The suspension of rules procedure is supposed to be used for “non-controversial” bills such as naming Post Offices, but this small group of lawmakers used it to pass a drastically important bill. The blatant abuse of power shows the desperation in the neocon ranks.

Donald Trump has spoken out against regime change, but considering his unpredictable behavior, the actual position of his coming administration is anybody’s guess. Trump’s pick of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser is not a good portent.

Earlier this month, Flynn strongly supported Turkish President Erdogan in an op-ed at The Hill, suggesting he is under siege by “radical Islam” and desperately needs our help. Flynn seemed to dismiss Erdogan’s crackdown on political dissidents and the dubious circumstances of the attempted coup which allowed Erdogan to solidify his power.

It may be no coincidence that just days ago, Turkey — a NATO ally — urged to U.S. to move forward with a no-fly zone in Syria. Incidentally, no one seems to have paid attention to a damning investigative report finding that the “Turkish government under President Erdogan is covertly providing direct military, financial and logistical support to ISIS, even while claiming to fight the terror network.”

While both Russian and U.S. bombings have resulted in civilian deaths, completely missing in the Western narrative on Syria is how U.S. intervention in the interest of regime change was the catalyst for today’s hellish conditions in that country, and the resulting flood of Syrian refugees.

As we have reported before, the Pentagon nurtured the Salafist sect in eastern Syria — to help the U.S. and its allies achieve regime change – and these extremists went on to become the violent terror group called ISIS.

In order to keep the American public ignorant of reality in Syria, and to maintain the specter of terrorism in order to justify massive military spending, politicians’ propaganda must be so complete they believe it themselves.

This was demonstrated during the 40-minute “debate” session among the six lawmakers who pushed the bill through.

They claimed the Obama administration has been “sitting back and doing nothing” as violence worsens, and Assad is “killing millions of his citizens.” All of this is, of course, false.

“By late 2011, the U.S. was actively coordinating, training and supplying armed opposition groups. When Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan government was toppled in fall 2011, the CIA oversaw the diversion of Libyan weapons to the Syrian armed opposition, as documented in the Defense Intelligence Agency report of October 2012.

These weapons transfers were secret. For the public record, it was acknowledged that the U.S. was supplying communications equipment to the armed opposition while U.S. “allies” — Saudi Arabia and Qatar — were supplying the weaponry. This is one reason that Saudi purchases of weapons skyrocketed during this time period; they were buying weapons to replace those being shipped to the armed opposition in Syria. It was very profitable for U.S. arms manufacturers.

Huge weapons transfers to the armed opposition in Syria have continued to the present, with the U.S. government even more directly involved. This past spring, Janes Defense reported the details of a U.S. delivery of 2.2 million pounds of ammunition, rocket launchers and other weaponry to the armed opposition.

So, the political claims that the U.S. has been inactive are baseless. In reality, the U.S. has done everything short of a direct attack on Syria. And the U.S. military is starting to cross that line. On Sept. 17, the U.S. air coalition conducted a series of airstrikes on the Syrian Army in Deir Ezzor, killing 80 Syrian soldiers and enabling ISIS to launch an attack on the position. Claims that it was a “mistake” are highly dubious.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates the actual death toll as: “killed pro-Syrian forces – 108,000; killed anti-government forces – 105,000; killed civilians – 89,000.”