There Has to Be an Escape from Daily Nightmare of US Escalating Syria War

Rasa - America may be sinking ever deeper into the Syrian crisis, but if you think the malevolence of this period began with President Donald Trump, think again.

News ID: 436842

Date: 13 March 2018 - 23:48

RNA - “This crusade,” said former President George W. Bush just days after the 9/11 attacks, “this war on terrorism…” That invocation from hell set the stage for so much of the horror to follow in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. America’s bogus Global War on Terror wreaked comparable havoc in a paltry 17 years, leading to almost unimaginable mayhem in the Muslim world and a moral collapse in the Western hemisphere personified by President Trump.

It was in 2011 that the US government, in conjunction with junior partners Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel, decided to bring down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, even though overthrowing another country’s government amounts to a blatant violation of International Law and the UN Charter.

It was also in 2012 that former President Barack Obama authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to work with America’s allies in providing support to Qaeda-allied ‘moderate’ rebel forces composed of disaffected Syrians and ISIL fighters. The regime changers evidently expected President Assad to fall quickly, as had occurred with the governments of Tunisia and Egypt in the early months of the Arab uprising. But Syria was different.

The Syrian government had backing among of not only Shiites and Sunnis but also Christians and other minorities who feared a repressive ISIL medieval caliphate. The regime changers were then countered by Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah, and when the terrorist groups joined forces to attack Europe and American interests, the US had no choice but to divert some resources to targeting its own terror proxies, rather than to toppling the Syrian government, at least on the surface if not for real.

The US is now desperate to unite its deeply and chronically divided terror proxies in order to prolong the war but the odds are once again against them. As is, the regime-change war is at a stalemate, the bloodshed continues, and faced with an alarming risk of a renewed escalation of fighting, the United Nations Security Council has no choice but to step in to end the bloodshed.

No doubt, much of the carnage that has ravaged during the past seven years has been due to the actions of the US and its Arab partners. America’s official narrative has sought to conceal the scale and calamitous consequences of their useless efforts – in defiance of International Law and the UN Charter – but they just can’t overthrow the Syrian government.

While the US vehemently complains about Russian and Iranian influence in Syria - which are there at the request of the Syrian government, America and its allies have repeatedly violated Syrian sovereignty. The US government mischaracterizes the war as a civil war among Syrians, rather than a proxy war involving the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

According to Fars News Agancy, into the argument, President Trump claims Washington has ended its support for the terrorist groups. In practice, though, the regime change campaign continues, officially aimed more at occupying and dividing Syria all while arming the terror proxies. As part of America’s continued war-making, the Pentagon regime has even ordered US forces to build new bases to occupy Syria forever.

This indeed is a new round of escalation. After all, the US-led coalition has launched airstrikes that have killed pro-Syrian government troops and an unknown number of Russian fighters. In the prevailing environment it is hard to believe the words uttered by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis that “obviously, we are not getting engaged in the Syrian war.” More despicable, Israel has also been attacking pro-government forces’ positions in Syria.

Put another way, the US-led regime changers should face reality and accept that their campaign to regime change Syria has failed. Their new escalation policy will equally go nowhere. Now is the time for the UN Security Council to step in with practical measures to stop the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. There is no other way to help the long-suffering people of Syria to escape from the daily nightmare of US destroying their beloved country.

The Security Council needs to make it clear to the US and its Arab allies that they cannot call the shots in post-ISIL Syria. It is up to the people to choose who rules their country, and with which allies. It’s long past time for a far more realistic approach, in which the Security Council helps Iran, Russia and Turkey to complete their pragmatic ceasefire and de-escalation zone agreements that are only designed to end the bloodshed and allow the Syrian people to live a normal life.

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