Between regime change and saving innocents, US always chooses regime change

 Between regime change and saving innocents, US always chooses regime change 

The Ides of March 2011 was not a good day for the Syrian people. Civil war broke out. It lasted nearly 14 years, resulting in over 600,000 deaths. Last December Syrian President Assad was toppled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al-Qaeda branch with a history of war crimes and violent, sectarian ideology. 

Syria’s new de facto leader is Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda and ISIS chief who went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani. A sworn terrorist enemy of the US, Julani had a US bounty of $10 million on his head for his capture. 

But by toppling Assad, al-Julani became a darling of US regime change advocates who spent the entire 14 year Syrian civil war funding and cheering on the Syrian rebels including many anti US jihadists. Pushing US regime change can sure make strange bedfellows with Uncle Sam. US aid likely kept the civil war ongoing for years contributing to tens if not hundreds of thousands of needless Syrian deaths. 

The US championed the jihadist rebels, not to save Syrians from the brutal Assad, but simply to effect regime change of an ally of America’s real bête noir in the Middle East, Iran. Support for Israel, the real power dictating US Middle East policy, was a major, if not the most important determinant of cruel, murderous US regime change policy in Syria.

The US couched its support of the jihadist rebels fighting Assad as America’s humanitarian concern for the Syrian people. Bunk. Syria represents the latest in over 75 US regime change ops since WWII which likely killed over a million innocents

President Biden cheered on al-Julani’s victory, last December while skimming over his violent anti US history. President Trump went further, meeting with newly renamed al-Sharaa who donned suit and tie to demonstrate his pro US bonafides. Trump rescinded the $10 bounty on America’s new partner in containing Iran saying al-Sharaa was A-OK. He then offered to end US sanctions which had cruelly killed thousands and degraded life for millions of hapless Syrian civilians.

So how is America’s new best buddy in Syria doing to make life livable again for Syrians persecuted by Assad? He’s gone on a murderous rampage of revenge against the ‘other’…Alawites, Christians and various undesirables who do not share his jihadist philosophy. The Syrian Observatory or Human Rights (SOHR) reports at least 7,670 people, have been killed in Syria since Assad’s fall. They further state the actual number likely much higher. That includes more than 2,130 “extrajudicial executions” and “identity-based killings.” SOHR notes that 75 percent of all the deaths are civilians, and warns of “a pattern of organized violence across the country.”

Not a word of protest from the Trump administration which sees al-Sharaa’s Syria as a good partner for isolating and assisting with US regime change efforts in Iran whose leaders rightly demand the freedom to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Alas, changing out Iran’s regime likely entails war which will be devastating to US troops, bases and ships in the region. So far Trump has resisted bloodthirsty US hawks promoting war with Iran.

If one thinks America’ 14 year successful regime change effort in Syria was long, consider the 65 year old US embargo of Cuba that has failed to change out the hated Cuban revolutionary government. It’s inflicted a trillion dollar hit on the Cuban economy, degrading life for Cuba’s 11 million souls. It punishes the US economy by over $3 billion yearly. Sixty-five years of US stupidity and no end in sight. Nations go into America’s regime change roach motel….and never come out.

Over 75 US regime change ops since WWII and not one of them worth, as FDR’s first VP John Nance Garner said about the Vice Presidency, “a bucket of warm spit.”