RNA - With tanking approval ratings, a failed attempt at producing healthcare legislation, and a swirling investigation into possible collusion with Russia, President Donald Trump's decision to order attack on Syria should come as surprise to no one. It was against this backdrop and others that on Friday he took unilateral and illegal military action against the Syrian government in alleged retaliation for a chemical weapons attack against civilians in Idlib - though no proof was presented to confirm fake reports that President Bashar al-Assad had ordered the deadly strike.
Trump, therefore, has to explain to the international civil society exactly what this military escalation is intended to achieve, and how it fits into the broader goal of a political solution, which is the only way Syria's devastating war ends. Else, the conclusion will have to be this:
1- It is easier to get into a war than get out of one. If there's anything War Party US should have learned from the illegal wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen in which the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians have been lost and trillions of dollars spent, it is this: Years of direct US military intervention, support for extremist armed groups, and weapons shipments to anti-government Qaeda-allied rebels have only added fuel to the fire, put Syrian civilians in greater danger, and destabilized the entire planet without giving Washington the upper hand in the region.
2- The United Nations and the world community should act now to stop the Trump White House and the mere extras from making the crisis in Syria even worse. They must take back their legal responsibility at the Security Council to decide when and if the US could actually go to war with Syria. Until then, they should oppose any further military action.
3- The US attack underscores the need for diplomatic solutions which engage all stakeholders who believe in peace - and the US doesn't seem to be interested in this path. The only path toward shared security requires robust diplomacy, urgent humanitarian aid, and a comprehensive strategy to bring the crisis to an end through a political solution -- not escalating war, and certainly not supporting various terrorist groups by targeting Syrian airbases.
4- That the Friday bombing was for domestic consumption is beyond dispute. The idea was domestic opponents who base their resistance to Trump entirely on the premise that he is anti-American because he is too close to Russia, and he is anti-Muslim because he bans Muslims and immigrants. He bombs, drones and kills, but he does it to appease the Military-Industrial Complex, the White Supremacists, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. He does not do it to protect the Americans. Mind you, a jump in oil prices as a result of the bombing will also make the oil sheiks happy.
5- All criticism from the Democratic leadership has been framed in terms of procedure, focused on the fact that Trump didn’t get Congressional approval. This clearly means when it comes to the war on Syria, the Democratic leadership and the Republican leadership are one. The rest is just for show.
Finally, the US military escalation against Syria will not help the victims of terrorism or the heinous chemical attacks, for that matter. It will not bring the devastating war to a quicker end, and certainly, it will not defeat ISIL or end terrorism either. It will create more terrorists and lead to a wider conflict in the region. After all, those who are happy with this new escalation, this mission creep, are in fact just the ISIL and Qaeda-allied militants as well as their patrons, mainly Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel, who, along with Washington, are seeking hard to create a safe zone (no-fly zone) in Northern Syria for their terror proxies.
Just like the United States, they also have different military objectives in Syria. Unlike Iran and Russia which want to avoid partition, the US-led coalition of regime changers seek to break up Syria into sectarian bits and contain Iran, Russia, and the resistance. By supporting the Qaeda-allied “moderates”, they refuse to remove a major obstacle to peace and security. Either way, the global criminal syndicate has no intention to allow a transition to a peaceful process to be achieved in the entire territory of Syria.
As is, their terror proxies have killed over 400,000 people in the conflict, which has displaced over half of the Arab country’s pre-war population of about 23 million. Since Syrian refugees have flooded into Europe, it has become clear that European security is linked to Syrian and Middle East stability as well. Iran and Russia are in the know. They believe that controlling Syria is key to controlling the security situation and future of the region. That says why they will never have a meeting of the minds about the “moderate” goons that the US and its coalition support and they target.
Which brings us to this conclusion: The US military attacks Syrian forces to support terrorism as it has permanent stakes in Syria. It matters not that the US will not cooperate with Iran and Russia to defeat terrorism. The refusal to assist and then to target Syrian forces only confirms the global criminal syndicate’s continued support for terrorist groups who are fighting a proxy war on their behalf. On balance, the United States and its allies are at war with the Syrian government and the Syrian people over Syria. They don’t want peace. They want Syria.
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