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The Endless War Grows: Obama Sends U.S. Forces to Syria, Reversing Pledge of No Boots on the Ground
The White House has announced a team of special operations forces numbering less than 50 will be sent to Syria. This marks the first sustained U.S. troop presence in Syria since President Obama launched a bombing campaign against the self-proclaimed Islamic State in September 2014. It’s also a reversal of Obama’s repeated promise of no U.S. boots on the ground in Syria, a pledge he also violated in Iraq. One day after the announcement, the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross made what they called an "unprecedented joint warning" for states to end wars, respect international law and aid the 60 million refugees made homeless from recent conflicts. We are joined by Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies, author of several books, including "Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: On Saturday, the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross made what they called an "unprecedented joint warning" for states to end wars, respect international law and aid the 60 million refugees made homeless from recent conflicts. This is U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, followed by Red Cross President Peter Maurer.
SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON: The continuing violence is a clear indication that a political solution to the conflict in Syria is desperately needed. The fighting must stop now. There is no military solution to the crisis, not in Syria or anywhere else. From Afghanistan to the Central African Republic, from Ukraine to Yemen, combatants and those who control them are defying humanity’s most basic rules.
PETER MAURER: When humanitarian law and principles are disregarded, when humanitarian needs are trumped by political agendas, when access to the wounded and sick is denied, and when security concerns lead to a suspension of operations, people are abandoned, the notion of protection loses its meaning, and humanity is flouted. We ask that states reaffirm our shared humanity by concrete action and uphold their responsibility to respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law.
AMY GOODMAN: Red Cross President Peter Maurer and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaking on Saturday. They spoke one day after the White House announced that a team of special operations forces numbering up to 50 will be sent to Syria. This marks the first time the White House has acknowledged a sustained U.S. troop presence in Syria since President Obama launched a bombing campaign against Islamic State targets in September 2014. White House spokesperson Josh Earnest denied the troop deployment marks a shift in strategy.
PRESS SECRETARY JOSH EARNEST: Our strategy in Syria hasn’t changed. The core of our military strategy inside of Syria is to build up the capacity of local forces to take the fight to ISIL on the ground in their own country. There are a variety of ways that the United States and our coalition partners can offer our support to those local forces, whether it’s resupplying them or conducting airstrikes in support of their operations on the ground. And the president did make a decision to intensify that support by offering a small number of U.S. special operations military personnel to offer them some advice and assistance on the ground as they take the fight to ISIL. So this is an intensification of a strategy that the president announced more than a year ago, and he has discussed it with all of you on many occasions, and I suspect he’ll discuss it with all of you again in the future.
AMY GOODMAN: In an escalation of the air war in Syria, the U.S. has also announced plans to deploy more fighter planes, including 12 F-15s, to the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Since last year, at least 10 nations have taken part in bombing Syria: the United States, Russia, Britain, Canada, France, Australia, Turkey, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
The White House move to expand its role in the Syrian war came one week after a U.S. commando was killed in a special operations raid in Iraq. Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler became the first American to die in combat in Iraq since 2011. Since his death, more revelations have come out about the U.S. expanding role on the ground in Iraq. Bloomberg News reports the U.S. has been running a secret special operations center in the Iraqi city of Erbil.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter acknowledged U.S. troops would take part in direct action in both Iraq and Syria.
DEFENSE SECRETARY ASHTON CARTER: The third and final "R" is raids, signaling that we won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL or conducting such missions directly, whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground.
AMY GOODMAN: The expanded U.S. ground presence in Iraq and Syria comes after years of promises by President Obama that no ground troops would fight again in Iraq. This is the president speaking in June of 2014, more than a year ago.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I think we always have to guard against mission creep. So, let me repeat what I’ve said in the past: American combat troops are not going to be fighting in Iraq again.
AMY GOODMAN: Just last month, President Obama also reversed course in Afghanistan, halting the scheduled withdrawal of U.S. troops fighting in the nation’s longest war.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: First, I’ve decided to maintain our current posture of 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through most of next year, 2016. Their mission will not change. Our troops will continue to pursue those two narrow tasks that I outlined earlier: training Afghan forces and going after al-Qaeda.
AMY GOODMAN: In addition to the wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, the U.S. continues to carry out drone strikes across the globe, from Pakistan to Yemen to Somalia.
To talk more about endless war, we begin with Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She’s written several books, including, most recently, Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror.
Let’s start, Phyllis, with this rare announcement this weekend by the head of the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and the head of the International Red Cross. Talk about the significance of what they said.
PHYLLIS BENNIS: In some ways, Amy, the significance of their statement was that they made this kind of a joint statement, this kind of a joint appeal to all sides to end these wars, linking the various wars that are being fought, centered on the war in Syria, but acknowledging that there are wars from Afghanistan to Central African Republic that have created massive refugee flows that the humanitarian consequences have been beyond anything anyone has seen since World War II. That was a hugely unusual decision to have the U.N. and the ICRC, the leading organization responsible for the international humanitarian law—this is not something that happens often. And it’s a sign of the recognition of the consequences of these escalations that are now going on. The new escalation we’ve seen from the United States both in Syria and Iraq, as well as the decision to remain in Afghanistan, the continuing involvement of the U.S. and others, led by the Saudis, in Yemen—all of these wars, linked most centrally to the war in Syria, have had extraordinary, horrific human consequences. And the fact that the head of the United Nations, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross are now taking them up as a joint campaign is really a very significant sign of just how serious this is.
