. No one knows for sure what President Assad has or hasn’t done in Syria. The only people who can know that are Assad and the people he’s supposedly used chemical weapons on. The use of chemical weapons is significant because it is being used as the red line that once crossed, warrants a military response from the U.S.

We do know that the United States has a history of promoting regime change in countries around the world. A 2016 Washington Post article reports that the U.S. tried to change other countries’ governments 72 times during the Cold War. In reality, there are probably a lot more times not included in this list.

We also know that President Bush and his cabinet probably lied their way into invading Iraq in 2003. There is ample evidence to suggest that Bush and his team knew very well there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. A Reuters article reported on a poll conducted by the Opinion Research Business (ORB) which found that more than one million Iraqi’s died as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. There was also the 60 minutes interview with Madeline Albright where when questioned about civilian deaths in the Iraq War she responded that she thought 500,000 dead Iraqi children was “worth it”.

Then there is the infamous interview with General Wesley Clark who worked in trips to the Pentagon after 9/11 he spoke to colleagues who reported to him that the U.S. had created a plan to take out seven countries in five years. As a result, Gaddafi fell in Libya and now Libya openly trades slaves.

The good news is American citizens are catching on to how U.S. military likes to operate around the world. More people are protesting and not obediently buying the false narrative that the U.S. must use its military to save the world. More people are questioning our government and looking for the real truth even as the corporate media fails them and just pushes a pro-war narrative, that often glamorizes war.

When Trump sent missiles into Syria last year, Brian Williams called the missiles beautiful. He used a Leonard Cohen song to describe the missiles, probably a reference Cohen would not have been too fond of. War is good for ratings, so corporate media tends to glamorize it.

As far as Syria, once again there are people calling for the U.S. to take down yet another evil dictator and rescue the Syrian people from their evil ruler. Another recent supposed chemical attack is the new basis for heightened tension. The last supposed chemical attack was never proven, nor did it or this one make sense. If Assad was an evil dictator who wanted to stay in power why would he authorize a chemical attack just as the war is winding down? There was a lot of analysis by various experts many of which called the U.S. narrative of Assad gassing his people false.

Also, who is giving the evidence for the chemical attack? If the White Helmets are the sole providers of evidence, let’s look at the White Helmets. The White Helmets are extremely controversial. There are tons of photos and video of known White Helmet workers celebrating and mixing with Al Qaeda/Al Nusra/ISIS operatives. An organization of Swedish doctors analyzed a video provided by the White Helmets of their life-saving efforts after an attack, and decided their video was fake. The leader of the White Helmets has repeatedly been denied entry into the U.S. because of his questionable affiliations. Because so much of the Western narrative in Syria seems to rely on evidence coming from the White Helmets, we have gathered what we could find of the questionable evidence tying the White Helmets to terrorist organizations, so you can decide for yourself whether to trust their “evidence.”

Now given all that we know about the U.S. tendency to meddle in other countries and the disasters that result, watch the clip of the below 2005 CNN interview with Syrian President/Evil Dictator Bashar Al-Assad. There used to be longer versions of the interview online but they are suddenly hard to find.