美国在叙利亚的真正角色
https://sandersinstitute.org/blog-americas-true-role-in-syria
杰弗里·萨克斯 来源：项目辛迪加 / 2016 年 8 月 30 日
叙利亚内战是地球上最危险和最具破坏性的危机。 不幸的是，巴拉克·奥巴马总统向美国人民和世界舆论隐瞒了美国在叙利亚的角色，这极大地加剧了危险。
叙利亚内战是地球上最危险和最具破坏性的危机。 自2011年初以来，已有数十万人死亡； 约一千万叙利亚人流离失所； 欧洲因伊斯兰国（ISIS）恐怖活动和难民的政治影响而震动； 美国及其北约盟国不止一次险些与俄罗斯发生直接对抗。
不幸的是，巴拉克·奥巴马总统向美国人民和世界舆论隐瞒了美国在叙利亚的角色，这极大地加剧了危险。 结束叙利亚战争需要美国对其自 2011 年以来在叙利亚冲突中持续且往往是秘密的角色进行诚实的核算，包括谁在资助、武装、训练和怂恿各方。 这种曝光将有助于结束许多国家的鲁莽行为。
一种普遍且错误的看法是，奥巴马让美国远离叙利亚战争。 事实上，美国右翼经常批评他在化学武器问题上为叙利亚总统巴沙尔·阿萨德画了一条底线，然后在阿萨德据称越线时又退缩了（这个问题仍然模糊且有争议，就像叙利亚的其他许多问题一样）。 叙利亚）。 英国《金融时报》的一位主要专栏作家最近重申了美国一直袖手旁观的错误观点，暗示奥巴马拒绝了时任国务卿希拉里·克林顿的建议，即武装叙利亚叛军对抗阿萨德。
然而帷幕时不时就会被掀开。 一月份，《纽约时报》最终报道了 2013 年总统向中央情报局下达的一项秘密命令，要求武装叙利亚叛军。 正如该账户所解释的那样，沙特阿拉伯为军备提供了大量资金，而中央情报局则根据奥巴马的命令提供组织支持和培训。
不幸的是，这个故事没有得到美国政府的进一步阐述，也没有得到《纽约时报》的跟进。 公众被蒙在鼓里：中央情报局与沙特正在进行的行动有多大？ 美国每年在叙利亚花费多少钱？ 美国、沙特、土耳其、卡塔尔和其他国家向叙利亚叛军提供哪些类型的武器？ 哪些团体正在接收武器？ 美军、空中掩护和其他人员在战争中扮演什么角色？ 美国政府没有回答这些问题，主流媒体也没有追究这些问题。
奥巴马曾十多次告诉美国人民，“地面上不会有美国靴子”。 然而，每隔几个月，公众就会在一份简短的政府声明中得知，美国特种作战部队正在被部署到叙利亚。 五角大楼经常否认他们在前线。 但当俄罗斯和阿萨德政府最近对叙利亚北部的叛军据点进行轰炸和炮击时，美国通知克里姆林宫，这些袭击正在威胁美国地面部队。 公众没有得到关于他们的任务、成本或叙利亚对手方的任何解释。
通过偶尔的泄密、调查报告、其他政府的声明以及美国官员的罕见声明，我们知道美国正在进行一场积极的、持续的、中央情报局协调的战争，目的是推翻阿萨德并打击伊斯兰国。 美国在反阿萨德努力中的盟友包括沙特阿拉伯、土耳其、卡塔尔和该地区其他国家。 美国已花费数十亿美元用于武器、训练、特种作战部队、空袭以及对包括国际雇佣军在内的叛军的后勤支持。 美国的盟友又花费了数十亿美元。 确切的金额没有报告。
美国公众对这些决定没有发言权。 美国国会尚未进行授权投票或预算批准。 中央情报局的角色从未得到解释或证明其合理性。 美国行动的国内和国际合法性从未向美国人民或世界辩护。
对于美国军工联合体的核心人员来说，这种保密是理所应当的。 他们的立场是，15 年前国会投票授权对 9/11 袭击事件的责任人使用武力，这让总统和军方全权在中东和非洲进行秘密战争。 美国为何要公开解释自己的所作所为？ 这只会危及行动并增强敌人的力量。 公众不需要知道。
我同意不同的观点：战争应该是最后的手段，并且应该受到民主审查的约束。 这场较量
他认为，美国在叙利亚的秘密战争无论是根据美国宪法（赋予国会唯一宣战权）还是根据《联合国宪章》都是非法的，美国在叙利亚的双边战争是一场愤世嫉俗和鲁莽的赌博。 美国主导的推翻阿萨德的努力并不是像奥巴马和克林顿不时暗示的那样是为了保护叙利亚人民，而是美国针对伊朗和俄罗斯的代理人战争，而叙利亚恰好是这场战争的战场。
这场战争的赌注比美国代理人战士想象的要高得多、危险得多。 随着美国对阿萨德发动战争，俄罗斯加大了对其政府的军事支持。 在美国主流媒体看来，俄罗斯的行为是一种侮辱：克里姆林宫怎么敢阻止美国推翻叙利亚政府？ 其结果是与俄罗斯的外交冲突不断扩大，这种冲突可能升级并可能无意中导致军事冲突。
这些问题都应该受到法律审查和民主监督。 我相信，美国人民会对美国领导的叙利亚政权更迭战争大声说“不”。 美国人民想要安全 — — 包括击败伊斯兰国 — — 但他们也认识到美国领导的政权更迭努力的漫长而灾难性的历史，包括在阿富汗、伊拉克、利比亚、叙利亚、中美洲、非洲和东南亚。
这是美国安全国家拒绝说出真相的主要原因。 美国人民会呼吁和平而不是永久战争。 奥巴马只剩下几个月的任期来修复他破碎的政治遗产。 他应该首先向美国人民坦白。
America's True Role In Syria
BY Jeffrey Sachs PROJECT SYNDICATE / AUGUST 30, 2016
Photo: Rizwan Tabassum / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images
Syria’s civil war is the most dangerous and destructive crisis on the planet. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama has greatly compounded the dangers by hiding the US role in Syria from the American people and from world opinion.
