This fellah, Bashar's first cousin is an exile from Syria. He was on the mentally flatulent 'Mornin' Joe' show today trying to explain Syrian realities to the crew of New Yorkers who infest this TV space. Well, there are a few good ones. Anyway, Ribal al-Assad tried to tell them that Syria is about 50% minorities; Christians, Alawis, a few remaining Jews, Druze, Ismaili Shia, etc. and that the great defect of present policy is that it is completely focused on the Syria civil war as a conflict between an Alawi minority government and a Sunni Arab majority. Ribal said that was wrong because the minorities have not been given a viable alternative to the present government of Syria. Why is that important? Well, pilgrims, the jihadis, including the ones the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey support intend to enslave the minorities.
Yes, I know, There are also Sunni Arabs who support the government and many serve in the Syrian Army but that does not obviate Ribal's point that the 50% of the Syrian population who are minorities have not been given any alternative to the present government.
He further pointed out that the supposed "mediators" (Saudi Arabia) in the process of building an alternative future government do not respect democracy, the rule of law other than their view of Sharia, and any thought of a multi-confessional national entity.
Mikka and Joe listened for a few seconds and then their eyes glazed over as he violated the parameters of their Borgist conditioning. After a bit you could see that they just wanted him to go away and not further disturb their bovine content.
A few days back I mentioned a well educated woman neighbor who explained to me that the American people lack the "software" in their heads to grasp what is being written here on SST about the ME. I agree. Borgist repetitive propaganda has IMO re-structured the collective American brain to such an extent that the truth is for most unfathomable. pl
A possibility if it wasn't for the fact that DC still prefers loosing publicly to Assad to a commie victory.
Posted by: charly | 14 December 2015 at 09:06 PM
mbrenner,
That is an excellent essay with a thorough explanation of the situation, a reasonable and plausible COA and an, unfortunately, realistic assessment of that COA ever being implemented. My only quibble is that you didn't explain who comprises the R+6 coalition. We all know, but the wider audience of HuffPost may not be familiar.
Posted by: The Twisted Genius | 14 December 2015 at 09:23 PM
You wrote:
"...the drastic reduction in the scale and scope of government..."
Which ought to be followed by a drastic reduction in tertiary education.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 14 December 2015 at 10:31 PM
The college students the world over are largely there to obtain an increasing worthless diploma - their meal ticket - and get on with their lives.
Only the students in hard sciences, medicine, law, business, and things of that sort are there to learn anything.
Students are behaving correctly - why would a nubile young woman, in her best years, care about John C. Calhoun? Or a young man about St. Augustine's City of God?
They have no skin in the game. As the commentator MRW has stated, demand for US Government bonds by foreigners is shielding the students to some extent form the foolish policy choices of their elders.
Let foreigners stop buying US Government bonds or impose draft on both men and women and ship to fight on that endless steppe called Russia and I am certain that they would become very alert indeed.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 14 December 2015 at 10:37 PM
To your last paragraph:
Take the HUDNA offer of HAMAS & do not fight against the Shia Crescent.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 14 December 2015 at 10:39 PM
Forget about the Middle East,most Americans don't care about France or the entire continent of Europe.There are only two reasons we are in the Middle East. The first is somehow our oil got underneath their sand and the second is Israel.............As far as the "truth" and lies go.The pure and simple truth is that the truth is never pure and seldom simple.A half lie is worse than a lie.It is much harder to detect.It is also a lot more common, used by good people with good intentions..Of Course!!!!
Posted by: PHil Cattar | 14 December 2015 at 11:54 PM
Dear Colonel:
Propose an alternative descriptor to the populace as "sheep" - "deer in the headlight."
Then the question is which way the deer will jump.
Posted by: ISL | 15 December 2015 at 01:10 AM
as a new yorker i would like to point out a small fact,
joe Scarborough lives in Connecticut
Posted by: pA | 15 December 2015 at 01:35 AM
Thank you for your HuffPo article. It's the most intelligent and articulate formulation of an alternative to our present madness that I've yet to read.
Unfortunately, I suspect that the US will continue down that road.
Posted by: steve | 15 December 2015 at 02:01 AM
Yes Sci fi those days was very much an intellectual exercice in social critics and warning on some disturbing trend, and that on the eve of total consumerism take over. In the spirit of Swift Guliver's Travels.
This pair also wrote "Search the Sky" an amusing fantsy (?) on society's decay, while descarding some advanced technology.
So the heroes reach first a geriontratic dictartorship,next a entirely ultra feminist society, then escape to the Jones and finaly land in USA: a country of friendly, happy partiers and boozers.
Posted by: Charles Michael | 15 December 2015 at 06:43 AM
Colonel,
I'd bask in the satisfaction of being a thorn in their side, if I were you.
Posted by: Emad | 15 December 2015 at 06:44 AM
"...mentally flatulent..." Good one.
Posted by: MGJ | 15 December 2015 at 06:48 AM
A famous and not fully explained episode is the case of general Bazaine who retranched himself and 140.000 troops in Metz. He was branded a traitor.
Amongst other there was an explanation - puting the blame on freemasons - as a reward for the Valmy victory.
Posted by: Charles Michael | 15 December 2015 at 06:51 AM
"base closure policies of Clinton years"
explain. Domestic or Foreign. If foreign, where exactly over the decades. Are you referring, however indirectly to BRAC? Or Base Realignment and Closure.
