Trump has No Say on Who Rules Syria after Assad’s Victories – Ex-US Ambassador

… from Sputnik News, Moscow

[ Editor’s Note: Charles (Chas) Freeman is what I call an old-school diplomat, meaning that when he retired from government service, he did not pimp himself out to the Israeli lobby or the military industrial complex. This is even more rare for those who were also high-level defense department people, like Freeman.

With career oars in both of these waters, we know he had access to all the historical intelligence on the Mideast, and does not view things through rose-colored glasses, even if it pays well.

I have editorialized that the US coalition would try to steal in the Syrian political process what it did not win on the battlefield, despite over a half-million killed, and according to the ex-PM and FM of Qatar, $137 billion spent trying to do so.

Some would view this as a home-run looting jackpot by those who got the money. So why are not the citizens of the respected countries up in arms over the wasted monies on such a horrible cause? What would it take to make them rise up against the kleptocracy rulers, if this will not?

While the US coalition continues to play its regional bad-boy routine, the Chinese are moving into Syria for rebuilding, with the door wide open. China spends its billions on more important things than fake threat wars.

Putin has major investment needs at home, yet is funding development projects in Iran with loans, nuclear power in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and possibly Egypt, which also seems close to doing an air basing agreement for the Russian air force, which would put Russia on both sides of Israel. The US is left with Kurds as the booby prize, and losing Turkey as an ally to boot.

But despite the continuing string of foreign policy and military disasters, the Deep State elites continue to snort their fake democracy crack, and litter the roadside behind them with death and destruction, a hint as to what they are really about… Jim W. Dean ]

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– First published … December 14, 2017 –

The Syrian Army’s combat victories have confirmed President Bashar Assad’s hold on power and it is laughable to think President Donald Trump or the United States can do anything about it, former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Trump administration is allegedly prepared to accept Assad’s continued rule until Syria’s next scheduled presidential election in 2021, New Yorker magazine reported earlier this week, citing US and European officials.

The State Department on Tuesday, however, refuted these reports and said that the United States believes that the future of Syria will not include Assad.

“It’s a bit of a joke to premise… the thesis that it is up to Trump, or the United States, to decide who rules Syria,” former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman said on Wednesday. “It seems to me that those who brought Assad his victory against the forces that shed so much blood to dislodge him have decided that.”

Freeman said US policymakers and pundits were deceiving themselves if they imagined that they could choose or significantly influence who would lead Syria in the coming years following the end of the six-year civil war that has killed an estimated 600,000 people.

The conflict in Syria had inflicted unprecedented destruction on the country’s infrastructure and suffering of its people, and generated several million refugees, Freeman added.

“Syria has been maimed, but not slain by the civil war that others, including the United States, fueled on its territory,” Freeman said.

On December 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Daesh terrorist group had been defeated on both banks of the Euphrates river in Syria. On Monday, Putin ordered a partial withdrawal of Russian forces from the country, about two years after the Syria campaign started at the request of Assad.

Chas Freeman is a lifetime director of the Atlantic Council and served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’affaires at the US embassies in Beijing and Bangkok. Freeman also held several senior level positions at the Defense Department.

The views and opinions expressed by Chas Freeman are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

*

Jim W. Dean

Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus.  He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022.  He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.  He now writes and posts periodically for VT.

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