Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire
“Hillary Clinton is the architect of US foreign policy failures in Libya and Syria.” We’ve heard this statement made a lot over this US election cycle, but exactly how much truth is there to it? After researching this issue, not only is it true, it’s an understatement. She wasn’t just an architect, she was a chief instigator.
Clinton’s main source of resume credibility is her tenure as US Secretary of State from January 21, 2009 to February 1, 2013. During that time, Clinton resided over the planning and conception of two devastating conflicts, Libya and Syria. These two disasters will ultimately define both the Obama and Clinton legacies, and not for the reasons one might think. I would like to stress that the case being made here is not a political one, it is a moral and ethical inquiry into the actions and conduct of a public official.
Before we get into Libya, which itself is a detailed and grave tale of nation building gone wrong, let’s look closely at Syria – a conflict (not a Civil War) which has been dominating the international conversation for the last 4 years, but even more intensely in the last 18 months. Thus far, the results of US policy are abominable.
What ownership does Clinton have over today’s Syria?
Today, the conflict is still being fuelled by tens of thousands of US and Gulf-backed militants, mostly of foreign origin, who comprise multiple Takfiri terrorist groups which the US insist calling “rebels.” This conclave includes the Islamic State (ISIS/Daesh), Al Nusra Front (al Qaeda in Syria), Arar al Sham, Nour al-din al-Zenki, Jaish al-Fatah (The Army of Conquest), along with many others. These armed groups are occupying strategic civilian areas throughout Syria, and it is a statement of fact that these terrorists are using civilian populations as human shields.
A US-led ‘Coalition’ is currently flying over Syria and Iraq, supposedly “fighting ISIS,” but is also coming dangerously close to conflict with both the Syrian and Russian militaries.
Although this situation is now way beyond the pale, there was a time back in 2012 when a genuine diplomatic intervention could have helped to alter a fatal course of events.
Hillary Clinton played a crucial role in initiating the current disaster.
During a presidential primary debate in Milwaukee in February 2016, Clinton was quick to boast about her many “achievements” as Secretary of State, especially in Syria:
“You know, the Security Council finally got around to adopting a resolution. At the core of that resolution is an agreement I negotiated in June of 2012 in Geneva, which set forth a cease-fire and moving toward a political resolution, trying to bring the parties at stake in Syria together.”
It’s a nice statement, but like so many of Clinton’s policy eulogies, it has no basis in reality.
Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development Solutions, sets Clinton straight explaining, “In 2012, Clinton was the obstacle, not the solution, to a ceasefire being negotiated by UN Special Envoy Kofi Annan. It was US intransigence – Clinton’s intransigence – that led to the failure of Annan’s peace efforts in the spring of 2012, a point well-known among diplomats. Despite Clinton’s insinuation in the Milwaukee debate, there was (of course) no 2012 ceasefire, only escalating carnage. Clinton bears heavy responsibility for that carnage, which has by now displaced more than 10 million Syrians and left more than 250,000 dead.”
Clinton’s job, like most US diplomats, was to uphold the public facade that Washington is engaging in its usual list of honorable pursuits like ‘cease fires, ‘peace plans’ and protecting human rights – while simultaneously helping to advance a covert agenda that achieves the exact opposite: destabilization, escalation of violence, flooding the region with weapons, and of course, working to overthrow the government of Syria. We want to pay special attention to the weapons trafficking part. Clinton was pivotal – not only in coordinating with the Gulf states, but also giving political legitimacy to arming the “moderate rebels” (now commonly recognized as terrorists).
Although the initial effort to fuel the armed insurgency in Syria was organized through Libya under the office of Secretary Clinton (which we’ll demonstrate below), later efforts were formalized through a series of large weapons shipments out of NATO countries like Croatia, and then through other US-sanctioned covert smuggling projects like Operation Timber Sycamore, where the CIA, with the approval of President Obama, organized weapons shipments into Syria via Turkey and Jordan, but with Saudi Arabia footing the bill for that clandestine operation. The New York Times confirmed certain details of this in January 2016:
“American officials have not disclosed the amount of the Saudi contribution, which is by far the largest from another nation to the program to arm the rebels against President Bashar al-Assad’s military. But estimates have put the total cost of the arming and training effort at several billion dollars.”
Perhaps the most important aspect of this story is this: it is absolutely illegal under International Law for foreign nations to conspire and trafficking arms into a country with the intent to overthrow the government of a nation-state.
Read more here: http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/11/05/why-hillary-clinton-is-responsible-for-failures-in-both-libya-and-syria/
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