Daniel McAdams |
Today Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, “Assad must go.”
Forget the ISIS pretext for US bombing and occupation of Syrian territory. We are back to Obama’s original Syria policy: Assad must go. Forget the 2016 elections, forget campaign promises. The neocons never sleep and they are back in the driver’s seat. From Niger to Afghanistan to Iraq to Syria and beyond, there are only the neocons, the interventionists of the Left and Right, the military-industrial complex, and the Deep State. The truth is there is no Trump Administration when it comes to foreign policy. It never materialized post-election. It does not exist.
How did we get to Tillerson’s re-introduction of “Assad must go” as the cornerstone of US policy in Syria? Let’s recap…
Read more:Â Bashar al-Assad has won the Syrian war
In August of 2011, President Obama uttered those fateful words that set off six years of US covert and overt support of radical jihadists seeking regime change in Syria: “Assad must go.” Those words and the policy that followed produced untold misery. Hundreds of thousands killed. Major cities flattened. Infrastructure sent back to the stone age.
Russia began military action in Syria in 2015; radical jihadists were in control of some 70 percent of the country.
When, in 2013, President Obama wanted to follow his words and covert warfare with an overt US military attack on Syria, the American people rose up and demanded that he stand down. He did. For awhile. Then the media began obsessively reporting on a new force even more terrifying than al-Qaeda: ISIS. According to report after report, ISIS made al-Qaeda look like bush leaguers. ISIS would cut off heads at the drop of a hat, and they posed a “medium- and long-term threat” to the United States, as Obama said. Therefore, Congressional authorization or not, President Obama announced in 2014 that the US would start bombing Syria. Because of ISIS.
The US illegally built military bases on Syrian soil. Because of ISIS.The US armed Kurds and sent them off to fight. Because of ISIS.The US armed “moderates” in Syria who turned out to be ISIS. Because of ISIS.
Today Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, “Assad must go.”
Then today Washington returned to its true motive for involvement in Syria. Its original motive: “Assad must go!” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Geneva today.
Then, over this past month, the unthinkable has happened for Washington’s interventionists: ISIS has been essentially defeated in Syria. The rationale for the US military presence on Syrian soil — flimsy as it was — has slipped away. Washington is in a panic and is determined to find a way to continue occupying Syrian territory. US government officials have brought a radically sectarian Saudi government minister n to Syrian territory to make plans for the “reconstruction” of the US-occupied part of the country. We can guess what that might look like. The US government has used the excuse of Iranian presence in Syria to justify its continued occupation of Syrian territory post-ISIS.
Read more:Â How Bashar al-Assad won the Syrian war? Part-I
We do not believe that there is a future for the Assad regime and Assad family. The reign of the Assad family is coming to an end. The only issue is how that should that be brought about.
The US government has used the excuse of Iranian presence in Syria to justify its continued occupation of Syrian territory post-ISIS.
How should that be brought about? A direct US invasion? Subversion? More arming of jihadists? Meddling in internal Syrian politics? CIA death squads? Creating and promoting phony opposition parties and media with US tax dollars? However you slice it, it reeks. Reeks of hypocrisy, illegality, brutality.
How ironic that a country that has obsessed for well over a year about Russian “meddling” in its election — without proof — speaks so openly about who it will allow governing another country half a world away. By what right do Tillerson and the Trump Administration (such as it is) declare who is allowed to lead foreign countries?
Read more:Â Plot thickens in great game over post-ISIS Iraq and Syria
Speaking of Russia: Assad’s ally in Moscow has spent a fortune coming to the aid of Syria. When Russia began military action in Syria in 2015, radical jihadists were in control of some 70 percent of the country. Syria was about to be completely overrun by an army of head-choppers on steroids. Slowly, with extreme determination, they were beaten back. Will Russia really sit by and watch its efforts be wiped out because Washington has the idea that somehow it has a say in who governs Syria? Will Russia stand back and watch its work be undone? What if it does not? What then?
Daniel McAdams is the Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. This article was first published in Ron Paul Institute (ronpaulinstitute.org). The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy.