[Peace-discuss] Official Washington’s Syrian ‘Fantasy’

Sat Oct 4 07:17:42 EDT 2014

  Official Washington’s Syrian ‘Fantasy’

Left: A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft flies over northern 
Iraq after conducting airstrikes in Syria, September 23, 2014. Right: 
President Obama at the UN Climate Summit, September 23, 2014. (Photo: 
Senior Airman Matthew Bruch / U.S. Air Force, John Gillespie / United 
Nations)
Educate! <http://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/> ISIS 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/isis/>, militarism 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/militarism/>, Syria 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/syria/>, US 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/us/>, War 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/war/>
By Robert Parry, www.consortiumnews.com 
<http://consortiumnews.com/2014/10/01/official-washingtons-syrian-fantasy/>
October 3rd, 2014
   Powered by Translate <https://translate.google.com>
1 <http://www.popularresistance.org/official-washingtons-syrian-fantasy/#>
Print Friendly 
<http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popularresistance.org%2Fofficial-washingtons-syrian-fantasy%2F>

/Left: A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft flies over northern 
Iraq after conducting airstrikes in Syria, September 23, 2014. Right: 
President Obama at the UN Climate Summit, September 23, 2014. (Photo: 
Senior Airman Matthew Bruch / U.S. Air Force, John Gillespie / United 
Nations)/

What does it say when the capital of the world’s most powerful nation 
anchors a major decision about war in what every thinking person 
acknowledges is a “fantasy” – even the principal policymaker and a top 
advocate for foreign interventions?

It might suggest that the U.S. government has completely lost its 
bearings or that political opportunism now so overwhelms rationality 
that shortsighted expediency determines life-or-death military 
strategies. Either way, it is hard to see how the current U.S. policy 
toward Iraq, Syria and the larger Middle East can serve American 
national interests or translate into anything but more misery for the 
people of the region.

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. (Photo credit: Aude) 
<http://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/davidignatius.jpg>

Official Washington’s most treasured “fantasy” today is the notion that 
a viable “moderate opposition” exists in Syria or could somehow be 
created. That wish-upon-a-star belief was the centerpiece of 
congressional action last month on a $500 million plan by President 
Barack Obama to train and arm these “moderate” rebels to combat Islamic 
State terrorists who have been plundering large swaths of Syria and Iraq 
— and also take on the Syrian army.

Yet, as recently as August, President Barack Obama publicly declared 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/opinion/president-obama-thomas-l-friedman-iraq-and-world-affairs.html> 
that trust in these “moderates” was a “fantasy” that was “never in the 
cards” as a workable strategy. Then, on Wednesday, David Ignatius, 
national security columnist for the neoconservative Washington Post and 
a prominent booster of U.S. interventionism, reported 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-unifying-the-moderate-opposition-is-the-biggest-challenge-in-syria/2014/09/30/b93426f0-48c7-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html> 
from a rebel staging area in Reyhanli, Turkey, the same reality in 
nearly the same language.

“The problem is that the ‘moderate opposition’ that the United States is 
backing is still largely a fantasy,” Ignatius wrote, noting that the 
greatest challenge would be to coordinate “the ragtag brigades of the 
Free Syrian Army into a coherent force that can fill the vacuum once the 
extremists are driven out.”

Ignatius quoted Syrian rebel commander Hamza al-Shamali, a top recipient 
of American support including anti-tank missiles, as saying, “At some 
point, the Syrian street lost trust in the Free Syrian Army,” the 
U.S.-backed rebel force that was the armed wing of the supposedly 
“moderate opposition” to President Bashar al-Assad. Ignatius added:

“Shamali explains that many rebel commanders aren’t disciplined, their 
fighters aren’t well-trained and the loose umbrella organization of the 
FSA lacks command and control. The extremists of the Islamic State and 
Jabhat al-Nusra have filled the vacuum. Now, he says, ‘the question 
every Syrian has for the opposition is: Are you going to bring chaos or 
order?’”

According to Ignatius, Shamali said he rejected a proposal to merge the 
FSA’s disparate brigades because “we refuse to repeat failed 
experiments.” He argued that an entirely new “Syrian national army” 
would be needed to fight both the Islamist radicals and Assad’s military.

But even the sympathetic Ignatius recognized that “the FSA’s biggest 
problem has been internecine feuding. Over the past two years, I’ve 
interviewed various people who tried to become leaders, such as: 
Abdul-Jabbar Akaidi, Salim Idriss and Jamal Maarouf. They all talked 
about unifying the opposition but none succeeded.

