Syria: The Latest Installment in America's Fickle, Dysfunctional Foreign Policy

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http://www.opednews.com/articles/Syria-The-Latest-Installm-by-John-Brock-Airstrikes_Assad_Democrat_Foreign-Policy-140827-325.html



Syria: The Latest Installment in America's Fickle, Dysfunctional Foreign Policy
By John Brock
OpEdNews Op Eds 8/27/2014 at 07:01:57

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The "mission" and scope of US actions in Iraq, under the pretense of pushing back against The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has already been greatly expanded in just a short period of time. The "mission" began in June as an operation to provide assistance to Iraqi security forces by sending 300 US military advisers to Iraq; less than two months later the Obama administration authorized airstrikes in Iraq "to protect American personnel" and "prevent"genocide," even while stating that "there is no American military solution to the larger crisis in Iraq." Then, barely more than two weeks later, on August 26, 2014, the US began reconnaissance flights over Syria, a clear indicator that airstrikes are soon to follow in order to deal with ISIS in Syria.

Interestingly, it was just a year ago that the administration was approaching Congress to ask for authority to strike Syria, but not for the purpose of containing ISIS, but to punish Bashar Assad, the president of Syria, for allegedly using chemical weapons in that country's civil war. Despite claims by the government that it had evidence implicating Assad in the attacks, the Obama administration flatly refused to honor a request by the Associated Press (AP) to provide some evidence to back up its claims. Now, in 2014, the US government not only finds itself allied with Assad against ISIS in Syria, there are reports that the US is sharing intelligence about ISIS targets with the Syrian government through intermediaries, though the US government has denied such claims.

What is perhaps most peculiar about this saga is that the US government in 2013 claimed to have "irrefutable" evidence that the regime of Bashar Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attacks, but apparently knew nothing about the rise of ISIS until relatively recently. Though there are reports by writers like Josh Rogin of The Daily Beast that Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, warned Obama about the risks of extremists gaining ground in Syria and repeatedly claimed that the "moderate" rebels needed arms, such claims are grossly exaggerated.

Much of Congress has done a complete 180 compared to the same time a year ago. In early September 2013, as Congress got closer to the vote on military action in Syria that never occurred, it became clear that the operation did not have the votes to pass, in spite of the uncritical support for military action by the top two members of the leadership of both parties in the House, and the Democratic leadership in the Senate.