[Peace-discuss] Trump: Seek Peace with Russia in Syria - As Advocated by David Ignatius

Thu Jul 6 21:25:18 UTC 2017

Here's what the CIA agent at the Washington Post had to say for himself.

===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1

To Stop Cholera & Famine, Stop Refueling Saudi Warplanes Bombing Yemen
https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/to-stop-cholera-famine?r_by=1135580

===

David Ignatius: Working with Russia might be the best path to peace in Syria
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/
working-with-russia-might-be-the-best-path-to-peace-in-
syria/2017/07/04/c2589c9e-6029-11e7-a4f7-af34fc1d9d39_story.html

By David Ignatius Opinion writer July 4 at 7:26 PM

TABQA, Syria

When Donald Trump meets
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/06/29/mcmaster-trump-to-meet-with-putin-at-the-g-20-summit/?utm_term=.f118e4694702>
Vladimir
Putin this Friday in Hamburg, the two presidents should have in the back of
their minds the insignia worn by the Syrian Democratic Forces militia,
which is the United States’ main ally here. The patch shows a map of Syria
bisected
<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Flag_of_Syrian_Democratic_Forces.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Syrian_Democratic_Forces.svg.png>
by
the sharp blue line of the Euphrates River.

The Euphrates marks the informal “deconfliction” line between the
Russian-backed Syrian regime west of the river, and the U.S.-backed and
Kurdish-led SDF to the east. In the past several weeks, the two powers
negotiated a useful adjustment of the line — creating a roughly 80-mile arc
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/as-the-islamic-state-ees-syria-one-city-offers-a-preview-of-the-countrys-future/2017/06/30/da4c7b4e-5dc3-11e7-9fc6-c7ef4bc58d13_story.html?utm_term=.6e4be37786f6>
that
stretches south, from near this battlefront city on Lake Assad, to a town
called Karama on the Euphrates.

U.S.-Russian agreement on this buffer zone is a promising sign. It allows,
in effect, for the United States and its allies to clear the Islamic
State’s capital, Raqqa, while Russia and the Syrian regime take the city of
Deir al-Zour, to the southeast. The line keeps the combatants focused on
the Islamic State, rather than sparring with each other.

What Trump and Putin should discuss at the Group of 20 summit is whether
this recent agreement on the separation line is a model for wider
U.S.-Russian cooperation in Syria. This broader effort would seek to defeat
the Islamic State; stabilize a battered, fragmented Syria; and, eventually,
discuss a political future. But is it practical?

Russian-American cooperation on Syria faces a huge obstacle right now. It
would legitimize a Russian regime that invaded Ukraine and meddled in U.S.
and European elections, in addition to its intervention in Syria. Putin’s
very name is toxic in Congress and the U.S. media these days, and Trump is
blasted for even considering compromise.

Against these negatives, there’s only one positive argument: Working with
Russia may be the only way to reduce the level of violence in Syria and to
create a foundation for a calmer, more decentralized nation that can
eventually recover from its tragic war.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis are said
to favor exploring options with Russia. “We see the potential for it,” a
senior State Department official said Tuesday. “So far Russia is working in
earnest with us on the effort.”

But there’s a contrary view among some hawkish National Security Council
staffers and members of Congress. They argue that working with Russia would
empower its allies, Iran and the Syrian regime of President Bashar
al-Assad, and give a green light for their future role in Syria.

An extreme version of this view argues that the United States should mount
a military campaign to block Iran and its Shiite militia allies in Iraq and
Syria from obtaining a corridor across southeast Syria that would link Iran
to Lebanon. This militant stance ignores two practical points: Iran already
has such a corridor, but it doesn’t stop the United States or Israel from
attacking dangerous arms shipments; and an assault on Shiite militias might
draw the United States into a long, costly war that could spread across the
Middle East.

It’s worth examining the process that established the Euphrates arc of
deconfliction, because it shows how different Russia’s public and private
actions have been. A Russian official initially suggested the Euphrates
boundary about 18 months ago, according to a U.S. official. But it wasn’t
formalized, so the two countries had been operating on an ad hoc basis.

This rough deconfliction system worked at three levels. There was daily
phone consultation between colonels, supplemented by occasional contacts at
the one-star level between the U.S. headquarters in Baghdad and Russian
headquarters near Tartus, Syria. Big issues went to the U.S. commander, Lt.
Gen. Stephen Townsend, and his Russian counterpart, Col. Gen. Sergei
Surovikin.

A crisis arose last month when several Syrian tanks pushed north of what
U.S. commanders believed was the informal line of separation. When this
small Syrian force was backed by a Syrian Su-22 fighter jet, the United
States shot down
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/06/18/a-u-s-aircraft-has-shot-down-a-syrian-government-jet-over-northern-syria-pentagon-says/?utm_term=.443c0e0ff435>
the
plane. The Russians announced that they were suspending contacts, and “for
a few hours, it looked pretty hairy,” recalls one U.S. official. But the
Russians quietly resumed talking, and by late June, the two sides had
agreed on the formal arc, with precisely delineated coordinates.

Similar U.S.-Russian cooperation has been calming tensions the past few
weeks in southwest Syria. Those talks have been backed by Israel and
Jordan, which border the zone. That, too, is a potential model for how
de-escalation can work.

