Webster G. Tarpley | 10 Oct 2015
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter shocked the world on Thursday by making it clear that parts of the US government look with favor on Saudi Arabia’s proclamation of Holy War (jihad) against the Russian Federation because of Moscow’s decision to wage a real war – as distinct from the US phony war – against the Syrian terrorist rebels. According to the London Guardian:
“Moscow will soon start paying the price for its escalating military intervention in Syria in the form of reprisal attacks and casualties, the US defense secretary has warned, amid signs that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are preparing to counter the Russian move.”[i]
In addition to this crude threat, Carter announced that the United States will refuse to coordinate flight plans and air traffic with Russia over Syria. This makes unwanted and needless collisions and clashes more likely, and adds to the growing danger to the American people – another reason why the reckless and incompetent Carter must be dismissed.
Carter’s grasp of basic strategic reality is also in question: he ranted in Brussels that Moscow is increasingly isolated on the diplomatic front. But this week’s Russian launch of cruise missiles against ISIS and al Qaeda from ships in the Caspian Sea was obviously done in coordination with Iraq, Iran, and Syria. In Baghdad particularly, US influence is waning even as that of Russia is growing, all because of the success of Petraeus and Allen in imposing their phony war paradigm on the entire US effort, meaning that no serious air destruction could be unleashed on ISIS. Today Putin is harvesting an easy victory over the ISIS rabble in part because the US pulled its punches against an opponent which is a paper tiger, not JV but intramural rejects.
Carter is also crippled by his own overweening arrogance, which is surely a compensation for some deep inner insecurity. A person who knows Carter has provided the profile of an infantile bully, nastier than Hillary Clinton. Carter’s insolent yap may yet cost the United States dearly; in the summer of 2014, Carter went out of his way to gratuitously insult the soldiers of the Iraqi army, upon whom the hopes of defeating ISIS in part depend. Carter raved about the Iraqi army that a “combination of disunity, deserters, and so-called ‘ghost soldiers’—who are paid on the books but don’t show up or don’t exist—has greatly diminished their capacity.” Carter knew very well that the Iraqi infantry had fled because their officers had been bribed by the Secretary’s Saudi friends, who wanted the triumph of ISIS.[ii]
But now, there are tentative signs of reality-based thinking in the Obama White House. In today’s Bloomberg View, Josh Rogin and Eli Lake write:
“A week into Russia’s military intervention in Syria, some top White House advisers and National Security Council staffers are trying to persuade President Barack Obama to scale back U.S. engagement there, to focus on lessening the violence and, for now, to give up on toppling the Syrian regime…. Other officials told us that while the U.S. still has programs in place to aid the moderate opposition, top members of the administration who have been pushing for more of that support, or for the establishment of safe zones in Syria, are increasingly frustrated with the White House’s reluctance. This group included Kerry and General John Allen, the outgoing special envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition.”[iii]
Of course, deciding to work with an existing secular government against murderous obscurantist fanatics is not a retreat, but an advance towards the bright uplands of reason. The realists include Robert Malley, the Middle East director of the National Security Council, and his predecessor Philip Gordon. The anti-Assad fanatics inside the administration include Kerry, Samantha Power, and the outgoing ISIS Czar John Allen of the Petraeus faction.
National Security Council Middle East Director Robert Malley
Malley joined the Obama administration in February 2014 as a consultant with the title of senior director of the National Security Council. On March 6, 2015, the National Security Council announced that Malley would replace Philip Gordon as the Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf Region. Malley deserves the critical support of persons of good will for his current program of pacification and war avoidance.
Philip Gordon, former Middle East Director of the National Security Council
Philip H. Gordon was Malley’s predecessor. A few weeks ago, he contributed an article to Politico which we may treat as the program of this realist group:
“[Recent developments in Syria] make it increasingly difficult to deny what should have been apparent for some time—the current policy of the United States and its partners, to increase pressure on Assad so that he ‘comes to the table’ and negotiates his own departure—must be rethought…. The essential problem with U.S. Syria policy since the start of the crisis has been the mismatch between objectives and means—the objective of displacing the Assad regime has proven unachievable with the means we have been willing or able to deploy to achieve it. To correct this mismatch, we have two options: increase the means, with whatever costs and consequences might accompany doing so, or modify the objectives…. The hardest issue in any attempt to bring regional powers together on Syria would be the question of the fate of Assad….instead of insisting on Assad’s immediate departure as a prerequisite to any agreement, a U.S.-led contact group could explore measures including the establishment of local and regional ceasefires; radical decentralization that would empower local authorities and get the regime out of agreed parts of the country; the cessation of regime air attacks in exchange for an end to opposition offensives; constitutional reform; the establishment of entities that would include representatives from the government and opposition and provide a basis for initial dialogue; eventual elections in which Assad might or might not be allowed to run; and potentially even safe areas that would negotiated between the regime and the opposition. A transitional agreement backed by the outside powers that included some of these steps would fall short of the ‘transitional governing body with full executive authority’ called for in the June 2012 Geneva communiqué. But it could start a process and would be far preferable than the elusive pursuit of that unattainable goal. An accord reached among the outside powers could also be more credibly backed by the threat of force than a plan that some key actors vehemently oppose.” [iv]
Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas – Sacrificing the lives of Palestinians to keep his hold on power
WHOSE INTIFADA?
Eyeless in Gaza-The dubious Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas has now declared a third Intifada against the Israeli occupation, although he has failed to furnish the people of Gaza with the logistical sinews of an effective rebellion. Haniyeh, who strongly supports the terrorist rebels of Syria, is reported to have been feeling left out of things since the signing of the Iran nuclear accord. The cause of the Palestinians who demand the two-state solution is just, but that of Haniyeh personally far less so. Hamas is implicated in terrorist attacks in the Sinai against the Egyptian government of the neo-Nasserist al-Sisi. Hamas is now widely mocked as the Palestinian Section of the Moslem Brotherhood. The Palestinian people deserve better leadership.
- “Russia will pay price for Syrian airstrikes, says US defense secretary; Ashton Carter predicts reprisal attacks on Russian soil over Vladimir Putin’s military campaign to prop up Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” Guardian, October 9, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/08/russia-pay-price-syrian-air…
- Ted Gup, “Will Ash Carter’s Arrogance Ruin Him? The Pentagon chief’s harsh dismissal of Iraqi soldiers is all too typical. I should know,” Politico, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/the-arrogance-of-ashton-c…
- Josh Rogin & Eli Lake, “White House Is Weighing a Syria Retreat,” Bloomberg View, October 9, 2015, http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-09/white-house-is-weighing…
- Philip Gordon, “It’s Time to Rethink Syria: For years, I helped advise President Obama on Syria. It’s now clearer than ever that a new strategy is needed,” Politico, Sept. 25, 2015, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/its-time-to-rethink-syria…
