Published in partnership with Shadowproof.

US neoconservatives and other proponents of regime change in Syria have a new tool in their quest to play God in the Middle East: the Syria White Helmets, also known as Syrian Civil Defense

The White Helmets promote themselves as an “impartial,” purely humanitarian organization, but they are inextricably connected to people and organizations trying to overthrow the Assad government in Syria.

The US State Department has publicly acknowledged it has given the White Helmets $23 million through perpetual CIA front, USAID. Additionally, one of the leading groups supporting and promoting the White Helmets is The Syria Campaign, a PR effort dedicated to overthrowing the Assad government.

Though the US has been supplying rebels with weapons directly and indirectly since 2013, including Al Qaeda-connected Al-Nusra/Fateh Al-Sham, the White Helmets are advocating further US intervention in the form of a No Fly Zone (NFZ) in Syria.

As has been noted continually by the US Department of Defense, creating an NFZ would mean declaring war on the Syrian government and Russia. In September, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford explicitly told Senator Roger Wicker that by supporting an NFZ, he was, in fact, supporting a war with Russia.

For those somehow unaware, if the US and Russia went to war and had a nuclear exchange, overthrowing the Assad government would be irrelevant as human life on this planet would likely no longer be possible. True story.

So not only are the White Helmets advocating a terrible policy that will likely lead to a genocide should “moderate” rebels prevail, but that policy also risks a planetary catastrophe if the US and Russia go to war. Intervening in Syria to overthrow Assad is not just a bad idea that will blow up in the US’ face like Iraq and Libya. It risks the US’ very existence.