A Tragedy of Errors: America’s Disastrous “War on Terror” in Syria
Photo by Alexander Koerner/Getty
State Department spokesman John Kirby recently stated that the U.S. government has no interest in collaborating with Russia to undermine jihadist influence in Syria. The announcement came after Moscow proposed a joint action targeting terrorist gangs that refuse to honor ceasefires or even participate in diplomatic negotiations, and thus effectively preclude any political solution to the devastating five-year conflict. Kirby’s words ultimately serve as further confirmation that the normally-trigger-happy U.S. has no real commitment to eradicating the threat of global jihadism—perpetuating Cold War dichotomies is clearly a more pressing concern.
The general incoherence and cynicism of U.S. foreign policy is no secret, regardless of how hard the mainstream press tries to justify the State Department’s malfeasance and corroborate Washington’s lies. Examples abound, among the most recent being the Syrian civil war and the U.S. government’s notable, though relatively quiet, role in exacerbating it.
We have been told for years that Bashar al-Assad, a garden variety thug, is in essence Adolf Hitler, and that his opposition, while containing some fringe jihadist elements, is made up mostly of “moderate” freedom fighters who desire secular democracy for Syria. We should be supporting these rebels in their quest to depose Syria’s elected president, the Obama administration insisted, because they represent a brave resistance to brutal tyranny. The support was to be both moral and material in nature. Obama even considered bombing Assad out of Damascus, warning in September of 2013 that unilateral U.S. military action was imminent. Per usual, the media was on board, assuming the role of warmongering cheerleaders.
This doctrine has pretty much fallen apart, as it has become impossible for even the most vulgar propagandists to maintain that a viable moderate opposition exists. As Rafael “Ted” Cruz said in a rare moment of lucidity, the vaunted secular rebels are a “purple unicorn,” a fantasy concocted by the White House and promulgated by journalists and pundits who worship at the church of the State. Furthermore, by intervening on Assad’s behalf, Russia has ensured that he will not lose the war. We’re still sticking with our mantra—”Assad must go”—but few are mad enough call for Bush/Cheney-style regime change anymore; now the matter is to be settled diplomatically, if the hostilities ever cease.
The true reasons underlying Washington’s hostility to Assad, who has been in the crosshairs since 2002, are easy enough to ascertain, even without reading into the present conflict. It has nothing at all to do with his human rights abuses (numerous at this point), and everything to do with the fact that his Ba’athist regime is a strong ally of Russia and Iran—two diabolic states that have the arrogance to pursue policies in conflict with the geopolitical interests of the U.S. Vladimir Putin is another reincarnation of Hitler, as Hillary Clinton kindly informed us in 2014, and Ayatollah Khamenei is intent on building nuclear weapons in order to kill all the Jews, like Hitler tried to do. (Pay no mind to the fatwa Khamenei issued against the development and use of nuclear weapons, or the fact that Iran is and always has been a party to the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT)—these points are immaterial.)
That’s why we had to impose crippling sanctions on the people of Iran, much as we did on the people of Iraq during the 1990s, resulting in the deaths of some 500,000 children (well worth it, according to Madeleine “Special Place In Hell” Albright). These sanctions on the Iranian people, by the way, are a key aspect of Hillary Clinton’s exalted resume: they are routinely cited as one of the many things she “got done” while serving as secretary of state.
The official line says that paralyzing the Iranian economy was necessary, because that was the only way to “bring them to the negotiating table” regarding their alleged weapons program. One wonders, then, when the brutal sanctions against Israel will commence, given it currently boasts a cache of 400 nuclear warheads. The Israeli nuclear arsenal is, like almost everything in Israel’s possession, illegal according to international law. Israel is not a party to the NPT and never has been—they are not subject to any oversight whatsoever. Moreover, by invading its neighbors every couple years, Israel has proven itself to be what Middle East scholar Norman Finkelstein called a “lunatic state.” If there is a country in the Middle East that poses an existential threat to the entire region, it’s demonstrably Israel. Iran, which has never started a war, doesn’t factor into the equation.
Like most of the world, Assad has never subscribed to the spurious notion that Iran represents the gravest threat to world peace. He also refuses to recognize Israel as the rightful owner of the Golan Heights (here again his position is shared by most of the world, including the UN Security Council, which maintains that the Golan Heights is illegally occupied by Israel). He supports Hezbollah—classified by the U.S. and a few of its allies as a terrorist organization—because he views the group as a useful ally against the wayward Israeli government, which refuses to relinquish the annexed territory. Hence accusations, from the U.S. and a few of its allies, that Assad “sponsors terrorism.”
In reality Assad is and always has been committed to cooperating with America’s so-called War on Terror. In their groundbreaking book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, geopolitical experts John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt write that “the Syrian government had provided the United States with important intelligence about al-Qaeda since 9/11, and it had also warned Washington about a planned terrorist attack in the Gulf. Moreover, Syria gave CIA interrogators access to Mohammed Zammar, the alleged recruiter of some of the 9/11 hijackers.”
The same cannot be said of certain allies of the U.S., most notably Turkey, currently run by a megalomaniac bent on restoring the Ottoman Empire. Turkey has played a critical role in escalating the Syrian calamity, and there is ample evidence to suggest that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long been supporting jihadists—including ISIS—in their holy war against the Assad regime. Naturally, this information seldom makes its way into the mainstream American press, and if it does nobody cares. Turkey is a NATO member state and thus an official ally of the U.S. Therefore, we are obliged to look the other way while Erdogan arms and bankrolls people who take their ideological cues from Osama bin Laden. (Now if Russia or Iran were caught arming jihadists in Syria…)
But then Washington criticizing Ankara for supporting Syrian terrorists would be like MSNBC accusing Fox News of confirmation bias. After all, it is common knowledge that the Obama administration helped funnel weapons and ammunition to rebel factions in Syria, most of which, in spite of what our dear leaders insist, have always been comprised of radical Islamists. This backstairs enterprise was carried out in concert with Turkey and a few other Sunni states. The command center for the operation? Benghazi, which had just been “liberated” from yet another Hitler, Muammar Gaddafi.
In his recent book, The Killing of Osama bin Laden, veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh details what was known as “the rat line”—a covert passageway used to smuggle weapons and personnel into Syria: