Here it is, short and sweet — the Arab League told Joe Biden and his foreign policy clown show to “go pound sand” as they reversed course and ended Syria’s suspension from the Arab League.
Let’s go back to the future. Here was the news from almost 12 years ago:
Syria has been suspended from the Arab League over its failure to end the bloodshed caused by brutal government crackdowns on pro-democracy protests in a move that will increase the international pressure on President Bashar al-Assad. At an emergency session of its 22 member states in Cairo to discuss the crisis, the league decided to exclude Syria until it implements the terms of an earlier agreed peace deal to stop the violence. The league also agreed to impose economic and political sanctions on Syria over its failure to stop the violence and appealed to its member states to withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus, the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr bin Muhammad Al Thani, said.
Twelve years ago the Western narrative, which was embraced by the other members of the Arab League, portrayed Bashir Assad as a brutal dictator keen on crushing people eager to embrace democracy and human rights. It was pure bullshit. A total lie on the part of the west. The s-called “peaceful” protestors who were being attacked by the Syrian Government were funded by the CIA and the British intelligence. For the United States and the U.K. this attempt to oust Assad was a rehearsal of sorts for what transpired at the Maidan in Ukraine three years later. Attack Assad with radical Islamists, some funded by Gulf Arabs, was a clumsy attempt at a color revolution and Syria, serendipitously, had enough military force to stave off defeat until the Russians came to the rescue in September 2015.
Why did Russia intervene to save Syria? It appears that Putin and his team finally realized, in the wake of the Western-backed coup in Ukraine in February 2014 and the subsequent Ukrainian attack on the Russian speaking population in the Donbass , that the imperial ambitions of the United States and its European allies were unquenchable and had to be defeated. Coming to the aid of the Syrian Government in its battles against Western-backed Islamic extremists marked a critical counterattack on Western ambitions.
Today the Arab League reversed Syria’s suspension and effectively told Joe Biden and the United States to sod off (a polite substitute for the F-bomb).
The Arab League has re-admitted Syria after an 11-year absence, the organization said Sunday, following an extraordinary meeting at the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. . . . The Arab League also stressed the need to take “practical and effective steps” to resolve the Syrian crisis, the statement added. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could participate in the upcoming Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia if he is invited and if he wants to attend, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit told journalists Sunday. “Syria, from tonight, is a full member of the Arab league, and starting tomorrow they have the right to participate in any meeting. When the host nation, in this case Saudi Arabia, sends the invitation, (Assad) can attend if he wishes to,” Gheit said. Officials and analysts have said that Syria’s re-admission into the Arab League, while symbolic, comes with the possibility it could enable Assad’s rehabilitation internationally, and potentially allow the removal of crippling sanctions against his regime.
U.S. officials are not happy. They are whining like a transgender school girl:
US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel made it clear that that Washington is not on board with such plans. The US “will not normalize relations with the Assad regime and we do not support others normalizing with Damascus either,” he said at a State Department briefing in Washington, DC. “We’ve made this abundantly clear to our partners,” Patel said. “The US believes that a political solution that is outlined in UN Security Council Resolution 2254 is the only viable solution to this conflict in Syria.” Resolution 2254 endorses a roadmap for a peace process in Syria through UN-facilitated talks between the Syrian government and opposition members.
Chalk this up as one more substantive and symbolic victory for Russia and China. In the wake of the historic summit in March, former Middle East allies, Saudi Arabia in particular, have been emboldened to break with Washington on a host of economic and foreign policy issues and chart their own course. Ending Syria’s suspension without any quid pro quo is the equivalent of kicking the United States in the crotch. Uncle Sam is doubled over and grimacing in great pain.
It is now clear that a key element of U.S. foreign policy during the past 13 years was to foment civil war in countries where U.S. leaders wanted a leadership change. It is a murderous, blood drenched record and now, thanks to Russia and China and Saudi Arabia, it is coming to a crashing end. The Arab League delivered a metaphorically punishing kick to the groin of Uncle Sam today. Ouch!!
The Arab League action derails the U.S. effort to isolate and punish Iran because Syria was a proxy for that foreign policy objective. This decision leaves the CIA and MI-6 covert action campaign in Syria is complete shambles. Good riddance.
