In early 2011, as protestors demanding political reform took to the streets of Syrian cities, Rami Makhlouf, a powerful businessman and confidant of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, sat down for an interview with the late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid.
The Assad dynasty had ruled Syria unopposed for decades. But the regime, along with a nexus of political and economic elites, was shaken. Uprisings had recently deposed longstanding dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt. In a region suddenly electrified by the prospect of political change, many began to speculate that Syria’s ruling elite might be next.
In the interview, Makhlouf issued a grim warning to Syria’s opposition and its sympathizers.
“Nobody can guarantee what will happen after, God forbid, anything happens to this regime,” he told Shadid. “Don’t put a lot of pressure on the president, don’t push Syria to do anything it is not happy to do.”
“They should know when we suffer, we will not suffer alone.”
Five years later, against the predictions of many, the Assad regime has maintained its grip on power. And, as Makhlouf promised, many have suffered to make this possible. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and maimed, while the fighting has reduced ancient cities like Homs and Aleppo to rubble.
Syria’s tragedy also has a global dimension, and that is the exodus of an estimated 5 million people from their homes in Syria over the last five years. The refugees have left on foot, packed into ships, and entrusted their lives to smugglers in an effort to escape their ravaged country. Hundreds of thousands of them have landed on the increasingly unwelcoming shores of Europe. Nearly 3 million now live in Turkey alone.
Unlike its citizens, however, Syria’s regime shows no sign of departing. In a recent interview, Assad vowed to rule Syria at least until 2021, while his government has pledged to take back “every inch” of Syrian territory from opposition control.
Outside powers may be tempted to accept this state of affairs, and to accept Assad as a partner in stabilizing Syria. President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that his administration could work with Assad, even tacitly praising him in a debate for being “much tougher and much smarter” than U.S. leaders.
Trump’s own rise has been aided, in part, by the global nationalist backlash Syria’s refugee exodus has triggered. But if his administration decides to partner with the Assad regime to “stabilize” Syria for the long term, it is more likely to make the refugee crisis permanent than to solve it.
Millions of Syrians have already chosen to flee their country entirely, rather than continue to be ruled by the Assad regime. They have done so out of fear of barrel bombs, indefinite detention, torture, chemical weapons attacks, and other well-documented, systematic war crimes. If Syria’s conflict ends with a return to the pre-2011 political status quo — the same regime ruling the entire country indefinitely — many of those who fled will probably never return.
Ali Bahr, 29, is one of them. Before the war came to his hometown of Raqqa, he was a teacher of Arabic literature. “We lived in a village outside the city and didn’t want to give up our home,” he told me when we met in a gritty industrial area of the Turkish capital of Ankara. “But my wife and I decided to leave when the bombings became too close and too frightening.”
Today, Ali is a manual laborer. When we spoke, he was on a break from his job, where he worked 12 hours a day helping assemble thermal heating systems in a warehouse. Ali has a slim build, neatly cut brown hair, and sharp features. Though his hands and clothing were stained with soot, he still carried himself with the genteel demeanor of the literature teacher he was not long ago. Since he fled to Turkey, his village in Syria has fallen under the control of Islamic State militants. “If [ISIS] was gone from our homes, we would go back immediately,” he told me, before adding: “But only if the regime is gone from there, too. They terrorized people and created this catastrophe.”
All over the world, the outflux of Syrians is regarded as a mounting crisis. It’s one that has stymied political leaders in receiving countries, most of whom have balked at absorbing large numbers of refugees. To the extent that outside powers have contemplated military intervention against the Assad regime, they have rightly concluded it would likely generate still more misery rather than less. But the refugee problem is inevitably bound up with the political future of Syria. In order for its citizens to return, Syria needs to be not only stable, but also safe.
“Syrians want to go back to their hometowns and cities. They want the chance to rebuild their lives. They want to live in a Syria that is free of fear, torture, and oppression,” said Lina Sergie Attar, the founder of the Karam Foundation, a charity serving Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. “Every Syrian refugee I know is miserable to be living outside their homes and country, but government attacks against civilians are emptying the country of its people,” Attar said.
But, she added, most refugees will never go home as long as the Assad regime continues to rule the country.
“Syria will never have a true future as a peaceful and prosperous country with Assad in power.”
That view is largely a myth, however. After five years of upheaval, state services exist only notionally in much of Syria. Maintenance of basic services is both limited and dependent on international support, while “the majority of Syrians, whether under the control of the government or the opposition [have] plunged into the informal economy,” according to an economic analysis of the war’s impact published by the Carnegie Middle East Center. Broad economic sanctions targeting the Syrian economy have exacerbated this decline.
Many of the Assad regime’s national institutions have also been reduced to shells of what they once were, with waves of defections, desertions, and deaths leaving major organizations like the military in an advanced state of decay. The government now relies in large part on a combination of local paramilitaries and foreign armed forces — Russians, Iranians, and foreign sectarian militias — to maintain a pretense of sovereignty over the country. An ongoing offensive to retake the city of Aleppo is now continuing largely due to the support of Shia militia volunteers from Iraq and Lebanon, as well as Russian air support.
Much of Syria is now governed as a network of small fiefdoms, often loosely tied to the central government. A significant number of Syrians still fighting for the regime are compelled to do so out of economic need or simple coercion. Thus, when the Assad regime boldly announces its intentions to take back all territory under opposition control, it is functionally declaring that foreigners will be “taking back” Syrian territory, because, simply put, there aren’t enough Syrians left willing to undertake such a task.
Meanwhile, many of those who made up Syria’s major pre-war national institutions have themselves become part of the country’s vast refugee diaspora. Yassin Shammous, a tall, heavily built 31-year-old with thinning hair, was a military police officer who chose to leave rather than continue serving in an institution that had been ordered to attack protestors. Originally from Aleppo, he defected in 2012 and crossed the border into Turkey later that year. He once dreamed of going to university. Now he makes a basic living driving an unlicensed taxi catering to other Syrian refugees in Ankara.
“Most of the major officers in the police force were Alawite,” he told me when we met, in a small Syrian-run restaurant in the Ankara suburb of Onder, which has become one of many hubs for refugees living in the city. Shammous, who is Sunni, wore a gray tracksuit and white running shoes. On the street outside, storefront signs in Arabic and Turkish advertised Syrian food, as well as services to help people stay in touch with fellow Syrians now scattered around the world.
Like many others, Shammous felt pressured by a governing bureaucracy that maintained its power by manipulating sectarian divisions. “When the revolution started, they took away the Sunni officers’ guns because they didn’t trust us. I left my job and went into hiding in 2012 because I didn’t want to be part of an army that shoots at civilians — that shoots at students and young people for protesting,” he told me.
Because he decided to defect from his job in the security apparatus, Shammous became a wanted man in Syria. Like many other refugees, he faces the prospect of exile from his homeland — forever, or for as long as the Assad government remains in power. He is increasingly losing hope for a solution to the conflict that would allow him to return to Aleppo.
“What we were afraid of — the outcome that we were trying to avoid when this all started — it’s already happened,” he told me.
In the glaring sunlight, with nothing but barren desert hills surrounding the camp, young children play between the converted storage units that now serve as their family homes. In makeshift classrooms, they draw pictures from memory of their former houses, mosques, and neighborhoods in Syria. Many decorate their pictures with the three-star flag of the Syrian revolution. Like the children of the Palestinian diaspora, they are raised with nostalgia for a homeland to which they may never return.
In the Muslim tradition, a saying ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad describes Syria as “the quintessence of the lands of God,” adding that “whoever departs from Syro-Palestine earns [God’s] wrath, and whoever enters it from somewhere earns His mercy.”
Millions have made the agonizing choice to leave Syria and seek shelter in refugee camps, poor suburbs of Turkish cities, or increasingly unwelcoming Western states. But the yearning of Syrians to return to their home country should not be underestimated. According to aid workers at the Nizip refugee camp, when a Turkish-backed military offensive freed the nearby Syrian town of Jarablus from Islamic State control, several families from that town left the camp and returned there.
Despite the seeming hopelessness of the situation inside Syria, the broad outlines of a solution are visible. Jarablus is one example: Formalizing a de facto safe area in the northern region of the country — free from both government and Islamic State control — could allow more people to go back to the towns and cities they left behind, or even into new housing developments that some have suggested building in reconstructed areas for Syrians now living in Turkey. For such areas to exist, however, outside powers would have to insist on a political solution that prevents the Assad regime from making good on its pledge to retake the remaining opposition-held areas of the country. It would also mean pressing Assad to leave power and making normalization of U.S. relations with Syria dependent on genuine political change.
Most importantly, it would mean discarding the shortsighted idea of accepting the Assad regime — institutionally decayed, stained by its crimes, and dependent on foreign backers — as any kind of long-term partner. In a recent interview, Assad suggested that President-elect Donald Trump could be a “natural ally” to his regime. Assad’s backers in Russia have also said that they hope to join forces with Trump to fight against “terrorism and extremism,” despite warnings from the United Nations that a total military victory for Assad would feed a resurgence of global terrorism.
It remains unclear how the Trump administration will respond to these entreaties. But if Trump accepts Assad’s terms for ending the war, and the regime reasserts power over all of Syria, the tragedy of those who have fled, as well as the global political crisis triggered in part by their exodus, is likely to continue.
Decades ago, Zaher Sahloul was a medical school classmate and acquaintance of Bashar al-Assad. More recently, the Syrian-American physician has put his life on hold to offer emergency medical care to the hundreds of thousands who have been maimed and wounded by his former classmate’s regime. Sahloul, an adviser to the Syrian-American Medical Society, says that his experience on the front lines has convinced him that the crisis will not end until Assad agrees to loosen his grip over the country.
“If Western governments think that striking a deal that keeps Assad in power will end the refugee crisis,” he told me, “they are living in a dream. This is a regime that has committed war crime after war crime in the last five years and is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of its citizens. It is not trusted by any Syrian.”
“With Assad ruling over them, no one will go back.”
What a piece of imperial propaganda. The Intercept should be run out of the country. I don’t think I’ve read so many lies condensed into one report. One of the few things that Drumpf has done right, that is, reaching out to Russia and Syria (and the new Eurasian century in general), the old imperial Neocon Zionist-beholding agenda asserts itself perniciously. Wow. You guys are as bad as The New York Times. Shame on you. Murtaza Hussain: how many kids did you help to kill today?
“Countering” one of the few things that Drumpf has done right…
A Short History Of The War On Syria – 2006-2014
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2013/09/a-short-history-of-the-war-on-syria-2006-2014.html
This is the first, only and hopefully last bullshit story I have seen in Intercept. Maybe MILLIONS OF SYRIANS have already FLED THE COUNTRY to escape brutal, savage, Islamic extremist US terrorist organizations, a catastrophic drought that savaged more than 200,000 Syrian farmers and to escape US bombing of hospitals and neighborhoods NOT TO MENTION ISIS? RE: “Millions of Syrians have already chosen to flee their country entirely, rather than continue to be ruled by the Assad regime.” Oh puh-leaze, what suh-leaze. Pure Pentagon CIA NSA GCHQ Western media warmongering bias.
This is a wrong headed view of the situation. Refugees did not pour out of Syria before the color revolution started. Once the partially western backed insurrection began, the refugees started. The more arms we sent to the rebels, there were more refugees. Americans are directly responsible for the refugee flow.
I agree. This is not the kind of reporting I expect from the Intercept. This is just more thinly-veiled Empire-building. The Americans can’t expect to be any part of the solution when they won’t even own up to being so much of the cause. Cease all your pitiful attempts at regime-change in the Middle East, stop all the CIA-instigated unrest, and the area would not be in the shape it’s in today. Enough is enough already, and wonder of all wonders, the first sound of sense I’ve heard from your country in years on foreign policy, comes from a maniac like Trump. Another reason for you to be ashamed of yourselves.
Best source on Syrian crisis is Eva Bartlett who speaks the language, I believe a Canadian, and terrific young reporter.
Eva states that Syrians are solidly behind Assad and no way he would have lasted this long without tthis support. Barrel bomb hokum is dead giveaway this guy is a plant. ISIS is sponsored by US, Israel, possibly Turkey, and most likely Saudi Arabia.Israel wants Golan Heights permanently. In all these things one must ask “who benefits?”In this case it’s Israel spreading havoc and destabilization as usual for past century now.
Surprised to see Intercept peddling this propaganda. Will be more careful what I read here in future.
DRG
Agreed, but you forgot to mention Qatar, which Hillary Clinton specifically exposes as one of the money sources for ISIS in one of the leaked emails along with Saudi Arabia, showing that the Americans have known all along where the funding was coming from.
Kind of oh please. Just take a look at the current makeup of Assads military – a substantial fraction are secular Sunni who cannot stand the thought of the kind of Syria the Salafist ISIS/Al Nurah types etc would introduce. Additionally, this cross border supported insurgency would dry up and blow away if it was not for Saudi/Qatary/Turkish support/funding/arming of the rebels – whose goal, allied sadly and stupidly to that of the Hillary state department, was for regime change at all costs. The costs, as an Libya, have been catastrophic for the civilians concerned. By the way, state sponsorship of cross border insurgencies is I believe also cited as a war of aggression by the Nuremburg Tribunal.
Anybody care to guess it this writer is a Sunni or a Shia. This is really a long involved pro Sunni propoganda screed, and so is his other works if you care to read them. The Sunni’s are the Wahhabi’s/Salafist branch of Islam that supplies ALL of the worlds terrorists. The Shia are being made the bad guys by our CIA and the Saudi’s, who are actually the sponsors of the worlds terrorism.
Judging by the comments, few, if any of you, have even met Syrian refugees in the last five years. If you lived in Germany instead of your sick country that won’t even take a handful of Syrians (not that Germany is a great country or anything), then you would meet real Syrians who were there, who witnessed the crackdown, who fled or were tortured by the Assad regime. Yes, I’m sure all the thousands of them are on the Saudi/Turkish payroll.
The left, especially in the Americas, is sick. If you find yourself agreeing more and morewith the altornew right Trump supporters and fascists it’s because what unites you is your hatred of western liberalism. That may be justified, but in its place you side with authoritarian nationalism. Don’t even pretend that you’re about lefty principles, unless you think peace means pacification.
Yassin Saleh says it best: “In America, the leftists are against the establishment in their own country. In a way, they thought that the U.S. establishment was siding with the Syrian revolution — something that is completely false and an utter lie — and for this reason they have stood against us. And this applies to leftists almost everywhere in the world. They are obsessed with the White House and the establishment powers of their own countries. The majority are also still obsessed with the old Cold War-era struggles against imperialism and capitalism.
Recently, an event in Rome that displayed images of those tortured and killed by Assad was attacked by fascists. Just days before, it had also been attacked in a local communist newspaper for promoting “imperialism.” There is a growing convergence between the views of fascists and the far-left about Syria and other issues. The reason for this is that perspectives on the left are outdated. They are interested in high-politics, not grassroots struggles. They are dealing with grand ideologies and historical narratives, but they don’t see people — the Syrian people aren’t represented. They are holding on to depopulated discourses that don’t represent human struggle, life, and death.”
Thanks Dan. Finally, a voice of reason. That quote of Yassin Saleh is spot on. The comments to this article are disgusting me. Just a couple years ago I would have strongly identified with the American (far) Left. My conscious no longer allows me to. The Left’s effective condemnation of the Arab Spring, their blanket condemnation of (Trump supporting) marginalized working class people as racists, and the systematic, “legal” corruption found in union politics has really turned me away. I used to mock Tea Party folks, but now I really understand why they are anti-government: they have been betrayed, and no one stood up for them. It’s not that they believe in the “free market”, but they would rather be raped by big business alone rather than the government and big business together. I’m definitely much too liberal to identify with American conservatives, but I cannot bear to keep company with people on the Left any longer.
Dan and JH. Sorry for your confusion. Apart from the fact that the US has no right to (even pretend to) play global policeman, this is all the violent neoliberal West’s last gasps at damage control over the region in its bid for control. It has nothing to do with right or left or Assad or Drumpf. Besides, there really IS no “left” in the US anymore. It’s dead, done, kaput. Oh… are you referring to that fake liberal shill and sheepdog, Boinie. Give me an effing break. Liberals are NOT of the “left.” They are decidedly right-of -center. And most them just as warmongering as you are. Either your clueless or pretending to be.
…in it’s bid for “control of markets and regional geostrategic dominance.”
So… what is your point concerning the actual war in Syria? Are you mad at Assad for not surrendering to the first armed opposition? You’re just setting up a strawman political left to dump your shit on. Whoever told you refugees were on Saudi or Turkish payroll? Since when did agreeing with some fascist/Trump in one point (like autobahns are nice) make you side with fascists/Trump?
What do you think is this “western liberalism” you are talking about that is hated by leftists? I’m pretty sure you have another definition. What I see is the excuse for the US to instigate wars with 20-30 millions dead after WW2 without anybody being convicted. Assad has a long way to go to top this amount of “peacebringing democracy”.
ESTOS SON LOS TERRORISTAS “BUENOS ” DE OBAMA, los niños suicidas que mantienen la imágen de héroe de Osama Bin Laden.
ESTOS hijos de puta reciben el financiamiento de OBAMA y el entrenamiento de la CIA por órdenes de OBAMA.
OBAMA es un CRIMINAL DE GUERRA Y UN TERRORISTA PROFESIONAL
Inside the Battle: Al Nusra-Al Qaeda in Syria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sPY0X8SrLo
Pero esta revista jamás va a prestar atención a los verdaderos problemas porque sólo repite de la propaganda de la CIA en sus páginas…es un repetidor de las intensiones y valores de OBAMA un terrorista profesional que ha aprendido a manipular al planeta entero…
Alejandra H. Covarrubias
periodista de investigación
Miembro de la Unión de Periodistas de Noruega
Noooooooo TRUMP va a asegurar la vuelta de los refugiados a Siria.
ESTE AUTOR ES UNO DE LOS QUE INTENTA HACERNOS TRAGAR LA MIERDA DE PROPAGANDA DE LA CIA.
Este Murtaza ni sabe de lo que habla, es un ignorante metido a gente y protegido por una camada de periodistas que se dicen ser serios…
Es una mierda porque eligen a gente que sigue repitiendo la mierda producida por la CIA y la NSA.
NO HAN APRENDIDO NADA…
Los autores de esta revista son TODOS ANTICOMUNISTAS con un alto procentaje de LAVADO DE CEREBRO al estilo CIA.
Y el LAVADO DE CEREBRO funciona con mecanismos de integración de la PROPAGANDA OFICIAL fabricada por los servicios de inteligencia.
No hay diferencia en este análisis de lo que propone OBAMA.
OBAMA es un CRIMINAL DE GUERRA, un cínico mentiroso y experto en desfalco judicial internacional.
Como periodista de investigación he aprendido a observar las actividades de OBAMA durante todos estos años.
OBAMA HA EXPULSADO A CASI TRES MILLONES DE MIGRANTES DE LOS EEUU, es decir su racismo es muchisimo peor porque ha estado acompañado DEL APOYO DE TODOS SIN CRITICA ALGUNA SOLO POR QUE ES NEGRO.
Las actividades de TRUMP bien pueden ser monstruosas por ser un blanco magnate acostumbrado a la buena mesa e indiferente a los problemas de las mayorias, que cree en la capacidad de los menos de hacerse millonarios así de fácil. Pero la transparencia ANTICORRUPCION no se la quita NADIE.
Con la participación de TRUMP en el conflicto de Siria tal y como lo ha prometido significaría la vuelta de millones de ciudadanos a sus hogares, porque ya no habría más transacciones secretas de la CIA con los sauditas, lo que OBAMA, CLINTON y Jens Stoltenbeg han protegido como actividad de principio.
OBAMA no sólo es un corrupto, cínico hombre de negocios. Ha estado trabajando para apoyar a facciones musulmanas para la formación del CALIFATO y ha financiado a los niños suicidas CON LA COMPLACENCIA DE TODA LA OTAN.
Alejandra H. Covarrubias
periodista de investigación
A retired Indian diplomat speaks the truth on Libya http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/1/9277/5-Years-After-Gaddafis-Murder-Libya-Destroyed
This author is someone we in the comments column, are going to have fun with. Judging by his past articles, he is obviously a Bosses stooge if ever I saw one. He has a grasp of reality just like the reactionary suckers who rally in behind the ‘White Helmets’, but prefers to deny it.
The author, falls into the catergory of those who would suppress an Indigenous Movement; Standing Rock for instance. Mutaza Hussain would be on the side of the cops and the corporates facing off against the Sioux Nation.
Absolutely.
It is rather interesting that the author can look at people fleeing from areas the ‘rebels’ took over, looked likely to take over, or attacked, and conclude that they fled from the government. Like the Tobacco execs who insisted that it wasn’t addictive, and didn’t cause cancer, and the politicians who acted like those claims were credible, it takes a certain something to insist that 2 + 2 = 5.
