Tillerson Unveils 'New' US Syria Plan: 'Assad Must Go!'

[RonZeplin]

Breaking - Tillerson Unveils 'New' US Syria Plan: 'Assad Must Go!'

Written by Daniel McAdams

Confirming that the US military presence inside Syria had little to do with fighting ISIS, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson unveiled in detail today the real US strategy for Syria: overthrow of the Assad government.

In a speech at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and introduced by President George W. Bush's Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Secretary Tillerson vowed that the United States military would continue to occupy Syrian territory until three conditions are met:

First: ISIS must be destroyed.

This condition is made all the more problematic by the well-reported fact that it is the United States government that at every turn seems to pull ISIS chestnuts out of the fire. From handing them weapons to allowing them to escape when they are trapped in places like Raqqa, it almost seems like the US does not want to really see the end of ISIS.

Second: Assad must go.

Tillerson's admission that this is a sine qua non for any US military departure from Syria confirms that the Trump foreign policy is no different from that of Hillary Clinton or her former boss, President Obama. Recall that as part of his "thank you" tour, President-elect Trump reiterated promises made by candidate Trump to break with the past:

We will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past. We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments. …In our dealings with other countries we will seek shared interests wherever possible...”

It is clear that he lied, as it is reported that he signed off on this new Syria strategy last month at a meeting of his National Security Council.

Secretary Tillerson said today that new elections should be held in Syria and that President Assad should lose:

The United States believes that free and transparent elections … will result in the permanent departure of Assad and his family from power... Assad’s regime is corrupt, and his methods of governance and economic development have increasingly excluded certain ethnic and religious groups... Such oppression cannot persist forever.

Tillerson's speech reveals that the old myth about the Syrian people "rising up" to overthrow Assad is still very much viewed as Gospel truth in Washington:

...our expectation is that the desire for a return to normal life … will help rally the Syrian people and individuals within the regime to compel Assad to step down.

Translation: we are going to continue to make life miserable for you until you overthrow Assad. Then it will return to "normal." Presumably the people of Syria understand what "normal" life after a US "liberation" looks like from examples like Libya, Iraq, and Ukraine.

Tillerson also made the bizarre assertion that US troops will remain in Syria to prevent the Syrian government from re-establishing control over the parts of Syria abandoned by a defeated ISIS. So the legitimate government of Syria will be prevented by an illegal United States military occupation from reclaiming its own territory? This is supposed to be a coherent policy?

Third: Refugees must be returned to Syria.

Secretary Tillerson said today at Stanford University:

America has an opportunity to help people who have suffered greatly. The safe and voluntary return of #Syrian refugees serves the security interests of the U.S. and our allies and partners. We must give Syrians a chance to return home and rebuild their lives.

But the one event that led to the biggest return of refugees back to Syria was violently opposed by the US government: the Syrian government's liberation of east Aleppo from al-Qaeda control!

For additional consideration:

The US military is busy creating a 30,000-strong Kurdish militia to reportedly guard Syria's borders with Turkey and Iraq. NATO-ally Turkey is violently opposing US moves to further arm Kurd groups that it considers terrorist.

The discredited "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) is back in Washington begging the Trump Administration to re-open the CIA weapons pipeline. The FSA is perhaps best known for immediately handing any weapons it gets from Washington directly to al-Qaeda in Syria. Will Trump's neocon-filled ecosphere convince him to once again put some wind in al-Qaeda's sails?

Will Congress awake from its slumber and finally dust off the part of the Constitution directing the Legislative Branch to decide on matters of war and peace? It's probably an ill-advised bet, however there are a few whispers on Capitol Hill that a shift in US military focus from anti-ISIS to anti-Assad and anti-Iran might be slightly problematic.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has just unveiled a 100 percent neocon approved "new" US policy for Syria: No more pussyfooting around. We won't abandon our project in Syria like Obama "abandoned" Libya (presumably, as the neocon myth goes, on the verge of becoming a new Switzerland after its "liberation" only to be thrust back into the mire by Obama's premature withdrawal).

President Trump is set to out-neocon the neocons with this foolish and destructive policy. The showman is shown to be nothing but a fraud.

[Origanalist]

Meet the new boss...

This begs the question, is it possible to vote ourselves out of a neocon foreign policy?

[timosman]

Meet the new boss...

This begs the question, is it possible to vote ourselves out of a neocon foreign policy?

In US of A?

[Raginfridus]

Meet the new boss...

This begs the question, is it possible to vote ourselves out of a neocon foreign policy?

Nothing's accomplished by ballot boxes.

ffs he wants 'free and transparent' elections. If they accomplish that, Syria will have USG beat. Really, they just want an election so we can subvert their national sovereignty.

