(WMR)—The abrupt firing of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel after he clashed with national security adviser Susan Rice over an incoherent policy on Syria has spread confusion over U.S. Middle East policy from the Pentagon into the State Department.
Hagel wanted the White House to prioritize its policy on Syria. Hagel maintained that the United States could not be arming and training the rag-tag Syrian rebel forces, many of whom are allied with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while also trying to ensure that U.S. forces did not target the Syrian forces of President Bashar al-Assad. Rice and neocons like John McCain and Lindsey Graham want to U.S. to attack Assad’s forces first and leave ISIL as an afterthought.
U.S. embassy in Damascus: to reopen or not to reopen? That is the question perplexing the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry dispatched a low-level team of U.S. diplomats from Lebanon to Damascus to begin talks on re-opening the U.S. embassy there. The embassy was closed after the U.S. recognized the Syrian opposition as the legitimate government of Syria.
ISIL’s seizure of large portions of Syria and Iraq changed the political picture with some Pentagon officials and U.S. diplomats calling for a modus vivendi with Damascus in order to defeat the common foe, ISIL.
The confusion that currently reigns supreme in the White House, the Pentagon, and in Foggy Bottom has put into question the accord Washington was seeking with Assad’s government. From Damascus to Ankara and Tehran to Beirut, diplomats and government officials are scratching their heads over the mixed signals from Washington.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
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Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required)
