A Timeless American Tradition: Trump, Syria, and Giving in to Flinching

Rasa - Sanctions continue to be one of those traditional tools US officials use as a shortcut to thinking. The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.

News ID: 426575

Date: 15 January 2017 - 21:53

RNA - President Obama has declared fresh sanctions against Syria just days before having to give up his crown to Republican President-elect Donald Trump. As previously, we have no reason to assume it is any more substantial than the rubbish to declare the continuation of national emergency against Iran, claiming that despite full commitment to its nuclear deal with the six world powers, the Islamic Republic still poses “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to America.

It is time to do that most difficult thing though: Step back and take a cold, hard look at the White House. What we find is that most US presidents will do more or less anything just to appease Israel and the cult of Military-Industrial Complex. This is commonly done by way of scapegoating, sanctions, arms race and regime-change wars. The Syrian case is extreme, but it must not be seen in isolation.

The State Department claims the fresh sanctions were imposed “in response to the use of chemical weapons” by the Syrian government without pointing to a specific case or evidence. This is while UN-affiliated international anti-chemical agencies have found no conclusive proof of any government role in chemical attacks within Syria. Quite the contrary, they say foreign-backed militants have used poisonous gases against Syrian forces and civilians since they began their terror campaign.

Into the argument, it is true that Republicans and Democrats are a divided people in many respects. But let’s not make too much of this, for they display a striking unity in their tendency to blame Iran, Russia and Syria for their difficulties, shortcomings and failures in Middle East. It is that easy to extend their current outburst of frustration to President-elect Trump as well. After all, almost everyone gives in to flinching from failures that are all their own. Sooner or later, he will also assert that Iran, Syria and Russia “strike at the very foundation of our republic,” even going for more “fresh sanctions.”

We are on notice now: Just like Noble Peace Prize winner Obama, the so-called “anti-establishment” president-elect will fail to hold his ground and prevail in this ferocious fight. Elements within the Pentagon, the CIA, the national-security apparatus, the NATO bureaucracy, and the Military-Industrial Complex will go to any lengths to prevent whatever kind of détente Trump may have in mind. The War Party needs a hostile world and the new president will live in one until the American people and the international civil society insist otherwise.

As is, the misuse of War on Terror for political purposes and global gains has been evident at least since Washington and the mere extras imposed the regime-change war on Syria six years ago. While the crisis has worsened, as the US claim of chemical attacks and the new sanctions made clear, the perversion of international law, clean intelligence and official UN reports typically occurs after it is sent to the White House.

The State Department claims the new sanctions target "the assets of WMD proliferators and their supporters in an effort to curb the spread of WMD and protect the US financial system from being exploited by proliferators.” This is an empty nicety and there are immediate, near-term conclusions on this daunting lesson:

The tasks of dealing with Iran, Syria and Russia are too big for the next president charged with leading the US to manage. By invading Syria, war-party Washington made a clear choice to destroy its diplomatic position and global hegemony. Refusing to accept accountability, end sanctions, and meet the obligations to end the war amounts to making this choice.

We will be watching this choice being made once again when Trump goes to Washington. People like Obama ran the United States into the ground after invading Syria and leveling the guns at Iran and Russia. Trump should read the clock on history’s time. Close he is once again to this self-defeating trope and timeless tradition.

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