U.S. Offered to Pull Out of Syria

Grand Bargain Update: U.S. Offered to Pull Out of Syria

AUGUST 28, 2018 / TOM LUONGO

According to a recent report by Joachin Flores at Fort Russ News, the U.S. offered a withdrawal plan to Bashar al-Assad of Syria with three conditions.  What should be immediately obvious is that the U.S. offered the meeting and opened up the talks.

This is proof positive that the U.S. position in Syria is untenable and the U.S. is searching for a way out that will save a little face.

From Fort Russ:

First : Iran’s full withdrawal from the Syrian south.

Washington: withdrawal from the Altnef and eastern Euphrates against three conditions, including giving us a share of oil

Second: obtaining written assurances that US companies will receive a share of the oil sector in eastern Syria. 

Third, to provide the Syrian side with the Americans with full data on the terrorist groups and their members,including the numbers of foreign victims of these groups and those who survived, and those who have the possibility of returning to Western countries, considering that “the terrorist threat is intercontinental, we can get hurt in the service of international security”.

The Syrian response to this generous offer could easily be termed as dismissive.  Assad has no reason to guarantee the U.S. anything after its shameful display over the past seven years.

If anything Syria should be going to the International Court of Justice with demands the U.S. pay for Syria’s rebuilding efforts rather than this crude attempt at extortion.

Because that’s exactly what it is, extortion.

Maybe this is just another of Trump’s “Art of the Deal” ridiculous opening offers to find out the tenor of the situation.  And the part demanding a cut of the eastern oil field production as a concession to leave the country is pure Trump.

Somehow he must still think that we should be repaid for “kicking the hell out of ISIS.”  Is he the last person left with any geopolitical clue to think we weren’t responsible for this mess in the first place?

Being an empire means never having to say you’re sorry.  In fact, just the opposite.  There’s a fundamental arrogance that suffuses all discussions and negotiations because, well, you know, power.

And that’s what so undeniably sad about all of this.  Trump is surrounded by vipers and neocons (or do I repeat myself) who, despite his better instincts, fill him with nonsense which he then acts on without much reflection.

I still feel that Putin laid on him some very eye-opening information behind closed doors in Helsinki which is why the intelligence agencies freaked out afterwards.  But, this offer to withdraw from Syria is, yet again with Trump, two steps forward and one step back.

Here’s the big carrot, military withdrawal, but it comes with burning sticks, continued U.S. presence, Iran withdraws and siphoning off of all profit from Syria’s natural resources.

Hey, at least, now we’re being honest about our intentions there.  It’s just about granting Exxon-Mobil some oil concessions.  Notice how there’s no mention of helping to rebuild or secure trade with Syria.

In short, this exchange between the U.S. and Syria is telling us Assad isn’t going to make this easy on the U.S. anymore than he should.

Syria’s End or New Beginning?

This happened against the backdrop of the U.S. moving naval assets back into the Eastern Mediterranean, just like we did with North Korea, to bluster and chest-thump to create the illusion of strength while negotiating a settlement behind the scenes.

The Russians are doing the same.  There is real tension in the air that things could get ugly quick.

National Security Advisor John Bolton and French President Emmanuel Macron are laying the same ground work for another false flag chemical weapons attack at the start of the pro-Syria coalition’s campaign to liberate Idlib.

It’s like March and April all over again.

So, who’s driving this bus off this cliff?  After the relatively easy time of things South of Damascus with the re-taking of Dara’a one would have thought that the whole false-flag chemical weapons thing would be off the table.

In fact, it was the smoothness of that operation and the U.S. abandoning its ‘moderate rebels’ that made it clear to me that Syria was all but a done deal.  The problem now is that we’ve reached the end of the story.

This is it.  Once Idlib is liberated the only territory left is the U.S.-occupied regions east of the Euphrates River and the border crossing at al-Tanf.  Neither of those are ISIS strongholds so the rationale for the U.S. to stay in Syria is over.

If Trump’s goal is peace in the region, then this operation needs to go smoothly and it will if it’s allowed to.  But, that’s the problem.  Once Syria’s settled it makes it easier for Trump to declare, “Mission Accomplished.”

If he doesn’t he’s going to have to go back to his base and tell them we need to stay to counter Iran?  A country he keeps telling us is on the verge of collapse thanks to sanctions?

That’s not going to fly with his base who wants the empire dismantled.  So, the argument for the false flag makes sense to trap Trump into having to stay, if not expand the conflict, to push Assad from office while damaging him at home on the eve of the mid-terms.

This is the trap that’s being laid right now because peace is not allowed to break out in the Middle East.

https://tomluongo.me/2018/08/28/grand-bargain-us-pull-out-syria/