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Clinton Calls Bashar al-Assad a “Reformer” – Syria Lifts Emergency Law

By Dr. Joshua Landis on March 29, 2011 at 4:30 PM in Current Affairs

Bronwyn’s Note: We are pleased to introduce Dr. Joshua Landis to NoQuarterUSA readers. Dr. Landis, a widely-known expert on Syria and the Middle East, is a frequent guest on NPR, PBS (Newshour), and CNN, and contributor to numerous news articles. Director for the Center for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma, Landis posts regularly at his blog, SyrianComment.com. Stay tuned for his second post today, “Ammar Abdulhamid Emerges as Face of the Syrian Revolution, according to Washington Times,” TBA 20:30 p.m. ET.

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“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said …. members of the U.S. Congress from both parties say they believe Assad is “a reformer.“

U.S. Won’t Intervene in Syria as Assad Differs From Qaddafi, Clinton Says || www.bloomberg.com || By Nicole Gaouette – Mar 27, 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. won’t enter into the internal conflict in Syria the way it has in Libya.

“No,” Clinton said, when asked on the CBS “Face the Nation” program if the U.S. would intervene in Syria’s unrest. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s security forces clashed with protesters in several cities yesterday after his promises of freedoms and pay increases failed to prevent dissent from spreading across the country.

Clinton said the elements that led to international intervention in Libya — international condemnation, an Arab League call for action, a United Nations Security Council Resolution — are “not going to happen” with Syria, in part because members of the U.S. Congress from both parties say they believe Assad is “a reformer.”

My guess is that Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel have all asked the US not to push on Syria. They fear instability. This has little to do with congress.

Syria has announced that it has lifted emergency rule. What this actually means is unclear. There are many laws on the books to limit constitutional freedoms of assembly and freedom of expression.

Senate Homeland Security chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said

the U.S. should intervene to help Syrian protesters if officials there turn weapons on the public as took place in Libya on Fox News Sunday.

Lieberman told host Chris Wallace that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad begins to slaughter his own people he could face an international coalition willing to implement a no-fly zone as they have done in Libya.

Lieberman said he would support U.S. intervention “if Assad does what Qaddafi was doing, which is to threaten to go house to house and kill anyone who’s not on his side.”

“There’s a precedent now that the world community has set in Libya and it’s the right one,” Lieberman said. “We’re not going to stand by and allow this Assad to slaughter his people like his father did years ago and in doing so we’re being consistent with our American values and we’re also on the side of the Arab people who want a better chance for a decent life.”

Steven Hadley, Bush NSC head:

The US should win in libya to send a message to Syria and Iran. He also said the US should help topple Assad. To send a message to IRAN. He also said that in Jordan and KSA we should support these gov because they have introduced reforms and are on the way to more democratic societies.

  • Jim Ticehurst

    There are Reasons why LIEBERMANN takes such a Public Position..nothing we do or don’t do is going to change the Outcome..and Israel will be Surrounded by “The Abomination of Desolation:” in the End..One to two Years out..No Christian or jew will be safe in the Middle east I Fear…

  • Ferd Not-My-Site-(click to edit) Berfle

    Israel has something they neither deny nor claim having. The Arab world would be well-advised to give Israel a wide berth. The end result might give new meaning to the phrase “glass houses”.

  • AbigailAdams

    Agreed, Ferd.  Israel will not go off half-cocked, but if or when they do, they will be all in and I’m sure some of these countries literally won’t know what hit them.

  • PUMA GSD

    BO invited 10 of the Muslim BrotherHood to his speech in Cairo.
    The MB wants to control the ME and destroy Israel…

  • Ferd Not-My-Site-(click to edit) Berfle

    The US should win in libya to send a message to Syria and Iran. He also said the US should help topple Assad. To send a message to IRAN. He also said that in Jordan and KSA we should support these gov because they have introduced reforms and are on the way to more democratic societies.

    ===============================
    The problem with getting involved in the ME, i.e., regime change, is that we always get tripped up by the law of unintended consequences. A simple look back almost 60 years gives one just examples of unintended consequences.

    The US overthrew the duly elected government of Iran in 1953 (perhaps ’52). This led to Rez Pahlavi taking the reins of power and ruling with an iron fist until Khomeini came along. We all know how that turned out and we’re still being affected by it.

    We backed the origins of the the Taliban and Al Qaeda against the USSR in Afghanistan. We’re mired in there still.

    We back a despotic regime in Saudi Arabia (home of Al Qaeda), backed a despot in Iraq for many years, and backed another in Egypt.

    It seems we continue to lose either way we try to play it and they simply aren’t worth any more American treasure or blood.

  • PUMA GSD

    ???Does the US have like electronic contro of these weapons??
    If so BO will not allow Israel to defend her self.  Russian
    is the silent partner of Iran and BO could be another silent
    partner.

  • Ferd Not-My-Site-(click to edit) Berfle

    One other thing, if politicians are going to use the morality card as justification for regime change, invasion, or whatever the new name for it will be, then justifiable criticism should be leveled at them for not insisting on the US going into Darfur, Rwanda, and every other place on earth where genocide is or was occurring. Absent that, their words ring mighty hollow. If, however, they stick to the real reason–vital American interests, then the no-fly zone over Libya is probably not warranted, unless one uses the slippery slope–then all bets are off and a lit match is all that is needed to set the whole place ablaze.

    A little honesty in this matter is called for.

  • Ferd Not-My-Site-(click to edit) Berfle

    Does the US have like electronic contro of these weapons
    ==================
    Israel is a sovereign nation, not subject to the whim and fancy of barky and they do not answer to us. We have had to ask them nicely to stay in the background, e.g., the first Iraq war. That they did was because they were amenable to it. Can the US apply pressure? Yes. Does Israel have to listen? No.

  • ImissReagan

    Maobama told Bashar he better be nice or he will overthrow him and replace him with his good friend Osama. Just like he’s trying to do now to Gaddafi.

  • AbigailAdams

    One big thing that has repeatedly gone unscrutinized by anyone in the press (that I’ve seen so far) is that it was obama himself who agitated the “young people” of the ME to “rise up”.  He said that at least three or four times concerning Egypt and then in a more general way about other countries in the ME, including Libya.  Solid Cloward et Piven:  Top down, bottom up, inside out.  Create a solution before you agitate “the people,” then come along side with the solution.  Voila.  He tipped his hat again to the “Young People” in the ME in last night’s teleprompter reading.

    Also:  I am really getting irriated with Susan Rice speaking as ambassador to the UNSC.  I don’t really want to hear from the UN right now, I want to hear from our own people.  I still shake my head over her remarks about Kennedy and the Cuba Missle Crisis.

    http://purplepeoplevote.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-advisor-susan-rices-major.html 

  • Ferd Not-My-Site-(click to edit) Berfle

     Israel will not go off half-cocked
    ===============
    You can bet your bottom dollar on that. Netanyahu (and every other Israeli leader, for that matter, irrespective of party) is one tough customer who will cede nothing unless there is some advantage to it for Israel. And if an existential crisis comes along, I’m sure Netanyahu would make the required call–just as Truman did. Country first.

  • AbigailAdams

    Yes, and democracy is just a train one rides on their way to something else.  Take away the dictator, have democracy, then the vocal minority and those who are the best organized “vote” to decide they want socialism.

  • Ferd Not-My-Site-(click to edit) Berfle

    Rice is an anti-semitic twit who should be fired for cause, AA. her vast knowledge of history could be placed on the back of a matchbook, leaving plenty of room for an anti-Israeli advertisement or two. She is a useless hack.

    And you are spot on about the inside-out, bottom-up, and top-down process these anarchist miscreants are fomenting so they can create their dystopian world.

  • Ferd Not-My-Site-(click to edit) Berfle

    then the vocal minority and those who are the best organized “vote” to decide they want socialism.
    ===============
    Or another version of despotism. Qadaffi will be replaced ultimately by another strongman just as Mubarek will be replaced by another strongman just as Iraq will be controlled by another strongman just as Iran replaced a secular despot with a theocratic despotism. This isn’t so much a game of chess as it is whack-a-mole. We need to decline any further invitations. This is, indeed, insanity.

  • Ferd Not-My-Site-(click to edit) Berfle

    And the more I hear Susan Rice speak, the more I miss Condaleeza Rice.

    Someone kick me–I can’t believe I just typed that. Wow. I actually miss the last administration even though I was four-square against it at the time.

    Wow.

  • ~~JustMe~~

    Especially, when you hear some plan is being devised, right now, in London, whilst Hillary is there, about sending Qadaffi, off to one of the African countries that will not press charges on bringing down Pan Am 103 or his connection to the crime, committed. So he can live out his life “Free as a Bird” UGH, makes me want to kick and scream. How about all the American families, that have been effected by this tyrants acts????
     
    Yes the insanity just continues!

  • Ferd Not-My-Site-(click to edit) Berfle

    I share your view, ~~JustMe~~. If we are going to remove him from power, then he should be brought to the Hague, as a minimum, before the bar of justice.

  • beyond_words

    Yup. Just like you said, Ferd, they have different thought processes on what they value, or want reflected in their society. Look at Gaza. Perhaps the intimidation factor was huge in the voting there; (What choices did the commoner truly have?) and Hamas was the end result.

  • BINKY

    I agree.  It sickens me that we turned a deaf ear to those countries in Africa where the people being slaughtered were begging us to help out.  I hope God forgives us for that.

  • BINKY

    Right on Abigail!

  • Ferd Not-My-Site-(click to edit) Berfle

    Calling Assad a reformer after all he and his father before him did to Syria is nothing short of hypocrisy of the first order. Maybe he is “reformed”. Tell that to those who suffered under their jackboots for all those years. Sometimes you have to call a pile of slime a scumbag and vinegar, douche. Really, HRC, you’ve gone off the deep end here.

    Reformer, indeed. Yeah, and I’m a three-toed sloth.

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  • Retired

    What could be more “reforming” on a restive Syrian crowd than a few Syrian tanks?

  • Onofre’s arm

    Yes, he’s a reformer alright……….from the Procrustean school of forced conformity.

  • beyond_words

    No doubt about it when Syria is voted one of the world’s major police states.

    You know I’ve always wondered why Fancy Nancy jetted off to meet Assad within her first week of taking over the role of House Speaker..

  • ImissReagan

    Maobama insists that Susan Rice is not anti-Semitic. He said she loves Simon and Garfunkle and is best friends with Penny Pritzger.

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