Obama Boots Syrian Peace Chance

President Barack Obama is turning his back on possibly the last best chance to resolve the bloody Syrian war because he fears a backlash from Official Washington's powerful coalition of neoconservatives and "liberal interventionists" along with their foreign fellow-travelers: Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf sheikdoms.

The route toward peace would be to collaborate with Russia and Iran to get Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to accept a power-sharing unity government that would fairly represent Syria's major religious and ethnic groups -- Christians, Alawites, Shiites and moderate Sunnis -- along with a commitment for free, internationally monitored elections once adequate security is restored.

His pressure would have to include stern action aimed at the global finances of the Gulf states -- i.e., seizing their assets as punishment for their continuing support for terrorism -- as well as similar sanctions against Turkey, possibly ousting it from NATO if it balked, and a withdrawal of political and financial support for Israel if it continued helping Nusra fighters and viewing Al Qaeda as the "lesser evil" in Syria. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Al-Qaeda, Saudi Arabia and Israel."]

Obama also would have to make it clear to Syria's "moderate" Sunni politicians whom the U.S. government has been subsidizing for the past several years that they must sit down with Assad's representatives and work out a unity government or the American largesse would end.

This combination of strong international pressure on the Sunni terror infrastructure and strong-arming internal players in Syria into a unity government could isolate the Sunni extremists from Al Qaeda and the Islamic State and thus minimize the need for military strikes whether carried out by Russia (against both Al Qaeda and ISIS) or the U.S. coalition (focusing on ISIS).

And, the arrival of Russian military support for the Assad government -- as well as the increased backing from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah -- represented the moment when the prospect for peace was brightest, whatever one thinks of those various players. However, instead of working with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, President Obama chose to bend to the pressures of Official Washington.

Appeasing the Warmongers

Thinking he had stretched the tolerance of neocons and liberal hawks as far as he could by pushing through the nuclear deal with Iran, Obama fell in line behind their propagandistic denunciations of Assad and Putin. Obama's administration joined in promoting the new favorite "group think" of Washington -- that Putin had promised to only bomb the Islamic State and then reneged by attacking "moderate" rebels and their more powerful ally, Al Qaeda's Nusra Front.

Conveniently, this storyline doesn't cite the wording of Putin's supposed "promise" although some articles do mention him vowing to attack "terrorist" groups, which the mainstream U.S. news media has interpreted as the Islamic State only. But this odd framing accepts the breathtaking premise that Al Qaeda is no longer a terrorist organization -- apparently rehabilitated by the fact that Israel has been helping Al Qaeda's affiliate, the Nusra Front, along the Golan Heights and prefers it to Assad's continued rule. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Should US Ally with Al Qaeda in Syria?"]

Among the many purveyors of this "Putin lied" narrative is Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, who on Tuesday repeated the canard that Putin had "promised" to strike only the Islamic State and then broke that promise. For good measure, Cohen added that the Russians had "invaded" Syria although they were formally invited by the recognized government of Syria.

"Yes, the Russians did invade," Cohen wrote. "They sent war planes, mechanized units and even troops into Syria. They have begun bombing missions, apparently hitting insurgents seeking to topple Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and not only, as Russian President Vladimir Putin promised, Islamic State units. Putin -- surprise! -- lied."

Normally in journalism, before we accuse someone of lying, we show what they actually said and contrast it with the facts. But Official Washington has long since moved Putin into the free-fire zone of demonization. Anything can be said about him, whether based in reality or not, and anyone who objects to this "group think" is called a "Putin bootlicker" or a "Putin apologist."

Thus, any reality-based skepticism is ruled out of the frame of debate. Such was the way that the United States plunged blindly into the Iraq War in 2003 when Saddam Hussein was the demonized figure and the Europeans who warned President George W. Bush not to invade were laughed at as "Euro-weenies." American skeptics were "Saddam apologists."

Inside-Out 'Logic'

Cohen is back at it again in his Tuesday column, which -- on the Internet -- has the curious title "The High Cost of Avoiding War in Syria." Cohen throws around the word "invasion" where Russia is involved -- even when there was no "invasion" -- but he advocates an actual U.S. invasion with cavalier hypocrisy.