Cooperating with the Russians in Syria would be distasteful, given their
past actions. But spurning them would keep this volatile country at the
flash point and almost certainly make things worse rather than better for
all sides.
===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1 <%28202%29%20448-2898>

To Stop Cholera & Famine, Stop Refueling Saudi Warplanes Bombing Yemen
https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/to-stop-cholera-famine?r_by=1135580

On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 3:58 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> 'Talking to Russia’ is going on all along, from military contacts in the
> Mideast to the G-20.
>
> The “climate against talking to Russia" is a propaganda construct of the
> Clinton campaign and its allies in the US political establishment.
>
> John Pilger wrote accurately before the election, “The CIA has demanded
> Trump is not elected. Pentagon generals have demanded he is not elected.
> The pro-war New York Times - taking a breather from its relentless low-rent
> Putin smears - demands that he is not elected. Something is up. These
> tribunes of 'perpetual war' are terrified that the multi-billion-dollar
> business of war by which the United States maintains its dominance will be
> undermined if Trump does a deal with Putin, then with China’s Xi Jinping.
> Their panic at the possibility of the world’s great power talking peace –
> however unlikely – would be the blackest farce were the issues not so
> dire.”
>
> The US strategy has long been control of Mideast energy flows by
> establishing biddable governments, by hook or crook, throughout the region.
>
> Control, not just access, is the goal - and the ultimate target is China.
> (The Pentagon phrase is “offshore control” - of China’s econmy, since it
> imports most of its energy resources.)
>
> The secular government of Syria was recalcitrant, so the Obama
> administration sent jihadists (the US invented jihadism, in Brzezinski’s
> time) to overthrow it.
>
> That was frustrated by Russian support, so the US is falling back on a
> plan to Balkanize the region, to limit Damascus’ (and Teheran’s) influence.
>
> Ignatius is a notorious CIA asset, practicing ’triangulation’ with the
> ‘hawk’s' position’ - to advance US Mideast imperialism effectively.
>
> —CGE
>
>
> On Jul 6, 2017, at 2:57 PM, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
> wrote:
>
> Let a hundred flowers bloom.
>
> The general climate against talking to Russia is so radioactive that we
> tried to introduce the topic with a gateway drug.
>
>
>
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1 <(202)%20448-2898>
>
> To Stop Cholera & Famine, Stop Refueling Saudi Warplanes Bombing Yemen
> https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/to-stop-cholera-famine?r_by=1135580
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 2:47 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <
> peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
>> This is just the US plan for the Balkanization of Syria (and the entire
>> Mideast).
>>
>> Russia is there legally; the US isn’t. And Ignatius has long been a
>> propagandist for the CIA.
>>
>> Stop the killing by insisting on the withdrawal of US troops (and
>> weapons) from Syria and all of MENA.
>>
>> —C. G. Estabrook
>>
>>
>> > On Jul 6, 2017, at 2:00 PM, Just Foreign Policy <
>> info at justforeignpolicy.org> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > Dear C. G.,
>> >
>> >
>> > Urge Trump & Congress to seek a peace deal with Russia in Syria.
>> >
>> > Take Action.
>> >
>> > There is an apparent split in the foreign policy establishment over
>> diplomacy with Russia to resolve the war in Syria. We want to help the
>> pro-diplomacy faction of the establishment defeat the anti-diplomacy
>> faction of the establishment so we can have less war. Washington Post
>> columnist David Ignatius is a "liberal insider," someone considered "close
>> to the U.S. foreign policy establishment" and he is now advocating for
>> diplomacy with Russia, an “official U.S. adversary”, as the “best path to
>> peace in Syria".
>> >
>> > Urge President Trump & Congress to back David Ignatius' call to work
>> with Russia for peace in Syria by signing our petition at MoveOn.
>> >
>> > As David Ignatius reported in the Washington Post, the United States
>> and Russia successfully negotiated agreement on a buffer zone and
>> "deconfliction line" in Syria. The agreement allows the United States and
>> its allies to clear the Islamic State’s capital, Raqqa, while Russia and
>> the Syrian government take the city of Deir al-Zour. The agreement on the
>> line keeps the combatants focused on fighting the Islamic State, rather
>> than fighting each other. [1]
>> >
>> > Ignatius says the U.S. and Russia should discuss whether this agreement
>> is a model for wider U.S.-Russian cooperation in Syria to defeat the
>> Islamic State, stabilize Syria, and discuss a political future. Working
>> with Russia, Ignatius says, may be the only way to reduce the violence in
>> Syria and create a foundation for a more decentralized nation that can
>> recover from its tragic war. Secretary of State Tillerson and Defense
>> Secretary Mattis favor exploring options with Russia, Ignatius notes. "We
>> see the potential for it," a senior State Department official said. "So far
>> Russia is working in earnest with us on the effort."
>> >
>> > Some "hawks" in the National Security Council and Congress don't want
>> to work with Russia, even if that is the only way to reduce the violence in
>> Syria. But the likely alternative to working with Russia in Syria is more
>> violence and more casualties for U.S. troops. A recent academic study
>> attributed Donald Trump's victory in November to communities hit hardest by
>> military casualties and angry about being ignored. [2]
>> >
>> > Urge President Trump & Congress to support a wider agreement with
>> Russia on Syria to reduce violence & protect U.S. troops by signing and
>> sharing our petition.
>> >
>> > Thanks for all you do to help make U.S. foreign policy more just,
>> >
>> > Robert Naiman, Avram Reisman, and Sarah Burns
>> > Just Foreign Policy
>> >
>> > If you think our work is important, support us with a $17 donation.
>> > http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate
>> >
>> > References:
>> > 1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/work
>> ing-with-russia-might-be-the-best-path-to-peace-in-syria/
>> 2017/07/04/c2589c9e-6029-11e7-a4f7-af34fc1d9d39_story.html
>> > 2. http://reason.com/blog/2017/07/03/did-endless-war-cost-hilla
>> ry-clinton-the
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > © 2016 Just Foreign Policy
>> >
>> > Click here to unsubscribe
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
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>
>
>
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