Proving that elections really matter, 70-year-old President-elect Donald Trump has signaled he plans to join forces with Russia to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS]. For the past six years, President Barack Obama adopted the foreign policy of war hawks on Capitol Hill led by Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), joining the Saudis to fund-and-arm so-called Syrian opposition forces seeking topple the Shiite government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Funded by the Saudis six years ago, the Arab Spring hoped to topple numerous Mideast dictators starting with Tunsia’s Zine El Abidine Jan. 15, 2011, toppling Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak Feb 11, 2011, going to war against al-Assad March 15, 2011. Al-Assad rained the Saudi’s plans, fiercely resisting a determined proxy war to change regimes in Damascus. Along the way, the U.S. toppled Col. Muammar Gaddafi Aug. 24, 2011.
Toppling Mideast dictators starting with Iraq’s Saddam Hussen April 10, 2003 has done nothing but spread Islamic terrorism through the Middle East. Trump gets the concept that Mideast dictatorships are necessary to control longstanding sectarian wars between Sunnis and Shiites. Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring was an attempt to establish Wahhabi regimes around the Middle East, confronting Iran’s growing Shiite dominance in the region. Saudi Arabia’s policy of proxy war, supplying cash-and-arms to various terror groups that back Saudi Arabia’s Wahabbi mission, has created only death, destruction and terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa. Trump gets that Saudi Arabia cannot call the shots in the Middle East, especially pitting the U.S. against the Russian Federation. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeir warned the U.S. Oct. 12 against starting WWIII
Obama’s foreign policy over the last six years gave Saudi Arabia the green light to fund proxy war in Syria. Saudi’s 56-year-old Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has openly admitted his government’s commitment to topple al-Assad. When Russian President Vladimir Putin lent air support to al-Assad starting Sept. 30, 2016, it changed the course of Saudi’s proxy war. Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry went round-and-round with Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about how to end the war. Obama couldn’t say no to Riyadh, making the Geneva-based peace talks led by U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura a failure. All Obama had to do was to tell King Salman would no longer back the six-year proxy war, forcing the Saudis to stand down. Instead of confronting the Saudis, Obama chose to pit the U.S. against Russia, driving U.S.-Russian relations to new lows.
Now the battle of Aleppo rages on with Russia, Iran and Hezbollah trying to drive Saudi-U.S.-backed terrorists out of Aleppo, since occupying Syrian territory since 2012. Obama and Kerry talk of the great humanitarian disaster in Syria, flooding the Mideast and Europe with millions of Syrian refugees, driving the U.K. to back the Brexit vote June 23 to leave the EU. Despite knowing the Saudi proxy war’s humanitarian disaster, Obama and Kerry allowed the Saudis to keep fighting. Obama has never answered the question of what gives the U.S. or Saudi Arabia to right to topple a sovereign U.N. power. Obama pretends the terrorists he supports are democratically-minded Syrians, seeking reforms to al-Asad’s dictatorships. In point of fact, the U.S. has fought on the same side as ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria, both seeking to topple al-Assad. Obama never thought through his disastrous policy.
Trump plans to do things differently in Syria over the loud objections of Neocons led by McCain in the U.S. Senate. Trump needs to understand that come Jan. 20, 2017 it’s his foreign policy, not McCain’s and the war hawks on Capitol Hill. Obama continues to warn Trump against building rapport with Putin, despite the obvious benefits to U.S. national security. U.S. officials would benefit greatly in Iran and North Korea by having Putin a strong U.S. ally. Unlike Obama that sought punitive economic sanctions against Russia, Putin never condemned the disastrous U.S. foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trump sees the big picture, especially that Superpowers sometimes have to make unpopular decisions, like Putin did in Crimea. All the hype now about Putin invading Poland or the Baltic States continues the counter-productive anti-Kremlin propaganda drumbeat.
Begging for more cash-and-arms in Aleppo, Saudi-U.S.-backed terror groups are running out of time. If the U.N. were really concerned about the humanitarian crisis, they’d apply pressure on Riyadh to stop the six-year-old proxy war that’s killed over 300,000 and displaced 12 million more Syrians to neighboring countries and Europe. Unlike Obama, Trump plans to reset relations with Putin, eradicate ISIS and end the Saudi-funded Syrian proxy war. Unable to topple al-Assad like other Mideast dictators during the Arab Spring, Saudi Arabia must accept defeat and stop funding the destructive Syrian proxy war. Whatever the Syrian and Russian military can do to end the siege of Aleppo, the U.S. and U.N. should back their efforts. Toppling al-Assad should not be part of U.S. foreign policy. Resetting relations with Moscow can only pay rich dividends to U.S. foreign policy.