AMY GOODMAN: And then, the announcement of the U.S. putting boots on the ground in Syria, and would continue to do this in Iraq and Afghanistan, came in an almost offhand way. It wasn’t the president making a formal announcement on Friday; it was Josh Earnest, the press secretary. And before that, it was Ash Carter in a hearing in the Senate, almost a offhand comment.
PHYLLIS BENNIS: Right. I think that what we’re seeing here is an effort—we heard it in the words of Josh Earnest, that—an effort to claim this is not an escalation. It is clearly an escalation. Now, it may well be that there have been special operations forces, CIA agents and others on the ground in Syria already. We can assume that’s the case, given that the priority of U.S. strategy has involved training and arming various militias, some of which never existed, and then they tried to create a new militia that would be pro-Western, pro-American, democratic, secular, anti-Assad, but not too much because it mainly should be anti-ISIS—very specific categories. They couldn’t really find exactly those militias, so last year they decided to create such a militia, train it, arm it, send it in to fight. And as we know, the result of that was the $500 million—half a billion dollars of our tax money—that went to arm and create a militia that was supposed to be 5,400 people, started with only 120, because that’s all they could find. They trained them, sent them in to fight. Half of them immediately defected. The other half—well, 54—who went to fight, very quickly were either captured, defected, killed, so that when the officials testified in Congress and were asked, "So, how many are left?" the general said, "Well, it’s a very tiny number." And when pushed, he admitted it was four or five—not four or five hundred, but four or five. So this is the kind of failure that we’re seeing in these efforts. I think what we saw with the language used by the White House spokesman, by the secretary of defense, was designed to say, "This is just more of the same. This isn’t different, even though we’re now acknowledging that there are boots on the ground." Maybe it’s because they wear sneakers, because they’re special forces, so it’s sneakers on the ground. But the key question here is, this is an escalation.
There is one potential slightly optimistic, though very cynical, possibility here. And that is, if the United States is planning to take seriously the new negotiations that just began this past week in Vienna on the war in Syria, led by the U.S. and Russia, if they intend to take that seriously, it may be that this is an immediate escalation, parallel in some ways to the Russian escalation of airstrikes in Syria, that’s designed to stake out a stronger position before those negotiations really take hold. That’s in old, dangerous, cynical approach to negotiations, but it’s a common one. When military forces are about to negotiate, sometimes they will try to stake out a stronger position. The best possibility of this escalation is that that’s what we’re seeing, that this is actually an indication that we’re going to be seeing serious negotiations. We don’t know that. This could just be an acknowledgment that despite all of President Obama’s statements there is no military solution, that they’ve decided not to take those negotiations seriously, and instead to push forward with precisely a military solution, even though they themselves acknowledge there is no such solution.
AMY GOODMAN: And in the talks in Vienna, Iran is involved? And talk about where Iran stands in all of these conflicts.
PHYLLIS BENNIS: The role of Iran in these talks is hugely important. This is what gives this round of talks some potential for success. The earlier efforts by the United Nations, in what was known as Geneva I and Geneva II, the two earlier rounds of multilateral talks, foundered. They failed for a host of reasons, but the most important reason was the refusal of the United States to allow Iran to participate. This is despite the long-standing lessons talked about from former Senator George Mitchell after the Good Friday Accords in Ireland, when he said the most important lesson is that if you’re serious about diplomacy, everybody has to be at the table. You can’t exclude anyone because you think they’re terrorists, because if you do, it’s not because you like them, it’s not because you trust them, it’s because if they’re not there, they have no obligation to abide by anything you decide, so it’s a guarantee of failure. Up until now, the U.S. has made sure of that guaranteed failure. This time, the U.S. has finally acknowledged that the participation of Iran was acceptable.
And it’s important, Amy, I think, to recognize that three weeks ago at the General Assembly at the United Nations both President Obama and President Putin made important concessions in their speeches, despite the level of bombast of those speeches. So, President Obama said, number one, times are different now, there will have to be concessions. Number two, he referenced what Secretary of State Kerry had said earlier when he said that the possibility of new negotiations will go forward and that Assad will not have to be gone on day one or even on month one. That was a very serious concession. President Putin made the concession by saying that what stands against an ISIS takeover of Syria was the Syrian state and its military. He didn’t say the Syrian president and his military. So he was essentially saying that while we want to avoid what the U.S. did in Iraq—to destroy the state apparatus in Iraq, leaving chaos behind and civil war, sectarianism, etc.—that the Syrian president is not necessarily the major feature here.
AMY GOODMAN: And Syria not participating in these talks, no Syrians in Vienna?
