Just look at recent U.S. experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. In Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, various militia factions that the U.S. government had supported raced to Kabul for control of the capital and their fight for power in successive corrupt governments has led to the violence that continues 15 years later. In Iraq, the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) government-in-exile led by Ahmed Chalabi disintegrated and the U.S.-appointed Pro-Consul Paul Bremer so mismanaged the country that it provided the opportunity for ISIS to fester in American-operated prisons and develop plans to form its caliphate in Iraq and Syria. In Libya, the U.S./NATO bombing campaign "to protect Libyans" from Qaddafi resulted in a country split in three parts.
Would U.S. bombing in Syria lead us into a direct confrontation with Russia? And if the U.S. was successful in toppling Assad, who among the dozens of rebel groups would take his place and would they really be able to stabilize the country?
Instead of more bombing, the Trump administration should pressure the Russian government to support a UN investigation into the chemical attack and take bold steps to seek a resolution of this dreadful conflict. In 2013, the Russian government said it would bring President Assad to the negotiating table. That offer was ignored by the Obama administration, which felt it was still possible for rebels it supported to overthrow the Assad government. That was before the Russians came to the rescue of its ally Assad. Now is the time for President Trump to use his "Russia connection" to broker a negotiated solution.
In 1997, National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster wrote a book called "Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam" about the failure of military leaders to give an honest evaluation and analysis to the president and other senior officials in the 1963-1965 lead-up to the Vietnam War. McMasters denounced these powerful men for "arrogance, weakness, lying in pursuit of self-interest and abdication of responsibility to the American people."
Can someone in the White House, NSC, Pentagon, or State Department please give President Trump an honest assessment of the history of U.S. military actions over the past 15 years and the likely outcome of further US military involvement in Syria?
General McMaster, how about you?
Call your members of the U.S. Congress (202-224-3121) and the White House (202-456-1111) and demand U.S. negotiations with the Syrian and Russian governments to end the carnage.
Ann Wright is a retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel and a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to Bush's Iraq War. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience."
Medea Benjamin is cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace and author of several books, including Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection .
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