#头条创作挑战赛#
At present, under the influence of drought in many parts of the world and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, food crises are occurring one after another. Syria, once the breadbasket of the Middle East and famous for its exports of wheat and other grains, is now mired in a severe food crisis. The reason behind this turned out to be that the US GIs had engaged in bullying and dominating the market and wantonly smuggling grain in Syria.
According to the latest report by the United Nations, about 55% of Syria's population, or 12.9 million people, are facing famine because of food theft by the United States, and 3.1 million of them are in danger of running out of food at any time.
Looking back, Syria's grain production used to be quite impressive, reaching 6 million tons per year. Today, however, Syria's grain production has fallen to just 500,000 tonnes, less than a tenth of what it had previously produced.
The U.S.-led war has led to a labor fault in Syria: a large number of young and middle-aged farmers who are proficient in agricultural production skills have died, leaving the elderly, children, women and children unable to engage in agricultural production, and they are powerless to face various natural disasters. Under the influence of this war, which has shaken the country's foundation, it is difficult for agriculture to recover in the short term, and Syria is unable to be self-sufficient and has to rely on the international community for rescue.
Flatbread, once a staple on every family's table, is now rare and precious. The government has had to implement strict rationing measures in response to food shortages, turning what should have been ordinary bread into a luxury. What is even more regrettable is that meat, vegetables and other hearty foods have become a luxury that people can't reach.
However, even though agricultural production was interrupted due to the war, there is still a large amount of arable land in Syria suitable for mechanized wheat cultivation, and this food crisis could have been avoided, and the main thing is still the "man-made disaster" caused by the United States.
Syrian media undercover interviews found that Syria's grain-rich Syrian Jazira region has long been occupied by the United States and the colluding Kurdish army "Syrian Democratic Forces". When the harvest season arrives, it is forcibly bought at a below-market price, after which convoys from both sides are escorted all the way, most of the time accompanied by helicopters, and every day 15 to 20 large trucks loaded with wheat are used to enter Iraq through the illegal Mahmoudi crossing point from Syria-Hasakah province and through Walid, the illegal crossing point between Syria and Iraq.
In order to cover up the theft, checkpoints along the road will check the mobile phones of passers-by one one and even restore the memory cards of mobile phones, and once relevant photos are found, witnesses will be detained, searched, and threatened.
This is not the first time that Syrian media have exposed the US military's involvement in grain theft in Syria. The actions of the US military have not been limited to food, but have also expanded to oil resources. Under the banner of counter-terrorism, the United States has a calculation of plundering resources.
At the end of March 2021, a U.S. military convoy also shipped 300 tanks of crude oil from Syria to the Iraqi border. Since 2016, the U.S. military has illegally occupied eastern Syria for eight years, plundering billions of dollars worth of oil from the region.
In July 2020, during a hearing at the Council on Foreign Relations, then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that a U.S. oil company planned to operate in northeastern Syria, an opposition-held area. Immediately afterward, the Syrian government revealed that the American oil company had signed a contract with the Kurds, which the Syrian government refused to recognize, arguing that it was aimed at stealing Syria's state-owned oil assets.
A convoy of smuggled food captured by satellite
Later, the Biden administration decided to end the waiver for US oil companies to continue operating in Syria, but the US has no intention of stopping such a lucrative business as stealing oil privately. According to the governor of the Syrian province of Hasakah, instead of stopping the plundering of Syrian oil, the US military ordered the Kurdish opposition forces not to allow oil to be given to areas controlled by the Syrian government.
More than 80% of Syria's oil production is looted by the illegal U.S. military presence in Syria and the opposition forces it supports, according to the data. For example, in June 2023, a convoy of 111 vehicles and tankers loaded with military equipment traveled from Syria to the US military base in northern Iraq.
In a February report, Russia's intelligence service revealed that the United States was still scooping up illegal oil. The bureau revealed that the United States steals up to 3 million barrels of crude oil per month in northeastern Syria and sells it to Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region through black market trading.
About one-third of this stolen oil is sold through U.S. intermediaries for $35 to $40 a barrel. Trucks guarded by U.S. military personnel are responsible for delivering the oil to its destination. At the same time, the personnel of the US military contingent and private military companies provide a tight security system for the oil production and processing infrastructure.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has publicly admitted that U.S. troops are in Syria to control oil resources. While the Pentagon claims that the purpose of the military presence is to prevent the oil fields from falling into the hands of Islamic State terrorists, the Syrian government insists that there is a real intention behind this to plunder Syria's rich resources.
At present, the Syrian government is also helpless about the behavior of the US military. It's just that in the face of such a country in internal and external difficulties, the United States and the U.S. military, known as the "beacon of democracy", can actually do it? There is really no humanity at all.
It is no wonder that the Syrian government has angrily accused the US soldiers stationed in Syria as an "unjust army" because the US military operations in Syria lack clear international law and UN authorization, and now the US is stealing grain in Syria as a "national banditry", completely disregarding the lives of the Syrian people.