[spudea]

Militarily toppling a government is completely opposite of what Tillerson is calling for democratic elections that we would expect Assad to lose. Russia is starting to leave Syria, which will mean we can leave too.

[goldenequity]

That was an excellent piece by Daniel... in another universe, he could be writing for any publication he desired.
Kudos Daniel. Loved it.

[AZJoe]

Militarily toppling a government is completely opposite of what Tillerson is calling for democratic elections that we would expect Assad to lose

They already had democratic elections and Assad won and won again. Washington does not like the elections, only outcomes. Washington does not care what Syrians want.
So the Washington Reich unlawfully invades and militarily occupies a sovereign nation while training terrorist proxy armies to disrupt, kill, destroy and wreak havoc until Washington gets what it wants.

Sounds like a military toppling with a facade of phony baloney.

[AZJoe]

Meet the new boss...

Donnack Jamessein OTtrumpa

[Origanalist]

Donnack Jamessein OTtrumpa

Lmao, out of rep.

[devil21]

It has been a while since anything messed up happened in the US that was attributed to ISIS. Probably about due for one.

[AZJoe]

Excerpts and comments:

Confirming that the US military presence inside Syria had little to do with fighting ISIS, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson unveiled … the real US strategy for Syria: overthrow of the Assad government. …

Tillerson vowed that the United States military would continue to occupy Syrian territory until three conditions are met:

First: ISIS must be destroyed.

[The same gang Washington helped create, train their recruits before they join, provide aerial protection by creating buffer zones to keep the SAA away from ISIS (before Russia got involved) and arm them via rat lines from Libya , or through Washington’s “moderate” terrorists and Al Qaeda groups.]

Second: Assad must go.

Tillerson's admission that this is a sine qua non for any US military departure from Syria confirms that the Trump foreign policy is no different from that of Hillary Clinton or her former boss, President Obama. …
Translation: we are going to continue to make life miserable for you until you overthrow Assad. Then it will return to "normal." Presumably the people of Syria understand what "normal" life after a US "liberation" looks like from examples like Libya, Iraq, and Ukraine.

Tillerson also made the bizarre assertion that US troops will remain in Syria to prevent the Syrian government from re-establishing control over the parts of Syria abandoned by a defeated ISIS. So the legitimate government of Syria will be prevented by an illegal United States military occupation from reclaiming its own territory …

[So it’s the Washington Reich regime change 2.0 with an all new Washington supplied, funded and trained army of “moderate” terrorists]

Third: Refugees must be returned to Syria.

But the one event that led to the biggest return of refugees back to Syria was violently opposed by the US government: the Syrian government's liberation of east Aleppo from al-Qaeda control!

[The same refugees that the Washington Reich created with its regime change coup via proxy terrorists. The same refugees that the Washington Reich is preventing from returning due to its continued occupation, and destabilization by funding a whole new round of more violence and war]

For additional consideration:

The US military is busy creating a 30,000-strong Kurdish militia to reportedly guard Syria's borders [from who? Currently the only real invading force is the Washington Regime]

The discredited "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) is back in Washington begging the Trump Administration to re-open the CIA weapons pipeline. The FSA is perhaps best known for immediately handing any weapons it gets from Washington directly to al-Qaeda …

Tillerson has just unveiled a 100 percent neocon approved "new" [same as old] US policy for Syria

[Ender]

Donnack Jamessein OTtrumpa

You need to throw some "W" in there- he started the current mess.

[goldenequity]

what's different?
ans. not much.. regime change.

behold:

Korea

Reuters Live
LIVE: South Korean officials cross the border bridge to discuss North Korea's participation in the Winter Olympics

North Korea offers to send 230-member cheering squad for Olympics in Seoul - Yonhap

Walter Bloomberg
NORTH, SOUTH KOREA AGREE TO MARCH TOGETHER UNDER UNIFIED KOREA FLAG AT WINTER OLYMPICS -S.KOREA

YONHAP
Koreas to jointly march under unified Korea flag at Olympics' opening ceremony
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news...015000315.html

Will Ripley
Today’s talks between North and South Korea have ended, and according to the South Korean Unification Ministry, North and South Korea will enter together at the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang games under the Korean Unification Flag. 1 of 2

Will Ripley
2 sides agreed to form joint North & South Korean women’s ice hockey team. North Korea will send about 230 people for a cheering squad, roughly 30 people for a Taekwondo demonstration and about 150 athletes, cheer & performance, reporters. 2/2



Roiders
Vancouver: Nations to consider more North Korea sanctions, U.S. warns on military option)

(wat 'Vancouver Summit'? the World is ignoring your globalist pow-wow on Korea)

Despite US insistence that the nukes be addressed....
North Korea's nuclear program is not an issue between North and South Korea.
Why?
North Korea is not going to nuke its backyard.
North Korea's weapons are only aimed at the U.S.
(hint: If NPRK nuclear program was aimed at ROK, they wouldn't even need to develope ICBM.)
In other words...
the 'nukes' don't prevent PEACE from breaking out on the Korean peninsula...
WE do.
It could become a Sovereign Regional POWERHOUSE...
without us.
We don't like that. Nope. Not one bit.

