Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Al-Qaida in Northern Syria Proof that Obama's Middle East Policy Failed
Geneva is once again the scene of diplomatic negotiations whose goal is to get a Syria peace conference off the ground. But, President Bashar al-Assad's regime signaled it is not ready to negotiate handing over power. Meanwhile, al-Assad's main ally, Russia, has insisted, once again, that pro-Assad Iran must be part of any talks, but the Syrian opposition has opposed Iran's involvement. And to complete the perfect gridlock, the members of the exiled and Western-backed opposition group insist that al-Assad be excluded from Syria's future leadership as the starting point for any talks to take place. The diplomatic maneuvering among the great powers in Geneva at the UN contrasts sharply with the heavy shelling and missile attacks being waged in a civil war that both sides still believe they might win militarily. The Syria death count officially passed 100,000 this past summer, and this week the United Nations also announced that as many as 40% of Syrians now need humanitarian aid, including more than 2 million refugees who have fled to surrounding countries, as well as 6.5 million people who are now internally displaced, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The question confronting the negotiators is what a Syria after the al-Assad regime should look like. Senior UN envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi is holding meetings with senior Russian and US officials to see if a UN-sponsored Syria peace conference bringing together al-Assad's regime and a united opposition could be convened this year. Brahimi also is meeting with officials from Britain, France, China and four of Syria's neighbors - Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq - that are struggling to cope with the conflict. Diplomats are trying to build on last year's negotiations that created the roadmap for a Syrian political transition. It was agreed to by key nations including the five Security Council powers - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France. The roadmap would begin with a transition government agreed by both sides, followed by elections. One of the sticking points is al-Assad's future role. The al-Assad regime says that the Geneva talks are part of a political process "and not a handover of power or forming a transitional governing body." Members of the exiled and Western-backed opposition group insist that al-Assad be excluded from Syria's future leadership as the basis for any talks to take place. US Secretary of State John Kerry told a news conference that the al-Assad regime knows that the purpose of a second peace conference would be to put the roadmap in place : "I don't know how anybody believes the opposition is going to give mutual consent to Assad to continue," Kerry said. "And the Syrian government has accepted to come to Geneva, so I am hoping the Syrian government, the Russians, the Iranians and others who support the Syrian regime will make certain the Syrian regime will live up to its obligation to come to Geneva to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Syria." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, reiterated that Iran must take part, rejecting a statement by Syrian National Coalition leader Ahmad al-Jarba, who said his coalition wouldn't attend the talks if Iran is invited, as a "provocation." ~~~~~ Dear readers, with all the disagreement and positioning going on, it is no wonder that unnamed UN sources in Geneva have leaked Tuesday evening that there will be no peace conference in November and that the goal now is to begin the conference in December. This is not good news. Even a week at this point will make a difference in the quality of Syria's future. Northern Syria is witnessing a rapid build-up of al-Qaida fighters. They are coming into Syria from Turkey, which says it is trying to identify and stop them. But CNN showed an al-Qaida black flag flying from a new building in northern Syria within sight of the Turkish-Syrian border. The north is becoming an al-Qaida enclave and Syrian civilians who live there are beginning to ask if the revolution is over. Al-Qaida leaders in the region recently started cutting off a hand of Syrian men who refuse to accept an al-Qaida government. One has to weep for these beleaguered people who wanted - who want - only to be free of despots and live their lives as normal human beings. And if Barack Obama can sleep peacefully afrer seeing his policy of non-intervention bring down on Syrian heads the curse of al-Qaida, then he does not deserve to be called either a Christian or an American.
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A solid, in the bag Syria with the Muslin Brotherhood or just as a renegade hangout area for Al-Qaida would put Southern turkey in great peril, endanger the electronic post we have on the eastern border of Turkey and lastly put a big red bull's eye on Greece, etc in Southern Europe.
ReplyDeleteUnder NO circumstance can we have that happen. talk about getting involved in a war in the Middle East - that is the stuff that would make a war worth while.
Is the Syrian revolution over as the people are beginning to ask or question - it looks that way and Assad has possibly survived to reek havoc, death, and more misery on his own people.
But the blame is not with the Syrian people seeking freedoms ... it's with Obama, Kerry and the various other White House advisers who constructed the current Middle East policy. a policy of talk alot and where did we put that stick at.
Everything about the Obama administration if a failure or at least seriously failing at this point.
ReplyDeleteThe Syrian Obama failure has a very serious side. This failure represents the lost of life, the loss of family, the loss of younger generations, the disfiguring of adults & children, social upheaval, loss of homes, churches, and neighborhoods ... Loss, loss, and more permanent loss.
The implication of a lasting defeat for the Obama Middle East policy simply has more reaching effect on so many more people than say a mis- calculation over food stamps, or gasoline prices, or green energy investments.
But in the end it is the total enormity of all of Obama's failures and bad judgements that will spell trouble.
Here we are face to face with Assad and Al-Qaida in the middle of Syria's civil war trying to protect not the Syrian fighters, but the surrounding Middle East mostly for our or our friends (if we have any) interests.
ReplyDeleteThis is still dangerous to be in. A war with 2 religious factions fighting each other offers really nothing more than a disastrous situation for an "infidel" that gets physically involved.
The European wars of religion were more deadly than the First World War, proportionally speaking, and in the range of the Second World War in Europe. The Inquisition, the persecution of heretics and infidels and witches, they racked up pretty high death tolls. And would again
David Harris, executive Director of the American Jewish Committee,
ReplyDelete“A lot of folks are watching, friends and foes. If we blink, if we flinch, foes will draw their own lessons and the world will become a more dangerous place.
“And friends are also watching, including friends in the Arab world, friends in Israel, elsewhere. They will draw their conclusions, fairly or unfairly, that they cannot necessarily rely on the United States.”
So whatever we decide to do we need to do with fortitude, conviction, and all with an effort to help the oppressed and beleaguered. A sign of weakness and lack of commitment will not do us well.
And we are in this mess all because of Obama's spineless rhetoric over the "Red Line in the Sand" a few months ago.