A Washington foreign-policy apparatchik who oversaw the bipartisan Syria Study Group has outlined a sadistic strategy for preventing reconstruction of the “rubble,” Ben Norton reports.
By Ben Norton
The Grayzone
Despite President Donald Trump’s order of a partial withdrawal of troops from Syria, the United States’ regime-change war against the country continues in broad daylight.
At a U.S. -funded think tank at the forefront of shaping Washington’s interventionist designs, an American official succinctly laid out the continued-regime change strategy.
Dana Stroul, a longtime U.S. diplomat who oversaw a congressionally mandated study of Syria, outlined the four-pronged plan for what she called the “new phase” of the war:
- U.S. military occupation of Syria’s “resource-rich” “economic powerhouse”;
- “Diplomatic isolation” of the Syrian government;
- Economic sanctions against Damascus and its allies; and
- “Preventing reconstruction aid and technical expertise from going back into Syria.”
It is beyond debate that this approach will lead to massive suffering, privation and even the deaths of masses of Syrians. But when Stroul presented it before a panel, the potential impact on civilians was not even mentioned once.
This disturbing plan was articulated on Oct. 31 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a militaristic think tank funded by the U.S. and its allies, along with the arms industry, fossil fuel corporations, and banks. In April, The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal exposed a secret meeting at CSIS where U.S. and Latin American officials mulled a military invasion of Venezuela. Though it was open to the public, the think tank’s recent meeting on Syria was no less militaristic.
Titled “Syria in the Gray Zone,” the panel featured the two co-chairs of the Syria Study Group, a bi-partisan working group appointed by Congress to draft a new U.S. war plan for Syria. One co-chair was chosen to represent the Republican Party, and the other to represent the Democratic Party, but both marched in lockstep agreement in support of continued war on Syria, and their views were virtually indistinguishable.
Both of the congressionally appointed co-chairs also happen to work at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a pro-Israel think tank that grew out of the AIPAC lobbying juggernaut. Their Syria Study Group was a collection of hardline interventionists from pro-Israel and Gulf monarchy-funded D.C. think tanks, as well as Mark Kirk, the former Republican senator who was one of the all-time greatest recipients of funding from Israel lobbying outfits.
Dana Stroul, the Democratic co-chair of the Syria Study Group, is a longtime U.S. government operative who has spent years drafting Middle East policy. While serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she oversaw U.S. weapons sales and foreign aid for the State Department and Washington’s soft-power arm, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
In her speech at CSIS, Stroul sketched out the ongoing regime-change strategy, summarizing the points made in the Syria Study Group final report in September.
At a US gov-funded think tank, this official who oversaw Congress' Syria Study Group outlines the continued regime-change strategy.
She says the US military "owned" 1/3rd of Syrian territory, including its oil/wheat-rich region. And the US is trying to block reconstruction funds pic.twitter.com/NIEJ9elxhs
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 5, 2019
‘Rest is Rubble’
Dana Stroul reluctantly acknowledged that “there’s limited appetite domestically here” for more U.S. intervention in Syria. But she noted that the American regime-change war is far from over.
Resorting to classically colonial rhetoric, Stroul casually noted that “one-third of Syrian territory was owned via the U.S. military, with its local partner the Syrian Democratic Forces.”
She made it a point to stress that this sovereign Syrian land “owned” by Washington also happened to be “resource-rich,” the “economic powerhouse of Syria, so where the hydrocarbons are… as well as the agricultural powerhouse.”
Neocolonial-style military occupation was to be complemented by a political siege of the Syrian government, Stroul explained.
Calling for the “political and diplomatic isolation of the Assad regime,” Stroul urged the U.S. to continue “holding the line on diplomatic isolation, preventing embassies from going back into Damascus.”
She then advised ramping up of the “economic sanctions architecture.”
Finally, Stroul proposed leveraging reconstruction aid as a tool against the Syrian government.
