Assad’s Downfall Proves Neocons Have Learned Nothing From Disastrous Middle East Meddling

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-12-10 19:24:31 | Updated at 2024-12-26 03:52:43 2 weeks ago

Assad’s Downfall Proves Neocons Have Learned Nothing From Disastrous Middle East Meddling
The Federalist ^ | December 10, 2024 | Hayden Daniel

Posted on 12/10/2024 9:54:43 AM PST by Kazan

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fled his country, now under the protection of Vladimir Putin in Moscow. In only a few days, a regime that had withstood over a decade of brutal civil war crumbled into dust before the onslaught of a new rebel offensive.

Now, Syria teeters on the brink of tribal mayhem as disparate factions espousing differing strains of radical Islamism begin to squabble over the carcass and jostle for power. ISIS has even reemerged as part of the victorious rebel coalition, prompting U.S. airstrikes over the weekend.

But, on cue, the neocons crawled out of the woodwork to gloat, finding some solace in the bloodshed and mayhem after their recent electoral drubbing. In a little over 24 hours, they proved that they’ve learned nothing from over two decades of disastrous American meddling in the Middle East.

Unrepentant warmonger and Never Trumper Bill Kristol wasted no time waxing poetic on the carnage, posting on X, “The fall of Assad. On some days, one can believe that while the arc of the moral universe is long, it bends toward justice.” Perhaps the image of a toppled Assad statue reminded Kristol of when the same thing happened during the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq — back when people actually cared about what he had to say.

Never one to miss out on an opportunity to advocate that American soldiers go die in some desert hellscape, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., almost immediately called for more American involvement in the Syrian quagmire.

“I appreciate the air strikes against ISIS targets in Syria, but it will not be enough,” he said on X. “We have to ensure that the roughly 50,000 ISIS prisoners in northeastern Syria — being primarily held by Kurdish forces — are not released. We should not allow the Kurdish forces — who helped us destroy ISIS on President Trump’s watch — to be threatened by Turkey or the radical Islamists who have taken over Syria.”

National Review’s Noah Rothman assured any wary onlookers that “the West can allow itself a moment to celebrate the end of an anti-American regime with U.S. blood on its hands and the failures of his Iranian and Russian backers.”

But Rothman managed a bit of intellectual honesty in his column, noting that, “Western capitals will have to grapple with the reality of a potentially Islamist-flavored successor regime very soon.”

Given the makeup of the Syrian rebel coalition (al-Qaida and ISIS ties abound), a “potentially Islamist-flavored” seems like a rosy, even willfully naive, prediction. In reality, Syria will most likely become the Baskin Robbins of the Middle East, with a full 31 flavors of Islamic extremism.

Just look at the warlord who currently controls Damascus, the Syrian capital, and leads the largest group in the rebel coalition. Muhammad al-Jawlani has the resume of a lifelong jihadi. Inspired by the 9/11 terror attack, he got his start fighting U.S. troops for al-Qaida in Iraq in 2003. He then crossed over into Syria in 2011 to help lead the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s affiliate in the country. In 2017, he split with al-Qaida to lead Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a terrorist organization that preaches “popular jihad” and “a fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law.”

After he became the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the State Department offered a $10 million reward for information that would lead to al-Jawlani’s capture.

Al-Jawlani has had conflicts with both al-Qaida and ISIS in the past, priming the Syrian powder keg for another explosion of violence and war. In recent days, al-Jawlani and his organization have claimed that a “council chosen by the people” will govern the new Syria and that ethnic and religious minorities, including Syrian Christians, will receive protection.

Amidst the confusion, President Joe Biden has assured the American people that their tax dollars will support the new Syrian government.

Calling the fall of Assad a “fundamental act of justice,” Biden proclaimed, “the United States will do whatever we can to support” the new Syrian government, “including through humanitarian relief, to help restore Syria after more than a decade of war and generations of brutality by the Assad family.”

Neither Biden nor the neocons seem to have learned from the string of disasters wrought by the United States’ interventions in the Middle East. The pattern of removing a “bad guy” from power only to hope beyond hope that a functional, pluralistic democracy will spontaneously generate from the wreckage has failed time after time.

