Ordinary Times was nice enough to let me expound on Syria immediately after the fall of Bashar al Assad in December of 2024. Here was my assessment of what was possible. It’s available here and you as the reader can judge how realistic it was and may still be.
Abu Mohamed Jolani was always Amehd Hussein al-Shaara. But for all his sins, his gripes and grievances that led him to the world of global Islamic jihad were always about his homeland, Syria. The United States has to accept Jolani, it’s been done so officially by President Trump. It’s diplomatic to refer to him as al-Shaara, so one must adapt. Americans have to forget and pretend it was all a bad dream.
It’s easy for most but some will hate it. Some won’t be able to live with it at all. But this is happening. It is what it is as Belichick so aptly coined into our lexicon when addressing an obviously uncomfortable reality.
What did Trump get out of it? Press, peace and a chance to build good faith relations as Trump’s new cabinet lessens America’s regional footprint. It is a historical reapproach to the Muslim Brotherhood and its militant arm, al Qaeda. That couldn’t be possible without the Turkish government making peace with their biggest enemy the People’s Workers Party, or PKK.
For some Turks, swallowing a peace deal with the Kurdish communist, PKK, is unthinkable much like accepting al al-Shaara for hardline Republican hawks. In this turbulent moment it’s hard to stop and appreciate the wins but, for lack of a better term, the Kurdish situation is truly remarkable.
Turkish President Erdogan and PKK leader Occallan started a process that made lifting sanctions on Syria possible last year. Most dismissed it as another stunt for Erdogan’s re-election but the two sides persisted in negotiating. We are at a place where America can leave Syria and it is because of this peace agreement between two bitter foes in a conflict that’s 40 years old. The logic being, they swallowed a hard reality, we can reciprocate.
What comes post-Manbij cooperation between DC and Ankara will largely be up to the Syrians and the region. The process of lifting the sanctions and evaluating what may need to stay in place will be an involved and protracted process. But Syria and our bitter foe, al-Shaara, have earned sober consideration and reevaluation of American motivations and interests in Syria’s future.
The quick fix isn’t hidden away somewhere waiting to be discovered. It has to be conceived and actualized. That is hard to do when one is stuck in patterns of policy and politics for solutions. It is easy to get stuck in a worldview and mindset like a 25 year war where other ways are inconceivable. Sometimes it takes jarring events to shake us out of our intellectual ruts and lulles.
Opinions of his personal appeal aside, Donald Trump did that in our time. This is the history we are living in. It’s our reality. Just like the public was told not to believe our eyes when President Joe Biden was declining in plain sight, we are asked to believe every policy Trump presents is a disaster waiting to happen. Both, simply aren’t true. If it is the same people who told the public President Biden was capable of governing, insisting President Trump is the end of America, maybe we should reevaluate the worth of their content and reporting.
And with regards to Syria, al-Shaara and the media, pay particular attention to how those same people in American punditry ignore the successes Syrians have in their rebuilding. Like vultures they will only circle around the miseries and setbacks the Syrians are also certain to face in putting their country back together. Those people on our screens will always show us their partisan priorities. Take them with a grain of salt and try and remember that they’re human too – just try not to make them richer than they already are.
It is the opinion of this humble writer that a healthy dose of conscious consumption of one’s personal media diet would do wonders for the level of media literacy nationally.