PHYLLIS BENNIS: Yeah, obviously, when these talks get serious, there’s going have to be representatives of both the Syrian government and all the various factions of the Syrian opposition. I think that what’s going on here is that the United Nations is trying, on the ground, to develop local, small-scale ceasefires, local truces. And if that can happen at the local level before trying to do that at the national level, coupled with the sort of top-down international diplomacy that could stop the support of the various fighters on the ground, stop the flood of arms into the country—because none of these ceasefires, none of these truces will hold as long as the U.S. and its allies, and Russia and its allies, are continuing to arm both sides. So I think that will be the next stage. They will obviously have to involve both the Syrian state and the various Syrian representatives.
Hopefully, they will have learned some lessons about the importance of including not only the armed forces, but the various civil society forces who have so bravely continued in the face of extraordinary levels of oppression and violence from their government and from other forces outside: incredibly brave civil society activists, nonviolent activists, women’s organizations, trade unions, youth organizations—the whole range of Syrian civil society that has been trying so hard to end this war. If they’re not included, it means there’s a much slighter chance for the negotiations to continue. But I think the fact that they are beginning with those who are enabling the fighters, meaning those outside who are arming and paying the various armies and militias, this holds a little bit of hope that there could indeed be a significant at least slowdown of the fighting and eventually a diplomatic end to the war.
AMY GOODMAN: Phyllis, I want to ask you to stay with us. Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, has written a number of books, most recently, Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror. When we come back, we will also be joined by Andrew Bacevich. Andrew Bacevich is a retired colonel, Vietnam War veteran, author of Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country, as we talk about President Obama’s endless and ever-deepening wars. Stay with us. ... Read More →
Andrew Bacevich: Ongoing Wars in Iraq & Syria Continue Decades of Failed U.S. Militarism in Mideast
The U.S. deployment of a team of special operations forces to Syria comes after the first U.S. combat casualty in Iraq in four years. Just last month, President Obama reversed course in Afghanistan, halting the scheduled withdrawal of U.S. troops fighting in the nation’s longest war. In an escalation of the air war in Syria, the United States has also announced plans to deploy more fighter planes, including 12 F-15s, to the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. On top of the wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, the U.S. continues to carry out drone strikes across the globe from Pakistan to Yemen to Somalia. "[Obama’s] policy has been one of mission creep," says Andrew Bacevich, retired colonel, Vietnam War veteran, and international relations professor at Boston University. "The likelihood that the introduction of a handful of dozen of U.S. soldiers making any meaningful difference in the course of events is just about nil."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: During the news conference at the White House on Friday, Press Secretary Josh Earnest repeatedly refused to describe the newly deployed U.S. special forces in Syria as combat troops.
PRESS SECRETARY JOSH EARNEST: The president has been quite clear about the fact that they have a—they do not have a combat mission. They have a training, advising and an assist mission. ... Our military personnel will be in a train, advise and assist mission. And it means that it will not be their primary responsibility to lead the charge up the hill. ... This is a mission to support the efforts of moderate opposition fighters on the ground as they take the fight to ISIL in their own country. That is the—that is what they’re trying to do, to offer training, to offer advice and to offer assistance. ... And one of the options the military came back with was putting a small number, fewer than 50, special operations forces on the ground inside of Syria in a train, advise and assist role. ... The president of the United States delivered a televised address in prime time on September 10th of 2014, where he made clear that there would be U.S. military personnel on the ground in the region in a train, advise and assist capacity to build up local forces.
AMY GOODMAN: Excerpts of clips of the White House news conference, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
To talk more about Obama’s endless wars, in addition to Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies, we’re joined by Andrew Bacevich, retired colonel and Vietnam War veteran, professor emeritus of international relations and history at Boston University. His new book, America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History, will be published in April. He’s the author of several other books, including Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War. In 2007, Andrew Bacevich’s son, First Lieutenant Andrew John Bacevich, was killed in action in Iraq by an improvised explosive device south of Samarra. One month before his son was killed, Professor Bacevich wrote, quote, "The truth is that next to nothing can be done to salvage Iraq. It no longer lies within the capacity of the United States to determine the outcome of events there. Iraqis will decide their own fate. We are spectators, witnesses, bystanders caught in a conflagration that we ourselves, in an act of monumental folly, touched off."
Professor Andrew Bacevich, welcome back to Democracy Now!
ANDREW BACEVICH: Thank you very much.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what is happening today? As the major networks poll-dance—right?—sort of dance around the polls in the national elections for president, the focus on this, the U.S. government is increasingly entrenched in wars around the world—the latest, the announcement of increased involvement in Syria. Of course, we know about Iraq and Afghanistan. Your response?
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, I think the way you posed the question, you’re really putting your finger on the main issue. And it is an issue that gets largely ignored by the media, and certainly ignored by those aspiring to be the next president. We have been engaged militarily in an enterprise that, by my telling, has now gone on for 35 years, beginning with the promulgation of the Carter Doctrine back in 1980, a project that assumes that somehow or other the adroit use of American military power can bring order, pacify, democratize, somehow fix large parts of the Islamic world that are increasingly enveloped in turmoil. And yet, when we look at U.S. military actions across this entire span of time, what we see is that however great U.S. military power may be, it does not suffice to achieve those objectives that our leaders claim they seek to achieve. And I think that the present moment in the Obama administration is simply a further affirmation of that larger point.
