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A typical example was on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Saturday,” on September 8th, when the program-host Scott Simon interviewed the Obama Administration’s diplomat Robert Malley, in a segment titled “What’s Next In The Syrian War: Idlib”.
“After this weekend, the last contested region of Syria may come under ferocious attack. After more than seven years of fighting, the end of the Syrian war may come down to Idlib province. … It holds more than 3 million people, many of whom have been displaced. It’s been essentially a kind of dumping ground for those opposed to Bashar al-Assad’s regime and ISIS.”
Furthermore, Simon’s lumping “Bashar al-Assad‘s regime and ISIS” together was striking, because ISIS has actually been one of the major forces in Syria working to overthrow “Assad’s regime”; and, “Assad’s regime” was elected in 2014 and has been shown by repeated polling done since then by the British firm of Orb International to retain more support amongst the Syrian public than does anyone else to serve as that nation’s leader. Polls taken in the U.S. today show that more of the public wish that Bernie Sanders were our President than that Donald Trump is; and, so, if Syria is a “regime” instead of a “government,” then the U.S. is even more of a regime than is Syria. (And the scientific evidence is consistent that the U.S. is more of a “regime” than a “democracy.”) Yet, Simon has never referred to the U.S. as a “regime,” even though he’s obviously a Democrat who thinks that Trump is a dictator who must be replaced by Mike Pence, and who wants that to happen so that America will be more of a ‘democracy’ than if the legally installed (and the elected) U.S. President remains President.
Image on the right: Robert Malley
SIMON: From what you can tell, what’s happening on the ground there in Idlib?
MALLEY: Well, what’s been happening now for some time has been some attacks by the Syrian regime and now more recently by Russian aviation.
SIMON: And the humanitarian consequences would be grave, wouldn’t they?
MALLEY: Well, you know, look at it this way. You mentioned there are 3 million people. About half of them are already displaced from other areas of Syria. It has become a dumping ground for some of the hardcore jihadists who were not prepared to settle for some of the forced agreements that took place, the forced surrenders that took place elsewhere. … Where do people go when they’ve reached the last place that they can go? What’s the refuge after the last refuge? That’s the tragedy that they face.
SIMON: Mr. Malley, with respect, I heard you say, I believe, referring to the administration of which you were a part, we failed. After so many years, it seems as if Bashar al-Assad, who has attacked his own people — so often mercilessly — is going to remain in power. Did the world fail Syria?
MALLEY: Sure. I mean, there’s no there’s no doubt about it. I mean, the first person who failed Syria was President Assad himself.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from Stephen Voss.