Warning the U.S. against any more strikes against Syrian forces Oct. 1, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said assaulting the Syrian military would further destabilize the region. Since the U.S. attacked Syrian forces Sept. 17, the fragile truce in Aleppo collapsed, where Saudi-U.S.-Turkey-backed rebels have occupied Syria since 2012. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov practically stood on their heads to convince the U.S. that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has a right to stay in Damascus. Backing the nearly six-year-old Saudi proxy war in Syria, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have pitted the U.S. against Russia and Iran in Syria. While skipping the U.N. General Assembly last month, Putin made his thoughts known at the U.N. last year, warning against toppling al-Assad.
No one at the White House or Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has explained how toppling al-Assad would lead to more stability in the region. Putin told the U.N. General Assembly last year that toppling al-Assad would repeat the past mistakes in Iraq and Libya, leading to more death, destruction and terrorism. Obama’s put U.S. foreign policy in Syria on the same side as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] and al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra Front, both sworn to regime change in Damascus. When Kerry and Lavrov reached a temporary ceasefire pact Sept. 10, it raised hope that the war could end. Less than a week later, the U.S. bombed Syrian forces, tearing the ceasefire apart. Since the ceasefire ended Sept. 17, Syria and Russia have tried to drive what’s left of Saudi-U.S.-Turkey-backed militants out of Aleppo.
Calling Russian and Syrian military action in Aleppo “barbarous,” the U.S. doesn’t admit the role it’s played over the past six years backing rebels to topple al-Assad. Unlike other dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, al-Assad put up a fierce fight to drive all terrorists out of Syria, including the ones backed by Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Turkey. With Russian and Iranian help, al-Assad has nearly taken back Aleppo, now reeling from a Grozy, Chechnya-like Russian bombardment laying waste to Syria’s largest city. Al-Assad called today for insurgent forces to surrender in Aleppo. Warning the U.S. to avoid bombing Syria troops, Zakharova stressed it would “lead to terrible tectonic consequences not only on the territory of the country but also in the region on the whole.” Zakharova isn’t threatening military action against U.S. only talking about regional consequences.
U.N. Geneva-based Special Syrian peace Envoy Staffan de Mistura criticized Russia for escalating the battle in Aleppo. De Mistura won’t admit, like the U.S. and European Union, that al-Assad is within his rights to defend his sovereignty against foreign invaders. Obama’s stubborn backing of the Saudi proxy war shows that he’s willing to keep the war going, despite over 300,000 deaths, 12 million displaced to neighboring countries and Europe, creating the worst refugee crisis since WWII. Saudi Arabia’s U.S.-educated Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said March 5 that the war won’t end until al-Assad leaves Damascus. De Mistura hasn’t questioned what gives Saudi Arabia the right to topple a U.N.-member state. Saudi-backed Syrian rebels have refused to retreat from Aleppo, despite taking an historic pounding, destroying much of Aleppos’s infrastructure.
Obama, like Hillary, has his own reasons for backing the Saudi proxy war against al-Assad. When he leaves office Jan. 20, 2017, he expects the Saudis to help raise the $2 billion needed to fund his University of Chicago-based presidential library. As GOP nominee and real estate Mogul has pointed out, Hillary’s taken more than a $100 million into the Clinton Foundation from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. She’s given Saudi Arabia 100% backing for its proxy war against Damascus. “Unacceptable to bomb civilians, children and hospitals in #Aleppo. No humanity. Assad & Russia moving further from peace,” Tweeted Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margo Wallstrom. Wallstrom doesn’t criticize Saudi-backed rebel groups for keeping the nearly six-year proxy war going indefinitely. Calling on rebels to leave Aleppo, al-Assad hoped the rebels surrender would end the war.
When Trump and Hillary meet again for another debate Oct. 9 in St. Louis, both candidates should lay out their different visions. Hillary should explain why she backs the nearly six-year-old Saudi proxy war seeking to topple al-Assad. Taking millions from the Saudis no doubt influences her foreign policy. Blowing up bridges near Aleppo over the Euphrates River, the U.S. escalated the conflict. If de Mistura and the U.N. want the carnage to end, they need to confront the Saudis for perpetuating an unending proxy war causing untold death, destruction and terrorism to the region. Instead of blaming the Russian or Iranian militaries for backing al-Assad, the U.S. should ask itself why it backs the same goals as ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria: To topple al-Assad. No U.S. foreign policy should back the same policies and ISIS and al-Qaeda, no matter how topsy-turvy the Syrian War.
