A conflict in Lebanon that would spill over into Syria and then other countries in the Middle East is fraught with potentially dire consequences. The only actor that can prevent a worst-case scenario is Russia.
The White House has had a hot new idea – to leave Syria but also stay there at the same time by deploying an Arab contingent to US military bases, primarily from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). So to Arabize one of the bloodiest wars of our time in keeping with the bitter memory of Vietnamization.
How likely is it that Israel would be funding this huge escalation in The West’s invasion-occupation of Syria — an escalation in which fundamentalist-Sunni armies would then be serving Israeli masters? Though Arab royals might find it acceptable, their soldiers would not.
The US has influence over Israel, whose covert or overt support of the rebels in southern Syria is an open secret. Washington can prevent this situation from backsliding into a dangerous confrontation. It can also deliberately fan tensions in pursuit of its political goals.
A US withdrawal would be presented as a fulfillment of President Trump’s pledge to end US involvement in foreign conflicts that don’t directly threaten America’s security. But in reality, nothing will change.
Its Joseph-Goebbels-following ‘journalist’ was implying that the Russia-allied Syrian Government was trying to crush a democratic revolution, instead of the truth, that the US-allied Governments are trying to overthrow and replace the Russia-allied Syrian Government. It’s a big difference, between the lie, and the truth.
Under President Donald Trump, the US has basically eliminated the only real international authority the UN used to have.
The legality of the act is universally questioned and many governments realize that international law does not protect anyone from US-led attacks and prompts them seek to weapons to defend themselves.
Last year, it took the US military about 48 hours to kill 100 civilians in Raqqa. One thousand eight hundred civilians overall lost their lives over the course of the US-led offensive to oust Islamic State fighters during that operation. There was no State Department comment on what happened. Were those civilians different from the ones in Douma?
Hopefully, the worst will be avoided, at least this time. But one can never be sure. The flames of war are easy to spark but extremely hard to extinguish.
