Why Are We Attacking the Syrians Who Are Fighting ISIS?
By Ron Paul
June
13, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- Just when you thought our Syria policy
could not get any worse, last week it did.
The US military twice attacked Syrian
government forces from a military base it
illegally occupies inside Syria. According
to the Pentagon, the attacks on Syrian
government-backed forces were “defensive”
because the Syrian fighters were approaching
a US self-declared “de-confliction” zone
inside Syria. The Syrian forces were
pursuing ISIS in the area, but the US
attacked anyway.
The US is training yet another rebel group
fighting from that base, located near the
border of Iraq at al-Tanf, and it claims
that Syrian government forces pose a threat
to the US military presence there. But the
Pentagon has forgotten one thing: it has no
authority to be in Syria in the first place!
Neither the US Congress nor the UN Security
Council has authorized a US military
presence inside Syria.
So what gives the Trump Administration the
right to set up military bases on foreign
soil without the permission of that
government? Why are we violating the
sovereignty of Syria and attacking its
military as they are fighting ISIS? Why does
Washington claim that its primary mission in
Syria is to defeat ISIS while taking
military actions that benefit ISIS?
The Pentagon issued a statement saying its
presence in Syria is necessary because the
Syrian government is not strong enough to
defeat ISIS on its own. But the
“de-escalation zones” agreed upon by the
Syrians, Russians, Iranians, and Turks have
led to a reduction in fighting and a
possible end to the six-year war. Even if
true that the Syrian military is weakened,
its weakness is due to six years of
US-sponsored rebels fighting to overthrow
it!
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What is this really all about? Why does the US military occupy this base inside Syria? It’s partly about preventing the Syrians and Iraqis from working together to fight ISIS, but I think it’s mostly about Iran. If the Syrians and Iraqis join up to fight ISIS with the help of Iranian-allied Shia militia, the US believes it will strengthen Iran’s hand in the region. President Trump has recently returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia where he swore he would not allow that to happen.
But is this policy really in our interest, or are we just doing the bidding of our Middle East “allies,” who seem desperate for war with Iran? Saudi Arabia exports its radical form of Islam worldwide, including recently into moderate Asian Muslim countries like Indonesia. Iran does not. That is not to say that Iran is perfect, but does it make any sense to jump into the Sunni/Shia conflict on either side? The Syrians, along with their Russian and Iranian allies, are defeating ISIS and al-Qaeda. As candidate Trump said, what’s so bad about that?
We were told that if the Syrian government was allowed to liberate Aleppo from al-Qaeda, Assad would kill thousands who were trapped there. But the opposite has happened: life is returning to normal in Aleppo. The Christian minority there celebrated Easter for the first time in several years. They are rebuilding. Can’t we finally just leave the Syrians alone?
When you get to the point where your actions are actually helping ISIS, whether intended or not, perhaps it’s time to stop. It’s past time for the US to abandon its dangerous and counterproductive Syria policy and just bring the troops home.
Copyright © 2017 by RonPaul Institute.