OUTCOMES OF VANCOUVER MEETING ON DPRK DON'T FACILITATE NORMALIZATION OF SITUATION AROUND KOREAN PENINSULA, ON THE CONTRARY, EXACERBATE IT - RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
Interfax

zerohedge
TRUMP SAYS RUSSIA HELPING N. KOREA EVADE SANCTIONS: REUTERS

‘Very possible’ that N. Korea crisis can’t be resolved peacefully – Trump
https://www.rt.com/usa/416218-trump-north-korea-crisis/

[RonZeplin]

Militarily toppling a government is completely opposite of what Tillerson is calling for democratic elections that we would expect Assad to lose. Russia is starting to leave Syria, which will mean we can leave too.

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ssad-tillerson

In his Stanford speech, Tillerson laid out five US goals in Syria:
the defeat of Isis and al-Qaida,
a UN-brokered resolution for Syria that involved Bashar al-Assad’s departure,
a curb on Iran,
conditions for the safe return of refugees,
and the complete elimination of remaining chemical weapons.

(As for Russia leaving Syria- they won't. They have already on three occasions said they were going to start removing troops from Syria- the latest mostly involved switching jets for helicopters and moving some to other bases within Syria). Russia holds all of the cards in Syria.

Does not call for military removal of Assad. Russia also calls for elections which will eventually replace Assad.

[AZJoe]

Good Michael Rozeff piece from lewrockwell.com :

the U.S. intends to build a 30,000 man army manned by locals in Syria’s northern region … Tillerson’s plans for Syria are those of an empire whose principals believe they have the right to intervene in foreign countries on their own say-so and for their own ends …

The U.S. plan means in effect a permanent U.S. presence inside Syria … Turkey has vowed to strangle it, threatening invasion. Sooner or later, Assad will actively find means, military, political and other, to regain control of northern Syria as he is doing now in Idlib.

Tillerson has tried to dampen the reaction with a cover story. He doesn’t deny the creation of the force. … He claims it’s projected as an anti-ISIS force … His explanation or shift in description doesn’t hold water because anti-ISIS forces in those regions have already overcome major portions of ISIS forces without the formation of an army of the type being projected … [and] permanent U.S. bases inside Syria. The defeat of ISIS as a state and territorial entity has largely been accomplished … Why is the U.S. even present in Syria uninvited? Why doesn’t it leave? The anti-ISIS justification proffered by Tillerson is not an answer that makes sense. …

The U.S. is interjecting itself into a trouble spot and creating more trouble in its quest for its own foothold … of leverage and dominance …on plans and activities launched months ago. … the Kurdish-led SDF … had a very different understanding of plans: “They [the U.S.] have a strategy policy for decades to come. There will be military, economic, and political agreements in the long-term between the leadership of the northern areas [of Syria)]” [and the US]. The U.S. military expressed a third view: “Our mission…is to defeat [IS] in designated areas of Iraq and Syria and to set conditions for follow-on operations to increase regional stability.” …

Trump’s current plans … requires a long-term U.S. presence. As in Afghanistan … consistent with the behavior of an empire. …

What makes those who pilot our empire think they have the right to intervene anywhere they please? … Our aspirations and expectations do not … confer rights on us to intervene in the affairs of others. … then we’d have to accept and approve of the rights of others to intervene in our lives. … If they have no such rights to invade our property, our lands, our ways and our lives, then neither do we have rights to invade theirs. …

The U.S. undermined civilized behavior and rules when it attacked Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and when it supports attacks in Yemen, Ukraine and Syria. There was no national defense or national security justification for these attacks.

[shakey1]

Lmao, out of rep.

Damn, me too.

[AZJoe]

From truthdig :

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave a talk … in which he committed to a Forever War in Syria. … a mishmash of incompatible talking points and full of inaccurate and tendentious assertions, … determination to keep US troops in Eastern Syria over the long haul. …

Tillerson laid out five strategic goals in Syria …

First, ISIS and al-Qaida in Syria suffer an enduring defeat …
Second … post-Assad leadership …
Third, Iranian influence in Syria is diminished ...
Fourth , … refugees … voluntarily return to Syria.
And fifth, Syria is free of weapons of mass destruction.

most of these goals cannot be attained at all, and several of them can be attained only if others are not.