You fool. You Yankees isolated yourself from the Syrian refugee crisis so that you don’t have to talk to them. Why don’t you get out and meet actual Syrian refugees. Oh yeah, because maybe they will say things that don’t jive with your preformed world view.. Bet you wish they would just disappear, kind of like Israelis wish the Palestinian diaspora would just vanish.
“In America, the leftists are against the establishment in their own country. In a way, they thought that the U.S. establishment was siding with the Syrian revolution — something that is completely false and an utter lie — and for this reason they have stood against us. And this applies to leftists almost everywhere in the world. They are obsessed with the White House and the establishment powers of their own countries. The majority are also still obsessed with the old Cold War-era struggles against imperialism and capitalism.
Recently, an event in Rome that displayed images of those tortured and killed by Assad was attacked by fascists. Just days before, it had also been attacked in a local communist newspaper for promoting “imperialism.” There is a growing convergence between the views of fascists and the far-left about Syria and other issues. The reason for this is that perspectives on the left are outdated. They are interested in high-politics, not grassroots struggles. They are dealing with grand ideologies and historical narratives, but they don’t see people — the Syrian people aren’t represented. They are holding on to depopulated discourses that don’t represent human struggle, life, and death.”
http://swarajyamag.com/ideas/how-this-art-of-living-teacher-saved-hundreds-of-women-from-isis
see the link, I really wonder what this Art of Living cult is doing with ISIS, etc?
craigsummers v craigsummers:
– craigsummers, on the war planned and initiated before the Obama Administration.
– craigsummers, trying to pass off as a serious idea how the war started during the Obama Administration.
Murtaza Hussain = Masha Gessler of Syrian affairs
What a pile of utter non-sense! How ignorantly dumb the Author of this propaganda piece must be to even try to sell something as laughable as this notion that Syrian people refuse to return to country under the secular regime of Bashar al Assad but is willing to do so under wahhabi islamist fanatics??
Good morning DocHollywood
When Assad made the decision to militarily crack down on hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters associated with the (PNAC-inspired?) Arab Spring in 2011 initiating the war in Syria, you have to be an order of magnitude bigger dumb-ass than has ever been previously identified on earth to connect this event with PNAC.
“………The war [of aggression, the “supreme international war crime” in the words of the Nuremberg Tribunals,] was initiated by the A[merican] regime [as described years ago in the PNAC and subsequently confirmed by Former Supreme Military Commander of NATO , General Wesley Clark, and Former Director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, General Michael Flynn]. Bringing up PNAC simply [confirms the supreme international war crime had been planned all along, but to a dishonest psychopath that fact] doesn’t mean anything.”………..” – DocHollywood (promoting conspiracy theories similar to G.W. Bush was behind 911)
I can play this game as long as you want, Doc. You believe that the civil/regional war in Syria was planned by PNAC – and the Obama Administration is just carrying out the plan concocted by the neoconservatives in 1998 i.e., you believe that the war in Syria was initiated by the Obama Administration. You believe that the “Obama Doctrine” was just PNAC reincarnated – and that Obama was really just a neocon. I don’t take personal attacks lightly, so when I take the unusual step of calling you a dumbass, it’s because you are advancing another US conspiracy theory about the war in Syria which only a dumbass would try to pass off as a serious idea about how the war started during the Obama Administration.
You are trying to promote a two bit conspiracy theory to connect PNAC (disbanded in 2006) and the war in Syria (and specifically the initiation of the war). You are suggesting that the neocons were running the Obama Administration. So when Obama made the decision to negotiate a nuclear agreement with Iran instead of take them out, you have to be a complete dumb-ass to suggest the neocons were pressing Obama to make that agreement (Dick Cheney at Fox News, September, 2015):
“……..Former Vice President [and PNAC member] Dick Cheney said Sunday that the European refugee crisis is “a direct consequence” of President Obama’s failed foreign policy and that he does not support the Iran nuclear deal……..” my insertion in brackets
When Obama elected to negotiate a diplomatic solution with Russia and remove Assad’s stockpile of chemical weapons, you have to be a complete dumb-ass to believe that the neocons supported that decision over bombing Assad and taking the Assad regime out (the red line).
When Obama re-established diplomatic relations with Syria in 2010, you have to be a dumb-ass to believe that the neocons supported that decision considering that the neocons had their largest influence on the Bush administration which had CUT off diplomatic relations as a response to the assassination of the former Prime Minister of Lebanon.
When even Bush declined to give a green light to Israel to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities in late 2007, you have to be a dumb-ass to believe that the neocons were behind that decision. That decision by Bush certainly put a nail in the coffin of the wish list of the neocons – and Iran was the most important country on the list.
If you were halfway bright, you have dropped this conspiracy theory early on, or even admitted that you have to be a real dumb-ass to have suggested it in the first place, but then again, that is what defines a dumb-ass. Once a dumb-ass always a dumb-ass, I suppose.
That the Intercept should scoff at ‘Conspiracy Theories’ as you do is hilarious.
On the other hand, Greenwald and people like you may well be where Truth goes to die.
Conspiracy = Concealment + Chronology + Complexity.
Is PNAC the governing Zionist-penned road map to perpetual war?
Hell, yes!
You sound like a twelve year old btw. And not a very bright one.
Shock report reveals 9/11 Building 7 DID NOT collapse because of fire
OH BUT WAIT…
if the zionistas or anyone else had wired the building to blow for whatever reason, they would have a permit, it would have been observed and widely known.
THAT DID NOT HAPPEN
What did happen is that the building was wired to blow BEFORE 911 AND SECRETLY or they would not have lied about its collapse
WHICH MEANS…
The need to blow building 7 was planned and accomplished in advance of the twin towers hit…..
BUT WHY?
because they just wanted to surprise the world and blow building 7 as a surpise?
OR
was it because they knew the twin towers were going to get hit and they needed to blow building 7 – the operations co-ordination center?
OR
building 7 was supposed to be the victim of a terrorist attack and Dumya knew but looked in shock when his “off record” team hit the twin towers instead!?
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/736223/9-11-tower-Building-7-collapse-fire-conspiracy
BIN LADEN & company COULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE ONES TO WIRE BUILDING 7 TO BLOW.
No one has ever proven who killed Harriri-if you were to look for cui bono, you would have to point the finger at Israel or the US since Harriri was out of office, was notoriously corrup and whose only value at the time was as a martyr. Bush declined to bomb Iran in 2007 because he had plenty of non PNAC advisors telling him not to, for a variety of reasons. PNAC was never an organization like the Marine Corps or a bank. It was a group of like minded individuals with a common goal, the overthrow of Iran and all the other Shia or anti Israeli governments that were considered a threat to Israel’s policies. I wouldn’t use DIck Cheney’s support to justify a trip to a pizzeria. Lastly, the reason the Obama administration DID get this war started was because of Israel and Obama Secretary of State at the time, the one meeting and greeting all the local heads of state and Israel’s leaders-Hillary Rodham Clinton. So no, Obama didn’t start the war in Syria and Libya but he did let Clinton run wild and allowed her to set policy for the Deep State that did start both wars. If you want to check it out, the Ambassador to Libya was killed because he wasn’t at the Embassy, he was at a weapon smuggling site miles from the Embassy and the weapons were chemical. We, the US, were smuggling chemical precursors to the Syrian rebels, through Turkey. That was done on orders of Clinton and her Valkyries at the State Dept. Same group that helped overthrow the governnment of the Ukraine. Trump is so unpredictable that Clintons loss is small consolation.
how much you earned ????… please don’t sale the blood of innocents….
“Mr. Trump rejected the idea that he was bound by federal antinepotism laws from installing his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in a White House job. But he said he would want to avoid the appearance of a conflict and might instead seek to make Mr. Kushner a special envoy charged with brokering peace in the Middle East.
“The president of the United States is allowed to have whatever conflicts he or she wants, but I don’t want to do that,” Mr. Trump said. But he said that Mr. Kushner, who is an observant Jew, “could be very helpful” in reconciling the longstanding dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
“I would love to be able to be the one that made peace with Israel and the Palestinians,” Mr. Trump said, adding that Mr. Kushner “would be very good at it” and that “he knows the region.”
“A lot of people tell me, really great people tell me, that it’s impossible — you can’t do it,” Mr. Trump added. “I disagree. I think you can make peace.”
“I have reason to believe I can do it,” he added.”
As reported in http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/us/politics/donald-trump-visit.html?_r=0
A Jew… to solve the Palestine crisis.
How refreshing!
The Palestinians must be thrilled at such an even-handed process.
Just like the last 70 years!
and Jared called Mr. Bannon an “incredible zionist”….
i wonder, if you kill a palestinian and take his land, does that make one a doubly incredible zionist?
Americans are wise to the media branding hijacking gambit. Not fooled. The deal with romney is still for the JERUSALEM REAL-ESTATE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION for the development of a gigantic theme park with rides, souveniers, hotels, gambling, rentals and TIMESHARE.
Well Vietnam two millions dead and wounded, Iraq one million dead and wounded, Afghanistan …. etc.,
And who dares to eternally condemn Assad whose war with US sponsored terrorists ISIL/al-Qeada took at most 120k civilians (not at all all Assad’s victims, actually a minority) , 150k Syrian soldiers and about 80k terrorists and rebels over last five and half years of sabotaging Russian peace efforts including Assad departure from power and free elections offered in 2012 and rejected by the US in Geneva that increased arming the terrorists instead.
If you want to learn something about Syrian war try this:
https://syrianwarupdate.wordpress.com/
craigsummers v craigsummers:
The post lightly [edited] for accuracy:
“No amount of [my usual] lying and [ignorance of] the facts can [make] the Syrian regime the biggest organized terror operation in the world. [Trying to obfuscate by changing world] to Syria [didn’t work].”
It’s not hard to guess where this is headed:
1) “Classified U.S. diplomatic cables show that the State Department has funneled as much as $6 million to the group since 2006 to operate the satellite channel and finance other activities inside Syria.
. . .The U.S. money for Syrian opposition figures began flowing under President George W. Bush after he effectively froze political ties with Damascus in 2005. The financial backing has continued under President Obama, even as his administration sought to rebuild relations with Assad. In January, the White House posted an ambassador to Damascus for the first time in six years.
. . . Syrian authorities “would undoubtedly view any U.S. funds going to illegal political groups as tantamount to supporting regime change,” read an April 2009 cable signed by the top-ranking U.S. diplomat in Damascus at the time. “A reassessment of current U.S.-sponsored programming that supports anti-[government] factions, both inside and outside Syria, may prove productive,” the cable said.”
