Nations are meeting in New York to discuss a possible settlement of the Syrian Civil War, with early indications that Russia is the prime mover in the process, trying to get various Western-backed rebel factions to unite with the Syrian government in fighting ISIS.
The UN has endorsed the idea, but only in language that very carefully avoided the question of President Bashar Assad’s future. That, of course, has been the sticking point on any such deal throughout years of diplomacy, and seems set to remain one.
France is already demanding assurances that Assad will go, and even though Secretary of State John Kerry previously claimed the US isn’t out for regime change, President Obama insisted that the US would be at risk of more terror attacks if they didn’t force Assad from power.
Russia has been resisting any ouster of Assad during the transition, saying they believe that the ultimate future government of Syria should be up to the Syrians themselves, and not to be decided by the international community.
There is a failed fantasy at the core of the American position. It was repeated today in by Obama in his press conference. It is that a large middle of Syrians exists which is against Assad but acceptable to the US.
It is that middle we have been trying to find so we can recruit and arm it. We failed to find it, and the only arms have ended in the hands of our enemies. It seems there is only Assad, and the crazies we can't live with. We have not been able to find anyone else, much as our neocons say they must be there.
Now we imagine that same middle will vote out Assad in any eventual election. They ran from the alternatives to Assad. They did not join any US backed side when they could have. Who are they going to vote for, if they vote against Assad?
Assad does not only represent minority sects like his own Alawites. He has a large Sunni backing, of the Westernized and commercial urban Sunnis. They are the people like his own wife. Those are the middle the US imagined recruiting, and then went with Assad because they saw the real alternatives. The Westernized students who started the Arab Spring in Syria are not ISIS or al Qaeda. Their heads are down, and they live under Assad's protection.
The Syrian diaspora vote is however an important precedent. That is what must be done with the Palestinians too. All 15 million of them must have a vote, not just some small segment separated off by the Israelis. They must all get something, just like the Syrians, including the ability to go home. I doubt very much that the US intended that precedent from its actions in Syria, but it is a necessary part of any real peace, as distinct from the faked excuse called the Peace Process. This Syrian deal shows the way in this.
I'd love to know from where this blogger claims to get his information. Since the bottom line is the usual "let Putin win", I'm highly suspicious.
Isn't it wonderful how the mainstream media are suddenly paragons of truth and journalistic virtue when they report something that suits the propaganda line! The last sentence reveals Putin's problem. The Syrians didn't choose Assad. His father seized power in a coup and he "inherited the throne" so to speak, from him. There hasn't been a free election in Syria, at very least, since Papa seized power. Indeed, the only thing that prevents Assad's government being described as an "illegitimate coup government" is that he isn't Ukrainian!
As usual, you're wrong. http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/04/world/meast/syria-u…
Why does Obama think Assad poses a threat to the U.S.? The United States and their rebel proxies are the aggressors in this war. The Syrian Civil War would end tomorrow if the U.S. and its Saudi and Turkish allies would stop propping it up.
And how hard will Obama and the CIA go after ISIS. when they created them in yet another botched intervention. Another failed fascist . design of the United States in its imperialist war in the Middle East.