American Occupiers Are Looting Syria While They Still Can

Rasa - The Americans know an international backlash is coming, and they are making the most of their illegal occupation in Syria while they still can.

News ID: 435140

Date: 04 December 2017 - 23:35

RNA - Despite the fact that Iran has announced the terrorist group of ISIL has been effectively defeated in Syria, US Defense Secretary James Mattis says he believes the US focus in the nation needs to reflect the changing situation on the ground, and that is going to include the focus of arming and training programs for proxies like separatist Kurds.

While he offers no specific details on timing, Mattis still claims this change would include halting US arms shipments for the separatist Kurdish YPG, saying the US “obviously doesn’t need that if they aren’t launching offensives.” Rather, Mattis says the focus is on holding territory, and that the US needs to start supporting police and local forces in former ISIL territory captured by its Kurdish proxies.

Ending direct armament of the YPG could potentially placate Turkey, though, which has been complaining for years about the US support for the Kurds. It is noteworthy, however, that Mattis has never suggested the US would actively try to disarm the YPG. That will never happen.

It is surely an act of international law violations by a war party that’s behind the ongoing destruction and chaos in Syria, doesn’t think it will enjoy control of post-ISIL Syrian government in the immediate future, and is grabbing whatever land and benefits it can for its proxies while building up illegal military bases and damaging the prospects for peace and a unified Syria in the future.

The conventional wisdom holds that Americans pursue a maximalist approach to the occupation of the country because they face an Arab allies’ revolt if they don’t deliver something big after the failed regime-change campaign turned into a debacle, and because they are insulated to a degree from the wrath of the Syrian people for turning their country into a failed state.

This is true. As a result of ISIL’s defeat, the regime changers might no longer be able to hold on to control of parts of the Syrian territory forever. But those factors alone don’t explain their apparent contempt for public opinion. Looking at the bigger picture suggests that they have every intention to stay and occupy the country permanently. They know that the Syrian armed forces have become stronger than ever, better prepared for any future conflict with any foreign threat.

They understand that their core support – armed Arab proxy forces who identify as Al-Qaeda offshoots - are in rapid decline too. This is what animates their relentless efforts to suppress the legitimate demands by the Syrian government at the United Nations to withdraw their occupying troops, and it explains their rush to pass any anti-Syria resolution or peace deal at the Security Council that’s globally unpopular.

The Americans understand that they are still in Syria despite losing the regime-change war. They get that Donald Trump’s troop surge will go nowhere for this stage in his presidency, and that today’s intense international condemnation makes it unlikely that they will ever enjoy anything even approaching some kind of legitimacy, let alone international support for their occupation regime. They know that Trump is going to lead them into yet another failed chapter in Washington’s Syria gambit. And of course they know that The Hague’s investigation into American war crimes and slaughter of innocent civilians is looming over all of this.

The American occupiers know an international backlash is coming, and they are making the most of the chaos they create while they still can to loot Syria. They don’t care about public perception either, if it is an obstacle to enacting their long-term regional goals to preserve the status quo and protect Israel.

It’s difficult to overstate how destructive the US occupation of post-war Syria will be over the long term, and impossible to overstate the degree to which their shambolic practices will be an affront to the most basic norms of international law and democratic governance.

That’s only the beginning. The US occupying regime would have potent ripple effects throughout the volatile region. And it’s not just occupation - if this becomes open-ended, and if war-party Washington blithely dismisses this reality - it is going to produce even more chaos and bloodshed, not just in Syria but across the region and beyond. The process and product are inseparable: It is a bad policy because it is also going to trigger significant international opposition.

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