In 2013, top Obama Administration officials described their policy in the Syrian War as one of keeping the war going. The administration wanted a big seat at the table for a political settlement, which officials clarified meant ensuring that the war kept going so that there was never a clear victor.
The Trump Administration seems to be slipping into that same destructive set of priorities in Syria. The Washington Post this week quoted an unnamed Administration official as saying that “right now, our job is to help create quagmires [for Russia and the Syrian regime] until we get what we want.”
As ever, hat the US really wants is to have a dominant position in post-war negotiations, so they can dictate the form that post-war Syria takes. This means ensuring that the Syrian government doesn’t win the war outright.
That’s not as realistic as it once was, with the Assad government, backed by Russia, having retaken virtually all of the rebel-held territory except for a far north bastion in Idlib, dominated by al-Qaeda. This means the US now has to save al-Qaeda to keep the war going, which if we’re being honest has been a recurring undercurrent in US policy in Syria for years.
It is this desire that has the US repeatedly threatening Syria and warning them not to attack Idlib. It is this desire that is sparking almost daily US threats to intervene militarily if the Idlib offensive involves chemical weapons. Most importantly, it is this desire that has Russia very much believing media reports that the rebels could “stage” a fake chemical attack just to suck the US into the war, and be fairly confident it would work.
The US is, after all, constantly talking about an imminent chemical attack despite there being no reason to think Syria is poised to launch one. At times, US officials have privately conceded that there is no sign Syria is making any moves to even ready such weapons for the offensive. Yet several times a week, the US issues statements with allegations of a chemical plot featuring prominently, setting the stage for a reaction.
The Syrian War has been nearing its endgame for months now, with Israeli officials conceding it is all but over as far as they are concerned (while vowing not to honor any post-war deals). When a war is lost and a plan has failed, however, the US government is often the last to know, and that has them determined to drag the war on as long as possible.
Washington’s fondness for endless wars is not shared in other capitals, thank goodness. Russia and Syria declared victory over the US-supported anti-Syria forces last November, and they are about to cap it off. If Trump gets his way US forces will withdraw, but the Pentagon apparently has some shackles on him so we’ll see.
news report, Apr 4, 2018 – President Trump has instructed military leaders to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria as soon as possible.
“The United States is evil. It has to be brought down, it has to be eliminated from the world scene. They are the ones who have made the world the hell that it is.”
— Bobby Fischer (2005)
Heh, good luck with that plan. Short of finally directly attacking Syria – and Russia – with a massive air campaign, there is no chance the US can derail the Syrian/Russian victory over the insurgents. Whoever made that “quagmire” statement is clueless as to the situation on the ground. Aside from Idlib, only Al-Tanf and a couple other places are not under the direct control of the Syrian government – and those other places are basically surrounded and irrelevant until they can be negotiated away.
“The United States is evil. It has to be brought down, it has to be eliminated from the world scene. They are the ones who have made the world the hell that it is.”
— Bobby Fischer
Certainly appears as you state regarding events in Syria, if not the entire Middle Eastern sphere of political organizations & Nations.
Check!
Good job keeping real about Washington bullshit. You are the reason the comment section is SO very important for keeping those of us not able to use enough of our time necessary to debunk all the official lies… Thank You for your work
Here is their dillema. Idlib is already lost, ads Turkey has managed to get Jaish Al-Islam under its wing, Turkey is transforming various rebel factions into uniformed and crntrslly conttolled battle units making it impossible for US or any other US Arab ally to penetrate them and use as behind the lines terror cells. Russia and Turkey have created many checkpoints, in and around Idlib. The fallout with Turkey is the product of Turkey’s unwillingness to play along and allow Kurdish statet on its border in North-West. Idlib has now THS (Al-Qaeda) isolated snd not helped by other groups. And Kurdish Afrin is no more under Kurdish control, thus no more smuggling arms and other supplies using Kurdish runners on both sides of the border. It is quite possible that Turkey may move on Kobane region, or even Raqqa from Sl-Bab. The logic is — expose holes on the ground — areas where there are no Kurds and no US bases. No Arabs will support Kurds, and US bas no power to look after thin Kurdish outposts everywhere. Idlib may fall all by themselves, and the extremrly tiresome bad chrmical weapons play, by extremely bad actors on both sides of the Atlantic — is the last ditch effort to pacify furious neocons. Our politicians are this desparate for money, that they sre letting neocons provoke a molitary clash that eill not reflect good on us — led by idiots who will soner or later cause harm. Amazing.
Nice analysis Bianca… Your work here is paramount.. ThankYou!!!!!
Enduring wars = regional allies eager to keep buying our weapons = better profits for the lobbyists who buy our politicians. What policy do those lobbyists want to buy? Enduring wars. Thus the cycle of death and destruction feeds itself.
Syria, like Russia (but UNLIKE the USA and UK) has already had its chemical weapons destroyed and this verified by the OPCW. To keep pulling the same pathetic trick, the USA is behaving even worse than before, just for spite and more damage to poor Syria, just as Russia is trying to arrange countries to help rebuild Syria and bring back refugees. Surely Europe should stop the USA if possible (!).
“right now, our job is to help create quagmires [to boost stock prices for the defense industry] until we get what we want.”
There, I fixed it for you.
Both countries sell weapons, both are ran by corrupt oligarchs behind the curtain, and the poor pay for and die in these wars.
Cheeto knows this and he also knows they’ll buy him out at some point if he can expose just enough of the “racket” to still be able to exploit it and walk away filthy rich.
He wrote about “leverage” in the book he had written for him. Anyone that has five deferments and is notorious for losing money and not paying their bills is highly unlikely to be interested in anybody but themselves in the long run.
TDS Trump-hate.
Who cares how many millions die, so long as our arms merchants get rich and we get a seat at the table to decide just what kind of puppet we will impose on the people of Syria.
Brings memories of Newland saying “Yatz” is our man (for Ukraine president)…. Sad fact of the sacking of the governance of so many states by American spooks and other rogues.
Where are the barf bags… when we need them……!?!?!?!?!?
The question remains Unanswered… Just what do “we” really want, and who is the “we” setting the Syria ajenda..????
Neocons/Israel.
What the US (Neocon) Power Elite wants is a barriere against the vision of an “Eurasian Cooperation”!
„Geo-Politics: The
Core of Crisis and Chaos and the Nightmares of the US Power Elite“
https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2016/08/01/geo-politics-the-core-of-crisis-and-chaos-the-nightmares-of-the-us-power-elite/
Religion and tribalism more than national politics is the potentially lethal disease of this region. It is stuck at the reality of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Yes, that far back. Europe was lucky then that there were no outside super powers (the Russians were no threat at all) which intervened, killed and maimed people, and destroyed cities. All of that was done by the Europeans themselves. If history does repeat itself it would be wise for all foreign powers to leave the region and give it a chance to become wiser. After a lot of additional murder and destruction of course.
There is one word which predicts why that will not happen: oil.
For the Trump administration there exists a second word why our armed forces will remain: Iran.
Perhaps Iran’s oil?
In the third paragraph add a w to hat, to make the sentence make sense.
if we’re being honest …
We’d admit we’ve lost another one.
Jason. Why would you refrain from mentioning the names of these 2013 top Obama officials who are no longer in office? I suspect that you have created them out of whole cloth. Well, if not who are they? Since these are “top officials” there cannot be too many of them. And exactly what did they say?