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

Fri Jul 7 00:36:22 UTC 2017

Here's what's on CNN right now:

"Adam Kinzinger [R-IL]: 'Russia only responds to brick walls'"

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

On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 4:58 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> The CIA wants to “cooperate with the Russians in Syria” - rather like
> Germany wanted to “cooperate with the Russians” in Poland in 1939.
>
>
> On Jul 6, 2017, at 4:25 PM, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
> wrote:
>
> 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 <(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
>
> ===
>
> David Ignatius: Working with Russia might be the best path to peace in
> Syria
> 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
>
> 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/201
>>> 7/07/04/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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