– U.S. secretly backed Syrian opposition groups, cables released by WikiLeaks show, The Washington Post, April 17, 2011.[h/t to Reader http://intellit.muskingum.edu/othercountries_folder/syria.html
2) Former Director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn makes it clear to Mehdi Hasan that US support of radical jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Al Nusra) against the Syrian regime was “a willful decision” made before the anti-government protests:
“Hasan: ‘You are basically saying that even in government at the time you knew these groups were around, you saw this analysis, and you were arguing against it, but who wasn’t listening?’
Flynn: ‘I think the administration.’
Hasan: ‘So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?’
Flynn: ‘I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.’
Hasan: ‘A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?’
Flynn: ‘It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing. . .and I will tell you, it goes before 2012. I mean, when we were, when we were in Iraq and we still had decisions to be made before there was a decision to pull out of Iraq in 2011. I mean, it was very clear what we were, what we were going to face.’”
– July 29, 2015, Head to Head, Al Jazeera
3) “To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda. [the outcome of which was predicted by the DIA before the violent crackdown on dissent by Assad]”
– The New Yorker, March 5, 2007
4) “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”
– General (retired) Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, discussing plans to initiate war and “regime change” in many countries including Syria, DemocracyNow, March 2, 2007.
There are much worse dictators in the GCC Countries, financing militias in Syria, Yemen and beyond -this fact is well documented as Mr Hussain surely knows- while constricting the most basic freedoms at home, yet somehow Assad is the problem. The worst article I have read at The Intercept.
Zero chance any Syrian who fled will ever return to Syria. Who do they expect to pacify the country?
So sad, wahhabi ‘journalist,’ so sad. I hope the Islamists are flattened by year’s end.
Mr. Hussain
You criticize Trump for “supporting” Assad saying that this will make the “global refugee crisis permanent”, but you make no effort to suggest how Trump (or Obama) can insist on a political solution (regime change) in Syria. You write:
“……..For such areas to exist, however, outside powers would have to insist on a political solution that prevents the Assad regime from making good on its pledge to retake the remaining opposition-held areas of the country. It would also mean pressing Assad to leave power and making normalization of U.S. relations with Syria dependent on genuine political change…….”
You (rightfully) insist on regime change for any political solution to be viable. However, how is Trump supposed to “insist” on regime change without the use of the military?
“…….To the extent that outside powers have contemplated military intervention against the Assad regime, they have rightly concluded it would likely generate still more misery rather than less…….”
Hezbollah and Iran are losing fighters every day to save the Assad regime, and you think they will support regime change without paying a very heavy price? Without suggesting how Trump (or Obama) can force Assad to step aside, this article has no more value than a “wish” list (for the impossible). Everyone already knows that Syria is a humanitarian disaster. Everyone already knows that Assad (the murderer) is responsible. Now tell us how we can get rid of Assad without the military.
The refugees will not want to return to a secular regime under assad but will want to do so under a regime of wahabi sunni fanatics? Really?
It is estimated that the Syrian Army is 80% Sunni, and that they [like the electorate want a secular Arab Republic}. “Syria’s secular tradition is nowhere stronger than in the Syrian Arab Army. Making up about 80% of Syria’s armed forces and with half a million members, half regulars and half conscripts, the army is drawn from all the country’s communities (Sunni, Alawi, Shiia, Christian, Druze, Kurd, Armenian, etc). However they identify as ‘Syrian’ and ‘Arab’ and confront a sectarian enemy which brands itself ‘real Sunnis'”. https://www.facebook.com/notes/tim-anderson/in-defence-of-the-syrian-arab-army/10151540299196234/
The people accusing Asad (as bad as he is) of the chemical attacks, may wish to read Seymour Herch’s articles on the the subject before forming an opinion.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n24/seymour-m-hersh/whose-sarin
and especially
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line
ISIS is what the US planed for and saw as an asset.
https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Pg.-291-Pgs.-287-293-JW-v-DOD-and-State-14-812-DOD-Release-2015-04-10-final-version11.pdf
“c. If the situation unravels there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared salafist principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran)”
I think this is basically correct. The Sunni refugees are unlikely to come home to an Assad led Syria and Assad wouldn’t want them anyways. It’s instructive to read the letter that Assad’s grandfather wrote to the French colonial administration begging them to stay to protect the Alawite against the “muslims”. So for Assad the exodus finally makes the country governable. America can’t really reverse this, and why should it? Ultimately it has nothing to do with us. I think America should be on guard against a Syrian Ahmed Chalabi, a suave sophisticated operator who can convince gullible neo-cons that they can remake the Middle East.
Another Arab traitor for zion,the true creator of all this shite.
Unbelievable,as in Divide&Conquer,the only game in ziotown.
This lousy propaganda is terribly unbalanced.
Trump-ists and Clinton-ites both share in this horror show.
The toxic cherry on top of this bad article is
the manipulative supposed quote by Mohammad.
If Syria is the most special land of god, then that god is a
lying sadistic devil.
NO PLACE is more valuable than any other place
if some imagined god created every place.
One of the reasons Obama baulked at sending man pads to the Jihadis in Syria, is the very close proximity of Ben Gurion airport, most Jihadis don’t have much of a problem with Israel [at the moment], but one group out of the many hundreds operating in Syria acquiring them could close the only International airport in Israel, and thereby close down the economy. Wonder if the Neocons have thought of that?
Regime change and the US dictating territory control. Worked beautifully in Iraq and Libya. Given that it was US policy and war that manufactured refugees in first place, the proposal here that would dictate military intervention (despite the cautious tip toeing around it in this article). That would manufacture more refugees. Surprised and saddened to see this spin on The Intercept. Watch the peace council video on YouTube and their presentation to un. It gives much different take. 20,000 bombs have been dropped on Syria by US as of August, btw
The simple truth is that Assad (the murderer) is responsible for the war in Syria. Government (Assad) forces commit far more war crimes than even the worst of terrorists like ISIS – and they continue to commit war crimes in Aleppo (today). According to the Middle East Eye this morning:
“……..The UN’s aid chief Stephen O’Brien slammed the use of sieges in Aleppo and elsewhere in remarks to the Security Council on Monday, saying nearly one million Syrians were living under blockades…….”Civilians are being isolated, starved, bombed, denied medical attention and humanitarian assistance in order to force them to submit or flee,”……..O’Brien condemned this “deliberate tactic of cruelty” and said the sieges were mostly perpetrated by government forces against civilians……..”
By government forces, he is referring to the Assad regime.
The Dems need to rid themselves of this globalist new order crap that has led to a nationalist gaining power that carries some nasty Repug tendenciesl as part of the package.
There are a lot of propaganda sites …. if I desired to be reading one, I would not be at The Intercept!! Leave the BS to them.
I haven’t read the article. When Hussain writes about Syria, it means a rehash of some war propaganda.
swell – wasnt enough for hellary to interfere in Russian affairs, the loser who couldnt get her NFZ. Now we have Obama playing with her matches, lighting a fire before he is replaced??
Shoddy article. Makes sweeping statements — Syrians will abandon the country if Assad remained in power — based on what a guy told him.
He could have looked at opinion polls and election results. Sure, there is a degree of bias, but nonetheless, these data tell a story quite opposite to Hussein’s. The Assad had and still have a significant support among Alawites (around 15% of the population), non- Muslim, and Sunni as well.
I don’t know why this shabby journalism is allowed to stand next to the excellent journalism of the rest of the contributors to the Intercept.
Do you mean the elections where Assad was the only guy on the ballot, or the election which took place when most of the country was occupied, under seige, or had fled?
So Henry Kissinger met Donald Trump and will attend the Bilderberg meeting. He’s 93 and should give it a rest. He’s committed enough evil for a lifetime.
i was surprised about that meeting given kissinger’s passion for genocide and taste for carpet bombing. What could DT possibly want of that monster other than to know the further ambitions of evil. Perhaps on the way to the meeting he can stop by the Hague and check in.
My actual suspicions/expectations are a land and development deal for all of jerusalem.
We’ll see. My bet is things will calm down alot without Isis, and many will go back. I don’t think we can micromanage foreign governments, but we can stay out so as not to make things worse. Our greatest allies in the middle east are Isis like themselves, in that they are religious theocrats, and were certainly not democratic. They were clearly funding them.
Pot…kettle. I call ‘bullshit’ on you.
The Syrian people have spoken.
They have stood by Assad and withstood the head-choppers you and the USA support and send at them.
Why not mind your own business.
You clearly have nothing but mischief to offer the Middle East.
I am frankly surprised that Greenwald allows the printing of rubbish views like yours.
Yes. This jerk and Mackey (with his clear support of Clinton) are the worst writers here. Hussain seems to want a western society in Syria whether the people there want it or not. Even more important, his articles totally ignore the geopolitical aspects of all this, which are now driving what’s going on there. These articles by Hussain are somewhere between ignorant BS and pro-western propaganda.
“Hussain seems to want a western society in Syria whether the people there want it or not.”
That’s not the reason. The most recent failures, Iraq and Libya, have ushered in the exact opposite of Western Society. Remember the pro-western Shah of Iran replaced with Ayatolah Kohmeni? Back to the stone Iran went. There’s ample evidence that removing Assad will set Syrian society back an epoch.
Iran is another failed “regime change” run by the CIA. That pro-western shah was a murderer and torturer, worse than Assad. Of course this pissed people off and then the French (?) took their chance and brought Khomeini out of the mothball store for crazy revolutionaries so Total could maybe get some bizz.
Iran is not totally stone age, they have universities and science studies there, women are allowed to study. The Iranian people I have met are quite tolerant people – very much unlike the Palestinians, Pakistanis and Arabs. Or maybe it is just that the Iranians are actual refugees, the other lot are migrants.
Of course America sponsors the very worst of the lot, Saudi Arabia. It is Saudi Arabia and Qatar who are providing the head-choppers and liver-eaters, the US (CIA) provides the funding and the arms. There will be zero sympathy over the next 9/11.
What’s not the reason for what? I don’t understand your comment; I didn’t say that anything was a reason for something else.
The absolute best thing we could possibly due for refugees is stop making new refugees out of peaceful families.
Ending CIA support for the mass-murdering terrorists wrecking Syria would be a good first step.
Freedom of speech is good but should the Intercept really be supporting terrorism by publishing their manifesto?
Russia – drawing upon their brutal campaign in Chechnya – has only added to the woes of the Syrians caught in the war by essentially carpet bombing East Aleppo in an attempt to break the resistance. This included targeting hospitals. These efforts are coordinated with the Assad regime. They are following the same patterns as in Grozny targeting hospitals and civilians (as Amnesty International outlines from their 2000 Summary report below):
“………..eyewitnesses and victims reported that Russian forces directly attacked civilian targets including hospitals, medical personnel and vehicles clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem, causing high civilian casualties……….A number of incidents were reported in which civilian convoys carrying people fleeing the conflict, especially those travelling on the main road out of Chechnya towards Ingushetia, were subjected to bombing from the air or artillery shelling. On 21 October a series of explosions in the central market, a mosque and the only working maternity hospital in Grozny reportedly left at least 137 civilians dead and about 400 wounded in what appeared to be an indiscriminate attack by Russian forces. The dead included 13 mothers and 15 new-born babies……..”