Noting that U.S. humanitarian aid and “stabilization assistance” for Syria has gone to its ally, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast, Stroul urged the U.S. to keep the rest of the country in ruins until it achieved its goal of regime change.
“The rest of Syria though is rubble,” Stroul stated. “And what the Russians want and what Assad wants is economic reconstruction. And that is something that the United States can basically hold a card on, via the international financial institutions and our cooperation with the Europeans.”
Emphasizing that Washington’s goal has been to block reconstruction by Damascus, Stroul insisted, “We should hold a line on preventing reconstruction aid and technical expertise from going back into Syria.”
‘Conflict Not Over’
Trump’s Syria policy largely mirrors the sadistic strategy outlined by Stroul at the Syrian Study Group.
In October, Trump ordered a partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria, inspiring a chorus of outrage in official Washington. He ultimately left hundreds of soldiers to occupy Syria’s oil and gas-rich region, to starve the Syrian government of funding needed for reconstruction efforts.
“We’re keeping the oil. I’ve always said that – keep the oil,” Trump explained. “We may have to fight for the oil. It’s ok. Maybe somebody else wants the oil, in which case they have a hell of a fight. But there’s massive amounts of oil.”
Trump added, “We should be able to take some also, and what I intend to do, perhaps, is make a deal with an ExxonMobil or one of our great companies to go in there and do it properly.”
At the CSIS panel, Dana Stroul argued that even with the U.S. military presence in flux, “the other forms of leverage remain compelling.”
“If we’re going to hold the line on the diplomatic isolation, on moving forward with the economic sanctions architecture, and holding the line on reconstruction aid, perhaps those things could still be compelling,” she said.
“Because in our view, what our assessment was was that the conflict has not changed; the conflict is not over; it’s entering a new phase,” Stroul added.
The Republican co-chair of the Syria Study Group, Michael Singh, who is also a fellow at the pro-Israel WINEP think tank, echoed Stroul’s argument.
“We still have leverage,” he said. Although Trump’s proposed withdrawal has weakened it.
“I’ve been critical the decision to withdraw; I think it was the wrong decision,” Singh explained. “But I think that case can be overstated. I don’t think that Russia, the Assad regime, Iran, now have sort of an easy path to victory, or even an easy path to consolidating control, whether in northeast Syria or elsewhere.”
Here is video footage of US troops illegally occupying Syrian oil fields.
From November 1: https://t.co/5HWuSaUqQ0
To quote Trump, "We're keeping the oil… We may have to fight for the oil. It’s ok. Maybe somebody else wants the oil, in which case they have a hell of a fight." pic.twitter.com/du46yf9U4b
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 5, 2019
Transcript
A transcript of Stroul’s comments at the CSIS panel follows:
“We argued in our recommendation section that, taken as a whole, even though in the United States, there’s limited appetite domestically here or on the hill to match the level of resources or even diplomatic investment of the Iranians and the Russians in Syria, that the United States still had compelling forms of leverage on the table to shape an outcome that was more conducive and protective of US interests.
And we identified four. So the first one was the one-third of Syrian territory that was owned via the US military, with its local partner the Syrian Democratic Forces. Now this was a light footprint on the US military, only about a thousand troops over the course of the Syria Study Group’s report, and then the tens of thousands of forces, both Kurdish and Arab, under the Syrian Democratic Forces.
And that one-third of Syria is the resource-rich, it’s the economic powerhouse of Syria, so where the hydrocarbons are, which obviously is very much in the public debate here in Washington these days, as well as the agricultural powerhouse.
But we argued that it wasn’t just about this one-third of Syrian territory that the US military and our military presence owned, both to fight ISIS and also as leverage for affecting the the overall political process for the broader Syrian conflict. There were three other areas of leverage.
One is political and diplomatic isolation of the Assad regime… So holding the line on diplomatic isolation, preventing embassies from going back into Damascus.