The United States only has some 2,000 special forces operatives in eastern Syria … US troops are embedded with the leftist Kurdish YPG militia …

the al-Assad regime has won the civil war … Not only does the al-Assad regime have 70% of the population (and potentially 81%), but it has all the major urban centers that account for most of the economy–Aleppo, Hama, Homs, Latakia, and Damascus. It has the major port, Latakia, and can blockade rural hinterland pockets in Idlib and Deraa. …

the survival of the Idlib, East Ghouta and Deraa pockets is in serious doubt. Over 120,000 people have fled north toward Turkey from the current Idlib campaign just in the past month.

The United States has no lever to reduce Iranian influence in Syria.

Syria does not have weapons of mass destruction. The Russians helped sequester or destroy most of its chemical weapons, which is what this weaselly term means. …

As for the return of the Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, that process has already begun as the al-Assad regime has reestablished control over much of the economically productive parts of the country. Several thousand refugees have returned from Lebanon in the past three months. What will interfere in that process is the US keeping the pot boiling by promoting continued instability in Syria. …

Tillerson names al-Qaeda in the northwest as another target for US intervention. But complains about the regimes operations against the al-Qaeda affiliate there!
When attacking the Damascus regime, Tillerson lionizes the rebels who rose up against it. But he downplays that some of them became extremists …
Tillerson … did not really address Ankara’s outrage about his plans to create a permanent 30,000 strong US-armed Kurdish militia in Syria. …

The Trump administration is playing an extremely dangerous game here. Those US troops in eastern Syria are sitting ducks if Turkey turns on them. … They are surrounded by hostile forces–Hizbullah, Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Syrian Arab Army, Iraqi Shiite militias, and potentially the Turkish army and intelligence. And no one among the neighbors with the possible exception of Baghdad wants them there.

This policy is a mishmash, and premised on fake statistics and contradictory goals.

[Vieux Canard]

Trump takes his orders from Netanyahu. Trump is not about draining the swamp. Trump IS the swamp.

[timosman]

So what's the problem with Assad?

[goldenequity]

From truthdig :
Tillerson … did not really address Ankara’s outrage about his plans to create a permanent 30,000 strong US-armed Kurdish militia in Syria. …

The Trump administration is playing an extremely dangerous game here. Those US troops in eastern Syria are sitting ducks if Turkey turns on them. … They are surrounded by hostile forces–Hizbullah, Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Syrian Arab Army, Iraqi Shiite militias, and potentially the Turkish army and intelligence. And no one among the neighbors with the possible exception of Baghdad wants them there.

This policy is a mishmash, and premised on fake statistics and contradictory goals.

Conflict News
BREAKING: Reports Turkish artillery has begun firing on YPG positions.



Turkish Army bombs Afrin’s vicinity with artillery
https://muraselon.com/en/2018/01/afr...ity-artillery/

"Syria will destroy any Turkish fighter jets that violates Syrian air space" --Deputy FM Faisal Miqdad.

Breaking: Syria threatens hostile action towards Turkey if they attack Afrin
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article...-attack-afrin/

Syrian Air Defense Ready to Destroy Turkish Aviation if They Attack - Deputy FM
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/2...rkey-aviation/

Turkey Says It Will Coordinate Air Operation In Afrin With Iran And Russia (keep dreamin Erdo...)
https://southfront.org/turkey-says-w...medium=twitter

"Turkiey will coordinate its air operation against Kurdish militias in Syria’s Afrin with Iran and Russia" FM Cavusoglu told CNN Turk on January 18.
"Moscow should not oppose the operation and Ankara will coordinate on the situation of Russian observers in the area."

Russia would oppose Turkish operation in Syria's Afrin - Federation Council member
Interfax


To be clear...
CENTCOM has denied there are any 'troops' in Afrin Kurd pocket including Manbij.... however we haven't heard from the CIA.

==========
Tulsi Gabbard
@TulsiGabbard
Regime change has failed. Evidence on the ground shows that al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups have long since taken over or co-opted other militants in Syria to fight for them. We must learn from our mistakes in Iraq & Libya and oppose this policy.

("Tulsi should be at the UN, not the zionist whore Haley...")