Syria’s civil war is the most dangerous and destructive crisis on the planet. Since early 2011, hundreds of thousands have died; around ten million Syrians have been displaced; Europe has been convulsed with Islamic State (ISIS) terror and the political fallout of refugees; and the United States and its NATO allies have more than once come perilously close to direct confrontation with Russia.
Unfortunately, President Barack Obama has greatly compounded the dangers by hiding the US role in Syria from the American people and from world opinion. An end to the Syrian war requires an honest accounting by the US of its ongoing, often secretive role in the Syrian conflict since 2011, including who is funding, arming, training, and abetting the various sides. Such exposure would help bring to an end many countries’ reckless actions.
A widespread – and false – perception is that Obama has kept the US out of the Syrian war. Indeed, the US right wing routinely criticizes him for having drawn a line in the sand for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over chemical weapons, and then backing off when Assad allegedly crossed it (the issue remains murky and disputed, like so much else in Syria). A leading columnist for the Financial Times, repeating the erroneous idea that the US has remained on the sidelines, recently implied that Obama had rejected the advice of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to arm the Syrian rebels fighting Assad.
Yet the curtain gets lifted from time to time. In January, the New York Times finally reported on a secret 2013 Presidential order to the CIA to arm Syrian rebels. As the account explained, Saudi Arabia provides substantial financing of the armaments, while the CIA, under Obama’s orders, provides organizational support and training.
Unfortunately, the story came and went without further elaboration by the US government or follow up by the New York Times. The public was left in the dark: How big are the ongoing CIA-Saudi operations? How much is the US spending on Syria per year? What kinds of arms are the US, Saudis, Turks, Qataris, and others supplying to the Syrian rebels? Which groups are receiving the arms? What is the role of US troops, air cover, and other personnel in the war? The US government isn’t answering these questions, and mainstream media aren’t pursuing them, either.
On more than a dozen occasions, Obama has told the American people that there would be “no US boots on the ground.” Yet every few months, the public is also notified in a brief government statement that US special operations forces are being deployed to Syria. The Pentagon routinely denies that they are in the front lines. But when Russia and the Assad government recently carried out bombing runs and artillery fire against rebel strongholds in northern Syria, the US notified the Kremlin that the attacks were threatening American troops on the ground. The public has been given no explanation about their mission, its costs, or counterparties in Syria.
Through occasional leaks, investigative reports, statements by other governments, and rare statements by US officials, we know that America is engaged in an active, ongoing, CIA-coordinated war both to overthrow Assad and to fight ISIS. America’s allies in the anti-Assad effort include Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and other countries in the region. The US has spent billions of dollars on arms, training, special operations forces, air strikes, and logistical support for the rebel forces, including international mercenaries. American allies have spent billions of dollars more. The precise sums are not reported.
The US public has had no say in these decisions. There has been no authorizing vote or budget approval by the US Congress. The CIA’s role has never been explained or justified. The domestic and international legality of US actions has never been defended to the American people or the world.
To those at the center of the US military-industrial complex, this secrecy is as it should be. Their position is that a vote by Congress 15 years ago authorizing the use of armed force against those culpable for the 9/11 attack gives the president and military carte blanche to fight secret wars in the Middle East and Africa. Why should the US explain publicly what it is doing? That would only jeopardize the operations and strengthen the enemy. The public does not need to know.
I subscribe to a different view: wars should be a last resort and should be constrained by democratic scrutiny. This view holds that America’s secret war in Syria is illegal both under the US Constitution (which gives Congress the sole power to declare war) and under the United Nations Charter, and that America’s two-sided war in Syria is a cynical and reckless gamble. The US-led efforts to topple Assad are not aimed at protecting the Syrian people, as Obama and Clinton have suggested from time to time, but are a US proxy war against Iran and Russia, in which Syria happens to be the battleground.
The stakes of this war are much higher and much more dangerous than America’s proxy warriors imagine. As the US has prosecuted its war against Assad, Russia has stepped up its military support to his government. In the US mainstream media, Russia’s behavior is an affront: how dare the Kremlin block the US from overthrowing the Syrian government? The result is a widening diplomatic clash with Russia, one that could escalate and lead – perhaps inadvertently – to the point of military conflict.
These are issues that should be subject to legal scrutiny and democratic control. I am confident that the American people would respond with a resounding “no” to the ongoing US-led war of regime change in Syria. The American people want security – including the defeat of ISIS – but they also recognize the long and disastrous history of US-led regime-change efforts, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
This is the main reason why the US security state refuses to tell the truth. The American people would call for peace rather than perpetual war. Obama has a few months left in office to repair his broken legacy. He should start by leveling with the American people.