Two is the economic sanctions architecture. So some of this is part of the maximum-pressure campaign of the Trump administration on Iran, but there’s a whole suite of both executive and congressional sanctions on Syria and Bashar al-Assad, both for human rights abuses in Syria and to the backers of Assad for their activities in support of him in Syria.
And three was reconstruction aid. So the United States remains the overall largest single donor of humanitarian aid to Syrians both inside Syria and refugees outside of Syria. And there was some stabilization assistance in the part of Syria that was liberated from ISIS and controlled via the Syrian Democratic Forces in northern-eastern Syria.
The rest of Syria though is rubble. And what the Russians want and what Assad wants is economic reconstruction. And that is something that the United States can basically hold a card on, via the international financial institutions and our cooperation with the Europeans.
So we argued that absent behavioral changes by the Assad regime, we should hold a line on preventing reconstruction aid and technical expertise from going back into Syria.
So now in the past month it looked like one of the most compelling forms of leverage, which was this US military presence, was taken off the table quite fast. Now … the news suggests that maybe that military presence will stay for some period of time.
And the problem with this is no matter what the US military presence is or isn’t, at this point a lot of the the PR damage is done. So if you’re trying to get allies and partners in Europe or otherwise to work with our US military in completing the fight against ISIS, most countries are going to be unwilling or hesitant to contribute more than they already have, because they can’t plan on the United States. Because this is like the third time that decisions have come out of Washington in a rather unplanned manner about whether or not the US military is staying.
Mike and I have argued recently that the other forms of leverage remain compelling, if resourced effectively and prioritized at the highest levels of the US government.
So if we’re going to hold the line on the diplomatic isolation, on moving forward with the economic sanctions architecture, and holding the line on reconstruction aid, perhaps those things could still be compelling, because in our view, what our assessment was was that the conflict has not changed; the conflict is not over; it’s entering a new phase.”
Ben Norton is a journalist and writer. He is a reporter for The Grayzone, and the producer of the “Moderate Rebels podcast,” which he co-hosts with Max Blumenthal. His website is BenNorton.com, and he tweets at @BenjaminNorton.
This article is from The Grayzone.
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Under O’Bomber and the Queen of Chaos, regime change in Syria was the major US policy goal for the Middle East.
Money and materiel poured in to make this happen, from Turkey, US, Saudi, and Israel, though Wikileaks reveals to us that Hillary knew that SA was financing AQ and ISIS at the time. So eager to get rid of Assad were we that we allowed ISIS to transport stolen oil to Turkish ports and our jihadists to fight under the same command structure as the few “moderates’ who opposed Assad.
We encouraged Israel to act as the jihadists’ Red Cross, treating, as Israel still does, wounded militants in its hospitals. Any enemy of Assad is a friend of Israel, though Syria has kept peace on the Golan Heights for decades and helped the US identify terrorist and helped torture those suspected of terrorism against America.
We supported the Nazis in Ukraine, a nascent AQ in Afghanistan, and Islamic militants in Libya, so what has happened in Syria is a continuation of rather than a deviation from past policies.
This is not complicated. Think WikiLeaks.
Assange gave us the diplomatic cables where Hillary bemoaned that Saudi Arabia supported ISIS and AQ. At the same time, regime change in Syria became the stated goal of the Obama administration in which she was serving.
Thanks to Assange, we know that both sent US money and arms to hire mostly non-Syrian jihadists to overthrow Assad. Israel and Saudi Arabia helped funnel the money, and for a long time, Obama would not bomb ISIS oil trucks headed for Turkish ports, where Erdogan had long taken a bow and a cut of the profits. Then and even now, Israel picks up wounded AQ members and treats them in Israeli hospitals before ferrying them back to the ramparts of terror. Israel repeatedly bombs Syria, a war crime little noticed by WAPO and NYT.
Because regime change in Syria was the paramount objective of 4 major players (SA, Israel, US, and Turkey), there was little action at first taken to stifle the AQ and ISIS ascent, which reached its apex when they controlled 80% of Syria. But, then their imperial designs came crashing down when in came Putin to rescue Assad from the US backed terrorists.
