NOVANEWS
Al-Qaeda has driven the Syrian army out of two cities. Should the US celebrate?
A month ago, the city of Idlib fell to opposition fighters, mainly al-Qaeda and its affiliates and allies. It was a major blow to the Syrian army. Last Saturday, the nearby town of Jisr al-Shughour also fell, mostly to the same groups.
Saudi Arabia might want to celebrate. Their main fear is Iran, and they would rather have an enemy of Iran ruling Syria than an ally. Turkey might want to celebrate for a similar reason. Israel has already said they prefer al-Qaeda. Qatar and the other Gulf monarchies are also backing al-Qaeda.
But why would the US celebrate? Al-Qaeda is an enemy that has attacked us on multiple occasions and killed thousands of our citizens. Assad is merely someone the US doesn’t like and doesn’t control. Which would you choose?
Granted, it shouldn’t be up to us. It should be up to the people of Syria. But we know that the people in Washington who play with lives are going do so again because they can, and not because they have a sterling record of success in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and so many other places.
If we want to defeat our enemies in the Middle East, why not start with al-Qaeda and Daesh (AKA the Islamic State or ISIS)?
It’s not that difficult. All we have to do is stop Turkey and Saudi Arabia from delivering weapons and money to them. They’re mostly our weapons, made in the USA. They are sold with End User Agreements that prohibit transfer to our enemies. Who are al-Qaeda and Daesh if not our enemies? And the Syrian army will do a lot of the fighting for us, because al-Qaeda and Daesh are their enemies, too.
Some special interests in Washington are actually working hard to defeat the Syrian government even though the obvious replacement will be the religious fanatics of al-Qaeda and Daesh, bent on the ethnic cleansing of all non-Muslims as well as many peaceful Muslims that they consider “heretics”. These interest groups include the arms industry, the neoconservative movement in government, academia and the press, and the Israel and Saudi Arabia lobbies. They have managed to bamboozle John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and many others into thinking that our first priority is to overthrow the sovereign government of Syria rather than to defend the United States from its enemies.
Let’s end our support for the enemies of Syria, who happen to also be the enemies of the US, and let’s make sure that our “friends” in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel know that we won’t accept their support for our enemies, either. Choosing not to fund our enemies is an easy decision. We need that money at home, to rescue our crumbling infrastructure, to repair our educational system and to provide opportunity for our citizens.
Are we so obsessively opposed to the Assad government in Syria that we are ready to let al-Qaeda and Daesh become the new rulers? How does that benefit US interests and defend US security?