What Russia and Chechens defeated in Grozny was CIA/USSDsponsored and directed international head-choppers. Surprise! Surprise… just like the ones now in Syria, Libya and Iraq. The US drags them around like a sad after-birth.
Stick to CIANN chat with your low level CIA talking points.
Interesting how Russian-bots supported the “free and fair” vote in Crimea, but when the Chechens wanted independence, the Russian military counted the ballots.
you are in dire need of a vanity press
this venue here is not appropriate for your constant fictional short short stories
please check the yellow pages in ny city for “publishers…. self…. vanity”
Amnesty International is well known for fictional writing, right barabbas?
First true words you ever wrote.
same old lies craig?
Yep. Same old Amnesty International lies. Unfortunately for you, they are difficult to dispute. I see there’s the same combination of Russian-bots and anti-American far left wing posters working together to pass off second rate propaganda below the line. Opposing Mr. Hussain’s point of view has become an international focal point.
everybody are russian bots… except you and and Murtaza!!!!!!
maybe it is the other way round… and you and Murtaza are the state department trolls!
Oh, and the so called “moderate” (aka) jihadist rebels/extremists have been absolute princes, especially when they slaughtered all the Christians/shias/druze/and even sunnis when they took over a village or city. Look, its called a civil war and it would have ended years ago IF it wasn’t for the barbarians in the Saudi, Qatar, Turkish, Jordan, and Obama regime who were funding, arming, harboring, and training these violent radical Sunni Jihadists. These terrible neighbors have absolutely caused the horrendous mess we see in Syria. Also, look what the barbarians of Saudi Arabia are doing to the poor people of Yemen. A complete war crime and Yemen isn’t even territory of Saudi Arabia.
This article is one of the most dangerous pieces of disinformation on Syria and Assad that I have ever read. By publishing this kind of one-sided CIA propaganda without challenging or questioning it, the Intercept becomes complicit in the destruction of a country and its people.
This article does make me wonder if certain Intercept journalists are not more suited to doing investigative reporting on the reasons for Trump’s orange face and why he leaves his eye area white. Less scope for mischief there.
Weak article. I’ve been following the Syrian War since the beginning, stop misinforming, Murtaza…
Richard Pearce writes:
“…….So, let’s see, the author believes that eliminating the things that caused people to flee for safety (DAESH and alQeda, plus the battle to first slow and stop them, then free areas from their control) will cause them to never return……..”
No amount of lying and obfuscating the facts can change that the Syrian regime is the biggest organized terror operation in the world. They have committed far more war crimes in Syria than any other actor including the brutal ISIS (a true Islamic terrorist organization). Indeed, Assad undeniably initiated the war attacking a defenseless civilian population (Amnesty International). You would think that 25,000 (plus) photographs of dead Syrians from torture, execution, mistreatment or a lack of treatment in Assad regime detention prisons/centers might provide a clue to you why people fled the regime (or voted for Assad in 2014) – or that there are currently an estimated 200,000 still in detention centers and regime prisons. Possibly the chemical attacks, dropping hundreds of indiscriminately killing barrel bombs, using starvation as a war tactic, the massive bombing campaign of Aleppo by the Russians, the repeated targeting of hospitals and field clinics, double tapping and so on clearly shows who is the biggest terrorists in Syria – and it isn’t the US, Saudi Arabia or Qatar (or ISIS/al-Qaeda). It’s the Assad regime backed by the brutal bombing campaign by Russia. No one else comes even close, and no one has created more refugees than the Assad regime – by far.
According to the Amnesty International 2013 report (after 1-1/2 years of the conflict), the Assad regime carried out the vast majority of the war crimes and crimes against humanity:
“………Government forces, which were responsible for the vast majority of violations [war crimes and crimes against humanity], carried out indiscriminate attacks on residential areas using aircraft, artillery shells, mortars, incendiary weapons and cluster bombs. Together with their support militias, they arrested thousands of people, including children, subjecting many to enforced disappearance. Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees were commonplace; at least 550 were reported to have died in custody, many after torture. Others were extrajudicially executed. Security forces’ snipers continued to shoot peaceful anti-government demonstrators and people attending public funerals…….”
And you wonder why people are fleeing and might not come back if Assad remains the ruler? Fear of Assad the murderer is the primary reason that refugees would not return. You are a poor propagandist at best and a loyal Russian-bot at worst. According to Amnesty International (March 3, 2016):
“……. Russian and Syrian government forces appear to have deliberately and systematically targeted hospitals and other medical facilities over the last three months to pave the way for ground forces to advance on northern Aleppo, an examination of airstrikes by Amnesty International has found……Even as Syria’s fragile ceasefire deal was being hammered out, Syrian government forces and their allies intensified their attacks on medical facilities……“Syrian and Russian forces have been deliberately attacking health facilities in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. But what is truly egregious is that wiping out hospitals appears to have become part of their military strategy,” said Tirana Hassan, Crisis Response Director at Amnesty International……….”
According to al-Jazeera (10-27-2016):
“…….On Monday, more than 80 human rights and aid organisations, including Human Rights Watch, CARE International and Refugees International, urged UN member states to drop Russia from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council over its military campaign in Syria……..”
Seems to be a different conclusion than yours Richard. You cannot change the facts – no matter how much they pay you.
“No amount of lying and obfuscating the facts can change that the Syrian regime is the biggest organized terror operation in the world.”
So it was Assad that attacked Paris, Brussels, Ottawa, San Bernardino, Orlando, etc. etc. etc.? Sorry. That won’t work. IS did them all- and it’s time we treated them as a threat and not an ally. (And it’s time we treated those fighting them, like Syria, as an ally, and not a threat.)
That assessment is the biggest lie I’ve heard since Alexander Litvinenko blamed the 7/7 bombings on Russia.
No Assad did those other things named in the post above yours. Why does Isis crimes negate Assad’s?
LMAO!
it is interesting that for months, every time a TI article on the middle east gets spotted as major fiction, called out as such by literally everyone, YOU & CRAIGSUMMERS and 1 or 2 others pop up after realising you been caught with your knickers down choking your chicken.
Ah yes, cant answer the question so lets name call.
Ironic how the guy who is on this board full time gets upset at those who have actual lives and can only poo up.
If anyone has been caught Barb its you when you claimed the zionists killed Jesus. You revealed exactly who you are.
Too fuuny
rubbish
you lie
you have a pattern and practice of lying in this venue
everyone knows it
advice
you are in dire need of a vanity press
this venue here is not appropriate for your constant fictional short short stories
please check the yellow pages in ny city for “publishers…. self…. vanity”
barabbas
“……you lie……this venue here is not appropriate for your constant fictional short short stories…….”
I hear Amnesty International received a reward for best fictional short stories……..
“No amount of lying and obfuscating the facts can change that the Syrian regime is the biggest organized terror operation in the world.” No, sir, the biggest organized terror operation in the world is the US government.
I couldn’t resist responding, but I know I shouldn’t. Your positions are clear and based on such dubious claims as those made by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and the White-Helmet types. Both AI and HRW all too often parrot State Department line.
Most of us are doing the same thing, i.e., only reading things we agree with.
FYI, here’s a starkly opposing view on what Syrians want from imbedded UK reporter Vanessa Beeley. tip: fast forward to the 4 minute mark. This is one of many interviews she gave to various media channels. Very brave woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8mA0h7dCKI
Imbedded indeed, a personal guest and mouthpiece for Assad. Dont get more embedded than that.
Respected journalist Vanessa Beeley described the White Helmets as:
” …a fraudulent shadow-state construct created by NATO to simply propagate the propaganda that will demonise Assad’s government and also demonise Russian legal intervention in Syria.”
It does not take a professional physiognomist to realize that Beeley, unile Murtaza, is the real deal.
“With Assad ruling over them, no one will go back.”
That is not 100% correct. I am not a Syrian and have not been to the war zone but have Syrian friends and many activist friends in interfaith coalition…..who have been to Syria and outside and met with IDPs and refugees. THEY, the Syrians want the war to stop and they want to go home…. no matter what Pres Assad’s status. I believe, the author has taken a position ( correct me if I am wrong ) …. anti-Assad…. hence biased postings …e. g.
https://theintercept.com/2016/10/26/syria-yassin-al-haj-saleh-interview/
bingo
Israel decided that having its American mercenaries strew chaos around the Middle East was somehow good for Israeli security. It has worked to the extent that Israel has a free hand to continue its Palestinian genocide as the world’s attention is turned elsewhere. The hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees are a stain on Israel and the United States. Unfortunately, neither will be held to account.
Its Assad and Putin who need to be held to account.
Name these American mercs you claim started this.
Sad day today…just when I thought The Intercept was worth reading, here comes this nonsense…shhhh!…I guess I will access The Intercept for the same reason I access the Guardian NYT etc…to read readers comments…
Pathetic, biased, distorted article…
What a wise investment of resources the Syrian conflict was for all involved! Perhaps the wizards of war should run wall street and global banks with the massive return on investment everyone will see in their 401 k’s with this one!
Sadam was really bad, but he held control of Iraq. Ghadaffi was sorta bad, but doing great things for his country. Assad wasn’t that bad, and there was ZERO reason to try and topple him, other than that is what Israel wanted.
What PROFOUND AMERICAN IDIOT started this Syrian war???
I don’t know who started it, but I know a few who wanted to finish it with a loss by Assad- Hillary Clinton, Ashton Carter, Robert Ford, Samantha Power, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton…
@W0X0F & @Orville
Wikileaks to the rescue…
http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/33180-wikileaks-reveals-how-the-us-aggressively-pursued-regime-change-in-syria-igniting-a-bloodbath
jesus christ this is bad even for you. i mean like MACKEY bad. i turned mentions of “barrel bombs” in neoliberal screeds into a drinking game and i’m on my third liver.
first off, the war is basically over. other than a possible swarm of roaches from the sinking ship of mosul the takfiri infestation in syria is about done. unless the pentagon or CIA or saudis or whoever pulls a massive “hail mary” in the next two months trump will be walking into a clean up operation.
as for how he “supports assad” i’m going to have to see some evidence and ask you to walk a straight line while you’re at it. that “with us or against us” crap didn’t fly in 2003 and it’s not any better now.
and “institutionally decayed, stained by its crimes, and dependent on foreign backers”? was that supposed to go under an article about israel? jordan? turkey? “Accepting terms for ending the war means many who’ve fled will never return” makes me think israel on that one.