I don’t think I am over reacting when I say that I can’t imagine how anyone living anywhere in the world outside of the USA, and perhaps Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arab States, could read this and not look at America with disgust, contempt and ill will.
A week ago, Assad spoke candidly, and I think quite intelligently and correctly:
“As for Trump…I say that he is the best American President, not because his policies are good, but because he is the most transparent president. All American presidents perpetrate all kinds of political atrocities and all crimes and yet still win the Nobel Prize and project themselves as defenders of human rights and noble and unique American values, or Western values in general. The reality is that they are a group of criminals who represent the interests of American lobbies, i.e. the large oil and arms companies, and others. Trump talks transparently, saying that what we want is oil. This is the reality of American policy, at least since WWII. We want to get rid of such and such a person or we want to offer a service in return for money. This is the reality of American policy. What more do we need than a transparent opponent? That is why the difference is in form only, while the reality is the same.”
The full interview is well worth the search and read.
Well, we moral and ethical citizens of the world need to hold the line on these pigs of war and conquest. Good work continuing to expose the veiled sadism of these bureaucratic central planners of the chessboard of geopolitics. I believe they are of that cohort of natural born predators who, over say the last forty years, have foisted successfully their deformed thinking on gullible citizens of the West: it is that to them, greed and violence are the natural state of human society, and any other views about peace and cooperation in our nature are mere constructs of ‘faiths’, which in reality have no real merit, and are dangerous views. They have lost their minds, and souls already, these neocons. Resist them always.
Poignantly stated and much appreciated.
The blow back for all this imperialist looting is going to be severe. We are sanctioning 39 countries making up 1/3 of humanity. Uncle Sam and his idiot vassals are going to feel the hurt they have inflicted on others for so long. Too bad the US population remains disinterested in what it’s government does outside our borders. They are in for a rude awakening.
They’re essentially spelling out in black and white crimes against international law.
The US and its allies promoted regime change that cost the lives of 400,000 Syrians yet condemn the Assad regime for bad behaviour?
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Is there no level of wickedness the USA will not fall to? Is 8 years of destruction of a country with centuries of history and already huge numbers of dead and expatriated people forced by invasions and conflict to lose everything not enough for the greedy USA? Now they must ensure that the allies of Syria and the Syrians who remain are no allowed even to try to rebuild.
Thank You , Thank You, Thank You, to Norton and Greystone for publishing this report.
RESPECT!
But you best watch your backside more closely!
Great point out by rebut we less informed and those of us looking as if in a foxhole and can only look at what is presented in front of us, shoot em up blinders.
Long gone days when one nation has to send massive armies into a nation to destroy it, asymetrical warfare consist of multiple tactics, from financial to psychiatric warfare.
Religious and nationalism are both used in irrational thought patterns, forming biases that cloud reality.
To find truth one must first get rid of personal bias, let whatever data that is coming from study of events or scientific processes stand on its own merits.
I believe the ‘Rojava Project’ is dead and buried.
Do the Yankees/Zionists really think they can hang on in western Syria, stealing another country’s sovereign wealth, while surrounded by hostile forces? Maybe in NE Syria, around Qamishli oil-fields, where the Kurds have a (small) majority, but I doubt it will work around Deir-Ez-Azor, which is largely Arab. I think that’s going to end as well as Afghanistan, which continues to founder various ships of state.
US of A would be better off buying shares the dodgy Aramco IPO… let the billionaires speculate their money on Middle-East oil rather than making others spill blood stealing oil.
The Assad Regime is the only Internationally Recognised Government of Syria. American are Illegally Occupying Syrian Territory and Stealing it`s Oil. If the United Nations wasn`t in Hock to the US, it would Sanction America, Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The UN Security Council cannot sanction the US because the US has a veto on the council.
