Focus: Syria question at the presidential debate - Sept 26, 2016

At the presidential debate Trump and Clinton may be asked what is their position regarding the new Syrian and Russian offensive in Aleppo. My answer is that the US mission is to defeat and eradicate Islamic State, not to remove Assad from power. According to a poll, after 15 years of wars the majority of US active duty troops oppose the regime change and nation building policies advocated by Hillary Clinton in Iraq, Libya and Syria, which led to loss of life, destruction, migrations and the rise of 'radical Islamic terrorism.’ Only the Syrian people, including the opposition, must decide who will be their leaders in a free, fair and UN supervised presidential and parliamentary elections. To this end US must drop demanding the ouster of Assad, which must not be a precondition for negotiations leading to a new Syrian constitution and democratic elections. Unfortunately, it is a fact that while Assad is willing to negotiate with the opposition, at this time the opposition is not ready to negotiate with Assad a peaceful end of the conflict. 

To defeat Islamic State, US must cooperate with all State and non-State actors willing to fight that threat, including foremost Russia. Accidents such as the killing of Syrian troops and the bombing of the Aleppo aid convoy could have been prevented if a US-Russia cooperation were into effect. The US administration, who has been reticent, if not hostile, to establish such a cooperation, risks a confrontation with Russia on Syria (and also Ukraine), which will be a calamity for US and the world. Also China plans to boost counterterrorism efforts and cooperation with the Syrian government, including training for soldiers, military hardware deliveries and humanitarian aid. China has been an exporter of weapons systems to the Syrian government. Oilprice.com reports that "China will likely also play a key role in Syria’s post-conflict economic recovery….In December, China offered Syria 6 billion USD worth of investments in addition to 10 billion USD worth of existing contracts, as well as a significant deal signed between the Syrian government and Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to rebuild Syria’s telecom infrastructure as part of China’s 900 billion USD ‘Silk Road’ infrastructure initiative."

Finally, a successful anti-Islamic State strategy must combine both military and political means, including aid, reforms, economic and job growth in Middle East and African countries where terrorism threatens State institutions. 

To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)