=======

EHSANI2
Turkish state TV says Turkey’s Northern Syria invasion may begin tonight at midnight with Turkish tanks entering Syria from Hatay through Kilis border to take over the city of Afrin

Press TV Breaking
U.S. State Department says will ask Turks not to intervene in Syria's Afrin

mahmut osmanoglu
'Ankara exercising its right to self-defense on Afrin'

[dannno]

It has been a while since anything messed up happened in the US that was attributed to ISIS. Probably about due for one.

Well there was the Vegas shooting, but apparently that one was too embarrassing to admit.

[goldenequity]

gotta be kiddn me...

[enhanced_deficit]

Donnack Jamessein OTtrumpa

This is bit confusing, before elections there was lot of noise suggesting Trump was not neocoms masters puppet?

Infact, I may have also made similar noise back then. What going on.

[AZJoe]

Imperial Disaster

[Tillerson's] words are ... a smokescreen to disguise actual realities and imperial intentions. Not only is the U.S. occupation criminal according to Nuremburg Principles, but the diktats themselves are either unattainable or redundant, and therefore doomed to fail – which is the intent.

The first demand, that ISIS must be destroyed is intentionally unattainable since ISIS are U.S. assets, and so they will be there as long as the U.S. is there. The U.S. has no intention of eliminating its foremost pretext for waging war against humanity. ...

The war on Syria goes on. ... but for outside intervention it never would have started. Even though the ISIS has been virtually destroyed in Syria, thus fulfilling the rationale for its forces being there, the US is refusing to leave. It has been playing a double game, declaring war on the ISIS while clandestinely cooperating with it in various ways. It wanted a Salafist principality in eastern Syria ... ISIS fighters criss-crossed the Syrian desert, towards Mosul and Palmyra, without the US intervening ... these lines of pickup trucks kicking up the summer dust. US Special Forces passed through Islamic State positions on the way to Deir al Zor, the US shipped takfir fighters out of Raqqa with their families and the US has been training takfiris rebranded as ‘rebel’ fighters at its Al Tanf base. ...

longstanding US policy of using terrorist assets such as ISIS as place- setters. ISIS will occupy, destroy, terrorize, and depopulate an area so that “liberators” can take their place as new occupiers

Tillerson’s Regime Change utterance ... also represents criminal duplicity, since it is the Syrian government and its allies who are defeating Western terror proxies in Syria. If Assad goes, the terrorists will stay. ...

Libya (which pre-invasion had the highest HDI in Africa) now hosts slave auctions (as well as being a terrorist hub), about half a million have perished in Iraq (from 2003-2011) thanks to that invasion (and this figure does not include over 500,000 children and about one million others murdered by pre-war sanctions). And of course the neo-Nazi infested Kiev junta’s downward-spiraling political economy – another imperial project – is also a disaster. ...

The U.S. and its Coalition vassals – including Canada – seek to d

[AZJoe]

Essentially Tillerson admitted the US government has been lying to the entire world since it actively enter Syria militarily in 2014. The entire pretext for Washington's illegal military intervention into Syria was to combat ISIS. Tiller just flushed away that entire pretext, admitting that Washington is in Syria for Regime change and intends to stay until it gets a puppet leader and vassal state.

[Ender]

Essentially Tillerson admitted the US government has been lying to the entire world since it actively enter Syria militarily in 2014. The entire pretext for Washington's illegal military intervention into Syria was to combat ISIS. Tiller just flushed away that entire pretext, admitting that Washington is in Syria for Regime change and intends to stay until it gets a puppet leader and vassal state.

The US has been doing that for a century- shocker.

[goldenequity]

Max Blumenthal
Rex Tillerson cites dying and starving North Koreans as a sign US strategy is working.
In the same speech, he promised to deepen America’s economic war on Syria,
ensuring that many refugees won’t be able to return. Pure sadism.



Dying North Koreans a sign US diplomatic strategy works, Tillerson says
https://www.rt.com/usa/416354-tiller...s-north-korea/





These are the 'people' we are cheering to punish the attempted coup in DC...
who just extended the same surveillance system..
that will enable them to counter-coup, purge and control all 3 branches
with the 'Generals' in charge. Go Nikki!!
Fun times ahead.

If/When Marsha Law is ever triggered (Dollar collapse?)... you will get to know these people up close and personal.

=========

LIM Yun Suk
No Southkorean flag at opening ceremony of PyeongChangOlympic winter games as the two Koreas will march under one unified Korea flag playing the Arirang song.

Joseph Kim
"IOC has approved their request to have their delegations march as one, under the name 'Korea' at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018. This team will enter the Olympic stadium under the Korean unification flag"

[goldenequity]

[RonZeplin]

Secretary’s Of State, Vulcan Mind-Meld. Drain 'em swamp MAGA!