The title of this piece: TRUMP’S SUPPORT FOR ASSAD WILL MAKE THE GLOBAL REFUGEE CRISIS PERMANENT
Yah, I have never read nor heard of Trump explicitly or even implicitly saying he supported Assad. He did say it was good that Assad was fighting ISIS which Trump sees as the main radical jihadist threat. Trump has said he would work with Russia to fight ISIS, but unless I see some direct attribution, I have never read where Trump would say he would aid Assad in fighting ISIS for any other reasons.
It seems that Trump has committed a mortal sin against the Church of the Holy Neocon. No material support for regime change. But rather fight ISIS first.
agree but u mean neoliberal
I have to confess, recently, I visit this website ( TI ) to read comments rather than the main posts which have become rather tiresome, sorry to say. The so called left is split on issue of Syria.
If anyone has the time and is interested, here is a panel dicussion….. panelists Max Blumenthal, Loubna Mrie, Zein El-Amine, and Murtaza Hussain debated the topic of “Syria and the Left”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3em8qmDXPYs
One of the few issues I am leaning towards Trump on. No more globalist policies of regime change for the USA please !!! Cool down the dangerous insane Neoliberal revival of confrontation with Russia. Bush, Obama, and HRC screwed up massively and created this whole problem. More USA intervention will help nothing.
Mr. Hussain
“…….Assad suggested that President-elect Donald Trump could be a “natural ally” to his regime. Assad’s backers in Russia have also said that they hope to join forces with Trump to fight against “terrorism and extremism,”…….”
According to your linked source (Assad):
“……..”If … he [Trump] is going to fight the terrorists, of course we are going to be ally, natural ally in that regard with the Russian, with the Iranian, with many other countries,” Mr Assad told Portugal’s RTP state television…….” – Assad (my insertion in brackets)
Considering that Assad is the biggest terrorist on the planet – and second place isn’t even close, Trump could legitimately fight terrorism by taking a stand opposing the Syrian regime. Assad is responsible for the deaths of 25,000-50,000 people in detention with another estimated 200,000 being held. He initiated the war murdering hundreds of innocent protesters in 2011. He has used chemical weapons against civilians, targeted infrastructure and civilians, hospitals, and used food as a weapon against civilians. About 400,000 people have died because of his reaction to legitimate democratically-motivated protests. Just this week the Assad regime barrel bombed and shut down the last hospitals in Aleppo – and is accused of lacing the barrel bombs with chlorine.
Russia has followed the same pattern, bombing hospitals, aid convoys and targeting civilians over the past year. The UN and Amnesty International have accused the Russians of war crimes. There have been threats directed at Russia to bring them before the ICC. As a result, Russia has mostly been absent from this latest bombing of Aleppo which shows that international pressure works on the Russian Czar.
Absent the declaration of a no fly zone by the US (NATO) which is a viable alternative, the US and Europe are limited to increasing sanctions against Russia (as a part of their sanctions directed at Russia because of the illegal annexation of the Crimea Peninsula). Currently, the US is already helping the Assad regime by bombing ISIS and al-Nusra (al-Qaeda).
There clearly can be no peaceful political settlement which keeps Assad in power. Assad should be given the same justice as Saddam Hussain. No trial necessary.
your zeal is zionic.
you are clearly disturbed.
you should be touting the same for the way the leader of another middle east country fires on palestinian protesters.
– and stop wit that bs self defence crap about stone throwers.
adolf said the same thing.
You gotta love the whataboutery. Russia could be charged with war crimes in Syria. What about Israel? Russia targeted hospitals in Aleppo. What about South Sudan? Russia bombed an aid convoy. What about Saudi Arabia?
Thanks for your response.
Many hospitals in HeadChopper-occupied Aleppo are Head Chopper Occupied.
“Millions of Syrians have already chosen to flee their country entirely, rather than continue to be ruled by the Assad regime. They have done so out of fear of barrel bombs, indefinite detention, torture, chemical weapons attacks, and other well-documented, systematic war crimes. …”
This is scandalously dishonest. One does not have to be a supporter of the Assad government or even opposed to the militias fighting it to understand that, for most of the past five years large parts of Syria have been under wahhabist rule, from which millions have fled.
Not to recognise that al qaeda and ISIS are ruthless, sectarian and very difficult to live under is a most curious stance.
According to Amnesty International (March 3, 2016):
“……. Russian and Syrian government forces appear to have deliberately and systematically targeted hospitals and other medical facilities over the last three months to pave the way for ground forces to advance on northern Aleppo, an examination of airstrikes by Amnesty International has found……Even as Syria’s fragile ceasefire deal was being hammered out, Syrian government forces and their allies intensified their attacks on medical facilities……“Syrian and Russian forces have been deliberately attacking health facilities in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. But what is truly egregious is that wiping out hospitals appears to have become part of their military strategy,” said Tirana Hassan, Crisis Response Director at Amnesty International……….”
According to al-Jazeera (10-27-2016):
“…….On Monday, more than 80 human rights and aid organisations, including Human Rights Watch, CARE International and Refugees International, urged UN member states to drop Russia from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council over its military campaign in Syria……..”
What were they doing on the human rights council in the first place? The UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, focused on the war crimes committed from the indiscriminate bombing and targeting of civilians and hospitals by the Russia and the Assad militaries in Eastern Aleppo (al-Jazeera 10-21-2-16):
“…….The siege and bombing of eastern Aleppo in Syria constitute “crimes of historic proportions” that have caused heavy civilian casualties amounting to “war crimes”, according to the top United Nations human rights official…….al Hussein’s comments on Friday came during a special session of the UN human rights council called by Britain to set up a special inquiry into violations, especially in Aleppo’s rebel-held east where an estimated 275,000 civilians are besieged by a Syrian government offensive backed by Russia…….Zeid said Aleppo is a “slaughterhouse” and called for major powers to put aside their differences and refer the situation in Syria to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC)……..”
to be fair,
The ICC May Charge Benjamin Netanyahu with War Crimes
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/The-ICC-May-Charge-Benjamin-Netanyahu-with-War-Crimes-20160321-0021.html
meanwhile try peddling your fiction to one of the wallstreet whore media – plenty of takers there, should fetch a good price. fyi – the wallho media are not interested in the genocide of palestinians, no idea why……..
That certainly absolves Russia of any wrong doing!
“What were they doing on the human rights council in the first place?”
Oh, you mean the UN Human Rights Council that is led by Saudi Arabia?
same one. Care to answer the question?
Will this be the last State Department press release before the holidays?
Look, when I what the British view, I’ll read the New York Times. What is this doing in the Intercept?
For me, I remember watching US 4-star General Wesley Clark speak in 2007 about a US plan predating 9/11 (with his speech predating both Libyan and Syrian conflicts) to overthrow the governments of 7 countries in 5 years – Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran. Now either Mr. Clark was psychic or we are seeing this plan in action. It even gets more twisted when you learn that our allies in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, UAE etc.) are arming, funding, and training ISIS along with Al Qaeda meanwhile people like Hillary Clinton, knowing full well of this as revealed by the Podesta e-mails, still sold them weapons. Also looking back at moderate rebels such as Al Nusra Front, whom I believed we were supporting in Libya, and are now associated with Al Qaeda the picture of the Middle East even gets cloudier. Overall, I believe what is happening in the Middle East is imperialism to control the regions resources such as oil, gold, lithium etc. along with pipelines for natural gas and let us not forget about protecting the almighty Petrodollar which ensures that the US maintains reserve currency status to help maintain US dominance in the world and stave off China’s rise.
One other thing that is interesting is that if Assad was our ally then surely he would be fighting off the evil terrorists that have been flooding into his country and how noble he would be betrayed. But he is not our ally so anything that he does is just pure evil… or at least our media and government would have us believe that. Meanwhile how much do we hear about the Saudis in Yemen? How many people know that the United States is bombing in 7 countries with covert operations in 75+ countries and that in 1979 the US paid $500 Million six months before the Afghan/Soviet War to create the Mujahideen which would go onto become Al Qaeda and the Taliban? What a tangled web we weave…
permanent…. right.
The problem is not Assad. The problem is a certain cult of people who want to have their way with everyone to bow before them or have their heads cut off. These ISIS crackpots have been around forever and “mean” persons like Assad and Hussein have kept a lid on this problem for centuries. Then along comes Dumb&Dumber (bush and cheney) who blew the lid off and opened pandora’s box.
We Orthodox Christians in Syria support the Assad government. He is all that stands between us and the US and EU backed head choppers and liver eaters. Muslims and Christians are together in the Syrian army fighting the western backed vermin.
This article is disinformation propaganda to aid and abet the West continuing to support immense suffering and death in the MENA and hide it from the American and EU peoples.
The US Empire of Chaos will be defeated in Syria.
Yes. I think you are right. As an American it bothers me quite a bit. We have large shiny military and everybody wants to use it for their own ends. We are trying to re-assert control, but the neocons are deeply entrenched in all aspects of the power structure. Media, Military, Intelligence, Academia etc.
Turning the system around is going to be difficult.
So you are asking for preconditions, eh? Ok, these are some of the preconditions for the Syrians then:
Golan Heights go back to Syria.
No Qatari pipeline thru Syria.
Th-…
Oh, did I hear a nevermind there?
Fine.
These feigned “humanitarian” reasons to gloss over the real reasons for the war namely power struggles & economic spheres/projects are so perverse.
Glenn, I know you value pluralistic journalism, but some things are just too disgusting and even downright dangerous, please do something about it. Sigh.
Apenas mais propaganda distribuída pelo Departamento de Estado Americano. Que vergonha The Intercept.
Wow! I really didn’t expect The Intercept to get on the ‘let’s take out Assad’ bandwagon. This is just sad. I see a career at CNN in Murzata Hussain’s future.
You are a psychopath writer. There is not a mental institution that is capable of reversing your kind psychosis. It must be the compensation. I hope it compliment the effort.
So you’ve learned nothing, then.
“Syria will never have a true future as a peaceful and prosperous country with Assad in power.”
Then your evidence is the destruction of the country..???
Well who was responsible for that.? The Goivt didnt just set out to destroy its own infrastructure.
You also gloss (deliberately?) over what the alternative might be…At best you might get Iraq with all its sectarian divisions ripping it apart on a daily basis but far more likely it will be one of the major players in your and the Wests favourite jihadis the once unfashionable Al Quaeda. Come on mate . Nail thos colours to the mast! Who do you support?
dont you get ashamed Murtaza?
going thru all the comments and see the liar that you are?
and the scum that you protect?
the dollars that you get worth the humiliation?
