Announcing a major change in U.S. Syria policy, U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley acknowledged that the U.S. no longer seeks to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Since the Syrian civil war began March 15, 2011, former President Barack Obama backed a determined Saudi proxy war to evict al-Assad from Damascus. Obama aligned his Syrian policy with Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, backing various Saudi-funded rebel groups to remove al-Assad from power. Obama gave abundant cash-and-arms to former Free Syrian Army Brig. Gen. Salim Idris whose group was decimated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS]. ISIS gained much of its U.S. military hardware defeating the Iraqi military in 2013. Backing the Saudi proxy war, Obama added to the 300,000 deaths, 12 million displaced Syrians, sparking the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII.
Haley acknowledged that U.S. Syrian policy under President Donald Trump has changed, no longer seeking al-Assad’s removal. “You pick and choose your battles and when we’re looking at this, it’s about changing up priorities and our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out,” Haley told reporters at the U.N. Since the 2011 Saudi-backed Arab Spring, the Kingdom got rid of dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria. Only al-Assad resisted the Saudi’s determined proxy war, leaving Syria in rubble, despite al-Assad hanging on to power with Russian and Iranian help. Speaking in Ankara, Turkey, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said any change of government in Syria would be determined by the Syrian people, not foreign powers seeking to rid him from Damascus. Former Secretary of State John Kerry wholeheartedly backed the Saudi proxy war.
Obama spent six years backing the Saudi proxy war to topple al-Assad, only to watch his policy backfire after Russian joined the war-effort Sept. 30, 2015 to keep al-Assad in power. Obama and Kerry drove U.S.-Russian relations to Cold War lows fighting with Moscow about letting al-Assad stay in power. Obama and Kerry sacrificed U.S.-Russian relations backing various Saudi-funded rebel groups, insisting that al-Assad must leave Damascus. Once Putin joined the war to save al-Assad, Obama should have pivoted but didn’t. Obama, Kerry and McCain all supported rebel groups promising topple al-Assad but having no chance against superior Russian air-power, turning rebel strongholds like East and West Aleppo in rubble. When finally threatened with annihilation, Saudi-U.S.rebels finally pulled out of East Aleppo Dec. 23, 2016, leaving Syria’s biggest city in ruins.
McCain didn’t like when Trump shifted the focus away from backing Saudi-backed rebels to defeating ISIS. When Tillerson said March 31 that the Syrian people would determine al-Assad’s fate, McCain bristled. Tillerson “overlooks the tragic reality that the Syrian people cannot decide the fate of Assad or the future of their own country when they are being slaughtered,” said McCain. McCain doesn’t admit that his policy of backing Syrian rebel groups caused the death, destruction and terrorism in Syria. Backing the Saudi proxy war for six years caused the worst refugee crisis since WWII, displacing millions to neighboring countries and Europe. Europe’s refugee crisis, largely from the Obama-Kerry-McCain-backed policy, drove the U.K. out of the European Union June 23, 2016, sending shock-waves in Brussels. McCain still backs the Saudi proxy war to topple al-Assad.
When you look at the damage done backing the Saudi proxy war in Syria for six years, it’s entirely reasonable for the Trump White House to change course. McCain wants to keep doing the same old thing. “I hope President Trump will make clear that America will not follow this self-destructive and self-defeating path,” said McCain, urging the White House to back the Obama policy of supporting Saudi-backed rebel groups. When McCain talks of “self-destructive” or “self-defeating,” what could be more self-destructive or self-defeating than spreading more chaos and refugees flows to the European Union. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) echoed McCain’s views that it would be a “grave mistake” to stop supporting Saudi-funded rebel groups seeking to topple al-Assad. Trump’s approach, according to Graham, would be “a great reward for Russian and Iran.”
Turning U.S. foreign policy on its head, renegade war hawks like McCain and Graham can’t see the damage they’ve done to the Middle East backing the Saudi proxy war for the last six years. McCain and Graham rubber stamp Obama’s 100% backing of the Saudi proxy war, practically destroying the EU, creating the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII. McCain and Graham need to stop meddling in U.S. foreign policy, letting Trump’s State and Defense Departments call the shots. Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford tried to revise history, suggesting that Trump was following Obama’s Syria policy, shifting away from regime change to fight ISIS. “Amb. Haley’s remarks just confirm that the Trump administration is following the same path,” said Ford, not admitting that Obama backed the Saudi proxy war for six years, wasting precious cash on competing rebel groups.
