U.S. mistakenly attacked Syrian troops — right after coming to a cease fire agreement — a comment regarding America's mixed messages

© 2016 Peter Free

 

19 September 2016

 

 

First, we negotiate a deal with Russia to try to stop the Syrian violence . . .

 

Then, we attack Bashar al Assad's Syrian government troops — reportedly for the first time ever — apparently so as to (a) break the agreement, (b) demonstrate our military ineptness, or (c) show how casually we regard the act of killing unidentified people.

 

 

If you read the American news

 

You see that most reports do not even mention how many people the Syrians claim were killed.

 

America, right or wrong. The fog of war and all that. If it moves, kill it.

 

 

This is the same kind of double messaging that we display toward Iran

 

We make a deal, then we do our best to force the other side to rethink it.

 

Recall that the Obama Administration negotiated a controversial agreement with Iran to hold off on building nuclear armaments. Then, shortly later, the United States came to the largest ever arms deal with Israel — Iran's most powerful regional adversary.

 

 

After the Syrian troop strike — another display of diplomatic self-hobbling

 

After Russia complained about the American killing of Syrian troops, U.S. United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power unhelpfully said:

 

 

“And they’re calling this emergency meeting? Really? Because of a single airstrike . . . in error . . . which we have quickly called for investigating?” Power said. “Now, of all times, Russia calls for an emergency meeting, so it can stand up here and express outrage.”

 

Churkin, who stalked out of the meeting as Power entered, said that he had never, “in all my years in international life, over 40 years,” seen “such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness as we are witnessing today.”

 

Describing Power’s remarks as “demagoguery of the highest order,” Churkin said in an apparent reference to the U.S. electoral campaign that “it is extremely tragic that this is the state of political play in the United States.”

 

© 2016 Karen DeYoung and Thomas Gibbons-Neff, U.S. admits carrying out airstrike that Russia says killed 62 Syrian soldiers, Washington Post (17 September 2016)

 

 

Ambassador Power apparently thinks that killing people, allegedly by accident, is not a big deal — in these Times of Casually Waged Permanent War.

 

At least the dead Syrians were military, she must rationalize, in contrast with the medical folk and patients we blasted at the MSF hospital in Afghanistan in October 2015. We got away with that one, so what's the big deal now?

 

 

The moral? — Incompetent policies, divided Administration, or casual callousness?

 

Perhaps all three apply to elements among American leadership.

 

According to the Washington Post:

 

 

A U.S. Defense official said the strike "appears to be an intelligence failure."

 

© 2016 Karen DeYoung and Thomas Gibbons-Neff, U.S. admits carrying out airstrike that Russia says killed 62 Syrian soldiers, Washington Post (17 September 2016)

 

 

This may be a more broadly applicable observation than you surmised, DoD Anonymous.