I don’t think the intercept writers are spending too many sleepless nights worrying about comment section trolls. I doubt if they even read the comments. Furthermore, in the journalist community, a rabid negative response is just as good as a positive response. What they dont like is apathy.
This will be just further confirmation that they should close down comments entirely, as they wish to do.
this is just further confirmation that they should close down intercept…
we have CNN, WP, NYT, FOX, BBC, The Guardian… and thousands more repeating state department BS!
Too true Richard Pearce, I think Murtaza Hussain thinks we were all born yesterday.”Media reported earlier in October that Syrian rebels asked Washington for Stinger missiles to use them against Russia’s military jets.
“Absolutely… Absolutely I would,” McCain said when asked whether he would support the delivery of Stinger missiles to the opposition in Syria. “We certainly did that in Afghanistan. After the Russians invaded Afghanistan, we provided them with surface-to-air capability. It’d be nice to give people that we train and equip and send them to fight the ability to defend themselves. That’s one of the fundamental principles of warfare as I understand it,” McCain said.
Read more: https://sputniknews.com/us/201510201028835944-us-stingers-missiles-syrian-rebels-mccain/
So, let’s see, the author believes that eliminating the things that caused people to flee for safety (DAESH and alQeda, plus the battle to first slow and stop them, then free areas from their control) will cause them to never return. Well, that makes me wonder if he also believes that there were WMDs ‘minutes from launch’ when the US bombs started falling in Iraq, or that Obama was ‘foreign born’, etc.
Given that the majority of the Syrian refugees from DAESH and alQeda fled TOWARDS ‘the regime’, and stayed there (despite the problems that the US sanctions cause for anyone trying to help them) the one thing we can say for certain is going to trigger a vast wave of refugees fleeing Syria would be anything that would cause Syrians to believe that either the ‘moderate’ alQeda (imagine traveling back in time and telling President Bush that the American media would be calling alQeda moderate, and there would be folks saying that giving them money and guns wasn’t enough, the US should give them missiles and air support before his replacement was out of office) or the ‘immoderate’ DAESH could be coming their way.
Oh FFS – apart from Greenwald, there’s no sign of intelligent life left at Teh Intercept.
There was no refugee crisis before the West completely trashed Libya, then followed up (via their lung-eating proxies) in Syria.
To blame the refuge crisis on Assad and insist on violent overthrow of a legitimate government (aka “regime change”) is sophistry of the highest order.
How “liberals” can simultaneously insist that the Iraq Ware was illegitimate but that Syrian intervention is OK without their brains exploding from cognitive dissonance is a mystery to me. Or perhaps Bush Junior’s (stupid) actions in Iraq are OK now..?
I’m not very confident about the refugees being permanent, though not in a good way… there is a word for folks like Yassin Shamous who hold a job as an “officer” in the “army” and “defect” from the “security apparatus” — they’re called deserters. I would not bet that Trump or any of the like-minded people we see springing into similar positions of power in Europe would necessarily see deserting from the Syrian Army to be a protected status deserving permanent refuge – indeed, The Intercept has covered what they think about similar issues: https://theintercept.com/2016/03/17/new-bill-would-turn-gops-xenophobic-rhetoric-about-refugees-into-law/?comments=1#comments I think there are some folks in power who might see Syria as a problem that solves itself, one bullet at a time. And while that appalls me, the notion of allowing people in who *used* to work in the Syrian Army shooting innocent civilians and decided to defect only after the regime stopped trusting Sunnis with guns and offended them — I’m not too fond of that either … who is? I would hope for a solution that funds safe refuges for them long-term in neighboring countries or even in Syria, but I doubt the Republicans are going to pay for that either. Probably, the worst.
It’s difficult to get past that headline and actually read the article which attempts to spin a false thesis that flies in the face of reason and fact. If anything the exact opposite of toppling Assad would occur. The country would descend into anarchy as various groups funded by outside interests fought for power. Does the author actually think that Syria would be different than what has happened in Iraq and Libya with regime change? To claim that the majority of refugees have fled their homes because of Assad is incredible to say the least. They have fled because of the horror of war and that war is perpetrated and prolonged by the funding of various extremist groups and mercenaries to create chaos in Syria so neoliberal propagandists like this author can blame Assad.
That’s a nice human sentiment and one I agree with.
But since it doesn’t even apply in America, what does that say about America? Or its foreign policy? Or the long line of strongman, monarchs and dictators the US has been backing for decades?
Not much, and a demonstration of the hypocrisy of America if you were to ask me. Maybe if America stood for anything, consistently, it could be seen as credible. But a nation that starts unprovoked wars to “feel safe” and based on lies, or tortures, or engages in a global program of drone assassinations of human beings without legal due process, probably isn’t going to be in much of a moral or legal position to lecture anybody about much of anything. At least not with the expectation that anyone will take you seriously or as credible.
Of course millions of us warned our government and our fellow citizens that that is precisely what would happen when you start going down this path out of unreasoning fear and retribution. So can’t really say I’m shocked at all that nobody listens to America except out of fear they might be the next nation bombed by us, because they have some economic resource that is in our “national interest”, or because they are geopolitically situated in such a way as to be “in the way of our national interest”, or because our leaders feel we need to make an example of some poor peoples “bad” leaders.
But hey, this is America and its leaders seem to think they know what’s best for everybody all over the globe, and they don’t seemed to care much about the unintended consequences born of their attempts to impose their worldview on others without their consent, or the consent of the American people.
So, again, color me unsurprised.
rrheard
“…….But since it doesn’t even apply in America, what does that say about America? Or its foreign policy? Or the long line of strongman, monarchs and dictators the US has been backing for decades?…….”
What a classic case of whataboutery, rr. US history is irrelevant. Either you give a fuck about Syrians or you retreat into US history (which has good and bad associated with it) because you are clueless about what to do there. Should Trump help/support the Syrian regime and Russia’s efforts to restore all of Syria to Assad? That’s the question. Should the US continue bombing ISIS and al-Qaeda to help the Assad regime? Or should the US slap more sanctions on Russia for their role in destroying Aleppo? No fly zone? Either you can answer it in good faith or avoid the question by discussing what the US did in South America in the 1960s. You always were kind of a chicken shit who pretends to know far more than you show, so I don’t expect much from you.
Perhaps I didn’t read the article carefully enough, but I failed to see any reference to US involvement in the refugee crisis. If Assad had been left alone to crush the uprising, people at least would have homes to live in and schools to go to; but since ‘liberals’ like Barack and Hillary can’t keep from meddling in other countries’ affairs, we have the situation today. Sure, Assad is a tyrant, but so were Saddam and Qaddafi; look what happened to their nations after the US ‘liberated’ them.
ISIS? Thank you, Bush/Cheney! Disbanding the Iraqi military was a brilliant move, guaranteed to create legions of pissed-off professional soldiers, who will provide wealth to American weapons manufacturers for years to come.
For all we know, Trump will actually make the situation better, with his propensity for deal-making. As far as his alleged misogyny, I wonder what the 53% of Hillary’s peer group who voted for Trump would say about that. Something about the economy, I hear. Apparently the Dow Jones index does not inspire most American households. Neither does war.
““Millions of Syrians have already chosen to flee their country entirely, rather than continue to be ruled by the Assad regime””
PR101. Check.
PNAC plan continues.
Plenty of clueless journalists participate.
Stopped reading after I saw the term “barrel bombs”.
If you’re going to use overtly propagandistic terminology cooked up in neocon and neoliberal think-tanks, then I don’t have the time or energy to parse through your article.
Blame whom you wish. Had Obama not gone on his “Arab Spring” in 2009, the outcome for Syria might have been different. His “encouragement” for democracy to countries unfamiliar with the concept, I believe in my heart began the march towards what we are now faced with…horrible, ugly war. See what we have in our street today because of the election of President Elect Trump…it is a small action compared to those in the Middle East, but shows how ignorance, hatred, racism, bigotry and jealousy play a part in fomenting dissent that can have horrible consequences…my heart breaks daily at their plight.
The election’s over – isn’t it time to give up on the Clinton propaganda about Syria and Russia?
After all, most of the refugees fled ISIS/Al-Qaeda assaults, and those were sponsored by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and the CIA and Turkey from late 2011 onwards, as the Clinton emails make clear.
The real story of that era, up to the present day, is how the pro-democracy Arab Spring protesters across the region, were either (1) hijacked for violent regime change purposes by the Obama-Clinton team, as in Syria and Libya, or (2) violently crushed to protect American client dictatorships, most notably as seen in Bahrain. There is a string of emails from March 2011 from the Clinton archive regarding this, particulary this one, where Clinton demands to know why the U.S. embassy in Bahrain was apparently supporting the opposition protesters:
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/28503
You want to spout this neoliberal regime change propaganda over Syria, that’s your business, but I don’t think too many people are going to buy it. I for one breathed a sigh of relief when Clinton was defeated; U.S. – Russia cooperation over eliminating Al Qaeda and ISIS from Syria is long overdue, it will stabilize the region, and refugees will then be able to return to Syria.
[[[ The election’s over – isn’t it time to give up on the Clinton propaganda about Syria and Russia? ]]]
Correctomundo.
Time to Drain the Swamp.
Hence, that’s the problem. Everyone in top posts at the DNC *and* the RNC are part of the swamp. (MANY in BOTH are pedophile cannibals. Weiner’s perversion is from eating too much Podesta Pizza with Hillary and his wife, Huma, at Podesta’s house.)
FOLLOW pizzagate on reddit and twitter.
Test.
TRUMP’S SUPPORT FOR ASSAD WILL MAKE THE GLOBAL REFUGEE CRISIS PERMANENT (FOR ABOUT 20%) said a short burly man with wavy grey hair and chestnut eyes ANECDOTALLY SPEAKING
“Millions of Syrians have already chosen to flee their country entirely, rather than continue to be ruled by the Assad regime. They have done so out of fear of barrel bombs, indefinite detention, torture, chemical weapons attacks, and other well-documented, systematic war crimes. If Syria’s conflict ends with a return to the pre-2011 political status quo — the same regime ruling the entire country indefinitely — many of those who fled will probably never return.”
QUESTION: Anybody have the Syrian emigration figures for 2009 and 2010? Near as I recollect back then Syria itself limited emigration by its citizens.
Nevertheless I contend the dangerous life threatening nature of day to day life in a civil war between scores of indigenous, partially indigenous and entirely non indigenous or foreign controlled combatant groups is why Syrians are fleeing Syria. Bashar and Hafez mixed legacy notwithstanding.
