OPINION:
An Islamist faction controlling the country executed rival members of the Alawite sect and many Christians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
People who were only trying to survive were caught up in the attacks. When protests broke out in Damascus against the violence, reprisals swiftly followed.
This dark turn of events was made possible by Presidents Obama and Biden and the neoconservatives who insisted on an intervention that handed Syria to jihadis. As Jake Sullivan, the man who became Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, put it in a 2012 email to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “[Al Qaeda] is on our side in Syria.”
With the help of clandestine and overt U.S. support, al Qaeda’s forces finally deposed Bashar Assad in December, allowing Ahmad al-Sharaa to take his place as interim president. With his trimmed beard and Western-style suit, he gives every appearance of being a moderate.
Below the surface, however, lurks a butcher. Before becoming head of state, Mr. al-Sharaa went by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. Under that moniker, he ran Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Syria’s al Qaeda branch.
The State Department placed a $10 million bounty on Mr. al-Sharaa’s head for his role in killing Americans in Iraq — that is, until Mr. Biden absolved him of his crimes on his way out the door. Fortunately, Washington’s new foreign policy team has a far more realistic view of Mr. al-Sharaa’s intent.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard acknowledged this in her confirmation hearing: “Today, we have an Islamist extremist who now is in charge of Syria who danced on the street to celebrate the 9/11 attack, who ruled over Idlib with an Islamist extremist governance, and who has already begun to persecute and kill and arrest religious minorities like Christians in Syria.”
In a statement over the weekend, Mr. al-Sharaa blamed “remnants of the other regime” for the bloodshed, and he vowed to bring those responsible to justice. For all his faults — and he had many — Bashar Assad’s iron fist did not extend to the Christian, Druze and Alawite religious minorities. Mr. Assad ruled as a secular socialist.
The sad episode reminds us of the folly of overseas adventurism. Naive Westerners think they can win the hearts and minds of a people driven by thousand-year-old blood feuds with generous military and financial aid packages.
As in many of the region’s troubled states, Syria’s borders were drawn by French and British bureaucrats in the wake of World War I. Colonial powers imposed a nation on people who didn’t get along with one another, creating an environment where authoritarianism thrived and democracy was unlikely.
Too many U.S. soldiers have lost their lives on Syrian soil. The only thing the democracy-building effort did was substitute one vicious dictator for another who is arguably far worse. As President Trump said about Syria in 2018, “No amount of American blood or treasure can produce lasting peace and security in the Middle East. It’s a troubled place.” He often adds, “It’s not our fight.”
Last month, Mr. Trump announced plans to withdraw the 2,000 U.S. forces on the ground in Syria. That’s a welcome move. We have enough problems to deal with here without looking for more trouble abroad.
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