The Road From Damascus

The Syrian Civil War had been going on so long since it started in 2011 that no one outside Syria noticed it was still going on . . . except for those who noticed it and saw that it was a stalemate at best with President Bashar al-Assad having the upper hand.  

Then suddenly it flared up and the so-called experts said that it wouldn't affect Damascus.  Until the rebels entered Damascus and forced Assad to flee to Moscow.

And Tulsi Gabbard suddenly has a lot less currency. 😃

The Syrian people now have a chance to build the democratic republic that Iraq is still trying to be after twenty years.  The Iranians have lost their base of influence on the Mediterranean Sea.  And Vladimir Putin's sphere of influence, as of now, no longer includes countries that were not Soviet republics.  Putin now needs Donald Trump more than Trump needs Putin.

Then again, Trump might need Putin in the near future - when he's driven out of office by his own people.  I hope Vlad's dacha is big enough for two world ex-leaders!

War in Syria

Now that Turkish forces are going into Syria to fight the Kurds whom they consider to be terrorists - i.e., all of them - the Kurds are now aligning themselves with their old enemy Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which will give Iran and Russia even more influence in the Middle East.

But that's all right, because Trump is going to approve of sanctions against Turkey for invading Syria despite having given Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a green light to go ahead with the invasion, even as Islamic State fighters are now being released in the fog of war. Besides, if Biden were President, his son would be making money off his name somewhere and foster more international corruption!  (Sarcasm.)

Islamic State fighters are probably going to work their way to Europe.  Europeans don't trust us.  (I'd better forget about traveling abroad any time soon or any time later.)  The Kurds don't trust us either.  Even Israel's Netanyahu doesn't like what's happening   Both parties in Congress are angry at Trump and want to undo the chaos he's caused.

Too late.

But Syri-ously . . .

Donald Trump is being applauded for working with the British and the French on a trilateral approach to handling the humanitarian crisis in Syria by lobbing a few missiles in Bashar al-Assad's chemical-weapons facilities after a chemical attack by the Syrian government against its own people.  Let's break down that premature acclaim:

Trump's manly posturing against Syria's benefactor, Russian President Vladimir Putin, doesn't back up the attack.  The Western allies attacked three specific targets in the country but avoided Syrian air bases, lest the U.S., Great Britain and France provoke Russian forces - and there were certainly no attacks on Russian installations despite Trump's earlier tweet.  This attack does nothing to deter Assad; an attack on a chemical-research facility lauded as having set back research work on lethal gases.  I don't think the Syrians need to do any more research on the subject; they've finished their homework.

Assad is still winning the civil war.  The rebels have been forced to surrender all over the country, and now it's only a matter of time before he puts down the rebellion completely.  There's no justification for Assad's use of chemical weapons on his own people, but this strike against him isn't going to deter him.

If we are really concerned with the welfare of the Syrian people, we should let in more Syrian refugees and take the burden off Europe. But Trump isn't willing to do that.   

Trump has suggested that this attack could lead to negotiations to end the Syrian civil war.  The President has taken the lead in establishing possible negotiations - President Macron of France, that is, who is quickly turning out to be the de facto leader of the Western alliance.   American involvement is already nil, what with the Russians, the Iranians, and the Turks having held high-level summits on Syria at which the Americans were not invited.  But then, Trump was against continued military involvement in the Islamic State-dominated areas of Syria - and thus against against continued military involvement in Syria period - as recently as a week earlier before he was for it.

Abstaining from an attack Russian forces at least prevents a third world war, but it also shows how much Trump wants to pretend to get tough on Putin when Putin likely has him under his thumb.

"What?  James Comey just put out his memoirs?  I didn't hear about that!"  Exactly - because of Syria.

Hillbots will likely sneer at me for going third party on the Democrats in 2016 in part because Hillary Clinton was thinking of establishing a no-fly zone over Syria could provoke the Russians.  I can hear Hillary supporters now - "Green Party voters said that if I voted for Hillary, we'd have a war in Syria - well, I voted for Hillary, now we have a war in Syria!"  Ha ha ha. But I'm not laughing.  And yes, I still think Martin O'Malley (you knew I was going to mention his name) was right; we shouldn't do anything in Syria that could provoke a wider conflict simply to get rid of Assad, and Putin's involvement in Syria will be a blunder for the Russian leader.  Getting involved in that bed of thorns for a base or two on the Mediterranean will only come back to bite the Russians in the rear just like our involvement in Iraq bit us.  

And any effort to prevent Iranian access to the Mediterranean through Syria can be checked with that nuclear agreement with Iran - you know, the one Trump and Mike Pompeo want to ditch?

My commentary is done here. 

The Road From Damascus

The PBS NewsHour reported last night on the mass exodus of Syrian refugees fleeing into neighboring Turkey to escape the crackdown by the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, in retaliation against anti-government demonstrations. Syrian authorities talk of instigators having brought on the trouble there (that sounds vaguely familiar), but refugees fleeing Syria into Turkey have different tales - tales of heavy-handed cruelty by Assad's government against his own people. The former dental student, who assumed the presidency of Syria when his father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad, died in 2000, is suggesting parallels with the sadistic Dr. Szell in the movie Marathon Man.

Assad - who is beginning to feel the heat of the international community - isn't safe, nor are many other Arab leaders. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is recovering from a rocket-propelled grenade attack on him even as his country is falling apart. In Libya, Qaddafi is still resisting a newly resurgent rebellion. Even in Jordan, the motorcade King Abdullah II, perhaps the most benevolent ruler ion the Arab world, was attacked with stones and empty bottles, though the king himself was unharmed. One can only wonder where this will all lead.