I hate to agree with the White House press secretary, but I do agree that the introduction of 50 special operations forces really does not constitute a major change in policy, because the policy of the Obama administration, since the rise of ISIS and since we began to involve ourselves in the Syrian civil war, has been one of incrementalism. Earlier you played that clip of the president warning against mission creep. His policy has been one of mission creep. And the likelihood that the introduction of a handful of dozen of U.S. soldiers, regardless of how skillful they are—the likelihood of that making any meaningful difference in the course of events is just about nil.
AMY GOODMAN: Andrew Bacevich, you hear the White House press secretary, not even the president, because the president has said no boots on the ground—whether or not the policy is different, as you point out, there are probably many more special ops forces on the ground. But it’s what the Obama administration is admitting to that’s different.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, that’s true, but the point I’m trying to make is that when we focus on these inconsistencies—the president, you know, a year ago said X, and now the policy seems to be Y—that’s an important—it’s important to note the inconsistency, but my argument would be it’s far more important to take stock of the dimensions of this administration’s military efforts in that part of the world, and then to connect them to the military efforts undertaken by his several predecessors. Only then, it seems, do we get an appreciation of the magnitude of our military failure. And only by taking stock of the full magnitude of our military failure can we come to an appreciation of how—of the imperative of beginning to think differently about our approach to the region.
AMY GOODMAN: How do you end war? How does—I mean, I’m putting this question to a military man—right?—professor and a retired colonel, Andrew Bacevich. But talk about the different approach that could be made—for example, the Iran nuclear deal as a model.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Great question. There are two ways to end a war. The one way is to win it. And here is where I’m again taking issue with the president’s incrementalism. If one were to posit—and this is not my view, but if one were to posit that the United States has a vital U.S. national security interest in destroying ISIS and a vital U.S. national security interest in bringing a prompt end to the Syrian civil war, then it would necessarily follow that instead of this minimalist approach to waging the war, which is what we’re doing, then one ought to go all out and win it, make it—make it a big war. And yes, make it a big war, understanding that if we look at the consequences that followed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a big war will once again, almost assuredly, lead to unintended and undesired consequences. But if this is an important thing, one way you end the war is to go win it.
The alternative, it seems to me, is to recognize that there are some wars that are unwinnable and should not be fought, and where the—if there is a solution to the problem, it has to come from nonmilitary means. The president has repeatedly, as president, argued that he has no desire to see this country perpetually engaged in war. And yet his actions—and you earlier cited many of the different cases—his actions have belied that claim, have instead had the effect of perpetuating the war, but perpetuating them in a sense that they continue to simmer, that they do not result in any kind of a resolution. So the answer to the question, again: Either you win it, or you get out.
AMY GOODMAN: Phyllis Bennis, one of the things that Professor Bacevich just said is that the U.S. wars are intended to fix part of the Islamic world in turmoil. Do you think "fix," or do they "send," the Islamic world into turmoil?
PHYLLIS BENNIS: Well, I think, clearly, they have sent much of the world—not only the Islamic world, but that’s the part that we’re looking at right now—into far worse than turmoil, into absolute abject tragedy, when we see the results of these wars at the human level, when we see what it’s doing to the social fabric of these societies, that is going to take generations to repair.
I think that one of the things that’s so important, we hear from President Obama, over and over again, there is no military solution. And other times we hear the military side is not enough, it’s not sufficient. That’s where it’s just wrong. The first statement is right: There is no military solution. So when you look at what President Obama is doing militarily, I think it’s important to recognize it’s not just insufficient, it’s making impossible the kinds of diplomatic and negotiated and humanitarian and other kinds of efforts that could have a chance of ending these wars.
So, for example, if you’re in Iraq and the U.S., say, they get it right for one time—this almost never happens, but say they did—they identified a camp of ISIS fighters, there were 20 of them, and they’re really bad guys, they’ve done bad things, they’re going to do more bad things. They send a drone after them. There’s no civilians anywhere in the area. Only those 20 guys get killed. And the response in the U.S. is, "Yeah! We got the bad guys." The response in Iraq is, "Yes, once again, the U.S. is bombing Sunnis in the interests of the Shia and the Kurds." And then you have those in the Sunni community that used to be in the military, who lost their positions when the U.S. destroyed the Iraqi military in 2003. You have the leaders of the Sunni militias, who are looking for some way to challenge this incredibly sectarian, Shia-dominated government that the U.S. has now put in power, is paying and arming. So, you have these scenarios where everything the U.S. does militarily is not only insufficient to end the war, it prevents those things that could have a possibility of winding down and ultimately ending this set of interrelated wars.
