Summer: Big news about our war in Syria, delivered to us by Pravda. Big pravda about our war in Syria delivered to us by the Washington Post. It is rich with lessons for us, and deserves careful attention.
It’s the next act in our mad Forever War.
Read this carefully.
“Trump agrees to an indefinite military effort and new diplomatic push in Syria, U.S. officials say“
By Karen DeYoung in the Washington Post.
“President Trump, who just five months ago said he wanted ‘to get out’ of Syria and bring U.S. troops home soon, has agreed to a new strategy that indefinitely extends the military effort there and launches a major diplomatic push to achieve American objectives, according to senior State Department officials.
“Although the military campaign against the Islamic State has been nearly completed, the administration has redefined its goals to include the exit of all Iranian military and proxy forces from Syria, and establishment of a stable, nonthreatening government acceptable to all Syrians and the international community. …
“‘The new policy is we’re no longer pulling out by the end of the year,’ said James Jeffrey, a retired senior Foreign Service officer who last month was named Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s ‘representative for Syria engagement.’ About 2,200 U.S. troops are serving in Syria, virtually all of them devoted to the war against the Islamic State in the eastern third of the country. Jeffrey said U.S. forces are to remain in the country to ensure an Iranian departure and the “enduring defeat” of the Islamic State. ‘That means we are not in a hurry,’ he said. …
“{Jeffrey said} that he found it hard to think of Assad as a leader who could “meet the requirements of not just us but the international community” as someone who ‘doesn’t threaten his neighbors’ or abuse his own citizens, ‘doesn’t allow chemical weapons or provide a platform for Iran.’ …
“The first test of the administration’s expanded role in Syria may come sooner rather than later in Idlib, in the northwest part of the country. The province is the last bastion of rebel control after seven years of civil war …Idlib has now become a crowded holding pen for up to 70,000 opposition fighters, along with about 2 million Syrian civilians displaced from other battle zones, and activists and aid workers trying to assist them. …Assad has said he is preparing a final offensive in Idlib, and Russian warplanes this week began bombing the region. …
“‘We’ve started using new language,’ Jeffrey said, referring to previous warnings against the use of chemical weapons. Now, he said, the United States will not tolerate ‘an attack. Period.'”
Trump’s followers love how he breaks with the Deep State and GOP orthodoxy. No more foreign entanglements of no benefit to America! While they cheer, in the real world Trump implements standard GOP policies and supports all the wars began during the Bush-Obama Administration. The WaPo courteously does not point out this particular difference between what Trump promised and what he does.
Got to love how America makes such key decisions. Debates about foreign policy in Congress (e.g., advise and consent, declarations of war) were done in the America-that-once-was. In the New America, Trump wakes up and decides what the vast American government does today. Much like one of the Roman Emperors.
Got to love how our leaders announce policies to us. Press conferences, statements at meetings, speeches — these are for citizens. Proles get leaks (after all, it’s just entertainment for us) to the stenographers of the government-friendly news media. No harsh questioning, or the leaks dry up!
Even better, our officials no longer explain why this latest war – joining a civil war between a tyrant and jihadists – advances any of America’s national interests. That’s for citizens. Proles are just told what their betters have decided. They no longer even bother to lie to us.
This displays their confidence in our apathy and gullibility. America’s class war has moved into the third phase of battle – pursuit of a broken foe, exploiting their advantageous position to gain more power and wealth over us.
Who knows what wonders await us on our evolution from citizens to subjects, as the Republic dies and a new political regime emerges? Since we have decided to just passively slide down the slippery slope, we might as well enjoy the trip.
Above all, let’s not whine about the cost and consequences of our leaders’ folly. That’s a privilege of citizens. If we are unhappy, let’s again take up the burdens of self-government. The machinery bequeathed us by the Founders lies idle but potentially powerful. It needs only our energy to work.
Memories of propaganda past
“That Time CNN Staged A Fake Interview With A Syrian Child For War Propaganda” by Caitlin Johnstone. A “rogue journalist” points out that almost everything we know about the Syrian war is propaganda. We have no way of knowing what is true.
For More Information
Ideas! For some shopping ideas, see my recommended books and films at Amazon.
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about propaganda, and especially these…
- Another rush to war! This time in Syria.
- Secrets about our attack on Syria & Russia to help jihadists.
- Ignore the propaganda. See the world through clear eyes.
Two new books about our new Cold War.
Return to Cold War
Who Lost Russia?: How the World Entered a New Cold War
See Tony Wood’s review of these new books in the London Review of Books.
Honestly the main reason I voted AGAINST Clinton the Second was because I knew for certain that she and her campaign would continue this idiotic mess in the middle east. Trump, at least, made noises about doing things to the contrary. It’s obvious now what his words are worth, wasn’t so much, then. What the devil is a concerned citizen TO DO?
Muse,
Trump’s entire campaign was a fake. His primary theme was populism. We got bog-standard GOP policies. Just like voting for Mr. Hope And Change.
Like Charlie Brown, we are fooled again and again.
Who knows? Perhaps some day we’ll stop acting like customers at a restaurant, roll up our sleeves, and become citizens and go into the kitchen and work.
I’d like to think giving interest and support to candidates like Sanders and Stein would make a difference, but it’s really hard to do given the situation with the media, the debates, the stranglehold that the two major parties have on the politics.
I didn’t think Trump was going to be any major change on the foreign policy and militarism. He kept saying how he wanted to fund the defense and national security categories of government even more. And he always made bellicose statements about various other countries, religions, etc. I figured he would do better at making Netanyahu happier. So far he has.
