We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, July 31, 2017

Don’t be Fooled, the CIA was Only Half the Problem in Syria

Click here to access article by Steven MacMillan from New Eastern Outlook.

The author sees strong evidence that Trump is favoring the Pentagon in place of the CIA for its strategy to dismember northern Syria using Kurdish forces that they have been supporting for some time. This makes sense in that the CIA has been seen by Trump as an enemy of his administration and the source of negative leaks to corporate media. Also one must consider Trump's appointment of many military generals to his cabinet. Of course the US's pro-Kurdish strategy in Syria is diametrically opposed to Turkey's strong opposition to Kurdish power on its borders.

I think that this US strategy in Syria is likely due to Trump's ignorance of foreign affairs with the result that he is leaning on generals to formulate policies and strategies. Arguably generals are more concerned with battlefield victories rather than political considerations which may be the undoing of their strategy in Syria at the cost of the Syrian Kurds. With the latter's huge gamble on US support they are playing a high stakes game with, in my opinion, the odds very much against them. I see them as merely the current "useful idiots" of the Empire.
Undoubtedly, there are many good forces in the US military (as in any other large organization), and there is nothing wrong with having a military background. But equally, there is also many nefarious forces in the military, and the influence of military-industrial complex is pervasive, constantly agitating for more imperial wars.

With this context in mind, it is hardly surprising that Trump favours the Pentagon program over the CIA one, especially considering the power struggle taking place between the CIA and the military within the US. It should be highlighted that Trump has notcompletely halted all US programs to arm and train militias in Syria, he has merely shutdown one channel.

The Pentagon has been heavily involved in arming Kurdish forces in Syria, using them as a tool to attempt to Balkanize and fracture Syria into micro-states.