Confirming that the US military presence inside Syria had little to do with fighting ISIS, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson unveiled in detail today the real US strategy for Syria: overthrow of the Assad government.
In a speech at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and introduced by President George W. Bush’s Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary Tillerson vowed that the United States military would continue to occupy Syrian territory until three conditions are met:
First: ISIS must be destroyed.
This condition is made all the more problematic by the well-reported fact that it is the United States government that at every turn seems to pull ISIS chestnuts out of the fire. From handing them weapons to allowing them to escape when they are trapped in places like Raqqa, it almost seems like the US does not want to really see the end of ISIS.
Second: Assad must go.
Tillerson’s admission that this is a sine qua non for any US military departure from Syria confirms that the Trump foreign policy is no different from that of Hillary Clinton or her former boss, President Obama. Recall that as part of his “thank you” tour, President-elect Trump reiterated promises made by candidate Trump to break with the past:
We will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past. We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments. …In our dealings with other countries we will seek shared interests wherever possible…”
It is clear that he lied, as it is reported that he signed off on this new Syria strategy last month at a meeting of his National Security Council.
Secretary Tillerson said today that new elections should be held in Syria and that President Assad should lose:
The United States believes that free and transparent elections … will result in the permanent departure of Assad and his family from power… Assad’s regime is corrupt, and his methods of governance and economic development have increasingly excluded certain ethnic and religious groups… Such oppression cannot persist forever.
Tillerson’s speech reveals that the old myth about the Syrian people “rising up” to overthrow Assad is still very much viewed as Gospel truth in Washington:
…our expectation is that the desire for a return to normal life … will help rally the Syrian people and individuals within the regime to compel Assad to step down.
Translation: we are going to continue to make life miserable for you until you overthrow Assad. Then it will return to “normal.” Presumably the people of Syria understand what “normal” life after a US “liberation” looks like from examples like Libya, Iraq, and Ukraine.
Tillerson also made the bizarre assertion that US troops will remain in Syria to prevent the Syrian government from reestablishing control over the parts of Syria abandoned by a defeated ISIS. So the legitimate government of Syria will be prevented by an illegal United States military occupation from reclaiming its own territory? This is supposed to be a coherent policy?
Third: Refugees must be returned to Syria.
Secretary Tillerson said today at Stanford University:
America has an opportunity to help people who have suffered greatly. The safe and voluntary return of #Syrian refugees serves the security interests of the U.S. and our allies and partners. We must give Syrians a chance to return home and rebuild their lives.
But the one event that led to the biggest return of refugees back to Syria was violently opposed by the US government: the Syrian government’s liberation of east Aleppo from al-Qaeda control!
For additional consideration:
The US military is busy creating a 30,000-strong Kurdish militia to reportedly guard Syria’s borders with Turkey and Iraq. NATO-ally Turkey is violently opposing US moves to further arm Kurd groups that it considers terrorist.
The discredited “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) is back in Washington begging the Trump Administration to reopen the CIA weapons pipeline. The FSA is perhaps best known for immediately handing any weapons it gets from Washington directly to al-Qaeda in Syria. Will Trump’s neocon-filled ecosphere convince him to once again put some wind in al-Qaeda’s sails?
Will Congress awake from its slumber and finally dust off the part of the Constitution directing the Legislative Branch to decide on matters of war and peace? It’s probably an ill-advised bet, however there are a few whispers on Capitol Hill that a shift in US military focus from anti-ISIS to anti-Assad and anti-Iran might be slightly problematic.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has just unveiled a 100 percent neocon approved “new” US policy for Syria: No more pussyfooting around. We won’t abandon our project in Syria like Obama “abandoned” Libya (presumably, as the neocon myth goes, on the verge of becoming a new Switzerland after its “liberation” only to be thrust back into the mire by Obama’s premature withdrawal).
President Trump is set to out-neocon the neocons with this foolish and destructive policy. The showman is shown to be nothing but a fraud.
Daniel McAdams is director of the The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity. Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
Shorter Tillerson: “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
It’s easy to tell the Neocons have returned to power.
They never left
What gives this dinosaur military brass the right to declare ANYTHING at all with regards to Syria? Syria is for Syrians and the USA is for Americans. Tillerson has once again displayed the arrogance and duplicity of the USA in making a declaration that violates all international treaties and certainly invalidates the claims that the USA fights for “freedom and democracy”! If you try and overthrow a democratically-elected President or any official in ANY nation(including the USA!) you can’t be considered a liberator, just an aggressor.
