logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2023
1h 17m

Regime Change Failed But the Plot to Des...

RANIA KHALEK
About this episode

Before 2011, Syria was a relatively stable country that had decent electricity, one of the best medical sectors in the region and produced much of its own food and medicine. Today Syria has collapsing infrastructure, dire food insecurity, crippling fuel shortages, severe brain drain and only has control over part of the country’s territory. Mainstream US media places all the blame on President Assad while covering up the role of US sanctions. 

To discuss the decades-long US war on Syria, Rania Khalek was joined by Greg Shupak, author of the book “The Wrong Story: Palestine, Israel, and the Media” published by OR books. Greg also has a chapter in the book “Sanctions As War: Anti-Imperialist Perspectives on American Geo-Economic Strategy,” which was published by Brill and Haymarket.

You can find the book here: https://brill.com/display/title/61285?language=en 


Up next
Jun 4
Gaza is Silicon Valley’s Beta Test for Global Repression, w/ Yasha Levine
The internet wasn’t made to set us free. It was designed to surveil, suppress, and control.On this episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek speaks with journalist and author Yasha Levine to expose how Big Tech became the digital arm of empire.From AI-generated kill lists in Gaza to Si ... Show More
49 m
May 31
The American Style of Fascism & How to Fight It w/ Eugene Puryear
Trump’s return is not just a political comeback—it’s a warning. As the tendency towards fascism gains strength in the U.S., what does that mean for the world’s most powerful empire? And what kind of resistance can actually stop it?On this episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek is jo ... Show More
1h 19m
May 15
Europe Is Totally Subservient to US & NATO: Inside the EU Parliament w/ MEP Marc Botenga
The European Union isn’t just complicit in the U.S. empire — it’s helping drive it. In this episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek speaks with Marc Botenga, a Belgian Member of the European Parliament with the Workers’ Party of Belgium, about how Europe became a willing footsoldier ... Show More
35m 5s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2022
Syria’s post-war recovery challenges US hegemony
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate After defeating the US and its allies' decade-long dirty war, Syria is finding ways to rebuild under US military occupation and crippling sanctions/economic warfare. Author Tim Anderson discusses Syria's post-war reco ... Show More
44m 2s
Feb 2023
A Crisis Within a Crisis in Syria
When a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Syria and Turkey last week, it killed thousands and created a crisis within a crisis.International aid began pouring into Turkey, but northwestern Syria, which was also hard-hit, received only a trickle. It was a bitter blow for Syrians, whose ... Show More
26m 28s
Oct 2019
A Foreseen Calamity in Syria
The presence of U.S. troops in northern Syria was designed to protect America’s allies and keep its enemies there in check. President Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the region quickly, and predictably, unraveled a tenuous peace on the volatile border between Syria and Turkey. ... Show More
27m 36s
Jun 2023
Who's behind Syria's Captagon trade?
Captagon, a highly addictive amphetamine-like drug, is causing huge problems around the Middle East, as millions of pills are smuggled out of Syria. BBC News Arabic collaborated with the investigative journalism network OCCRP to find out who's behind the trade. Emir Nader tells u ... Show More
41m 32s
Feb 2020
One of the worst crises of Syria’s civil war
Zack, Jenn, and Alex talk about perhaps the single worst humanitarian crisis in Syria’s civil war — the ongoing situation in Idlib, where 3 million people are trapped in a province under assault by Bashar al-Assad and his allies. They explain how we got to this point, why the sit ... Show More
44m 2s
May 2021
Syria: Failed state or narco-state?
How ten years of conflict have destroyed the country's economy. As Syria prepares for largely symbolic elections to re-elect its President Bashar Al-Assad next week, we look at how ten years of conflict have destroyed the country's economy. Ed Butler looks at the growing evidence ... Show More
18m 26s
May 2019
Intensifying Fighting in Syria Suggests a New Phase of the War
Over the last several weeks an estimated 140,000 people have been displaced by escalating fighting in Idlib, Syria.  Syrian regime forces, backed by Russia, have scaled up their attacks in what is the last part of Syria controlled by rebel forces.    Idlib is the only remaining r ... Show More
21m 27s
Mar 2022
Is Russia’s Syria playbook being used in Ukraine?
What can 11 years of war in Syria tell us about Ukraine? This week marks the anniversary of Syria’s uprising and there still seems to be no end to conflict in sight. There’s also another date that resonates: September 30, 2015, when Russia intervened on behalf of President Bashar ... Show More
19m 30s
Jun 2023
Syrie: la normalisation amorcée?
Le 19 mai 2023, le sommet de la Ligue arabe à Djeddah a marqué le retour en grâce de Bachar el-Assad auprès de ses pairs du Proche-Orient. Tapis rouge pour un président que l’organisation avait exclu, fin 2011, pour sa répression sanglante du soulèvement démocratique en Syrie, da ... Show More
50 m