With former President Barack Obama playing golf in Palm Springs, 35-year-old Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hi) went on a fact-finding mission in Syria and Lebanon. After watching Obama back the Saudi proxy war for six years to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Gabbard wanted to finally accept responsibility for a failed U.S. policy causing 400,000 deaths, 12 million displaced Syrians to neighboring countries and Europe, causing the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII. Obama’s failed policy mirrors war hawks on Capitol Hill led by Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), backing Saudi Arabia’s attempt to topple al-Assad’s Shiite government, setting up a Salafist or Wahhabi Sunni regime in Damascus. Most damaging of all was Obama pitting the U.S. against Russia, driving U.S.-Russian relations to the lowest point since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Gabbard wanted answers, not more excuses.
For six years Obama and his Secretaries of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Kerry armed-and-funded various Saudi-backed opposition groups seeking regime change in Damascus. Gabbard had the good fortune of meeting with Lebanon’s newly elected President Michael Aoun and Prime Saad Hariri, and ultimately with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “Originally, I had no intention of meeting with Assad, but when given the opportunity, I felt it was important to take it . . “ said Gabbard, emphasizing her goal of ending the six-year-old war. Obama’s White House sold the war as a civil war when, in fact, it was a determined Saudi-backed proxy war to topple al-Assad’s Shiite government. Gabbard, a decorated Iraq War veteran, serves the Hawaii National Guard with the rank of major. Serving on the House Armed Services Committee, Gabbard stuck out her neck opposing Obama’s policy.
Going to Syria Gabbard wanted to confirm what she already knew about Obama’s Syrian policy: It promoted more death, destruction and terrorism in Syria. “I think we should be ready to meet with anyone if there’s a chance it can help bring about an end to this war, which is causing the Syrian people so much suffering,” Gabbard said in a statement. Prevailing wisdom at the former Obama White House and on Capitol Hill fingered Bashar al-Assad as the problem. Gabbard found out firsthand that al-Assad was trying to defend his sovereignty against a determined Saudi, Turkey and U.S.-backed insurgency. If you listened to the Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, you’d think that Saudi Arabia decided single-handedly to topple al-Assad. Obama and Kerry drove Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov crazy backing the Saudi’s Arab Spring to topple al-Assad.
Putin decided Sept. 30, 2015 that enough-was-enough in Syria, backing al-Assad with relentless air strikes to weaken Saudi-Turkey-U.S.-backed rebels. White House officials accused Moscow of targeting opposition groups, not, as promised, degrading the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS]. A year-and-a-half later, the rebel stronghold of Aleppo fell Dec. 23, 2016 to Russian-baked Syrian forces, marking an embarrassing end to Obama’s Syrian policy. Time and again, Obama and Kerry promised Putin and Lavrov they’d accept al-Assad staying in power. But, invariably, the White House could not say no to Saudi Arabia. Gabbard’s mission proved that U.S. intervention in Syria made a bad situation worse. Calling Obama, Hillary and Kerry’s foreign policy “interventionist,” Gabbard rejected the idea that the U.S. should be involved in toppling Mideast dictators.
During the 2016 campaign, Gabbard agreed wholeheartedly with Trump’s opposition to backing terrorists to topple Mideast dictators. Trump was especially critical of Hillary backing of the Iraq War, toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein April 10, 2003, turning the Middle East into a terrorist nightmare. Gabbard also opposed Obama and Hillary’s decision to topple Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Gaddafi Aug. 24, 2011, turning Libya into a terrorist free-for-all. “The U.S. must stop supporting terrorists who are destroying Syria and her people. The U.S. and other countries fueling this war must stop immediately. We must allow the Syrian people to try to recover from this terrible war,” said Gabbard, agreeing 100% with Putin who’s asked the U.S. for six years to stop backing terror group to topple al-Assad. Gabbard’s view on Syria seem aligned with President Trump.
Obama, Hillary and Kerry told the American people that the people of Syria rebelled against Syrian President President Bashar al-Assad in 2011. Gabbard tells the opposite story, blaming the six-year-old war on Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the U.S. arming-and-funding various terror group to topple Damascus. “We must end our war to overthrow the Syrian government and focus our attention on dealing with al-Qaeda and ISIS,” Gabbard said in her statement. Her analysis of the Syria War parallels Trump and his soon-to-be 64-year-old Secretary of State former Exxon-Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson. Unlike war hawks on Capitol Hill, Trump wants to partner with Russia to deal with emerging threats around the globe, including China, North Korea and Iran. Stopping U.S. support of the Saudi proxy war in Syria should help put U.S.-Russian relations back on the right track.
