Running against propaganda from the United States and European Union, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sounded a hopeful tone as the last remaining pockets of resistance in Aleppo finally gave in. Since the 2011 Saudi-backed Arab Spring, al-Assad has fought a Saudi-U.S.-Turkey-backed proxy war aimed at toppling his Shiite regime in Damascus. U.S. and EU officials blamed the over 300,000 deaths, 12 million displaced to neighboring countries and the EU and worst refugee crisis since WWII on al-Assad’s government. Al-Assad steadfastly resisted a terrorist takeover of his government since March 15, 2011 when the so-called Syrian “civil war” started. U.S. and EU officials sold the war as a civil war when they knew it was a proxy war funded by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the U.S. “History in the making and worthy of more than the worst congratulations,” said al-Assad about liberating Aleppo.
President Barack Obama and war hawks on Capitol Hill, led by Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), chairman of the Armed Service Committee, tried but failed to rid al-Assad from Damascus. When Russian President Vladimir Putin aided al-Assad with a determined air campaign Sept. 30, 2015, the war gradually turned to al-Assad. Liberating Aleppo deals a blow to U.S. and EU foreign policy, trying but failing with Saudi Arabia to force al-Assad out of Damascus. Letting Saudi-U.S.-Turkey based rebel group leave Aleppo should remind al-Assad’s United Nations’ critics that the nearly six-year-old proxy war caused the death, destruction and terrorism in Syria. No U.N. official can say with a straight face, including Geneva-based Special Peace Envoy Staffan de Mistura that the carnage was caused by al-Assad alone. Without the Saudi-U.S-Turkey-backed proxy war, lives would have been saved.
Faced with the Syrian government retaking Aleppo, Syrian residents still plea for the EU to prevent the massacre of innocent civilians now that the proxy war has failed. “We are not waiting for press communiqués and declarations, or meetings for the organization of other meetings, “ said Brita Hagi Hassan, head of the Aleppo city council once under rebel control. Hassan begged the EU and U.S. to rescue them from a fierce Russia, Iranian and Syrian military operation to liberate Aleppo. Hassan and other Aleppo officials act as if Saudi-U.S.-Turkey-backed rebels had a right to sovereignty since seizing East Aleppo in 2012. Four years later, with Russian and Iranian help, Aleppo is back in al-Assad’s hands. “I think that after the liberation of Aleppo we’ll talk about the situation as . . before the liberation of Aleppo and after liberation of Aleppo,” said al-Assad.
Turning off the lights on the Eiffel Tower tonight, French President Francois Hollande showed his solidarity with Syrian rebels, not al-Assad’s regime. All the demonization of Syria and Russia in the West, not one member of the EU, individually or collectively, aided rebels other than symbolic gestures. Hollande demanded “a ceasefire and the evacuation of all the civilians and eventually political negotiation ,” referring to failed past attempts to get rid of al-Assad. France and its EU backers haven’t woken up to the new reality in Aleppo: That the Saudi-backed Arab Spring and proxy war has failed. “Europe must make its voice heard,” said Hollande, telling Syrian rebels that they can expect only lip service from the EU. “We want action,” said Hassan but only receiving hot air from the EU. Pentagon officials under Obama have also been equally reluctant to intervene militarily in Aleppo.
Hollande urged the EU to take a tougher stand on the fall of Aleppo. “The idea of international law has been killed in Aleppo. It has been killed in Syria . . . because of the desperate silence of the international community in the face of this crime,” said Hassan. If there’s any breach of international law, it’s the six-year-long determined Saudi-U.S.-Turkey proxy war to topple a U.N.-member state. Hollande knows that al-Assad was defending his sovereignty against six-year-old foreign proxy war against a sovereign government in Damascus. Only Putin and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recognized that Syria had a right to defend its territorial integrity against foreign invaders. Saudi Arabia seeks nothing short of toppling a Shiite government and replacing it with a radical Wahhabi regime. How any U.S. or EU official blames al-Assad for defending his sovereignty is beyond all logic.
U.S. and EU officials are now screaming about human rights abuses now that Saudi-U.S.-Turkey-backed opposition forces have been driven out of Aleppo. Chairing an EU summit on Aleppo in Brussels Dec. 15, EU Council President Donald Tusk continued the platitudes. “The last think your people in Aleppo need today is more words of sympathy. The only thin you need today is real and effective protection and assistance,” said Tusk, knowing there’s no stomach in the EU for any military involvement in Aleppo. Once a thriving metropolis before the six-year-old Saudi-U.S.-Turkey proxy war in Syria, Aleppo has been bombed into ruins because rebels refused to get out. With al-Assad resuming sovereignty, U.S. and EU officials have no one to blame but themselves for the disaster. After all the destruction, rebuilding Aleppo should be high on the EU’s priority list.
