Sun, 02/26/2017 - 12:12
Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, the lawmaker who
accused the U.S. government of funding and arming ISIS and introduced a bill to prevent it from
happening in future,
recently disclosed that she met with Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad during her recent trip to Syria. The move has reportedly angered many of her fellow
congressmen and women.
Upon returning from the war-stricken nation, Gabbard
released the following statement in the form of a press release:
“My visit to Syria has made it
abundantly clear: Our counterproductive regime change war does not serve
America’s interest, and it certainly isn’t in the interest of the Syrian
people.
“As I visited with people from across
the country, and heard heartbreaking stories of how this war has devastated
their lives, I was asked, ‘Why is the United States and its allies helping
al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups try to take over Syria? Syria did not
attack the United States. Al-Qaeda did.’ I had no answer.”
According to the press release, Gabbard met with refugees,
Syrian opposition leaders who led protesters in 2011, widows and family members
who fight alongside al-Qaeda groups, pro-Assad troops, humanitarian workers,
and students, to name a few. Gabbard also met with high-ranking officials such
as Lebanon’s newly-elected President Aon and Prime Minister Hariri, as well as
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard, Syrian President Assad, Grand
Mufti Hassoun, and Archbishop Denys Antoine Chahda of the Syrian Catholic
Church of Aleppo.
Initially, Gabbard allegedly had no intention of meeting
Assad, as she stated in an interview with CNN’s Jake
Tapper.
“When the opportunity arose to meet with
him, I did so because I felt that it’s important that if we profess to truly
care about the Syrian people, about their suffering, then we’ve got to be able
to meet with anyone that we need to if there is a possibility that we can
achieve peace,” she
told Tapper.
The meeting with Assad is incredibly controversial because
of numerous
allegations by the U.N. that Assad has committed crimes against humanity.
“Whatever you think about President
Assad, the fact is that he is the president of Syria,” she added. “In
order for any peace agreement, in order for any possibility of a viable peace
agreement to occur there has to be a conversation with him.”
Not surprisingly, the media has hyped up this visit as
outrageous but has omitted some very glaring hypocrisies that arise as a result
of Gabbard’s trip to Syria.
First, the Obama
administration and Bush
administration both
drew serious allegations of war crimes, but if Gabbard had met with either of
those former presidents, it’s doubtful anyone would have batted an eyelid.
Second, former Secretary of State John Kerry met with Assad in 2009,
even though, after nine years in office, Assad was clearly responsible
for all of the things western media has been relentlessly accusing him
of doing since 2011.
Third, Gabbard’s meeting symbolizes the ridiculousness of
America’s foreign policy decision-making system. A few hundred
old men and women who
have never been to Syria — nor care to go — sit in a room and deliberate a
piece of paper deciding whether or not to drop million dollar tomahawk missiles
on a relatively poor country. Even when these
decision-makers are well aware of the horror their edicts will unleash, they are never required to
visit the country, talk to its people, or understand the situation and better
educate themselves. In the case of Syria, Congress wasn’t even required to
approve the air campaign that began in 2014, as Obama authorized
airstrikes without
their approval anyway.
Gabbard’s move should be applauded — not ridiculed.
Singling Assad out as some sort of mass-murdering psychopath while foreign
leaders routinely meet with alleged war criminals such as Israel’s Benyamin
Netanyahu, Saudi Arabia’s leadership, and Henry
Kissinger,
to name a few, is the epitome of U.S.-NATO arrogance.
Gabbard may have met with a mass murderer, but she also met
with numerous people on the ground — the people who matter most. After doing
so, she concluded:
“I return to
Washington, DC with even greater resolve to end our illegal war to overthrow
the Syrian government. I call upon Congress and the new Administration to
answer the pleas of the Syrian people immediately and support the Stop Arming
Terrorists Act. We must stop directly and indirectly supporting
terrorists—directly by providing weapons, training and logistical support to
rebel groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and ISIS; and indirectly through Saudi
Arabia, the Gulf States, and Turkey, who, in turn, support these terrorist
groups. We must end our war to overthrow the Syrian government and focus our
attention on defeating al-Qaeda and ISIS.”
No one can criticize her strategy because, for the last six
years, no one has even attempted it.
This article (Congresswoman Who Says U.S. Funds
ISIS Just Got Back from Syria: Here’s What She Found) is free and open source.
You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with
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