Let’s see if ANY journalist asks Rep Tulsi Aloha Gabbard to defend her “Arm the Kurds” campaign (for BGR) and “Three State Solution” Balkanization — CFR’s recycled partition Biden Plan. She scolded Trump when he declared the piece of SYRIA with oil as America’s. Pot calling kettle back, the darling of duped progressives (and awake neocons) called that Syrian land “Kurdish Homeland.” Let’s see if that territorial THEFT by rhetoric reverbs thru the echo chamber.
I understand that average citizens get duped but she even seduces the “dissidents,” who don’t bother to even check her record. Do they know she has proposed Weaponizing the Baltic states surrounding and nearing Russia when they gush about her faux/antiwar patina.
No, they are excited. And hush. And parrot the fake controversies to gin up press. No, Tulsi is not a Russian asset. She supported the Euromaidan coup, opposed the Crimean referendum, pushed Obama to arm NeoNazis … he refused. (Trump did it and briefly delayed their recent funding) She campaigns “against crippling sanctions” and “for expanding harsh Sanctions on the Russian people.” She campaigns to defuse the new Cold War and votes for nuclear -tipped cruise missiles.
Where is an ethical competent journalist?
Please document these interesting claims about Gabbard,
at least with links to ethical competent journalists.
Thank you.
Europe’s refugee crisis requires repair of Syria. Israel’s abusive behavior in the region requires Syria remain a wasteland unable to support any challenge to Israeli actions.
Of course, the US prioritizes Israel over the EU.
Oddly, the EU is letting this happen.
I know Mark, this is also completely baffling to me. If this policy is pursued, which seems likely, refugees will continue to stream out of Syria and all the other besieged areas of MENA, many into Turkey, where the US mini-me has already threatened to unleash this brown-skinned horde on lily-white Europe. All of the west’s ruling elites are screwing their constituents for just a little more lucre, for a little while longer. There is a segment of historical analysis that deplores the bloodletting that occurred in the aftermath of the French revolution. We may revisit that low-point if people decide to not keep being screwed by the wealthy and their step-and-fetch-its.
Ms Stroul previously worked at the Institute of Peace….how Orwellian.
Yes, it is very peaceful after genocides. I heard a Repub in Fl announce seriously that wars are necessary to reduce overpopulation. So we have the Repub plan for conservation of resources, very similar to the Nazi plan for social improvements.
Shame!!! on you, America. Shame! Is this your style of “democracy and human rights” you want to bring – didn’t you destroy enough of this country already? It is no wonder that the US is so hated all over the globe. The same fate should befall you…and the sooner, the better.
Not all of us Americans agree with what is happening.
Yes, the sooner the better for the US, whose People cannot restore democracy until its government collapses.
When, indeed, KiwiAntz.
A more immoral, unethical, inhumane *and* overtly criminal (crimes against humanity) – psychopathic-sociopathic – set of policy intentions/instructions/viewpoints would be hard to conceive. But quite in keeping with US-UK-IS-FR behavior over their combined and individual histories. And their criminal political leaders are *never* brought to account before the world – unlike their equivalents in “lesser” (i.e. weaker, poorer) countries. Even less likely – imaginable – are any of those leaders, living or dead, going to imprisoned. They and their countries actions are completely immune, because they control the world via their financial institutions and currency, from every single humanitarian crime they commit and/or are committed by their allies.
And even when on the absolutely rarest of occasions the governments (never individuals within those powerhouses) are charged with a crime or injustice against another people in another part of the world, these above noted governments ignore, with complete impunity, the charge against them: e.g. the Chagos Islanders case very recently heard before the ICJ; the Islanders won their plea against the UK government; the UK government ignored it – *and* got away with doing so. No hauling away of the likes of Teresa May (then PM) to a prison like Milosevic. No way.