The ouster of the Taliban and decades of so-called “nation-building” in Afghanistan yielded nothing of value to the U.S. The Taliban are still there, Afghanistan is still a medieval backwater, and the U.S. is weaker financially, militarily, and socially as a result. The only clear winners were the Taliban, who scored a huge morale victory over the U.S. and secured untold amounts of high-tech equipment thanks to Biden’s disastrous withdrawal in 2021.

The Israelis showed that they were perhaps the only ones who learned from Afghanistan by conducting operations to destroy valuable Syrian military equipment before it falls into the hands of the Islamic militants.

Few will deny Saddam Hussein’s cruelty and despotism as dictator of Iraq. But the U.S. invasion in 2003 caused a wave of violence that at least equaled if not surpassed the killings perpetrated by Hussein and reduced the country to a blasted ruin that can’t survive on its own.

The Arab Spring, fostered by the Obama administration in 2011, unleashed a further wave of uprisings against regional strongmen, including the Syrian Civil War.

Libyan rebels managed to topple Muammar Gaddafi, a U.S. foreign policy boogeyman since the 1980s, with the help of an extensive American bombing campaign. Absolute bedlam succeeded Gaddafi, casting the country into a civil war that transformed it into a nexus for the migrant crisis that rocks Europe to this day.

The removal of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011 paved the way for the devastating humanitarian crisis that arose amid the country’s civil war as well as the rise of the radical Houthi militants who have threatened American shipping in the Red Sea.

Even more “peaceful” revolutions like those in Tunisia and Egypt have mired the countries in political turmoil for over a decade now.

Assad’s regime no doubt visited terrible injustices upon the Syrian people, but the patchwork of mutually hostile Islamist groups that now rule Syria threatens to create yet another hellhole to breed terrorists and slaughter innocents. The Syrian debacle will almost certainly go down as yet another colossal blunder in the annals of U.S. Middle East policy.

But much like the communists, neocons seem convinced that “real neoconservatism hasn’t been tried yet.” Like a degenerate gambler, they just need one more shot, one more roll of the regime change dice, to prove the sunk cost fallacy wrong. Hubris and simple bloodlust propel these war hawks, and until there’s a shakeup in the foreign policy establishment (fingers crossed Trump’s cabinet picks get the job done), the U.S. seems doomed to be forever dragged into their Middle East misadventures.

TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agitprop; angryneoconsbelow; assadworshippersonfr; deepstate; isisworshippersonfr; neocons; neoconsvotedharris; putinistas; specialsyriasock; syria; zeeptards

Click here: to donate by Credit Card

Or here: to donate by PayPal

Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794

Thank you very much and God bless you.

Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-28 next last

1 posted on 12/10/2024 9:54:43 AM PST by Kazan

To: Kazan

I’m not all that sure the Neocons care.

I think they are less interested in wins and losses, and more interested in keeping conflict going anywhere to keep their cash flow coming in. They’ll just ramp up another war somewhere else.

2 posted on 12/10/2024 9:57:42 AM PST by Eccl 10:2 (Prov 3:5 --- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding")

To: Kazan

Looks like everything bad that’s happened in the Mid-East is America’s fault.

To: Kazan

All this is to give NATO an excuse to declare war with Russia.

A global war is the only way they can stop Trump from prosecuting them all.

4 posted on 12/10/2024 10:02:49 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)

To: Kazan

Definitely not an uptick. Replacing tyrant Assad with these Sunni terrorists is like replacing the annoying nagging aunt at the annual family Thanksgiving seating with the aunt that has a new strain of STDs each year.

5 posted on 12/10/2024 10:03:06 AM PST by chuckee

To: Kazan

Neocons and Israel both worked to remove Assad. They've always worked together, from fighting Saddam, to fighting Iran, to fighting Assad.

Yet Neocons are condemned for it, while Israel is praised for it.

When it comes to mideast policy, official conservative spin is very Orwellian.

6 posted on 12/10/2024 10:03:25 AM PST by Angelino97

To: Kazan

Thankfully Israel is taking care of destroying Assad’s entire arsenal, to make sure none of it ends up in the hands of these jihadists...something Biden and Milley didn’t even bother with in Afghanistan.

7 posted on 12/10/2024 10:05:06 AM PST by montag813

To: Roadrunner383

Looks like everything bad that’s happened in the Mid-East is America’s fault.