There are now eight wars being fought in Syria, all to the last Syrian. There are wars between Iran and Saudi Arabia, wars between the U.S. and Russia. There’s a host of wars being fought. But those on the ground—the people of Syria—are the ones paying the price. And all of these U.S. military actions are making it impossible to do the other things that might make possible an end to this war.
AMY GOODMAN: Andrew Bacevich, in Afghanistan, the longest war in U.S. history, that President Obama has just promised to make much longer by reversing the withdrawal, the Taliban control more of the country of Afghanistan than they did when the U.S. first attacked in 2001, and at the same time you have the Taliban, who is avowed enemies of the Islamic State.
ANDREW BACEVICH: Exactly. You know, Phyllis and I have appeared on a few panels from time to time, and I have to say, we frequently disagreed, but I agree 100 percent with everything that she just said. To say that American decision makers have sought to "fix"—and I use that term in quotes—parts of the Islamic world where they intervened, whatever their intentions, the consequences have almost without exception been catastrophic. ... Read More →
Turkish President Erdogan Regains Parliamentary Majority in Vote Held Amid Violence & Fear
In Turkey, the party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has regained its parliamentary majority in national elections. On Sunday, Turkish voters elected Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party—the AKP—to 330 of the Parliament’s 550 seats. It’s a major comeback for the AKP after losing its majority in the last campaign five months ago. The victory will help Erdogan strengthen a hold on power critics say has become increasingly authoritarian and divisive. We are joined from Istanbul by Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, who has been reporting on the Turkish elections.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: In a stunning development in Turkey, the Islamist party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has regained its parliamentary majority in national elections. On Sunday, Turkish voters elected Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party—the AKP—to the majority of the Parliament seats. It’s a major comeback for the AKP, after losing its majority in the last campaign five months ago.
The victory will help Erdogan strengthen a hold on power that critics say has become increasingly authoritarian and divisive, with harsh rhetoric against opponents, a crackdown and raids on the media, and allegations of vote rigging. Turkish voters went to the polls in a climate of violence and fear. Since the June election, Erdogan has resumed the government’s war on the Kurds and escalated strikes on the Islamic State. Turkey also suffered its worst-ever terrorist attack with a bombing that killed over a hundred people at a peace rally in Ankara last month.
Despite his victory, Erdogan fell short of the super-majority needed to change the constitution and expand the powers of the presidency. But it’s still a surprising and divisive win for a leader who came under major protest with the Gezi Park demonstrations two years ago. Erdogan’s most vocal opponent, the leftist Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, retained its parliamentary bloc by again winning over 10 percent of the vote—but just barely.
For more, we’re joined from Istanbul, Turkey, by Patrick Cockburn, the Middle East correspondent for The Independent, who’s been reporting on the elections in Turkey.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Patrick, from Istanbul. Talk about the significance of these elections.
PATRICK COCKBURN: Well, this means that President Erdogan is back, with an impressive mandate. His powers seem to be under pressure. But he got 49 percent of the vote. And although there are allegations of vote rigging, I think that this is pretty real. But it’s sort of a consequence, in the eyes of critics, that he won because he whipped up an atmosphere of fear, of crisis, confrontation with the Kurds, you mentioned. We had two devastating ISIS, Islamic State, bombs. And people were fearful, so they clung to the existing authorities. Now, the ruling party, the Justice and Development Party, had pushed the line that they were the only people who could deal with this. The opposition party said, "Yeah, because you’re the guys who provoked this over the last five months." But if they did so, that’s been pretty successful. So there’s no doubt that this is—you know, this is a tremendous victory for Erdogan.
AMY GOODMAN: And what about the repression? What about the repression of the Kurds, using, for example, U.S. support, saying they’re fighting ISIS but going after the Kurds, who are actually allies of the United States? The attack on the media? Can you describe the climate there?
PATRICK COCKBURN: Well, you know, it’s sort of edgy. I mean, it’s understandable. There wasn’t in the—during most of the campaign, there were no rallies on the part of the opposition, because a demonstration in Ankara on the 10th of October had been hit by Islamic State suicide bombers that killed 102 people. Earlier, there was another suicide bomb close to the Syrian border in Turkey that killed 32 people. So this made people very nervous. The fighting in southeast Turkey were in Kurdish-majority areas. That had been a sort of shaky ceasefire before this resumed. The Turkish Air Force was attacking the Kurdish guerrillas, the PKK, so-called, both in southeast Turkey and in northern Iraq. And people were watching on television every night the funerals of soldiers and police.
So, there’s no doubt that Erdogan was playing the nationalist card and portraying the Kurdish parliamentary opposition as being hand-in-glove with people who were shooting Turkish soldiers and police. So, you have this sort of edgy, fearful atmosphere. But, you know, we’ll now see how long that goes on. Do things escalate? Do they get a bit quieter now? What does Turkey do over the Syrian Kurds having taken over northeast Syria? And now they control half the 550-mile-long frontier with Turkey. Whatever Turkey wanted to happen in Syria, it certainly wasn’t that.