The fact that the USA is absolutely breaking every international law with its invasion, occupation, theft of oil and land in Syria (and that doesn’t even get to all the other places it has done the same) apparently is accepted by all and sundry among other nations. That it has *never* viewed all forms of economic sanctions as anything other than a handy tool to squeeze “lesser” nations into total acceptance of its overlordship AND that the rest of the world lets it get away with these heinous, in-humanitarian, war-crimes (what they – sanctions = siege warfare), indeed often crawling along with it to do its bidding caring not a fig for the dreadful effects on the sanctioned populations (while lying sanctimoniously about how terrible the starvation, lack of medicines etc are *and* blaming the recalcitrant government for all the damage, NOT the causative party, the US and themselves) underscores the deep psychopathy of those in the institutions of power and influence.
This must be what an elite education provides its students.
In response to Herman: “This is not what America is supposed to be.” Sorry, Herman, but this is what the US – from the moment the Brits landed in the Chesapeake area and then in what became Massachusetts, this is how this society and its political structure has been and remains. Indeed the so-called founding documents make only too apparent that the USA was indeed “supposed to be” this way.
While Syria’s conventional reserves of both oil and natural gas are relatively small, the nation’s potential for non-conventional oil reserves is quite significant and may prove to be one of the reasons why Washington is intervening in yet another “party” to which it has not been invited.
“the conflict is not over; it’s entering a new phase.”
Yes, they’re going to step 2 in Washington’s trusty manual of crimes against humanity: a scorched earth attack on the civilian population through starvation, pestilence, and economic collapse by preventing reconstruction of its infrastructure, proper medical care and the feeding of its people. It was the next stage that Slick Willy implemented against Iraq after Bushdaddy wantonly slaughtered tens of thousands of retreating Iraqi soldiers on the desert highway between Kuwait and Baghdad and which Madeline Albright so enthusiastically found worth while when apprised of the morbidity and mortality rate amongst Iraqi children. Think of all the thousands of young boys who never grew up to be soldiers able to fight against American invasions of their country. I’ve no doubt that Killary followed her mentor’s lead as SoS and applied the same standard operating procedures against Libya and Syria, hoping to ensure utterly failed states in the event that the American military could not overthrow, occupy and rule them through puppets.
I have a message for Trump(who I voted for) and his administration-
TRUMP HAS THE OIL – – – TRUMP DOESN’T HAVE MY VOTE ANYMORE
(multiple this by 30,000,000 and we have another “upset”(not factoring in the expected fraud or the braindead people who always vote for one party or another regardless of that party’s candidate)
And don’t think for one moment there are not MILLIONS of people like me ready to once again buck the “predictable’ Trump landslide in 2020 like we did the similarly “predictable” Clinton victory in 2016.
As it turns out this Baby Boomer didn’t have to read all about Nazi Germany growing up. It has been brought right to our doorsteps by an administration that not only has a knife in its supporters’ back, but is twisting it daily! What kind of people go along with this ruthless inhumane mass slaughter of innocents? I’ll tell you- people being blackmailed by the elephant in the room, Israel, which always gets others to sacrifice for them and then tosses them out like filthy laundry! On the one hand we have “impeachment proceedings”(in reality a lynch mob!) going on reminiscent of the McCarthy era in its style and manner and on the other hand we have a military controlled by a foreign entity using American blood and taxes for their own greedy agenda(Greater Israel Project).
Go ahead and keep all that oil and resources that the Syrians badly need after being gang raped for so long. You may have it now, but you don’t have my vote anymore Herr Trump! I am appalled at this turn of events and I hope everyone responsible for it goes straight to you know where!
