{"id":12249,"date":"2015-09-14T06:40:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T11:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=12249"},"modified":"2015-09-14T06:40:37","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T11:40:37","slug":"whos-to-blame-for-syria-mess-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=12249","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s to Blame for Syria Mess? Putin!"},"content":{"rendered":"<header>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2015\/09\/13\/whos-to-blame-for-syria-mess-putin\/\" target=\"_blank\">Who\u2019s to Blame for Syria Mess? Putin!<\/a><\/h3>\n<p class=\"entry-meta\"><strong>Exclusive:\u00a0Official Washington\u2019s new \u201cgroup think\u201d is to blame Russia\u2019s President Putin for the Syrian crisis, although it was the neocons and President George W. Bush who started the current Mideast mess by invading Iraq, the Saudis\u00a0who funded Al Qaeda, and the Israelis\u00a0who plotted \u201cregime change,\u201d says Robert Parry.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<hr \/>\n<p>Sen. Lindsey Graham may have been wrong about pretty much everything related to the Middle East, but at least he has the honesty to tell Americans that the current trajectory of the wars in Syria and Iraq will require a U.S. re-invasion of the region and an open-ended military occupation of Syria, draining American wealth, killing countless Syrians and Iraqis, and dooming thousands, if not tens of thousands, of U.S. troops.<\/p>\n<p>Graham\u2019s grim prognostication of endless war may be a factor in his poll numbers below one percent, a sign that even tough-talking Republicans aren\u2019t eager to relive the disastrous Iraq War. Regarding the mess in Syria, there are, of course, other options, such as cooperation with Russia and Iran to resist the gains of the Islamic State and Al Qaeda and a negotiated power-sharing arrangement in Damascus. But those practical ideas are still being ruled out.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"image-anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/vladimir-putin-russia.jpg?55ac53\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11472\" src=\"http:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/vladimir-putin-russia-300x224.jpg?55ac53\" alt=\"Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Russian government photo)\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" data-lazy-loaded=\"true\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Official Washington\u2019s \u201cgroup think\u201d still holds that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad \u201cmust go,\u201d that U.S. diplomats should simply deliver a \u201cregime change\u201d ultimatum not engage in serious compromise, and that the U.S. government must obstruct assistance from Russia and Iran even if doing so risks collapsing Assad\u2019s secular regime and opening the door to an Al Qaeda\/Islamic State victory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who\u2019s to Blame for Syria Mess? Putin! Exclusive:\u00a0Official Washington\u2019s new \u201cgroup think\u201d is to blame Russia\u2019s President Putin for the Syrian crisis, although it was the neocons and President George W. Bush who started the current Mideast mess by invading Iraq, the Saudis\u00a0who funded Al Qaeda, and the Israelis\u00a0who plotted \u201cregime change,\u201d says Robert Parry. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,6963,442,1239,446,447,9031,522,561,660,7203,694,701,776,865],"class_list":["post-12249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-al-qaeda","tag-consortium-news","tag-iraq","tag-is","tag-isis","tag-islamic-state","tag-lindsey-graham","tag-middle-east","tag-neocons","tag-putin","tag-robert-parry","tag-russia","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-syria","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12250,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12249\/revisions\/12250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}