U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivers remarks on the Way Forward for the United States regarding Syria, at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University, in Stanford, California on January 17, 2018. [State Department Photo/ Public Domain]

Trump Administration Declares “New Way Forward” in Syria

January 21, 2018 Fatih Siyasi 575 Views rex tillerson, Syria, Syrian crisis, Trump Administration

During a visit to Stanford University’s Hoover Institute on January 17, 2018, U.S. Secretary of State (and former Exxon CEO) Rex Tillerson announced the Trump Administration’s implementation of a “new strategy” in Syria. Despite President Trump’s recent tweet about what a waste U.S. involvement in Syria was, this “new” strategy sounds a lot like the old Obama strategy of confusing the battling of terrorists with “Assad must go”.

Before going into details about the new strategy, however, Tillerson listed “five key end states” for Syria:

ISIS and al-Qaida in Syria suffer an “enduring defeat” and Syria is never again base for new terrorism;
“the underlying conflict” between the Syrian people and the Assad regime is resolved through the process laid out by UN Security Council Resolution 2254 (i.e. “Assad must go”);
Iranian influence in Syria is diminished (keep an eye on this one, folks);
“conditions are created” to allow refugees to return home safely;
“Syria is free of weapons of mass destruction”.

Tillerson said that the Trump administration’s “new strategy” to achieve these “end states” largely entails increased diplomatic action characterized by stabilization initiatives and “a new emphasis on the political solution to the Syrian conflict.” Tillerson immediately followed up this sentiment with a declaration that the U.S. intends to maintain an indefinite military presence inside Syria, despite the fact that “some Americans are skeptical” of continued military involvement in Syria. If it sounds to you like Tillerson is just making the case for continued military presence in the Middle East, you read my mind, and probably his, too.

Tillerson went on to lay out the United States’ so-called “new strategy” in Syria in five parts, as well:

Stabilization initiatives to restore life to normal and respect for governmental authority;
De-escalation of conflict, with the continued help of Jordan and Russia;
Counterterrorism activities that vaguely commits to “developing the best option to neutralize this threat in conjunction with allies and partners”;
Pressuring Russia and others to pressure Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, to step-down as part of the UNSCR 2254 process;
“reducing and expelling malicious Iranian influence from Syria” by expelling Assad.

So basically, the Trump Administration’s “new strategy” in Syria is Obama’s old strategy of continuing to work with terrorists hired by the United States, the so-called “Syrian Democratic Forces”, to make life miserable for everyone in Syria until Assad steps down or is otherwise eliminated. The only thing new about the strategy Tillerson announced is that it’s trying to deny the fact that the conflict in Syria is all but over — thanks to Russia, Iran and Turkey and no thanks to the United States — in order to make some lame pretext to justify an unprovoked U. S. to attack Iran.

After all, that’s how Obama got boots on the ground in Syria, remember? It all started with the Yazidis trapped on a mountain top in Iraq. Then presto-change-o, the U.S. is bombing Syria to stop “ISIS”. This “new strategy” is the same old strategy of the Obama and Bush Administrations to use the war on terror pretext as an excuse for never-ending U.S. military presence in, and control of, the Middle East as exposed by General Wesley Clark in the wake of 9/11 and the second Iraq War (see links below).

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