“An Arab intelligence source explains: ‘Until now, the FSA is a kind of 
mafia. … People inside Syria are tired of this mafia. There is no 
structure. It’s nothing.’ And this from one of the people who have 
struggled the past three years to organize the resistance.”

In other words, the “moderate” rebels – to the degree that they do exist 
– are viewed by many Syrians as part of the problem, not part of any 
solution.

*Favoring Al-Qaeda *

Another flaw in Obama’s strategy is that the Syrian “moderates” are much 
more opposed to Assad’s harsh but secular regime than they are to the 
Sunni jihadists who have emerged as the most effective fighting force 
against him.

“If U.S. airstrikes and other support are seen to be hitting Muslim 
fighters only, and strengthening the despised Assad, this strategy for 
creating a ‘moderate opposition’ will likely fail,” Ignatius concluded.

That complaint has given new hope to Washington’s influential 
neoconservatives that they can ultimately redirect Obama’s intervention 
in Syria from bombing the Islamic State terrorists to a full-scale 
“regime change” war against Assad, much like the neocons helped convince 
President George W. Bush to invade Iraq in 2003. [See 
Consortiumnews.com’s “Neocons’ Noses Into the Syrian Tent. 
<http://consortiumnews.com/2014/09/29/neocons-noses-into-the-syrian-tent/>”]

In this regard, Obama appears to be the proverbial deer in the 
headlights. He’s afraid of being called “weak” if he doesn’t go after 
the Islamic State for its hyper-violent attacks inside Iraq and its 
brutal executions of American hostages in Syria. Yet, Obama’s also can’t 
escape his earlier tough talk that “Assad must go.”

Obama’s core contradiction has been that by providing “covert” 
assistance to Syrian rebels, he has indirectly strengthened the Sunni 
extremists who have seized the Free Syrian Army’s weapons depots and won 
converts from the “moderate” rebels, some of whom were trained, armed 
and financed by the CIA. Meanwhile, other U.S. allies, including Saudi 
Arabia and Turkey, have been helping more extreme Syrian rebels, 
including al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front.

A year ago, many of the “moderate” rebels publicly repudiated the Syrian 
political front 
<http://consortiumnews.com/2013/09/26/syrian-rebels-embrace-al-qaeda/> 
that the Obama administration had put together and instead endorsed 
al-Nusra. According to one source with access to Western intelligence 
information, some “moderate” rebels – recruited from Muslim communities 
in Great Britain and other Western countries – have now taken their 
military skills (and passports) to the Islamic State.

Yet, instead of acknowledging that this strategy of relying on an 
unreliable “moderate opposition” is indeed a “fantasy,” President Obama 
and a majority in Congress have chosen to pursue this geopolitical 
unicorn with another $500 million and much political chest-thumping.

*An Alternative Approach*

At this late stage, the only practical strategy would be to press the 
non-extremist Sunni opposition to work out some form of unity government 
with Assad who retains strong support among Syria’s Alawite, Shiite and 
Christian minorities. By enlisting Russia and Iran, Obama might be able 
to secure concessions from Assad, including the possibility of a gradual 
transition to a post-Assad era.

With such a political settlement in hand, the focus could then be on 
defeating the Islamic State and al-Qaeda’s Nusra affiliate and restoring 
some order to Syria. But the problem is that Official Washington’s 
neocons and their “liberal interventionist” allies are so fixated on 
“regime change” in Syria and are so hostile to Russia and Iran that any 
pragmatic strategy is effectively ruled out.

Though Obama may be a closet “realist” who would favor such a compromise 
approach, he has consistently lacked the political courage or the 
geopolitical foresight to impose this kind of solution on the 
powers-that-be in Washington. Any suggestion of collaboration with 
Russia and Iran or acquiescence to continued rule by Assad would touch 
off a firestorm of outrage in Congress and the mainstream U.S. media.

So, Obama instead has charted a course into what he knows to be a 
fantasyland, a costly pursuit of the chimerical Syrian “moderates” who – 
once located – are supposed to defeat both the Sunni extremists and the 
army of the secularist Assad. This journey is not simply a march of 
folly but a meandering into illusion.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20141004/dcb49db8/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Screen-Shot-2014-10-02-at-8.37.38-AM.png
Type: image/png
Size: 175117 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20141004/dcb49db8/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: google_logo_41.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2357 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20141004/dcb49db8/attachment-0003.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: pf-button.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 1848 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20141004/dcb49db8/attachment-0001.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: davidignatius-267x300.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 19806 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20141004/dcb49db8/attachment-0001.jpg>