AMY GOODMAN: Patrick Cockburn, I want to thank you for being with us, speaking to us from Istanbul, Turkey, Middle East correspondent for The Independent. His latest book is The Rise of Islamic State: ISIS and the New Sunni Revolution. He’s been reporting on the elections in Turkey. His most recent article, which we’ll link to at democracynow.org, "President Erdogan tightens his grip on power in surprise landslide victory."
And that does it for our show. We have a job opening at Democracy Now! We’re hiring a director of development to lead our fundraising efforts. You can find out more at democracynow.org. Apply immediately. ... Read More →
More Countries Than Ever Are Bombing Syria—Will They Find a Way to Make Peace?
The new U.S. deployment to Syria comes more than a year after it launched a bombing campaign against the self-proclaimed Islamic State. It also comes weeks after Russia escalated its role by launching airstrikes against foes of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, says that while the military dimension in Syria is escalating, the foreign powers involved could be a step closer to seeking a diplomatic resolution.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: You know, we also have with us Patrick Cockburn. He was going to come on after the break to talk about what’s happening in Turkey, this stunning entrenchment of the president, Erdogan, who is cracking down on dissidents. It’s the return of the Islamist government to power, in the Parliament and overall. But, Patrick, before we talk about Turkey—you are speaking to us from Istanbul—can you weigh in on this conversation? I mean, it is much more difficult, as the U.S. government has proven, to wage peace than to wage war. What would waging peace look like?
PATRICK COCKBURN: Well, could I make another comment? I think, you know, where these U.S. special forces are going is the Syrian Kurdish area. The Syrian Kurds have about 25,000 troops in northern Syria. So, the significance of them being there is that they’re cooperating with the only real available partner for the U.S. in Syria. And in that case, depending on what they do—are they forward air observers, are there going to be deliveries of arms and ammunition—they have a certain significance.
I mean, the other thing to bear in mind, I think, is that the U.S. and its U.S.-led coalition have had this air campaign that’s delivered 7,000 airstrikes against the Islamic State since August last year, and that campaign has failed. I think all this focus on Russia and the special forces—and one has to keep that in mind, because the Islamic State is still expanding. It took a Christian town near Homs a few days ago, which brings it very close to the crucial north-south highway inside Syria. So I think it’s there—people say, "Does it have any significance?" It has some significance, but it also, I think, too, is a show of action, which is rather masking the failure of the previous major strategic initiative by the U.S., which was to have this air campaign, which has demonstrably failed to achieve its ends.
AMY GOODMAN: And the role of Saudi Arabia? I mean, the way the U.S. media makes it look: out-of-control forces all fighting each other. But we’re talking about a major U.S. ally. I think the U.S. has just signed the largest weapons deal in history, not just with Saudi Arabia, but in the world, signed that deal with Saudi Arabia to give weapons. The role Saudi Arabia has played when it comes to al-Qaeda and the rise of ISIS?
PATRICK COCKBURN: Yeah, I mean, this is—the dilemma for the U.S. is not just now in Syria and Iraq, but goes right back to 9/11, that the basis for U.S. power in the Middle East is really the Sunni states, like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf monarchies, but these are the ones that also have been supporting the opposition in Syria and is fairly notorious, have been funding the al-Qaeda affiliate, the al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham, which is very similar, and in the past has been accused of sending funds and enabling ISIS, the Islamic State. So I think the U.S. has the same dilemma as before, that it kind of knows this, kind of want to stop it, but doesn’t want to do so at the expense of torpedoing their relationship with countries like Turkey or Saudi Arabia, which, as you said, has just signed this enormous arms deal. So, I don’t think the dilemma has changed, but the response in Washington has always been to find some sort of way of maneuvering, that they can do something, or look as though they’re doing something, against the Islamic State or al-Qaeda, but still keep in with Saudi Arabia and the big Sunni countries of the region.
AMY GOODMAN: Patrick, you have said that you think the entrance of Russia more prominently in Syria could actually improve the chances of peace.
PATRICK COCKBURN: Yeah. In one way it complicates it, because you’ve got yet another player in Syria. And, you know, Syria is five crises wrapped into one—Sunni-Shia, Tehran-Saudi Arabia, Alawite-Sunni. And then you have Russia. I think, yes, because Russia is in a position to exercise some control over its allies, like Assad in Damascus, the U.S. likewise. So, it’s only when you have, so to speak, the great powers getting involved that we have a chance of moving from just basically allowing—whatever the rhetoric—allowing this terrible war—just destroyed Syria, is destroying Iraq—to go on. In the past they’ve said, "Yes, we want to end it, but Assad must go. But why should Assad go, as he controlled most of the population?" So, for the first time, you have serious players seriously involved, and the very fact that you have Russia coming back, a rival of the U.S., I think, makes them take it more seriously. And one can see that already with this meeting in Vienna and the presence of Iran. It has energized the diplomatic process. And, of course, it’s also energized the military activity, as well. But there are positives as well as negatives coming out of this.
AMY GOODMAN: A final comment, Andrew Bacevich, as we wrap up this discussion—then we’ll move on to journalist Patrick Cockburn, who’s in Istanbul covering the Turkish elections—on what you think needs to be done right now?
ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, I would be surprised if Russia is able to exercise any serious influence over Syria. And the reason I say that is because of our inability to exercise any serious influence over our putative allies. I think the point that Patrick Cockburn was making about these unsavory partnerships, that in many respects form part of our predicament, we have to go—we need to ask ourselves why those partnerships exist, where did they come from. They came from a perception that the United States is dependent upon Persian Gulf oil. That was an assumption that had some validity back in the late 1970s and 1980s. It has no validity today, as far as the well-being of this country is concerned. And that fact, it seems to me, ought to be one of the things that enables people in Washington to begin to think more creatively than they have been thinking about the actual options available to the United States.
AMY GOODMAN: Andrew Bacevich, I want to thank you for being with us, retired Boston University professor, former colonel, Vietnam War veteran, joining us from Massachusetts. Phyllis Bennis, thank you, as well, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Her latest book, Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror. Patrick Cockburn, I hope you stay with us as we talk about what has developed now in Turkey and how that—what that means not only for Turkey, but for the Middle East and for Europe, overall. Stay with us. ... Read More →Headlines:
U.S. to Send Special Operations Forces to Syria
In a major policy shift, the White House has announced a team of special operations forces numbering less than 50 will be sent to Syria. This marks the first sustained U.S. troop presence in Syria since President Obama launched a bombing campaign against the self-proclaimed Islamic State in September 2014. Announcing the move on Friday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest denied it marks a shift in strategy.
Josh Earnest: "The president did make a decision to intensify that support by offering a small number of U.S. special operations military personnel to offer them some advice and assistance on the ground as they take the fight to ISIL. So this is an intensification of a strategy that the president announced more than a year ago."
Iraq: More Than 700 Killed in Violence Last Month
Meanwhile in Iraq, the United Nations says violence killed more than 700 Iraqis in October, an increase over the previous month. Of the 714 killed last month, all but 155 were civilians. We’ll have more on the U.S. role in Iraq and Syria after headlines.
Report: Blair Ordered Report on Illegality of Iraq War Destroyed
A British newspaper is reporting officials under former British Prime Minister Tony Blair were told to destroy a secret document questioning the legality of the Iraq War less than three weeks before the 2003 invasion. Citing an anonymous top official, The Mail on Sunday says ministers were ordered to "burn" a report by Attorney General Lord Goldsmith that suggested the war could be illegal under international law. A spokesperson for Blair has dismissed the report as "nonsense."
Dozens of Refugees Perish in Aegean Sea En Route to Greece
Dozens of people have perished in the Aegean Sea attempting to cross from Turkey to Greece amid the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Nineteen bodies were recovered in three separate incidents Sunday, after more than 20 refuguees died when two boats sank Friday. Refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere are struggling to reach European countries before winter sets in. On Friday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras criticized Europe’s handling of refugees in a speech before Parliament.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras: "There are crocodile tears being shed for the dead children on the shores of the Aegean, because dead children always arouse sorrow. But what about the children that are alive who come in and are stacked on the streets? Nobody likes them. These days, the waves of the Aegean aren’t just washing out dead refugees and dead children on our shores, they are washing out European civilization itself."
Germany: 6 Syrian Asylum Seekers Injured in Violent Attacks
In Germany, at least six Syrian asylum seekers were injured over the weekend in three separate attacks—one involving explosives and two involving large mobs who beat refugees with baseball bats.
Plane Crash in Egypt Kills 224; Russian Airline Blames "External Impact"
The Russian airline whose passenger jet crashed in Egypt Saturday says the crash was caused by an "external impact," not by technical failures or human error. All 224 aboard the Metrojet flight were killed when it crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Airline officials said the crew didn’t send a distress call before the plane broke apart in midair. It’s still unclear exactly what happened. The plane was flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, Russia.
Turkey: Ruling Party Regains Parliamentary Majority
In Turkey, the party of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has regained its parliamentary majority in national elections. On Sunday, Turkish voters elected Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party—the AKP—to 330 of the Parliament’s 550 seats. It’s a major comeback for the AKP after losing its majority in the last campaign five months ago. The victory will help Erdogan strengthen a hold on power critics say has become increasingly authoritarian and divisive. We’ll go to Turkey for more from journalist Patrick Cockburn later in the broadcast.
Somalia: 14 Killed in Attack on Popular Hotel
In the Somali capital Mogadishu, the militant group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for an attack on a popular hotel that killed at least 14 people. The militants opened fire and seized control of the Sahafi Hotel after hitting the front gate with a car bomb. Among those killed were a journalist, a Somali Army general, a lawmaker and the hotel’s owner.
Netanyahu Retracts Claim Hitler Was Inspired by Palestinian Cleric
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has retracted his claim a Palestinian cleric gave Hitler the idea to exterminate European Jews. Following international condemnation, including from Israeli historians, Netanyahu conceded in a Facebook post, "The decision to move from a policy of deporting Jews to the Final Solution was made by the Nazis and was not dependent on outside influence."
