{"id":87054,"date":"2021-06-29T17:00:29","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=87054"},"modified":"2021-06-19T14:45:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-19T12:45:37","slug":"29-00-58","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=87054","title":{"rendered":"Tom Friedman\u2019s Latest Stratagem Is Having US Taxpayers Subsidize Syria\u2019s Assad"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Tom Friedman\u2019s Latest Stratagem Is Having US Taxpayers Subsidize Syria\u2019s Assad<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Ira Stoll<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Photo: Charles Haynes via Wikimedia Commons.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

New York Times<\/em>\u00a0columnist Thomas L. Friedman floats an unconventional idea in his latest\u00a0article<\/a>: having the US pay the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, to kick Iran out of Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how Friedman frames it: \u201cI have an idea: One way to defuse the tension between the US and Israel would be for Biden to attempt a radical new diplomatic initiative \u2014 a leveraged buyout of the Iranian presence in Syria.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0columnist writes that \u201cBiden and the gulf Arab states could go to the Russians and Assad with this offer: Kick out the Iranian forces from Syria and we will triple whatever financial aid Iran was giving Syria, and we\u2019ll tacitly agree that Assad (though a war criminal) can stay in power for the near term.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman acknowledges that the idea would be \u201ccynical,\u201d but contends, \u201cIsrael\u2019s military would back this deal, because breaking the Syrian land bridge that Iran uses to keep Hezbollah supplied with rockets would be a game-changer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman\u2019s column doesn\u2019t give a dollar amount, but a May 2021\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0from the Atlantic Council said, \u201cExperts place the Islamic Republic\u2019s annual\u00a0support<\/a>\u00a0for Assad\u2019s war at $15 billion per year.\u201d Triple that would be $45 billion a year, or more than 11 times annual US aid to Israel. That would indeed be a \u201cgame changer,\u201d though perhaps not exactly in the way Friedman means it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just how bad an idea is it to drop $45 billion a year on Bashar Assad\u2019s Syria? Let us count the ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, Syria has a history of breaking its promises. The US government\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons such as sarin and chlorine 50 times since Damascus joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013. There\u2019s no reason to believe Syria would keep any promises it makes to kick Iran out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, it contradicts the stated Biden policy of emphasizing human rights. As Elliott Abrams recently\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0in a different context, \u201cRecall what Secretary of State\u00a0Blinken<\/a>\u00a0said when he announced this year\u2019s State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: \u2018President Biden has committed to putting human rights back at the center of American foreign policy, and that\u2019s a commitment that I and the entire Department of State take very seriously.\u00a0 We will bring to bear all the tools of our diplomacy to defend human rights and hold accountable perpetrators of abuse.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Syria is a major human rights abuser. According to the State Department:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Significant human rights issues included: unlawful or arbitrary killings by the regime; forced disappearances by the regime; torture, including torture involving sexual violence; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, including denial of medical care; prolonged arbitrary detention; political prisoners and detainees; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious abuses in internal conflict, including aerial and ground attacks impacting civilians and civilian infrastructure including schools, markets, and hospitals; serious restrictions on free expression, including restrictions on the press and access to the internet, censorship, and site blocking; substantial suppression of the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; undue restrictions on freedom of movement; inability of citizens to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections, including severe restrictions on political participation; high-level and widespread corruption; lack of investigation of and accountability for violence against women; coerced abortion; unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers by the regime and other armed actors; trafficking in persons; violence and severe discrimination targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons; existence and use of laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults; and severe restrictions on workers\u2019 rights.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

American policy should punish or change this sort of behavior, not reward it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Third, it\u2019s legally difficult. Syria is designated under American law as a\u00a0state sponsor of terrorism<\/a>. Section 620A of the\u00a0Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 as amended<\/a>\u00a0forbids the US government from providing foreign aid \u201cto any country if the Secretary of State determines that the government of that country has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.\u201d There\u2019s a provision for the president to waive that restriction if \u201cnational security interests\u201d justify it, but it\u2019s not at all clear that in this case such a waiver would be legally justified.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fourth, tripling Iranian aid to Syria might create a bidding war. What\u2019s to stop China from coming along and offering Syria\u00a0four<\/em>\u00a0times what Iran was paying to achieve whatever its local goals are? It just sets up an auction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fifth, Syria would get rewarded yet another time for fulfilling obligations it or its proxies are already bound to under various previous agreements, such as the Taif Accords and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sixth, the key issue is less the Iranian forces in Syria than in Lebanon. They can be resupplied by other, non-Syrian means, or manufacture their own missiles. The recent Gaza example shows that an Iranian-backed terrorist force can rain rockets down on Israel without a land bridge. Remember, Gaza is \u201cblockaded.\u201d If not even Israel and Egypt can prevent Gaza terrorists from building missiles and rockets, why would Friedman expect that Syria can or would prevent terrorists in neighboring Lebanon from building rockets?<\/span><\/p>\n

Seventh, the Friedman-Bribe-Syria plan extends the logic of rewarding terrorist bad behavior from the Iran nuclear deal to Syria, again in exchange for minimal promises. Would Syria make peace with Israel? Cede its claim to the Golan Heights or to Shebaa Farms? Become a democracy? Cease harboring terrorists not only from Hezbollah but also from other terrorist groups such as the PKK, Al Qaeda, and ISIS? Stop using chemical weapons on its own population? Release US hostages such as Austin Tice? Or does Assad claim the $45 billion a year cash bonanza up front merely by promising to cut off Iranian land bridge, and does the US only then begin negotiating on the \u201clonger, stronger\u201d front, on the model of the Iran nuclear deal, where the US front-loads all its concessions in exchange for imaginary future progress?<\/span><\/p>\n

Eighth, Friedman\u2019s unsubstantiated claim that \u201cIsrael\u2019s military would back this deal\u201d is an odd one. Israel\u2019s military is under civilian democratic control. This is a foreign policy question. What matters is not whether Israel\u2019s military would back the deal but whether the Israeli public would. Nowhere in the new Israeli coalition agreement is it written that the parties are going to support $45 billion in financial aid to the Assad regime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, short of unleashing his full chemical weapons arsenal in a way that would make the \u201conly children\u201d of Gaza look like small potatoes in terms of collateral damage, it\u2019s not even clear that Assad has the capacity to kick the Iranian forces out of Syria. Maybe with $45 billion of US taxpayer dollars he would. More likely, though, he\u2019d use the ammunition and weapons purchased with those funds not on fighting or deterring Iran but rather on attacking Israel or his own internal political rivals. For the US and Israel, the Friedman-Bribe-Syria plan would be a bad risk.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ira Stoll<\/strong> was managing editor of\u00a0The Forward\u00a0and North American editor of\u00a0The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular\u00a0Algemeiner\u00a0feature, can be found\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Tom Friedman\u2019s Latest Stratagem Is Having US Taxpayers Subsidize Syria\u2019s Assad Ira Stoll New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Photo: Charles Haynes via Wikimedia Commons. New York Times\u00a0columnist Thomas L. Friedman floats an unconventional idea in his latest\u00a0article: having the US pay the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, to kick Iran out of Syria. Here\u2019s how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87054"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87066,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87054\/revisions\/87066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}