Between regime change and saving innocents, U.S. always chooses regime change

By Walt Zlotow  

The Ides of March 2011 was not a good day for the Syrian people: Civil war broke out, lasting nearly 14 years, resulting in over 600,000 deaths. Last December Syrian President Assad was toppled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al-Qaeda branch with a history of war crimes and violent, sectarian ideology.

Syria’s new de facto leader is Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda and ISIS chief who went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani. A sworn terrorist enemy of the U.S., Julani had a bounty of US$10 million on his head for his capture.

But by toppling Assad, al-Julani became a darling of U.S. regime change advocates who spent the entire 14-year Syrian civil war funding and cheering on the Syrian rebels including many anti-U.S. jihadists. Pushing U.S. regime change can sure make strange bedfellows with Uncle Sam. U.S. aid likely kept the civil war ongoing for years contributing to tens if not hundreds of thousands of needless Syrian deaths.

The U.S. championed the jihadist rebels, not to save Syrians from the brutal Assad, but simply to effect regime change of an ally of America’s real bête noir in the Middle East, Iran. Support for Israel, the real power dictating US Middle East policy, was a major, if not the most important determinant of cruel, murderous U.S. regime change policy in Syria.

The U.S. couched its support of the jihadist rebels fighting Assad as America’s humanitarian concern for the Syrian people. Bunk. Syria represents the latest of 64 U.S.-backed regime change ops since WWII, resulting in an unknown number of casualties (some reports put the figure at 1,000,000, but these reports are unconfirmed).

President Biden cheered on al-Julani’s victory last December. President Trump went further, meeting with newly renamed al-Sharaa who donned suit and tie to demonstrate his pro-U.S. bonafides. Trump rescinded the $10 million bounty on America’s new partner in containing Iran saying al-Sharaa was A-OK. He then offered to end US sanctions which had cruelly killed thousands and degraded life for millions of hapless Syrian civilians.

So what is America’s new best buddy in Syria doing to make life livable again for Syrians persecuted by Assad? He’s gone on a murderous rampage of revenge against the ‘other’… Alawites, Christians and various undesirables who do not share his jihadist philosophy. The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) reports at least 7,670 people have been killed in Syria since Assad’s fall. They further state the actual number likely much higher. That includes more than 2,130 “extrajudicial executions” and “identity-based killings.” SOHR notes that 75 percent of all the deaths are civilians, and warns of “a pattern of organized violence” across the country.

Not a word of protest from the Trump administration which sees al-Sharaa’s Syria as a good partner for isolating and assisting with U.S. regime change efforts in Iran whose leaders rightly demand the freedom to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Alas, changing out Iran’s regime likely entails war which will be devastating to U.S. troops, bases and ships in the region. So far Trump has resisted bloodthirsty U.S. hawks promoting war with Iran.

If one thinks America’ 14-year successful regime change effort in Syria was long, consider the 65-year-old U.S. embargo of Cuba that has failed to change out the hated Cuban revolutionary government. It’s inflicted a trillion dollar hit on the Cuban economy, degrading life for Cuba’s 11 million souls. It punishes the U.S. economy by over $3 billion yearly. Sixty-five years of U.S. stupidity and no end in sight. Nations go into America’s regime change roach motel… and never come out.

Sixty-four U.S. regime change ops since WWII and not one of them worth, as FDR’s first VP John Nance Garner said about the Vice Presidency, “a bucket of warm spit.”

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL

 

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