On Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 10:15:01 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
Still ongoing cruelty against the Syrian people:
"Washington had no serious security interests at stake but advanced a complicated, even exotic agenda.
Successive administrations sought to simultaneously oust Assad, defeat the Islamic State, and expel
Iranian and Russian forces. Along the way the U.S. aided radical insurgents including Al Qaeda’s local
affiliate, acquiesced to Gulf aid for jihadist forces, and supported Syrian Kurds while Ankara cooperated
with the Islamic State and attacked Washington’s Kurdish partners. This confused mess of policy pottage
extended the catastrophic, multi-sided civil war. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians died.
The U.S. had one notable success: supporting local militias that defeated ISIS, which lost its final territorial
stronghold in 2019. Otherwise, U.S. policies were a bust. Assad regained control over most of the country.
Turkey secured a small opposition zone controlled by Islamist extremists. Ankara also threatened American
troops and invaded Kurdish territory—with another round now possible. Several hundred U.S. personnel
continue to illegally occupy a third of Syria, including its main oil fields, where they are regularly challenged
by Russian and Iranian-backed forces. The latter recently struck a U.S. base with drones, killing a contractor.
Washington’s retaliatory strike triggered another attack.
Although President Donald Trump expressed support for leaving Syria, he bizarrely appointed hawks such
as Never Trumper James Jeffrey, who actively resisted administration policies. To thwart Trump’s withdrawal
plans, Jeffrey and other officials brazenly misled the president about the U.S. troop presence in Syria and
played to Trump’s desire to loot Syrian oil. Congress doubled down by imposing the Caesar sanctions, which
took effect in 2020. The measure further immiserated the already impoverished Syrian population, earning
enthusiastic praise from Jeffrey and another Trump envoy, Joel Rayburn.
This strategy was both inhumane and maladroit. Jeffrey openly treated the Syrian people as a means to an
end, seeking to make Syria a “quagmire” for Russia. Rayburn took similar satisfaction from punishing the
Syrian people, viewing their continuing hardship after more than a decade of civil war as a great victory.
The World Food Programme reported that, "following 12 years of conflict, an economy crippled by runaway
inflation, a currency that has collapsed to a record low and soaring food prices, 12 million people do not know
where their next meal is coming from. Another 2.9 million people are at risk of sliding into hunger, meaning
that 70% of the population may soon be unable to put food on the table for their families.”"
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-cruelty-of-syria-sanctions/