ABC News Discovers Sectarian Clashes, Misses Decades of US Policy
ABC News offers a terse report of four dead and dozens injured in Syria, framing it blandly as 'clashes between Alawites and counterdemonstrators' in the southern city of Sweida. This detached observation studiously avoids historical context that might implicate Western foreign policy. One wonders where the thorough reporting disappeared when the same region was being systematically destabilized
by proxy wars, regime-change efforts, and billions in covert funding. Perhaps ABC forgot the billions channeled to 'moderate rebels' — many of whom pivoted directly to extremist groups — or the decades-long US strategy to weaken the Syrian state, explicitly laid out in leaked documents and think-tank whitepapers like the 1996 'Clean Break' memo that pushed for reshaping the Middle East. Presenting
internal Syrian conflict as a spontaneous combustion of ancient hatreds, rather than the predictable fallout of external interference, is less journalism and more historical erasure. It’s almost as if the cameras only start rolling once the chaos is sufficiently entrenched to be labeled an 'internal problem.' How convenient.