Video: Israeli Officer Threatens to Gas Palestinians "Until You All Die"
Meanwhile, violence continues in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager at a border crossing, accusing him of trying to stab an Israeli soldier. In total, nine Israelis and more than 70 Palestinians have been killed in the recent violence. Israeli forces also reportedly raided a refugee camp in Bethlehem. Video footage appears to show an Israeli officer threatening to gas inhabitants to death. He apparently tells them over a loudspeaker: "You throw stones, and we will hit you with gas until you all die."
Voice on loudspeaker: "People of Aida refugee camp, we are the Israeli army. You throw stones, and we hit you with gas, until you all die. The children, the youth and the old people, you will all die. We won’t leave any of you alive. We have arrested one of you. He’s with us now. We took him from his home, and we will butcher and kill him while you’re watching, as long as you throw stones. Go home, or we gas you. We will gas you until you die—all your families, children and everyone. We will kill you."
The Israeli government says the officer involved has been suspended and is under investigation.
Bangladesh: Publisher of Slain Blogger Hacked to Death
In Bangladesh, a secular publisher has been hacked to death and three other people have been wounded in two separate attacks on secular publishing houses. A regional division of al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility. The publishing houses printed works by Bangladeshi-American writer Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death earlier this year.
5 Killed in Shootings in Colorado, North Carolina
In the latest mass shootings across the United States, a gunman shot and killed three people in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Sunday, before he was killed in a shootout with police. Meanwhile, a student was killed and another wounded in a shooting at Winston Salem State University in North Carolina.
Florida: Corey Jones Laid to Rest Amid Questions over Killing by Cop
Hundreds of people gathered in West Palm Beach, Florida, Saturday at the funeral for Corey Jones, a popular African-American drummer shot dead by a Palm Beach Gardens police officer last month. Jones’ vehicle had broken down by the side of the road when Officer Nouman Raja approached him in plainclothes, without a badge, in an unmarked van. Corey Jones had a gun, which he did not fire, and a concealed carry permit which legally entitled him to have the gun. Jones’ uncle Steven Banks remembered his nephew.
Steven Banks: "My dream is, glory, that we’re going to go to Washington. We’re going to Washington. Not until a bill is passed that’s going to stop this brutality. That’s my dream. I won’t let it go until they swipe the pen and change is made. Come on, y’all. This ain’t no game. Corey’s dead."
#BlackLivesMatter Activists Interrupt Hillary Clinton in Georgia
Black Lives Matter activists interrupted Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton Friday as she spoke at the historically black Clark Atlanta University in Georgia. The protesters chanted "Black Lives Matter," to which Clinton responded, "Yes, they do." The protesters also sang Janelle Monáe’s song "Hell You Talmbout," which is dedicated to the Black Lives Matter movement.
RNC Halts NBC Debate Partnership over "Mean-Spirited" Questions
The Republican National Committee says it’s suspended its partnership with NBC News for an upcoming presidential debate after accusing CNBC of handling last week’s debate "in bad faith." In a letter, RNC Chair Reince Priebus accused CNBC moderators of "engaging in a series of 'gotcha' questions, petty and mean-spirited in tone and designed to embarrass our candidates." On Sunday evening, Republican campaign representatives met together in a bid to exert more control over the debate process.
House Speaker Paul Ryan Rules Out Immigration Reform Under Obama
Newly installed House Speaker Paul Ryan has ruled out comprehensive immigration reform while President Obama is in office. Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Ryan said Obama’s executive actions on immigration show he is "untrustworthy."
House Speaker Paul Ryan: "I think if we reach consensus on something like border enforcement, interior security, that’s one thing. But I do not believe we should advance comprehensive immigration legislation with a president who has proven himself untrustworthy on this issue."
Report: 1,000 Cops Lost Badges for Sexual Assault or Misconduct
A new investigation by the Associated Press has uncovered about 1,000 cases where police officers across the country lost their badges for sexual assault or misconduct over a six-year period. In one case, Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw was accused of victimizing 13 women; his trial opens today. The AP says its tally is "unquestionably an undercount," since many people are afraid to report sexual assault by police and since key states did not provide records or inaccurately said no officers had been removed for sexual misconduct.
Episcopal Church Installs 1st African-American Leader
The Episcopal Church has installed its first African-American leader. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will lead the 1.9 million-member denomination after previously leading the Diocese of North Carolina.
Massachusetts Mosque Spraypainted with "USA" in Possible Hate Crime
The Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for a hate crime investigation after the word "USA" was spraypainted multiple times on a Burlington mosque. CAIR said the graffiti "appears to reflect a common Islamophobic theme that Muslims are not 'real' Americans." The mosque has been targeted with similar graffiti in the past.
SXSW Apologizes for Cancelling Panels on Online Harassment
And the conference South by Southwest Interactive has apologized for its decision to cancel two panels on gaming and sexual harassment, citing "numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programming." The cancellations caused an uproar. Media outlets BuzzFeed and Vox threatened to pull out of the conference, and feminists launched a petition, saying, "by yielding to threats of violence, you are further exposing us to it." On Friday, South by Southwest apologized and said it would hold a day-long summit on online harassment.
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