Full discovery. Why this catches my attention. I finally started to read the 2006 book on the increasing anti-Iran hype during those years by an old German-Iranian acquaintance. Interesting after all those years.
One minor note puzzled me. He wrote, if I understand it correctly that the US had no bases in Iran and Syria. Now was that the "faster-please" (Ledeen) impulse behind the neocon's idea to first take Syria and then Iran I recall from that time frame. Is the US military indeed represented anywhere else in the region?
Clinton years "base closure" activities, may well have included closures in Germany and moving them further East. Poland? No? But I am not sure.
Posted by: LeaNder | 15 December 2015 at 07:25 AM
Babak, may be interested in this interview with Spiegel online in 2010
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/democracy-activist-ribal-al-assad-syria-is-today-a-vassal-state-of-tehran-a-692295.html
'Syria Is Today a Vassal State of Tehran'
...as Iran has a policy of expansion and destabilization in the Middle East.
Posted by: LeaNder | 15 December 2015 at 08:25 AM
Is Ribal Rifaat's son? That would make his comments really interesting as Rifaat was also exiled so Ribal may have no interest in sticking up for the regime.
Posted by: Russ | 15 December 2015 at 09:17 AM
" Immersion in video games ..."
Interesting article, Michael, but that seems a highly ironic and rather arbitrary list.
My eyes may have been glazing over often in university, mostly, here comes my basic prejudice: concerning babbling co-students, but also concerning some profs that confronted me with the necessity to do archaeological research into received wisdom.
Posted by: LeaNder | 15 December 2015 at 09:28 AM
Thanks for the link to the interview, I'd describe Minka and Joe as having more of a 'gee aint it a shame' look on their face which I kind of understand given Ribal al-Assad's comments. While he did say that Syria is pluralistic and not just a Sunni country and that you have to accept the facts on the ground and not demand that Assad step down. He also said that he is pessimistic regarding Syria's future and that there needs to be a constitution that ensures a secular democracy that protects the rights of all minorities.
It wasn't like he gave an endorsement to the current peace timeline that would include the Assad govt in elections with a new constitution. He was acting as if there was no solution on the table by anyone; it was as if he wanted some third party to emerge. At least this was my impression. The show even made a reference to Assad Sr. trying to kill him about 10yrs ago.
Posted by: Chris Chuba | 15 December 2015 at 09:41 AM
Sounds like he was another Green Revolution dreamer, long term speaking color green for a revolution, is more dangerous then red.
Posted by: Kooshy | 15 December 2015 at 10:02 AM
Iran is now a Mediterranean power - that much is true. Not seen since the days of the Great King.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 15 December 2015 at 10:08 AM
"has a policy of expansion and destabilization in the Middle East"
Sais who? The Turks, the Saudis? The Israelis? The US for that matter?
Every single one of those countries is expansionist - the Turks towards their old ottoman holdings, the Israelis with their settling and annexation of the Golan and the Saudis and the other Gulfies with their Sunni/Wahhabi chauvinism and their progeject to see Sharia rule from the Persian Gulf to the Mediteranean Sea. The US, given that she is the driving force behind EXPANDING NATO, can be with good reason accused to be, well, expansionist.
But with Iran ... these demons, they're expansionist!
What a joke.
Posted by: confusedponderer | 15 December 2015 at 10:46 AM
An interview was published today in Iran with the German Ambassador to Iran since 2013, a certain (Baron ?) von Ungern Sternberg.
(It may be found here in Persian: http://tinyurl.com/pklhbbs).
It is quite clear that the German Ambassador could not satsifacorily answer the interviewer's question as to why Iran is subject to repeated Human Rights censures but not Saudi Arabia. The German Ambassador seems to be saying that "We do this because we want to."
On Syria, the German Ambassador is supporting regime change and implies, implicitly in my view, a future war crime tribunal for Bashar Al Assad and I suppose other members of his government. There is no "give" in the German position against SAR.
On ISIS, in spite of attacks in Lebanon, Egypt, France, and US, The German Ambassador is not revealing any substantial cooperation with Russia against ISIS - by Germany or EU; as I read between the lines.
I think Kooshy, Amir, and Patrick Bahzad can read Persian and can elucidate if I am reading this interview in an overly negative sense.
However, if I am correct, it seems to be consistent with an observation that Col. Lang made here a few posts ago - R+6 are on their own.
I would further think that the strategic containment of Iran and her allies remains the paramount goal of NATO states - regardless of how many inconvenient attacks on them are made by ISIS.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 15 December 2015 at 11:19 AM
You just spoke a parable there, jsn. I get most of my news/views from the internet now. I almost never bother having any political discussions with relatives, as they are all so brainwashed by what they see on TV.
Posted by: Seamus Padraig | 15 December 2015 at 12:08 PM
Yes, Ribal is Rifaat's son: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribal_al-Assad
Posted by: Seamus Padraig | 15 December 2015 at 12:21 PM
And he hails from Florida.
Outside of his elite circles, I doubt if the average New Yorker gives a ratzazz about Joe Scarborough. Maybe it's reverse carpetbaggerism, the South's revenge, lol.
Posted by: steve | 15 December 2015 at 12:34 PM