Chomsky on Syria: A "Grim" Set of Alternatives

[georgephillip]

"...New York City teachers Saul Isaacson and Daniel Falcone recently sat down with Professor Noam Chomsky in his MIT office to discuss Syria and US foreign policy.

"Saul Isaacson: In light of recent developments in the media propaganda blitz against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, are you concerned that a Clinton presidency would seek to confront Russia, on Syrian soil -- are we now seeing the opening salvos?

"Noam Chomsky: I pretty much doubt it. The Russians have an impregnable position. What they're doing is pretty horrible, but there's no way to impede it except by a nuclear war, which no one's going to do. So I think the West will watch.

"You don't see Syria as the next place to install a democracy or seek 'regime change,' as they call it?

"Only if you want to destroy the world. There is a major Russian military presence, and you can't confront that."

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38133-noam-chomsky-on-syria-a-grim-set-of-alternatives

"That's such a grim set of alternatives.

"It's pretty grim, yeah. And for Syria, it's just horrendous.

"And the one saving grace is, if you look at history, at the end of the First World War in Syria, it was just about as bad as what's happening now, and they probably had the worst casualties per capita of any country in the world during the First World War.

"It was very brutal, with hundreds of thousands killed. It was a much smaller country then, but they did recover somehow, so it's conceivable, but it's pretty awful. And it's just very hard to think of any recommendations.

"I mean, I don't know what Obama could've done that's better [than] what he did do.

If Sykes-Picot set the stage almost a century ago for what we are seeing in Syria today, what could Obama have done differently over the past 8 years to prevent the greatest flow of refugees since WWII?

 

[Queen Titania]

"...New York City teachers Saul Isaacson and Daniel Falcone recently sat down with Professor Noam Chomsky in his MIT office to discuss Syria and US foreign policy.

"Saul Isaacson: In light of recent developments in the media propaganda blitz against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, are you concerned that a Clinton presidency would seek to confront Russia, on Syrian soil -- are we now seeing the opening salvos?

"Noam Chomsky: I pretty much doubt it. The Russians have an impregnable position. What they're doing is pretty horrible, but there's no way to impede it except by a nuclear war, which no one's going to do. So I think the West will watch.

"You don't see Syria as the next place to install a democracy or seek 'regime change,' as they call it?

"Only if you want to destroy the world. There is a major Russian military presence, and you can't confront that."

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38133-noam-chomsky-on-syria-a-grim-set-of-alternatives

"That's such a grim set of alternatives.

"It's pretty grim, yeah. And for Syria, it's just horrendous.

"And the one saving grace is, if you look at history, at the end of the First World War in Syria, it was just about as bad as what's happening now, and they probably had the worst casualties per capita of any country in the world during the First World War.

"It was very brutal, with hundreds of thousands killed. It was a much smaller country then, but they did recover somehow, so it's conceivable, but it's pretty awful. And it's just very hard to think of any recommendations.

"I mean, I don't know what Obama could've done that's better [than] what he did do.

If Sykes-Picot set the stage almost a century ago for what we are seeing in Syria today, what could Obama have done differently over the past 8 years to prevent the greatest flow of refugees since WWII?

Pilger is saying that the Syrians and the Russians have more or less defeted ISIL in Syria - Turkey has closed their borders to them too.

 

[georgephillip]

Pilger is saying that the Syrians and the Russians have more or less defeted ISIL in Syria - Turkey has closed their borders to them too.

The Russians Changed Everything in Syria; some believe Assad would have been forced to leave Damascus without their involvement?

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38133-noam-chomsky-on-syria-a-grim-set-of-alternatives

"Is there any hope for working with Russia on this?

" (Chomsky): There may be some hopes. In the case of Syria, there's simply no alternative (no realistic alternative, short of destroying Syria) to having some kind of transitional government with Assad certainly involved, maybe in power.

"It's ugly, but there's no alternative.

"My good friend [Gilbert Achcar] has an article in The Nation [that] says -- although he wrote it right before the cease-fire -- that the cease-fire will never last, because as long as Assad remains in power, the opposition will continue to fight until the death of Syria. So he says we have to do something to get Assad out of power, but that can't be done. That's the problem."

 

[Queen Titania]

The Russians Changed Everything in Syria; some believe Assad would have been forced to leave Damascus without their involvement?

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38133-noam-chomsky-on-syria-a-grim-set-of-alternatives

"Is there any hope for working with Russia on this?

" (Chomsky): There may be some hopes. In the case of Syria, there's simply no alternative (no realistic alternative, short of destroying Syria) to having some kind of transitional government with Assad certainly involved, maybe in power.

"It's ugly, but there's no alternative.

"My good friend [Gilbert Achcar] has an article in The Nation [that] says -- although he wrote it right before the cease-fire -- that the cease-fire will never last, because as long as Assad remains in power, the opposition will continue to fight until the death of Syria. So he says we have to do something to get Assad out of power, but that can't be done. That's the problem."

Wtf? It is now up to the Syrians how they choose to rebuild their poor broken country -- -- The refugee crisis could end too because almost all Syrians want to go home.

 

[georgephillip]

Wtf? It is now up to the Syrians how they choose to rebuild their poor broken country -- -- The refugee crisis could end too because almost all Syrians want to go home.

I guess we would first need to define "Syria"?

Millions of refugees won't likely want to return home if it means living under Assad or the forces of radical Islam. Apparently, Iraq and Syria have been fragmented along ethnic or sectarian lines just as Wesley Clark warned about over 13 years ago?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Clark#Book_on_modern_wars

"In Clark's book, Winning Modern Wars, published in 2003, he describes his conversation with a military officer in the Pentagon shortly after 9/11 regarding a plan to attack seven Middle Eastern countries in five years: 'As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finishing off Iran.'"