After the Suez Crisis, the Brits had to subcontract everything bad that’s happened in the Mid-East to somebody.

8 posted on 12/10/2024 10:07:25 AM PST by niteowl77

To: Angelino97

For one group, it is an existential threat, for the other, it is a way to fill their pockets.

9 posted on 12/10/2024 10:11:53 AM PST by kosciusko51

To: Eccl 10:2

I think they are less interested in wins and losses, and more interested in keeping conflict going anywhere to keep their cash flow coming in. They’ll just ramp up another war somewhere else.

THIS!

The war machine that has taken over the United States since WW2 has to be brought to heel. No more eternal war.

10 posted on 12/10/2024 10:13:08 AM PST by larrytown (A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Then they graduate...)

To: Kazan

Assad’s Downfall Proves Neocons Have Learned Nothing From Disastrous Middle East Meddling

Yup. I think we will rue the day we funded those people seeking to depose Assad.

That *IDIOT* Barack Obama created ISIS by attempting to topple Assad.

We should have left well enough alone.

11 posted on 12/10/2024 10:16:32 AM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")

To: kosciusko51

For one group, it is an existential threat, for the other, it is a way to fill their pockets.

If Assad were an "existential threat" to Israel (I think that's an overstatement), is it not likely that Israel and their Neocon allies were jointly lobbying Washington to remove Assad?

In which case, is it not hypocritical, or confusing, to condemn the Neocons while praising Israel, for jointly pursing the same policy?

12 posted on 12/10/2024 10:17:30 AM PST by Angelino97

To: Roadrunner383

Looks like everything bad that’s happened in the Mid-East is America’s fault.

Well, to be specific, it is Jimmy Carter's fault.

That worst president in history till Obama showed up, *CAUSED* middle eastern terrorism and the destabilization of the middle east.

Carter was a disaster for the world. Him and his stupid "Human Rights" nonsense is *WHY* we are in the mess we are in now.

13 posted on 12/10/2024 10:18:29 AM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")

To: Angelino97

Confusing, maybe, but not hypocritical. If the neocons were actually fighting alongside Israel, that would be different. But as it is now, the neocons used other people’s money and lives to line their pockets.

14 posted on 12/10/2024 10:22:36 AM PST by kosciusko51

To: Angelino97

Neocons and Israel both worked to remove Assad. They've always worked together, from fighting Saddam, to fighting Iran, to fighting Assad. Yet Neocons are condemned for it, while Israel is praised for it.

As Syria has allowed Hezbollah to launch attacks from bases in Syria, it has always been a hostile power so far as Israel is concerned. Hezbollah was a proxy for Iran, and now that power in Syria is mostly broken, so that's a huge win for Israel.

However, Assad is likely to be replaced by a Sunni Muslim who will be far worse than he ever was, at least from the perspective of the United States.

I think the benefit to Israel will be short lived, and the larger long term damage to everyone else in the region will be immediate and long lasting.

So it is a mixed bag. I think this is a case of getting what you wished for, and finding out you were better off before.

15 posted on 12/10/2024 10:23:24 AM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")

To: Kazan

The same is true with Neocons involvement in the Ukraine disaster.

16 posted on 12/10/2024 10:24:04 AM PST by tennmountainman ( (“Less propaganda would be appreciated.” JimRob 12-2-2023 DITTO)

To: Roadrunner383

What's happened in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Syria is our fault and result of our meddling in those nations.

Someone can't be very bright if they don't understand that.

17 posted on 12/10/2024 10:24:30 AM PST by Kazan

To: montag813

That's a good thing, but that *IDIOT* Barack Obama has already given ISIS so many weapons, that they will never have to worry about weapons.

Make no mistake. It's ISIS that has taken over Syria.

18 posted on 12/10/2024 10:25:02 AM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")

To: DiogenesLamp

19 posted on 12/10/2024 10:32:09 AM PST by Angelino97

To: Kazan

The House of Assad has protected more Christians than the House of Bush or House of Cheney has. Long live Asma. Down with Barbara and Laura.

20 posted on 12/10/2024 10:42:12 AM PST by nwrep

Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-28 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Read Entire Article