The Danger of False Flag claims against the U.S. by Russia and Infowars

Recent action taken against both Syria and Afghanistan has prompted many people, including Russian officials as well as smaller media outlets such as Infowars, to bring forward claims that the U.S. is orchestrating chemical attacks in Syria in order to force action. In fact, Vladamir Putin explicitly stated that the attacks were a U.S. construct to defame Assad, to prompt his removal. To add insult to injury, he "predicted" that there would be even more attacks secretly planned by the U.S. This prophecy is inherently self fulfilling, as Assad will be fully reinvigorated to continue his atrocities knowing that Russia's support will not sway.

It does not help that popular media figures, unfortunately like Alex Jones, are readily backing this idea and stating it as fact. It is unfortunate that people entertain this harmful idea even though Assad is a known war criminal, who has repeatedly violated laws surrounding the use of chemical weapons in the past. As I have said in previous posts on Steemit, unproveable statements from Alex Jones, and self fulfilling prophecies from Putin will only sow distrust in the U.S. intelligence community. Claims by our own president during his campaign have already planted these seeds in the minds of many Americans, but this stigma that the CIA and FBI actively act against U.S. interests must end.

While I am inclined to say that there is no harm in having an opinion, situations like this are an exception. Popularizing opinions that have no sensible backing or evidence like this are playing into the overall strategy of governments of countries like Russia, who hope to demonize the U.S. for the advancement of their own powers. Hating the U.S. government has become an extremely popular opinion to hold, for many good reasons. Disenfranchisement is at an all time high, given the foreign policy muckups of the past two administrations. Part of this led to the election of a divisive outsider to politics. Now more than ever, we need to trust in our governments institutions to have the nations best interests in mind.

Trumps supporters may be disappointed given his promises to restrict U.S. involvement overseas. I would imagine this has led to the hatching of many conspiracy theories. People unhappy with Trump's recent policy reversals will quickly come up with a grandiose excuse such as a new world order, or maybe reptilians for his shift in views. However, the likely, and proveable cause is most likely the U.S. political system, and the fact that restricting involvement abroad is an impossible task.