Pretending that Saudi Arabia and Turkey have no dog in the fight in Iraq and Syria, no GOP candidate showed understanding of the Syrian conflict, other than perhaps 69-year-old real estate mogul Donald Trump. Responding to attacks by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Trump said “we don’t know anything” about so-called opposition groups supported by the U.S. Bush insisted that we must support U.S.-backed insurgent groups seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Getting booed in the Feb. 13 GOP debate, Trump blasted former President George W. Bush for the “big fat mistake” of the Iraq War, opening the floodgates of terrorism in the Mideast. Bush-43 at the time, insisted the late Baathist dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, presenting a danger to U.S. national security. Jeb admitted that U.S.-backed opposition groups seek to topple Bashar al-Assad.
Jeb’s exchange with Trump was most revealing, insisting the U.S. could not be allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Showing the complexity of the Syrian War, both Saudi Arabia and Turkey, fund, arm and support the same opposition groups as the U.S. Exposing this fact pits the U.S. directly against Moscow. Jeb’s disclosure of U.S. backing of Saudi-Turkey-funded opposition groups breach classified information, putting U.S. security at risk. Saudi’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Juebir told the Munich Security Conference Feb. 14 that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria can’t be defeated without toppling Bashar al-Assad. Jeb’s statements about U.S. backing Saudi-Turkey opposition group contradicts the Dec. 15, 2015 agreement Kerry made to Putin at the Kremlin to leave al-Assad in power for now. All the GOP candidates agree that the Kurds are the best ground fight force to defeat ISIS.
Telling the debate audience that we don’t know much about the opposition groups, we at least know they’re backed by the CIA, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Trump at least has the instinct that there’s something wrong with backing opposition forces seeking to oust al-Assad. Calling Jeb out on the Iraq War disaster shows that Jeb’s learned nothing about Syria. Backing the Wahhabi Saudis and Salafist Turks to topple al-Assad would, as Putin told the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 28,205 further destabilize the region, spreading more terrorism. Now Turkey openly expressed opposition to Syria’s YPG [Kurdish Protection Units] Kurdish Peshmerga forces. “We will not let Azaz fall,” said Turkisn Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, insisting Turkey would attack the YPG, the U.S.’s only reliable ground troops battling ISIS. Proving Trump right, the U.S. doesn’t fully know the opposition battling al-Assad.
Jeb’s approach to pit the U.S. against Putin tosses out 50 years of détente with the Kremlin, pushing the world away from WWIII, and, more importantly, from thermonuclear war. President Barack Obama has a chaotic policy in Syria, promising Russia, on the one hand, that they won’t insist on toppling al-Assad, while covertly backing Saudi Arabia and Turkey’s proxy war that’s killed 250,000 Syrians, displacing three million to neighboring countries and Europe. Turkey and Saudi Arabia have no interest in battling ISIS in Syria or Iraq. Shelling YPG militias near the Turkish border, Turkey revealed its age-old hatred against the Kurds. Ankara also revealed it has no interest in battling, as promised, ISIS. “The YPG [the People’s Protection Unites], a Syrian Kurdish militia] will not be able to cross the west of the Euphrates [River] and east of Afrin, Davutoglu insisted.
Bush’s disclosure in the Feb. 13 debate that the U.S. backs the Saudi-Turkey-backed opposition groups indicates he’s learned nothing from the Iraq War. Toppling al-Assad would, once again, open Damascus to a takeover by al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra Front, ISIS or some other radical Islamic group. When Jeb goes on the stump today with his brother, former President George W. Bush, he won’t mention a thing about the Iraq War. Unlike Jeb, Bush-43 had a close relation with Putin, cooperating on a number of strategic global issues. Insisting in the Feb. 13 GOP debate that Putin cannot be an ally of the U.S. pushes the U.S. back into the Cold War. Instead of condemning the Turks for shelling the Kurds, Jeb talks of damaging U.S. relations with Russia. Turkey and Saudi Arabia only seek to set up a radical Sunni regime in Damascus. They have no interest in battling ISIS or al-Qaeda in Syria and Iraq.
Trump tried to prioritize U.S. objectives in Syria: First, defeat ISIS, and later deal with al-Assad. Jeb wants the U.S. to continue the Saudi Arabia and Turkey proxy war against al-Assad, pitting the U.S. against Russia, getting closer to helping al-Assad retake Aleppo, its second largest city. If al-Assad with Russian and Iranian help retakes Aleppo, it would beat back the five-year-long Saudi-Turk insurgency that’s killed 250,000 civilians, displacing three million more. If the Geneva peace talks led by U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura mean anything, it’s an urgent end to the Syria War. Letting the Saudis and Turks battle al-Assad guarantees the war rages on, killing and displacing more civilians. Jeb’s approach backing Turkey and Saudi Arabia to topple al-Assad assures the Syrian War continues, pushing the U.S. closer to military confrontation with Russia