When is this Criminal Rogue Nation, this contemptible & utterly Lawless Country called America, going to be held to account for it’s War Crimes & blatant disregard for International Law & Syrian Sovereignty? Why isn’t Russia taking this to the United Nations Security Council & having this matter brought to the Worlds attention?? It seems that the only way to dislodge this Bully from another Sovereign Country is to fight asymmetrical warfare to get this spoiler out of Syria? Perhaps the Yemen template is being planned to oust the American tyrant from Syria? Plans are, no doubt, being put in motion, right now & we’ll see if Trump has the stomach to continue this ridiculous Syrian Oil plunder & thievery by the US? What will the Idiot man child, Trump, going to do once those Star spangled,Flag draped coffins start coming back to the USA, just as they did in Iraq? Having US Servicemen & Women dying so Trump can steal Oil is not worth the human cost of this blatant thievery? Is it any wonder that America is becoming increasingly isolated & universally despised with the World turning to China & its One Belt, one Road vision of the future & turning its back on this bitter, twisted & dying American Empire in its last death throes? Get out of Syria & go home!
I have counted over 40 nations directly arrayed against Syria, and over 100 international financial institutions profiting from destabilization of Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Libya.
There are over 50 so called Non Government Agencies, NGO’S, that pay their so called humanitarian volunteers high salarys from their respective governments funding and donors of interested parties.
This is not just , screw calling USA Americans, every nation from Canada to Argentina is American, a US lone wolf attack.
In US which is primarily white aristocracy controlled, we have every race creed and color demographic known to world taking part in making and acting out in most atrocious war crimes against worlds weaker and poorest peoples.
The US hires worlds peoples best and brightest brains, whose loyalties do not extend beyond monetary gain, to attack and gain that white US and European Aristocracy financial and political needs.
There are real names attached to individuals and handing them titles as Americans gives them a ready made place hide behind.
Fixed that for you. I can’t imagine Canadians, Mexicans, Brazilians, or anyone else living in the Americas wanting to be lumped together with USians. Sadly, “Unitedstatesian” don’t have the same ring to it. At least Spanish has the word “estadounidense”.
Of course the guilty parties are Israel and their bought politicians and operatives in the US.
Zionist corruption is throughout the USG: it is just the mod style of its universal corruption.
The citizens avoid the truth for social and financial security: the TV dictates their views.
The words of the CSIS panel.
“So we argued that absent behavioral changes by the Assad regime, we should hold a line on preventing reconstruction aid and technical expertise from going back into Syria.”
What behavioral changes? Would do the two fellows at WINEP have in mind? A military coup? Permanently ceding the Golan Heights to Israel? Assad’s head? Or are they speaking of impossible behavioral changes that will keep the land stolen from Syrian permanently in the hands of Israel and anybody other than Syria, Iran and Iraq? And in the meantime people will suffer, society will crumble and Syria, like Libya and Iraq, will no longer be recognizable.
Any reasonable person with the most basic sense of justice must pray that those who brazenly proclaim such a callous and evil plan are somehow brought to account. When you look at the nineties and the actions taken against the Iraqi people and see the similarities today in Syria, there is little reason to expect that to happen.
And what does Tulsi Gabbard have to do with all this? She is the lady who has suggested that America might pursue another path, and she most likely has condemned herself to the political graveyard of those brave and foolish politicians before her who stood up and said this is all wrong. This is not what America is supposed to be.
Tulsi Gabbard is now being assailed by the entire Democratic Party and its useful idiots in the mass media because she received a small campaign donation from Prof. Stephen F. Cohen, who is characterised as a traitor to his country by the REAL traitors running the DNC. Listen to Prof. Cohen’s latest interview with John Batchelor (on the Nation website) to hear the full impact of the new cold war that is being foisted upon the entire planet by the usurpers of American democracy and economic justice in Washington. NATO is telling Russia in no uncertain terms that Ukraine will soon be a member of their alliance. That is the day that WWIII begins, as being a tripwire to war is the only use that gang of warmongers have for Ukraine.
One of the most remarkable contentions in the (externally demanded) refurbishment of the Syrian Arab Republic’s constitution is whether or nor Mr. President Dr. Bashar Al-Assad is allowed to run again.
Realistically, the major complaint is that there is no-one that has the faintest chance of running against him. Guess which western/Gulf countries that upsets? I’ll give you a hint: all of them.
Can anyone name a sensible alternative? Anyone?