Comments

You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

How we got to the Syria mess

2015-10-13

[WaPo] - AMERICANS AND Europeans are seeing the results of four years of U.S. disengagement in the Middle East. A country destroyed, with half its people displaced from their homes. Hundreds of thousands of refugees besieging an unready Europe. And now, Russian warplanes bombing U.S.-allied forces as American officials alternate between clucking reprovingly and insisting bravely that Russian President VladiÂmir Putin will be sorry in the end. That is a tempting dream, but it represents the same wishful thinking that got us here in the first place.

How did we get here? It's worth recalling, briefly, a bit of history. When Secretary of State John F.
"You got a friend"
Kerry took office at the beginning of President Obama's second term, he argued that Syria could be saved only with a political solution: The United States did not want to repeat its Iraq mistake
Wasn't a mistake till the bammer pulled out and fled
and chase President Bashar al-Assad and his regime out of office with nothing to take their place. But, he said, the regime would not negotiate seriously until its opposition was strengthened, and so Mr. Kerry and others in the administration favored U.S. assistance, including training for the rebels, protection of safe zones where they could begin to govern without fear of Mr. Assad's barrel bombs and chlorine gas, some arms and other military aid.
Spandex biking shorts, yes, size 5 please.
Mr. Obama would never agree; or rather, sometimes he agreed, and failed to follow through, and sometimes he just said no. Mr. Kerry was left with no option but diplomacy, in particular begging Russia and Iran to bail him out.
More at the link. What is up with WaPo trying to tell the truth?

Posted by:Sven the pelter

#7 Assad saw both Mubarak and Quadaffi 'agree to cooperate' just be steamrolled out of power. He had no choice but the resist and fight. I did not suspect him to last this long but he may actually survive the mess.

Of course, they 'agreed to cooperate' with the nationalist Americans and (at least in Qaddafi's case) got steamrolled by the Soviet-Americans for betraying the Khan Network and making the Stuxnet operation possible.

Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2015-10-13 12:56

#6 What is up with WaPo trying to tell the truth?

Methinks certain parts of the media, like WaPo and the NYT, are miffed that they're not being kept informed by the regime.

Posted by: Pappy 2015-10-13 12:25

#5 and Jon Karry didn't even get a Nobel outta it. Not fair!

Posted by: Frank G 2015-10-13 12:11

#4 Sunni and Shia don't get along unless one has a boot on their throat.

When the US took out Iraq we did our best to avoid dividing the nation. Pulling out of Iraq (and thus leaving the minority Sunni dependent on Shia good graces) while simultaneously arming the Sunni's in Syria started the mess.

So you have a Sunni state forming out of the corpse of two multi-ethnic states. Sunni wealth and manpower pour in to support their co-sunni and we end up with a divided Iraq anyway (and the division being uncontrollable might end up with borders who knows where before its done).

It's all fairly predictable, or should have been to intelligence services.

Posted by: rjschwarz 2015-10-13 11:34

#3 It's not about Assad, Airandee, it's about Alawites, Christians, Kurds, and Sunni knives.

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-10-13 06:56

#2 Assad saw both Mubarak and Quadaffi 'agree to cooperate' just be steamrolled out of power. He had no choice but the resist and fight. I did not suspect him to last this long but he may actually survive the mess.

Posted by: Airandee 2015-10-13 06:54

#1 By appointing yourself a World Policeman without going through a police academy first?

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-10-13 04:25

00:00