U.S. Says It Is No Longer Interested In Forcing Assad To Step Down; Focused On ISIS Instead

After showing signs of ratcheting up the Obama war policy against Syria and the government of Bashar al-Assad, the U.S. government has released an official statement that has shocked many on both the pro-Syria and opposition sides. According to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, the United States is no longer concerned with forcing Assad to leave power and instead will be focused on “defeating ISIS.”

“You pick and choose your battles and when we’re looking at this, it’s about changing up priorities and our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out,” she told a small group of reporters.

“Do we think he’s a hindrance? Yes. Are we going to sit there and focus on getting him out? No,” she said. “What we are going to focus on is putting the pressure in there so that we can start to make a change in Syria.”

“We can’t necessarily focus on Assad the way that the previous administration did,” she added. “Our priority is to really look at how do we get things done, who do we need to work with to really make a difference for the people in Syria.”

On Thursday in Ankara, Tillerson stated that the future of the Syrian government “will be decided by the Syrian people.”

Haley and Tillerson’s remarks, while not a disavowal of the plan to destroy Syria, are at least a step in the right direction, small as they may be. Yet they have also drawn hysteria and shrieking whines from the usual quarters, most notably John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and the Washington Post. Neither McCain’s nor Graham’s words are worth reprinting since they contain no substance and only repeat the tired claims of “Assad killing his own people” and that Russia and Iran are killing civilians and that allowing Assad to stay in power might hurt the morale of al-Qaeda. McCain laughably claimed that failing to prevent Assad from killing terrorists will lead to terrorist attacks on the United States. Graham simply lamented the lack of war with Syria, Iran, and Russia.

The Washington Post also ran a typical op-ed by Jennifer Rubin with the headline: “Team Trump doubles down on Obama’s horrendous betrayal of Syria.” Rubin’s perspective is represented as the conservative opinion, notably identical to the liberal opinion, since both are convulsing and frothing at the mouth to go ahead with an invasion of Syria despite the fact that it might cause a nuclear holocaust.

While the American position towards the Syrian government seems to be improving slightly, it is also noteworthy to point out that the United States has openly been assisting in the creation of a Kurdistan inside Syria, an essential element of the federalization of Syria as described by U.S. politicians, strategists, and corporate-financier think tanks. Perhaps now, with the West moving forward in its carving up of the country, Assad’s presence can be tolerated.

Still, it is our hope that the United States is finally beginning to use reason and is coming to the conclusion that the entire Syrian affair was an act of foolishness at best.