The Obama administration has retreated from its initial refusal to stay out of the conflict in Syria by agreeing this week to provide direct humanitarian and communications assistance to the Syrian opposition.
While the change in policy did not go as far as providing military assistance – administration officials say the military option and military aid is still off the table – the news is a troubling sign for the antiwar movement. “These moves are going to invest the U.S. in a much deeper sense with the opposition,” one administration official told Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy. “U.S. policy is now aligned with enabling the opposition to overthrow the Assad regime. This codifies a significant change in our Syria policy.”
Agreeing to give non-military aid to the Syrian opposition drastically increases the likelihood that substantial military assistance, from the U.S. or some other allied country, will soon be introduced. And establishing an official policy of regime change in Syria amounts to a policy of radical imperialism. This opens the floodgates for yet another war of choice by the Obama administration.
The worsening civil war in Syria and the brutal crackdown by the regime of Bashar al-Assad had prompted months of pressure in Washington for a full-scale intervention, and Senator John McCain just Monday argued for airstrikes across Syria. But the administration had resisted the pressure.
It is clear the administration had merely tactical difficulties with intervention, as opposed to recognizing it as wrong. For example, one reason a no fly-zone hasn’t caught support is because Russian aid to the Assad regime includes sophisticated air-defense systems that could at least partially stand up to U.S. aggression.
But the purportedly limited, non-military aid the administration has now agreed to still carries all the same problems it always has. The Syrian opposition is not cohesive, so getting aid to the intended people is nearly impossible. The opposition contains elements of extremists and perhaps al-Qaeda, which the administration may indirectly end up aiding. Both sides have committed crimes and, as was seen in Libya, supporting an armed insurrection empowers disreputable fighting groups while marginalizing prospects for political peace. Furthermore, intervention carries a high probability that the violence will consequently escalate, spread across the region, and embroil the United States in another deadly, protracted war in the Middle East.
All of this is aside from the fact that the Obama administration has no authority to pick sides in a civil conflict which poses no threat to the United States. It is also likely that ulterior motives are at play: Washington wants to end the Assad regime and possibly replace it with a more obedient tyranny that will no longer align itself with Iran, the number one target among imperialists and foreign policy elites.
The new plan has reportedly not yet been initiated as the administration still has no concrete plan for how to get the direct assistance to the Syrian opposition and is still debating specific packages among cabinet-level officials. But this new policy opens up a new chapter in the Syrian conflict and it is bound to worsen considerably because of it.
There is no such terms that would increase the understanding of democracy by the west, the present politicians as McCain, Lieberman, Wesley, Kerry, Fienstine, Sarkozi, Markel, Cameron Rasmussen, Obama or the Swedish and or Danish government and others don't care, they are not there because of democracy or that they are democrats or if they understand what democracy is about, they are there to protect the interests of those whom they have employed them, working for the capitalism and vulture capitalism system that runs the banks, Oil companies and other economic institutions, otherwise they wouldn't have any plan cutting the “government spending” in education, social services, healthcare and etc. they simply refuse to see the truth and that there is another from of social economic where government needs to apply. They don't have plan in creating jobs, there is no jobs to be created by the government or the president or the prime ministers, so they are busy creating and keeping what there is to keep, their militarism regimes, Oil companies, car manufacturer, all that is because the system is wrong, Look, they are paying to Oil companies to expend, the pay car companies to produce more cars and they still have money over to provide and support bunch of terrorists and their military regime to expend. All that is because there is no democracy governing the government, they are either warmongers or bureaucrats and hypocrites waiting for their turn to earn more money on every time that there is a war, using these terrorist is the West last result, they don't have any other options because they don't know what democracy is.
Democracy is declining in all aspects of human life, in US and EU, human social life is under microscope, there is a decline in every aspects of social freedom, human life's in terms of growing numbers in homelessness from Sweden to France and to USA, having a very hard time to find jobs, not being able to survive the harsh time is increasing rapidly, social crimes are up and etc. yet all these governments are for war and more wars.
So, if you're an unemployed American, struggling to find a job, and watching hopelessly as your home slides towards foreclosure, and you've been wondering, hoping, praying that the American government might possibly try to help you out …. now you have your answer. If you want aid, go join the Syrian opposition.
that *is* eactly what they want. Fight against the SYRIAN government. That is teh task of the Syrian terrorist they did sent into Syria. The "aid" and communication is just required to control them, sending in weapons, satellite phones or other logistic material for subversive actions against the Syrian government. Things like this they did in Kosovo with the KLA: They protected them from being inprisoned or being attacked by ceasefires, so they could afterwards again attack the serb security forces. The Serbs also did report that they found so-called radio-locator in Kosov that the Kosovo verification mission or OSCE did place near aims of intelligent bombs for the war they had planned in advance. They did well prepare the so-called war igniting massacre of Racak and the following fake peace negotiations of Rambouillet.
This is are the well known methods CIA works with always, including mis-using trusted organisations like OSCE, UN missions, HRW etc. to get a good war mongering press story.
Today they even are clever enough to directly fool the peace movement as seen here. They are getting better and better.
Great idea. Let's give aid to Sunni militants chanting Allah Akhbar.
What on earth could go wrong?
I guess the six billion dollars the US givs Israel each year to create more illegal settlements and gulags for the Palestinians doesn't count…
This type of not-so-subtle Imperialism – all imperialism, in fact – will never end until those who advocate getting the US involved in other people's business are removed from the governing apparatus. It is possible to remain militarily strong, and ready, without having to flex our muscle in every backwater rat hole on earth.
Time to start voting the militarists out of Congress – in every country. Maybe if all the money being spent on negative political ads were spent instead on revealing the truths about our politicians and their advocacy of sending our young people (but not their own, of course) to kill and die for…what? a corporate-person's bottom line? Really? If these corporations cannot make money without our youth dying for them then they should be allowed to fail. And since many of these corporations are in the business of providing the tools of killing and destruction, how much of a loss would that be?
Time to change the way we interact with the rest of the world.
readers note editor's idiosyncratic use of the term "opposition"
Why west is so eager to brake what is working or can become working much better. The computer that you working with is the same as your first computer in 1990 or year 2000, in 2012 computers are faster having "more hard disk space-brain" and more “memories – better function of the brian” which gives you more options when it comes to look for things and get more information communicating with others and etc, not using the “brain” with more “info – function of the brian” then you are not willing nor ready to use the 2012 technology, you are stock with an old idea in feudalism and fundamentally there is something wrong with you. US and EU government and its politicians are and thinking the same way, they rather have their way in medieval time help out these feudalism in other countries then to work for democracy at home and or with true democrats in Middle east or elsewhere whom are willing to change for the better. These people are stock with their old idea in medievalism, still wanting the kings and queens to be head of a stat, or for that matter capitalism and its vulture adventurism system with the government militarism at its disposal creating wars, like in Sweden and its right wing fascist government, or for that matter in Germany, France and that modernized version of medievalism Cameron or that zionist Sarkozi and the rest. There is no opposition to democracy, just those who are against democracy not wanting it to work for the people, and we have seen it in Iraq, Libya and now Syria.
How can they say that communications equipment undeniably used in a war is not military, or "humanitarian aid" to one side of an armed conflict while blockading the other side is not military assistance? The "administration officials" depend on US citizens being willfully stupid.
I also regard this article here as fraud news.
Willfull stupidity of the American people has worked for every administration since at least the end of WWII. Why shouldn't this one count on it now?
America just can't seem to mind its own business to save its life.
Three cheers for our Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Waiting this long to jump in must have really killed him.