Just take a look at this partial list of Syrian civil war combatent groups and tune in frequently for updates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_armed_groups_in_the_Iraqi_Civil_War
Most Syrians aren’t fleeing Bashars’ regime which is why most of them will return if the fighting stops and rebuilding begins. They are fleeing Syria because of 5 years of civil war. They are fleeing because hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and maimed and with those kind of numbers everybody knows of someone who…well you get the idea
There are 5,000,000 refugees and counting. 3,000,000 of those refugees are next door in Turkey whose economic thresholds for moving back are minimal. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have arrived in Europe many of whom have more training and resources than their brethern in Turkey and will be needed if Peace comes and rebuilding begins..
USA FUN FACTS: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/10/05/u-s-admits-record-number-of-muslim-refugees-in-2016/
A total of 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the U.S. in fiscal year 2016, making up almost half (46%) of the nearly 85,000 refugees who entered the country in that period, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center. That means the U.S. has admitted the highest number of Muslim refugees of any year since data on self-reported religious affiliations first became publicly available in 2002.
The U.S. received 84,995 refugees in fiscal year 2016, effectively meeting the 85,000 ceiling set by the Obama administration at the beginning of the year. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (16,370), Syria (12,587) and Burma (Myanmar) (12,347) were the top origin countries of refugees in 2016. Together, refugees from these three nations represented nearly half (49%) of all refugees admitted to the U.S. over the past year.
Time to take all the syrian refugees airlifted back to their country, on Assads doorstep and do your leadership job, take care of your people?
Everyone is making it easy for Assad to get away with not being accountable.
please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
are you gonna make obama accountable for paying and training terrorists?
after that a agree with you…
Roch, do you know what the UNHCR identified as the biggest problem when it came to taking care of the refugees (and residents of Allepo, too) was? Nope, not Assad, the ‘regime’, amazingly enough, not even alQeda and/or DAESH.
The biggest problem everyone who is trying to help the refugees and those inside Allepo face traces right back to OBAMA, the sanctions he imposed on the Syrians for not turning their country (and their wives, daughters, and sons) over to religious fanatics, mysogynists, and tyranny. Are you going to try and hold Obama to account for that, or make it easy for him to get away with it by blaming Assad for what Obama (and the Sauds, and the UK) did?
and you are an refugee from what circus?
“To the extent that outside powers have contemplated military intervention against the Assad regime” You must be joking, the US along with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have been trying to regime change Syria since way before 2011. Robert Ford was US Ambassador to Syria when the revolt against Syrian president Assad was launched. He not only was a chief architect of regime change in Syria, but actively worked with rebels to aid their overthrow of the Syrian government. http://www.globalresearch.ca/you-wont-believe-what-former-us-ambassador-robert-s-ford-said-about-al-qaedas-syrian-allies/5504906?print=1
As for the Syrian refugees they are fleeing the head choppers, not Assad, as any sensible person would do. This is just another despicable propaganda piece for the non existent “moderate” liver eaters. By the way…
Saudi Arabia has 100,000 empty tents with air conditioning with accommodation for 3 million refugees. Zero Syrians. How long will these Saudi satraps and despots be able to continue their medieval barbaric ways?
I don’t know the ” head choppers” and an Air Force dropping bombs on Aleppo. You learn something new everyday.
James. What are you trying to say in your first sentence?
poor little james… you know what is in your interest or was feed into your head…
like 95% of the “freedom fighters” being foreign (payed terrorist)
what a great revolution!
saudis want to wreak havoc in the middle east
israel wants to wreak havoc in the middle east
saudis hate jews
jews hate arabs
and the Dumb&Dumbers of the USG befriend and oblige them both
bill maher has a point about rule by religion being a problem
For Syrians, the next four years of the Trump administration will probably not be a whole lot worse than the last four years of the Obama administration. It think there is a good possibility that Mr. Trump will endorse the ‘right of return’ of the Syrian refugees.
The worst scenario for Syria is a continuing proxy war where factions backed by the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey all fight each other while civilians are caught in the cross-fire. Those foreign powers could agree to partition Syria into zones of influence, much as Germany was partitioned after the Second World War. Give Damascus to Russia, Aleppo to Turkey, Ar Raqqah to Saudi Arabia and the rest to the United States. Syrians could return to the quadrant they liked best. Like Germany, in 50 years time, if they so choose, they could vote to be re-united.
what about the Kurds?
You can’t accommodate everyone. Turkey won’t allow an independent Kurdish zone. So the Kurds will have to live in the Turkish controlled zone.
what utter propagandist drivel
There are probably other sources who could have been quoted asserting that leaving Assad in power will stabilize the country and refugees could safely return. This should be labeled an opinion piece. Maybe The Intercept needs an editorial page. This is not news; certainly not unbiased reporting.
For this article, The Intercept needs a “fake news” page. LOL.
LOL
Maybe this piece is an attempt by a disgruntled soon-to be ex-employee to get TI onto the fake news sites list.
sadly so…sadly so…hope there will be a rethinking by the editors…
“Disgruntled employee” ?…you do realize all articles that are published go through an editorial process . Writers don’t just publish whatever the hell they want. So are you implying the editors are also ” soon to be fired disgruntled employees” ?
It’s pretty pathetic; just a PR line, like the White Hats nonsense. This is what you get when you have a media outlet that’s only answerable to the whims of its billionaire owner, who has a long track record (in Ukraine) of supporting the neoliberal Washington consensus and the Clintonite Democrats.
the ukraine? neoliberal? That is interesting because i once read someting of a specially crafted email server in the ukraine.
“not trusted by any syrian” –what an absolute joke. and yeah i loved the comparison with palestinians, who are not allowed to go back into their country. not comparable with syrians who hoped “the opposition” (who are they again?) would win, who refuse to go back, hoping for a pass to europe or the US. don’t fool yourself into thinking this represents a majority of syria. the north won the US civil war and the disappointed south dealt with it. the same will happen in syria
As soon as I saw your statement, “Millions of Syrians have already chosen to flee their country entirely, rather than continue to be ruled by the Assad regime”, it was obvious that you are right in line with the propaganda that the American government and MSM have spewed out over the past 5 years, just as they have done with Russia, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Ukraine, ect.ect. Many Syrians have fled their country because of the onslaught by a multitude of various terrorist groups, supported with weapons and intelligence by the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Britain, France, ect.ect. And if you are so naive as to think that many of those same countries were not involved in the original Syrian uprising, and others, in Libya, Ukraine, and Egypt, then I have a bridge in Alaska I would like to sell you. A stable middle-east is not good for the U.S., Israel and their allies. Chaos is what they want, and the more the better for them, and all the scumbags in the military industrial complex. They want chaos and wars, it’s their mothers milk for profits.
“Millions of Syrians have already chosen to flee their country entirely, rather than continue to be ruled by the Assad regime”
its that simple… BS!
A stable middle-east is not good for the U.S., Israel and their allies. Chaos is what they want, and the more the better for them, and all the scumbags in the military industrial complex. They want chaos and wars, it’s their mothers milk for profits.
The ICC May Charge Benjamin Netanyahu with War Crimes
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/The-ICC-May-Charge-Benjamin-Netanyahu-with-War-Crimes-20160321-0021.html
Trump “support” for Assad???? Refugees????
Why don’t those DNC-Controlled Syrians just vote him out of office?
Maybe they can start a Syrian-National Campaign to label him a racist?
I met a Syrian in America awhile back. He was here on a student VISA. He stated, and this is no joke: “I’m here to f*ck American women.”
The above article is about a ridiculous as they come.
Maybe the KKK is the solution to this shit after all?
It is probably the willingness of American women to f*ck that provoked the Syrians comment,and no, the KKK is not the answer,if you could find any in the first place.(At least in my parts)
Racial crap is tiresome as we all are one race,humanity,proven by our ability to breed,and the offspring’s ability to also.The only differences are cultural and superficial appearance issues.
It does not compute,much as this stupid article .
[[[ It is probably the willingness of American women to f*ck that provoked the Syrians comment]]]
1) No… this dude was truly rad.
2) They couldn’t f*ck them if they weren’t here, right? How many American’s migrate to Syria… ???? I bet you could count them.
[[ the KKK is not the answer,if you could find any in the first place. (At least in my parts)]]]
Don’t know where you live; but, they ARE everywhere. More than you realize. You just gotta know how to spot them.
EXAMPLES: Remember the Cop shootings of the black men in Tulsa and North Carolina? Who dunnit? KKK
forgetting the abominable kkk, i can affirm the “I’m here to f*ck American women.”
IN THE MIDDLE EAST, where wanton affairs and casual sex are capital offences, America has a reputation of getting sexed. I myself have been told by fellows from that area that they like it here because you can lie down with an American woman. Mind you, they dont appreciate being refused because it doesn’t jive with their understanding. In any case, saudis love blonds.
Correct barabbas.
Most are young, dumb, and full of … and they have a conscious or subconscious desire to “get even.”
“institutionally decayed, stained by its crimes, and dependent on foreign backers”
That could describe at least 1/3 of the nations of the world. But that aside, why is the U.S. involved in Syria? I realize that our foreign policy is probably the cause of what’s going on there, but more involvement can only make things worse. America needs to stop meddling in the affairs of other nations, because we do more harm than good.
Israel wants all that land and figure that getting puppets like Hellary to declare Assad the enemy is all it takes for the genocide of his supporters by the US. You know, America does the hard work, at America’s expense, with bravados for some bullshit good deed, a hearty thank you from netanyahu, and israel claims the land to own and occupy. Same shit as with Palestine.
The ICC May Charge Benjamin Netanyahu with War Crimes
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/The-ICC-May-Charge-Benjamin-Netanyahu-with-War-Crimes-20160321-0021.html
netanyahu figures that by getting Americans to bomb and kill more will somehow make genocide = self defence. The entire plan is even laid out in writing called the YINON PLAN.
this guy is making the intercept just look like any other mouth piece of the establishment…
who took to the streets?
child head choppers liver eating foreign terrorists?
What “establishment” are you talking about. I guess you missed the Arab Spring…this article documents the reality of what is present day Syria.
Anyone who writes anything you disagree with, is not a “mouthpiece” or representing some “establishment “
>>> I guess you missed the Arab Spring…this article documents the reality of what is present day Syria. <<<
Syrians are coming to America to "f*ck American women" (see above).
Why?
Obama/Hillary's State Department runs a child pedophile human trafficking ring so Syrian children can be devoured as Podesta Pedo Pizza (see pizzagate on Reddit).
“What “establishment” are you talking about”
what could i possible be talking about…
oh great america… so great!