Trump:
End The Syria War Now
By Eric
Margolis
July
22, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- Many Americans voted for Donald Trump because
he vowed to end the foreign conflicts in which
the US had become entangled. So far, they have
been disappointed. But this week a light flashed
at the end of the tunnel.
President Trump, according to numerous reliable
Washington sources, has decided to end US arms
supplies and logistics support to Syria’s
jihadist rebels that have fuelled the bloody
six-year conflict. Washington, and its allies
Britain and France, have persistently denied
arming Syria’s jihadist rebels fighting to bring
down the Russian and Iranian-backed government
of President Bashar Assad.
Former
President George W. Bush actively considered
invading Syria around 2008 in collusion with
Israel. But the Israelis then pointed out that
there were no Western-friendly groups to replace
Assad, only extreme militant Sunni Muslim
groups. Even the usually reckless Bush called
off the invasion of Syria.
By contrast, Barack Obama gave a green light to
the CIA to arm, train and logistically support
anti-Assad jihadist rebels in Syria. Arms poured
in from Lebanon and, later, Turkey, paid for by
Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates. Small
numbers of US, British and French advisors went
to Syria to teach the jihadists how to use
mortars, explosives, and anti-tank weapons. The
media’s claim that the fighting in Syria was due
to a spontaneous popular uprising was false. The
repressive Assad government was widely unpopular
but the uprising was another CIA ‘color-style’
operation.
The
object of this operation was to overthrow
President Assad and his Shiite-leaning regime,
which was supported by Iran, a bogeyman to all
the US-backed feudal Arab oil monarchies. Syria
was also to be punished because it refused
Washington’s demands to sever ties with Iran and
accept US tutelage.
Then US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton championed
the covert war against Syria, arranging massive
shipments of arms and munitions to the rebels
from Kadaffi-era arms stores in Libya, and from
Egypt, Croatia, likely Serbia, Bulgaria and
Azerbaijan. Once again, the Gulf Arabs paid the
bill.
The
offensive against Syria was accompanied by a
powerful barrage of anti-Assad propaganda from
the US and British media. From the background,
Israel and its partisans beat the war drum
against the Assad government.
The
result of the western-engendered carnage in
Syria was horrendous: at least 475,000 dead, 5
million Syrian refugees driven into exile in
neighboring states (Turkey alone hosts three
million), and another 6 million internally
displaced. That is, some 11 million Syrians, or
61% of the population, driven from their homes
into wretched living conditions and near famine.
Two of
Syria’s greatest and oldest cities, Damascus and
Aleppo, have been pounded into ruins. Jihadist
massacres and Russian and American air strikes
have ravaged once beautiful, relatively
prosperous Syria. Its ancient Christian peoples
are fleeing for their lives before US and Saudi
takfiri religious fanatics.
Just when it appeared the jihadists were closing
in on Damascus, limited but effective Russian
military intervention abruptly changed the
course of the war. The Syrian Army was able to
regain the military initiative and push back the
jihadists. Intermixed with so-called ‘takfiri’
rebels are some 3,000 ISIS jihadists who were
originally armed and equipped by US advisors but
have now run amok. They are under fierce western
air attack in Syria and Iraq and are
splintering.
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Russia
and the US have been inching toward a major war
over Syria. In fact, US intervention has been
far more extensive than generally believed, as
this writer has been reporting for the past five
years. Turkish media linked to the government in
Ankara has just revealed that the US has at
least ten small military bases in northern Syria
being used to support rebel jihadist forces.
Meanwhile, the US is now relying almost entirely
on Kurdish militias, know in Syria as YPG, to
attack ISIS and act in US interests. This has
outraged Turkey, which regards YPG as part of
the hated Kurdish independence movement, PKK,
against which Turkey has fought for two decades.
During the 1980’s, I covered the Turkish-PKK
conflict in eastern Anatolia.
If YPG/PKK
emerges victorious from the Syrian conflict,
Kurdish demands for an independent state in
south eastern Turkey will intensify, threatening
the breakup of the Turkish state. Kurds make up
some 20% of Turkey’s population of 80 million.
For
this very important reason, Turkey has been
pulling away from US-run NATO, and warming
relations with Moscow. Turkey has NATO’s second
largest armed forces and key airbases that cover
the Mideast.
Trump’s
announced retreat from Syria – if it turns out
to be real – will mark a major turning point in
US-Russian relations. It could well avoid a
clash between Russia and the US, both nuclear
powers. The US has no real business in Syria and
no strategic interests
America’s powerful neocons, who have been
pressing for war against Russia, will be
furious. Expect the media war against Trump to
intensify. So too claims that Trump colluded
with Moscow to get elected.
Eric S.
Margolis is an award-winning, internationally
syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared
in the New York Times, the International Herald
Tribune the Los Angeles Times, Times of London,
the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation –
Pakistan, Hurriyet, – Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia
and other news sites in Asia.
https://ericmargolis.com
The
views expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of Information Clearing House.
