SYRIA, THINKING OUT OF THE BOX

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX ON SYRIA

The awful destruction unleashed by the Bush-Cheney wars in the Middle East is now spreading westward into Europe. Hoards of migrating Syrian refugees are pictured every day in the press, streaming across Europe and away from the bombing, destruction and despair visited on their homes and communities. Bodies of dead refugees have been found in a sealed refrigerator truck abandoned along the side of the roadside, evidence of an escape to safety gone wrong. Others perish at sea, their bodies, even those of tiny, pathetic children, to wash up on the shores of Greece, Italy and Turkey. Conflicts are brewing among the leaders of wealthy European states as to who can or should take these Moslem refugees in. Unfortunately, the burden seems to have fallen on the least responsible for the original disaster...Germany and France ....nations which resisted the entreaties of Bush and his misguided warriors to invade Iraq. Here in the USA we act in the face of these problems as if we had nothing to with it. But some astute person I overheard yesterday down in Manchester, remarked that since it was George Bush who started all this mess with his Iraq invasion....he should open up his spacious ranch in the wide open spaces of Texas for these unfortunates. Well, that will not happen soon.

We can and should assign blame for this catastrophe. President Bush and Mr. Cheney began it all with their destabilizing war in Iraq which metastasized into a brutal and bloody sectarian civil war that engulfed US forces and spread like a poisonous miasma over the whole region. Then when the unrest reached the sandy desert border of Syria, President Obama and his neocon State Department holdovers from the Bush administration rubbed their hands with glee as they anticipated the fall of Assad.. These foreign policy geniuses were wrong their desire to destabilize the Assad regime. Mr Assad is not quite as brutal as Saddam, but he is a Middle East despot in an area where a strong leader is needed. While in power, he kept a tight rein on the forces of chaos within his borders. He did so until he was weakened by (his own mistakes) and the collusion of the U.S. and the other Syria-state enemies in the region. Our neocons classed Assad as an enemy of Israel and concluded (now proved to be erroneous) that ergo Assad must be our U.S. enemy too. The goal of the Obama administration, was and remains the short sighted: " regime change in Syria". As a result, the USA ( without much deep thought on the matter) sent CIA agents, their pockets stuffed with cash to "help" the Syrian insurgents. The problem they immediately encountered was: which insurgent group of radical terrorists should we support? With the USA's collusion the conflict deteriorated into a brutal stalemate. Our leaders persisted in this unfruitful course, providing more money and more guns while attempting to support and arm what they euphemistically called the "good insurgents". But with little effect, except for further entrenching the opposition to Assad ( who remains the only potential stable leader in that nation).

, It is clear, now to all, after so many blunders and missteps, that U.S. policy in the ME is woefully short on sound judgement. We have the most powerful military the world has ever seen, but we often do not fully understand when to use it, and what we are doing with it. This is a most common US foreign policy error.

But others in the region do. I read today (NY Times Sept. 5, 2015) that Mr. Putin of Russia has announced that Assad is ready to share power with moderate opposition groups. The Times suggests that Putin is prepared to more openly support the Assad Regime--the only possible route toward a stable government in Syria -- with both military hardware and advisors.

If we were wise, instead of opposing the Russian leader in his endeavor, something that the dogma ridden, hide-bound, denizens of Foggy Bottom are surely planning to do as I write this, INSTEAD, WE SHOULD JOIN PUTIN IN HIS SUPPORT OF MR. ASSAD. IT IS THE ONLY ROUTE TO HUMANELY END THE CIVIL WAR. A peace initiative supported by both the Russians and the USA and including Mr. Assad and any of the opposing groups, moderate enough to come to the peace table with him, would go a long way to ending the chaos. Once that is achieved, the new government entIty would unite around a force that would rid Syria of the REAL THREAT TO SYRIA, THE MIDDLE EAST AND EUROPE, WHICH IS ISIL and the other radical terrorist groups. Such a scenario requires, ignoring failed dogma, opening the mind to new thoughts, or simply "thinking out of the box". Such a process would stem the awful and growing tide of refugees leaving Syria, and end their awful suffering. It would eliminate the pain and costs to the European host nations for housing, feeding, and integrating these poor souls into the various nations to which they have so painfully migrated.

d The USA aspires to be the world's leader. Here is our chance to undo some of the evil we have imposed on that part of the world. Here is an opportunity to grasp the reins of leadership again. let's not let Putin get all the credit. All we have to do is abandon our old "proved to be wrong thoughts" and think of a new A better, a humane solution. THINK!