Charles,
His vague statements about a less interventionist foreign policy got a lot of people excited. As did his populist rhetoric.
All lies, of course. Much like those of Mr. Hope and Change.
Our leaders treat us like dogs. Perhaps they are right to do so. We can prove them wrong by not acting like dogs.
Under Trump, likud foreign policy has replaced American foreign policy. The tail is wagging the dog.
Gerard,
“Under Trump, likud foreign policy has replaced American foreign policy.”
How has US foreign policy changed under Trump from that during the Bush-Obama Administration?
Abandoning the Iran Nuclear deal, recognize Jerusalem as capital of jerusalem, slashing aid to the Palestinians to name three major changes. Then there is the change of tone, deafening silence on the 2 state solution.
Gerard,
None of those are major policy changes, merely changes in tactics (not strategy or goals) of long-held deep US foreign policy themes: opposition to Ian and support for Israel (assuming that those are two different themes, which is debatable). Cutting aid to Egypt or Israel — that would be a major policy change.
“Then there is the change of tone”
Yes. Obama discovered that we prefer image to substance, tone to action. As with all great discoveries, others quickly apply them. Trump is a change in tone for the presidency.
But even there it is incremental. Sarah Palin’s candidacy was the path-breaker. The GOP leadership discovered that its flock loved loud clowns. She missed becoming President by an astonishingly small margin – 7% of the vote (narrow, considering the ticket was an elderly crank and a clown), with McCain’s poor health giving her a good shot at the Presidency.
The two state solution has been a long standing goal for American foreign policy, going back to 91.
The Iran deal was an attempt at dente with Iran which still safe guarded israeli nuclear primacy, while ending a long standing confrontation by integrating Iran in the global system. That has been replaced with a policy of maximum pressure, regime change seems to be the hoped for result.
The Aid, is a big change, for Palestinians, they are dependent on it. You can stick that in with moving the embassy to Jerusalem, as an afterthought insult to the Palestinian people, just incase they hadn’t got the message the two state solution is dead.
I’ll revise that, two big policy changes, both of which are major wins for the current israeli government, actually there longstanding policy goals.
I don’t know about Palin or Obama, that’s for domestic consumption.
We are talking about policy, that different to a grand strategy. Yes the long standing support to Israel and the gulf monarchies has not changed, they are part of America’s strategic posture in the Middle east, but policies are how that strategic posture is maintained, and that has changed.
The policy of de escalation with Iran has been abandoned, in favor of pressure.
The policy of support for a viable two state solution as a means for reducing tension in the middle east, has been abandoned in favor of the status quo.
Securing the middle east is a strategic goal, policy is how its achieved.
Gerard,
“The policy of de escalation with Iran has been abandoned, in favor of pressure.”
Since 1979 the US has oscillated between negotiation and pressure. Neither swing is a major change.
Policy towards”The Aid, is a big change, for Palestinians, ”
But it is a trivial change for the US.
But the truth is, most of us *are* proles. People don’t understand what’s happening in the world around them and are not engaged in any meaningful way.
I heard a BBC interview with a UK journalist/pollster of the subject of Brexit and the ‘Chequers’ deal being used as the basis of the negotiations with the EU. The journo said that most of the focus group members she interviewed were either unaware of ‘Chequers’ or what it contained/implied.
This, despite it being almost exclusively in UK news for the last two months or more and being the document on which the political and economic future of the UK is currently being determined.
I recommend “The Rise And Rise Of Michael Rimmer”. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066302/, made during the 1970’s there are lessons in it about popularism and representative democracy that are still relevant today.
Steve,
“But the truth is, most of us *are* proles.”
Yes, that’s my point. But it is a choice. The Federalist Papers were written for shopkeepers, craftsmen, and farmers. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were four hours of deep discussion of US public policy.
We can again become what we were. Being a prole is a choice.
I’d agree that we don’t *have* to be proles, but I think for some people there’s a perverse pride in ignorance.
Like those who were (it appeared) proud to be unable to program their video recorder. They’d state it like a badge of honour rather than an admission that they were too lazy or stupid to read, understand and implement a simple set of instructions. Thereby implying they thought I was no better than them….
Like the people who watch trash TV and prefix their eulogising of it with statements that usually start “we all have our guilty pleasures…”
It’s become socially acceptable to be a prole, a willing consumer of pablum, or at least not to be ashamed of appalling self inflicted ignorance.
Steve,
I disagree with your framing of the situation.
“Like those who were (it appeared) proud to be unable to program their video recorder.”
Lots of stories like that about the automobile and telephone. There are always people suspicious of new tech.
“Like the people who watch trash TV”
Ditto. There have always been anti-intellectual Americans. We either don’t read or read trash (as Mark Twain’s books were considered by the intelligentsia during his life).
All of the things you mention are kinds of consumption. None of those things have any relation to our problem, imo. What has changed the fraction of Americans willing to stand together and work for political change. Unions, political clubs, people walking their neighborhoods before elections — organizing in a thousand different ways.
Even the “intermediate” organizations that built our communities are dying. Such as the Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions, and countless other service clubs.
Its not the fact of being unable to program a video recorder, but that it was something to be *proud* of. Conversely, those that *could* were viewed as abnormal, weird propeller-heads.
In that state, there’s no incentive to change things, to work to improve ourselves. All we have to do is hold our hands up and say “what could I do?”, and everyone nods and says “I’m with you brother, it’s all too complex and difficult for normal people to fathom.”
Nailed it.
Dragnet,
Remember, being a prole is a choice. We once were better, and can be again.