Here’s what’s wrong with John Kerry’s proposal to ground the Syrian and Russian air forces

In 2001 Tony Blair aided BAE systems in selling a military air traffic control system to Tanzania for £28 million.

On the face of it, this is business as usual for a British Prime Minister except for the fact that in 2001, Tanzania had no operational air force.

But if selling expensive air traffic control systems to a country with no military air traffic is unethical, grounding real air forces in support of non-existent ones is unconscionable. This however is exactly what John Kerry proposes to do.

In order to resurrect the Syrian ceasefire which I and my colleagues at The Duran had accurately said was dead on arrival, the US proposes to unilaterally ground all air forces currently operating in Syria.

But there’s a problem. ISIS have no air force, Al-Nusra (aka Al-Qaeda in Syria) have no air force, the Free Syrian Army has no air force, and the other myriad blood soaked Wahhabist  terrorist groups have no air force either. So in effect the only air forces that will be grounded are those fighting the terrorists, those of Syria and of Russia.

Whilst literally the terrorist groups do not have an air force, practically this is a half-truth.

If ISIS had an air force one could imagine them using it to drop bombs on a group of soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army, killing 80 of them and destroying their ability to drive ISIS out of the areas surrounding Deir ez-Zour.

What’s more, if ISIS had an air force, one could imagine the strike lasting for hours so that it had the biggest impact possible.

ISIS does not have an air force, but the US does have an air force, the largest in the world, and their planes conducted the attack on the Syrian troops which I have just described.

In a sense ISIS doesn’t need an air force.  They have the US air force to do their work for them.

Augmenting this tragedy are the farcical terms of Mr. Kerry’s proposals, which would exclude the US and those in her coalition from the grounding agreement.

So in essence this is not a ceasefire at all. What Mr. Kerry proposes is to ground the only two air forces acting in Syria in accordance with international law: those of Syria and Russia. 

By contrast Mr. Kerry’s proposals would give carte blanche to the air forces who are acting contrary to the principles of international law, by conducting bombing in Syria with the permission of Syria’s legitimate government.

Syria is a sovereign state and it is being invaded and occupied both by terrorists and by nations conducted unauthorised air strikes on its territory.

If John Kerry believes that what he says has anything remotely to do with justice or logic, then he is too stupid to be the US Secretary of State.

If however he understands the nature of what he is proposing then his intentions are too sinister to give him credibility when he proffers solutions to end the war.

Kerry’s latest proposals are not a ceasefire at all. They are a thinly veiled attempt to castrate Syrian and Russian power under the guise of diplomacy.

The disregard for international law, the open disdain for the United Nations, and the lies being told to the world by John Kerry and Samantha Power are sickening.

At this point they make the lies of Bush and Powell seem tame by comparison.