As the US mainstream media obsessed last
week about Russia’s supposed “hacking” of the US elections and President
Obama’s final round of Russia sanctions in response, something very important
was taking place under the media radar. As a result of a meeting between
foreign ministers of Russia, Iran, and Turkey last month, a ceasefire in Syria
has been worked out and is being implemented. So far it appears to be holding,
and after nearly six years of horrible warfare, the people of Syria are finally
facing the possibility of rebuilding their lives.
What is so important about this particular
ceasefire? It was planned, agreed to, and implemented without the participation
of the United States Government.
In fact, it was frustration with
Washington’s refusal to separate its “moderates” from terrorist groups and its
continued insistence on regime change for the Syrian government that led the
three countries to pursue a solution on their own for Syria. They also included
the Syrian government and much of the opposition to the agreement, which the US
government has been unwilling to do.
We have been told all along by the neocons
and “humanitarian interventionists” that the United States must take a central
role in every world crisis or nothing will ever be solved. We are the
“indispensable nation,” they say, and without our involvement, the world will
collapse. Our credibility is on the line, they claim, and if we don’t step up
no one will. All this is untrue, as we have seen last week.
The fact is, it is often US involvement in
“solving” these crises that actually perpetuates them. Consider the 60-plus
year state of war between North and South Korea. Has US intervention done
anything to solve the problem? How about our decades of meddling in the
Israel-Palestine dispute? Are we any closer to peace between the Israelis and
Palestinians despite the billions we have spent bribing and interfering?
Non-intervention in the affairs of others
does not damage US credibility overseas. It is US meddling, bombing, droning,
and regime-changing that damages our credibility overseas. US obstruction in
Syria kept the war going. As the Syrians and Russians were liberating east
Aleppo from its four-year siege by al-Qaeda, the Obama Administration was
demanding a ceasefire. As Syrians began to move back into their homes in east
Aleppo, the State Department continued to tell us that the Russians and Syrian
government were slaughtering civilians for the fun of it.
So why all the media attention on unproven
accusations of Russian hacking and President Obama’s predictable, yet
meaningless response? The mainstream media does the bidding of Washington’s
interventionists and they are desperate to divert attention from what may prove
to be the beginning of the end of Syria’s long nightmare. They don’t want Americans
to know that the rest of the world can solve its own problems without the US
global policemen in the center of the action. When it is finally understood
that we don’t need to be involved for crises to be solved overseas, the neocons
will lose. Let’s hope that happens soon!
