Summary: Our war in Syria has torn the curtain concealing the Deep State, showing the true Left and Right in America, the power of the Deep State, and the sham nature of our bipartisan system. Most importantly, we see that we have no allies in the quest to fix the Republic. These revelations might be the most important result of Trump’s presidency.
“We’re about to have a very graphic demonstration of the near-total uniformity of the political class when it comes to the military and its role. The war party is ready for a coming-out party.”
— “We Know How Trump’s War Game Ends” by Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone.
Our objective in Syria since 9/11 has been to destabilize and replace the regime. That has long been obvious despite the lies told us.
John R. Bolton has served as a high official for Presidents Reagan, Bush Sr., Bush Jr., and now Trump (as National Security Advisor). On 6 May 2002, Bolton (then an Undersecretary of State) gave a speech designating three nations as “rogue nations” “beyond the Axis of Evil”: Cuba, Libya, and Syria. Nations warranting immediate action to suppress.
Cables released by Wikileaks described these efforts by State during the Bush and Obama years. For example, in December 2006, William Roebuck (just returned from tour as Deputy Chief of Mission in Damascus, then Director of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs) cabled a report “Influencing the SARG in the end of 2006” {SARG: Syrian Arab Regime Government} discussing ways to destabilize the regime (see analysis of it here and here).
After civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, President Obama provided both explicit and covert aid to the insurgents. We know only fragments about this, such as the CIA’s Timber Sycamore operation providing training and arms. Obama’s efforts escalated during his years in office. In 2013 Obama was on the verge of launching massive air strikes against Syria, deterred only when notified that the bogus evidence of gas attacks by Assad would not withstand scrutiny (the authorization bill in Congress was quietly killed). But we continued to provide arms to the insurgents. See details of Obama’s programs here. All illegal, of course. Acts of war against a sovereign nation without authorization from Congress or the UN.
In 2014 Congress authorized funds for the Special Forces to train and equip forces to fight Assad’s regime – cloaking this in a pretense that this was also fighting ISIS. We spent $500 million to equip tiny numbers of “fighters” – most of whom either defected or just turned their weapons over to jihadist groups.
In 2014, Flynn (then Director of the DIA) said that his agency had been warning since 2012 that there was no moderate opposition to Assad – and that the CIA was arming jihadists. The “Free Syrian Army” was window-dressing based in Turkey. Details here. After that, the US government more or less stopped pretending. Assad was fighting ISIS. We were fighting Assad.
Like many of these wars throughout history, you need a monthly program to know who is doing what to whom – and can only guess at their motives and long-term plants. Turkey, Russia, Iran, Israel, America, the Saudi Princes, etc. Americans are told child-like fables about the action to keep them happy and docile (just like the stories of the virtuous mujahideen in Afghanistan fighting the evil Soviets (see photos from before-American-intervention and afterwards to see the results; send your personal apologies to Afghanistan’s women).
Trump is planning to do some sort of slowing to our mad intervention in Syria. Withdraw some troops, perhaps offset with more aid and training – and more bombing (definitely more bombing). We do not know exactly what America is doing there. Nobody has told us about the policy change. Proles need not know such things. But the bottom line is obvious. We are beginning to leave. The Assad regime is still there. We lost. He won.
Perhaps Trump might do something similar in Afghanistan, perhaps offset by even more military/CIA intervention in Africa. General “Mad Dog” Mattis is unhappy with any cuts to the Long War, and resigned. Remember how the Right went berserk in 2013 when Obama fired Mattis, then head of Central Command, for pushing too hard for war with Iran. My favorite: “Exit another fighting gen.” in the New York Post.
“Could it be that, as Obama prepares to cede Afghanistan back to the Taliban, the last thing he needs is an obstreperous general gumming up the surrender?”
Hysteria erupts in Washington
Any mention of leaving failed wars is heresy to the Deep State, its lackies and useful idiots. The reaction is beyond anything I have seen since Nixon or even thought possible. See Kristinn Taylor’s list of lunatic reactions by our political leaders (both parties) and journalists. Plus many many others. Leading leftist Robert Reich (Professor of Public Policy at Berkeley, official in the Administration of three presidents, and assisted Obama; Wikipedia). Leading Leftist Rachel Maddow (PhD in politics from Oxford, broadcast on MSNBC and Air America; Wikipedia). Mia Farrow, Bette Midler, and Cher.
A few voices remind us about the law.
Syria is not a “gift” that can be “given” to Putin, despite the blinkered American political climate which places everything in that asinine context. It’s a country over which the United States has no legal authority, and never did, despite years of casualties and billions spent pic.twitter.com/7WztDNedt5
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 19, 2018
Matt Taibbi says that “The real line is between a war party, and everyone else.” Unfortunately the “war party” consists of the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and almost entire national ruling establishment (e.g., journalists, think tanks, defense contractors). Our superiority of numbers means nothing so long as we remain gullible and apathetic.
Who knew that ending failed illegal wars was so unpopular in America? “Rogue Journalist” Caitlin Johnstone gives us the bad news. First, “Endless War Has Been Normalized And Everyone Is Crazy.”
“In an even marginally sane world, the fact that a nation’s armed forces are engaged in daily military violence would be cause for shock and alarm, and pulling those forces out of that situation would be viewed as a return to normalcy. Instead we are seeing the exact opposite. In an even marginally sane world, congressional oversight would be required to send the US military to invade countries and commit acts of war, because that act, not withdrawing them, is what’s abnormal. Instead we are seeing the exact opposite.