Exactly. This is why terrorists under the guise of rebels are encouraged believing the USA is on their side. US foreign policy is so one tracked (based around perceived Israel support) it has become dysfunctional. Then again understandable as the only way to gain office in the US is through Jewish financial input..
Just amazed at Antiwar deletions of posts. Its quite alright to have recognised journalists writing about the Israeli lobby but for some reason anyone else referencing the Jewish funding of politicians is deleted. When going directly to Jewish organizations for funds that is reported in the main media.
But I get the impression Antiwar believes any reference to Jewish funding is anti semetic. Thats a pathetic response from Antiwar.
This is revision # 200 to Tillerson’s foreign policy.
Stay tuned for Tuesdays change.
‘Isis must be destroyed’ means: as long as Isis exists, our presence is legitimate.
And i suppose they quietly follow that up with:
..” so we allow them safe haven in parts of Syria we control.”
I’m surprised no one in DC has a very long pointed nose.
Yeah, “religious and cultural groups” being targeted by the U.S. Milit… ooops I’m supposed to say “Assad and his family”…. like for instance the way I’m not supposed to ever mention the existence thereof who have been opposed if not outright suppressed by ‘our’ government, where the definition of “our end” of the leash is grossly misleading doubletalk as defined by Orwell, the absurd notion is implied ummm… maybe the last four letters define it better… that We The People have ownership not only of ourselves but the Government “servant” (“Civil” is openly ridiculed as ‘political correctness
“they” is a brilliant catch-all pronoun and you can put whatever group you choose under the label “they”. Happens a lot.
Would things be different if congress did its job on deciding matters of war and peace? Congress is owned by AIPAC and they want Assad gone and Syria left as a smoldering pile of s**t.
Yes, things would be different because Congressmen would have to more openly justify their war decisions to actual voters.
Negligence is golden.
They do it now. You haven’t heard any of them say we’re doing this s**t to keep us safe?
I got an invite to go to a rally for Doug Lamborne, the one who is an avowed Dominionist and is the Representative for our congressional district.. as clear a reason for term limits I’ve ever seen.. Goes to show they really don’t screen us very efficiently. My favorite nickname for him is ‘MotherF(ornicating) fascist rat-bastard’ and he should have known I’ll be very disruptive. He’s schmoozing for the Mid-Terms.
Doing what s**t specifically? Its such a generic line for either domestic or foreign abuses of power.
Obama sought Congressional support to attack Syria – and unhook himself from his ill-thought out Red Line statement – understanding full well that so close to midterms a majority did not want to have to be explaining another hot war to their constituents as consequences blew back. The neoconned MIC did not want to lose their puppets of the moment nor this war opportunity but were powerless.
Then Putin bailed out two-and-a-half of three by offering to have Assad voluntarily give up his entire chemical arsenal. Red Line over, no messy vote, no more messy chemical weapons complicating a future Syria attack (but that could be delayed indefinitely).
Waging war was the s**t I was referring to to keep us safe. If congress had to uphold their responsibility and decide whether we wage war I don’t think they would turn down any war unless it was for purely political reasons. Libya might have turned out different only because the republicans were against anything Obama did. They certainly weren’t against the idea of taking Qaddafi out. Iran would have widespread bipartisan support as would Syria or any of the middle eastern countries that Israel decides we need to attack. So no, I don’t think we’d be in a different place if congress had done its job.
I’ll take political reasons for peace wherever they are handy.
Me too.
Erdogans war against the begins to make sense, he wants to be rid of them , if he does not do that they will be the instrument that wrecks Turkey. He figures he is next. Clever guy!
Tillerson’s threat to blacklist countries that trade or help reconstruction of Syria is the most vile, disgusting and deranged statement I have ever heard. After all those years of death and destruction now the people of Syria are going to be discouraged from rebuilding their lives. I doubt Hitler could have been more evil.
Was Tillerson the best choice for Secretary of State?
A NWO man…
With prior interests in oil…
Syria is a great obstacle,
to a planned gas pipeline from the Persian Gulf…
In order to bring Russia down financially,
by destroying their options to export gas/oil
The oily ones did the same domestically, if you count the notion of Indian land as not being sovereign countries. And thee’s more planned and they will continue to shoot at The People and sometimes they don’t miss.
The USA has ZERO respect for the sovereignty of other nations. How can an aggressor nation talk about protecting Americans as they go about “sticking a needle in the bull’s ass” so to speak? Do these monstrous war criminals think the bull is going toke that forever? All the world needs to restore order and justice is for nation’s and their leaders to truly respect mankind.