“A hypothetical space alien observing our civilization for the first time would conclude that we are insane, and that hypothetical space alien would be absolutely correct. …
“It is absolutely bat shit crazy that we feel normal about the most powerful military force in the history of civilization running around the world invading and occupying and bombing and killing, yet are made to feel weird about the possibility of any part of that ending. It is absolutely bat shit crazy that endless war is normalized while the possibility of peace and respecting national sovereignty to any extent is aggressively abnormalized. In a sane world the exact opposite would be true, but in our world this self-evident fact has been obscured. In a sane world anyone who tried to convince you that war is normal would be rejected and shunned, but in our world those people make six million dollars a year reading from a teleprompter on MSNBC.”
Then she sums up the news.
“So while the jumble of information and speculation about Trump’s possible Syria maneuverings doesn’t necessarily tell us a whole lot, the reaction to it tells us why the world looks the way it looks. The most powerful military force in the history of civilization inflicts violence and domination with total impunity and total disregard for national sovereignty, demanding total respect for its own borders and total compliance from all nations outside its borders. Nations which obey are absorbed into an alliance that is so tight and streamlined it can effectively be called an empire, while nations which disobey are invaded, occupied, disrupted and destroyed. …
“We’ve got to evolve beyond this mentality of intrusive domination which is so aggressively promoted as normal by the mass media. The idea that it’s okay for a powerful nation to insert its military force into a weaker nation in order to manipulate geopolitical dynamics to its advantage is a sickness, and we need to heal it.”
Being polite, she does not mention that our leaders do this because we applaud. If we voted against them, they would not do so. If we protested in the street, this would end quickly. These are our wars. Our responsibility. Any blow-back from them will be well deserved. This is not the world we fought in WWII to build. It is the kind of world we fought to end.
For More Information
A few rational voices are raised amidst the madness about Syria.
- “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.
- “Time to Get Out of Syria” by Gordon Adams at Defense One. He is Fellow at the Stimson Center, prof emeritus at American U, and was a Senior White House budget official for national security programs from 1993-1997.
- Why we stay: “For Trump and his generals, ‘victory’ has different meanings” in the WaPo. “In the absence of a clear outcome, winning for much of the U.S. military’s top brass has come to be synonymous with staying put. These days, senior officers talk about ‘infinite war.’”
- “Trump’s Decision to Leave Syria Was No ‘Surprise’” by Mark Perry at The American Conservative – “To say it was impulsive, or that the entire military opposes it, would be grossly misreading the situation.”
- “Why Trump Decided To Remove U.S. Troops From Syria” at Moon Of Alabama – Forgotten by our warmongers: Turkey is a key ally. Pissing them off in WWI brought the allies to the brink of defeat.
- “We Know How Trump’s War Game Ends” by Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone – “Nothing unites our political class like the threat of ending our never-ending war.”
Ideas! For 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 our war in Syria, about our incompetent senior generals, and especially these…
- Peter van Buren asks what the Middle East would look like if we hadn’t helped.
- Trump says the truth about our wars. Do Not Listen!
- Secrets about our attack on Syria & Russia to help jihadists.
- Big news about Syria. It’s news for proles! – “Trump agrees to an indefinite military effort.” WaPo on 6 September 2018.
- Trump protects al Qaeda in Syria. The Resistance applauds.
- Syrians don’t own Syria. It’s everyone’s, a devil’s playground. – By anthropologist Maximilian Forte.
Essential reading to understand modern war
The Transformation of War: The Most Radical Reinterpretation of Armed Conflict Since Clausewitz
The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World
Anatomy of Failure: Why America Loses Every War It Starts
By Harlan Ullman (Naval Institute Press (2017).
“This book should be read by all practitioners and serious students of national security as the guide for avoiding failures and miscalculations in using American military power.”
— General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-1993) and 65th Secretary of State.
“Anatomy of Failure is part Von Clausewitz, part Tom Clancy, with personal insights by Harlan K. Ullman that brilliantly translate why the United States, the most powerful nation on earth, has so often fallen short of its objectives.”
— Michael Lord Dobbs, creator of the series “House of Cards.”
From the publisher …
“Why, since the end of World War II, has the United States either lost every war it started or failed in every military intervention it prosecuted? Harlan Ullman’s new book answers this most disturbing question, a question Americans would never think of even asking because this record of failure has been largely hidden in plain sight or forgotten with the passage of time.
“The most straightforward answer is that presidents and administrations have consistently failed to use sound strategic thinking and lacked sufficient knowledge or understanding of the circumstances prior to deciding whether or not to employ force.
“Making this case is an in-depth analysis of the records of presidents from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama and Donald Trump in using force or starting wars. His recommended solutions begin with a ‘brains-based’ approach to sound strategic thinking to address one of the major causes of failure: the inexperience of too many of the nation’s commanders-in-chief. Ullman reinforces his argument through the use of autobiographical vignettes that provide a human dimension and insight into the reasons for failure, in some cases making public previously unknown history.
“The clarion call of Anatomy of Failure is that both a sound strategic framework and sufficient knowledge and understanding of the circumstance that may lead to using force are vital. Without them, failure is virtually guaranteed.”
