(Updated 1/4/2019 with Sarah's comments and fixed typo concerning the date of the show)
Soapbox #347 & #349
UPDATE ON SYRIA W/SARAH AS OF 1/7/19
I spent the "quiet" time of the materialistic
holiday whirlwind to quietly compile and count all the Cindy Sheehan Soapbox shows for the past ten years!
I think some have been lost to the ether, but the ones I have preserved amounted to 346.
CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO
CHECK OUT THE EXTRAORDINARY
LIST OF GUESTS/SHOWS!
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Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox
Final Podcast 2018
12/30/2018
Guest: Sarah Abed
Topic: US "Withdrawal" from Syria
Sarah Abed
This week, to end the year, Cindy chats with
Syrian-born, political analyst and author, Sarah Abed about
Trump's recent announcement of US troop withdrawal from
Syria.
As noted in the interview, the US was an uninvited participant anyway
that has sided with the terrorists against the sovereign government of Syria.
The Democrat-liberal reaction to Trump's announcement was also very interesting.
(Please connect to read the articles Sarah mentions in the interview, and more!)
Please listen and please support Your Soapbox!
Sarah's write up of the interview:
Below are some of the points that I made during our chat (this is not
a full transcript) or some thoughts I would like to expand on.
Cindy asked what I make of Trump’s announcement to withdraw 2,000 troops from Syria.
My response:
Trump had stated during his campaign and his presidency
and even prior to that during Obama’s presidency in 2013 that he did not
think we should be in Syria, nor should we be bombing Syria, that it
was a waste of money and lives and that the Arab League and neighboring
countries should be the ones to step up to the plate.
I think this was one of the reasons that many people voted for him,
because of his non-interventionist foreign policy, which was in stark
contrast to that of Hillary Clinton.
In April, of this year he had announced that he wanted to pull the US
out of Syria and then just days later there was an alleged chemical
weapons attack that was pinned on the Syrian government in Douma, to
which Trump responded with attacking multiple targets along with his
allies the UK and France.
This of course derailed his plan to pull out US troops, which is the
exact outcome that the terrorists that staged the whole theatrical
performance had wanted. And we have seen this sort of thing happen time
and time again during the war. Whenever the Syrian army and government
have made significant progress new allegations and attacks are made
against them in corporate media in order to garner international support
for military, political intervention as well as increased sanctions.
There are other factors at play with this latest withdraw
announcement which was made on December 19th, in addition to standing by
his America first promise, campaign statements, saving money and lives,
there’s the fact that Turkey’s president Erdogan had threatened to
attack the Kurdish militias on his border, if the US didn’t have them
removed. He sees the YPG (People’s Protection Units) which was rebranded
at the request of the US into the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) as an
extension of the PKK (Kurdistan workers party) which is a terrorist
group that has been in conflict with the Turkish state for decades.
As I had written about back in March the Olive branch operation in Afrin
proved that NATO alliances are stronger than any other alliances and
that the US will choose Turkey over the Kurds and that’s what we are
seeing happen right now. Some have also speculated that Israel may have
given the US a heads up that it would be engaging in an intense bombing
campaign and that US troops should be sent home so that they are not
caught in the crosshairs.
Cindy asked what I make of the reaction by democrats, liberals, celebrities etc.
My response:
It would be comical if it wasn’t actually dangerous. In
their blind opposition to anything and everything that Trump says these
overnight analysts and pundits started claiming that if US troops were
to withdraw from Syria then Kurds would be annihilated by Turkey or
succumb to some other equally horrible fate.
What we have seen over the past few days however is that leaders of
Kurdish militias have actually reached out to the Syrian government and
asked that they step in and take back Manbij and all the territory under
their control west of the Euphrates in order to protect them against
Turkey. This is a clear shift in their political alliance away from the
US and towards Syria and Russia. Turkey will not directly confront the
Syrian army so Trump’s announcement could actually signify a big step
towards peace in this almost eight-year western imposed insurrection.
The US entered Syria illegally and has since set up over a dozen
military bases and supported the Kurdish militias during the last few
years only. Prior to using the Kurdish militias as a tool to create
chaos and division in Syria, the US was predominately supporting the
hardcore Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in the Free Syrian Army and an
assortment of other alphabet soup groups who they affectionately
referred to as “moderate rebels” to topple the secular Syrian
government.
Had the US not supported the Kurdish militias they would have not had
the motivation to turn against the Syrian state. During the beginning
of the war, the Kurds were fighting with the Syrian army against
terrorists, by the way some still are and many Kurds in Syria are not in
agreement with the separatist ambitions of the Kurdish militias.
I want to stress the fact that before 2011 Kurds, Arabs, and
Christian minorities lived peacefully in Syria and till now they are NOT
the majority. They do not have any justifiable claims to the north
eastern region (which also happens to be the most agriculturally and oil
rich part of the country) or any other part of Syria. They are a
nomadic people and I do not mean that in a condescending way at all but
to illustrate that they came into Syria in waves to escape mistreatment
in neighboring countries and were treated fairly and given equal rights.
Not all Kurds envision a unified Kurdistan that would span four
different sovereign countries (Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran). Most
Kurdish movements and political parties are focused on the concerns and
autonomy of Kurds within their respective countries. Within each
country, there are Kurds who have assimilated and whose aspirations may
be limited to greater cultural freedoms and political recognition.
It’s also worth noting that only Israel
is their main and really only supporter and their plans for an
independent Kurdistan align almost perfectly with Israel’s greater
Israel plan. They have historically been used by Israel and NATO.
Cindy asked about the demands being made that Russia or Iran should withdraw from Syria if US troops are to be withdrawn.
My response was basically that Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah are there
with the Syrian governments permission. Whereas the US, UK, France, and
Turkey are there illegally and need to leave. Cindy noted and I agreed
that it’s a false equivalency and a logical fallacy.
We also spoke about fasting to raise awareness #illuminateYemen
for the entirely man-made and avoidable Saudi war and genocide that’s
been going on for over three years and nine months. We discussed the
latest developments and how Saudi Arabia is outsourcing their front line
fighters with children and men from Dafur, Sudan and paying their
families $10,000.
My response:
Fasting for seven days was a very humbling experience.
The war on Yemen is truly heartbreaking especially because it is
entirely man-made and avoidable. It’s so important for us to continue to
raise awareness and get people to talk about it to literally everyone
they know, which. For the past 3 years and nine months the murderous Al
Saud regime, has been bombing civilians using weapons bought from the
US, UK, and Germany, what they are doing is nothing short of committing
genocide and deliberately starving Yemeni’s them through blockades. Tens
of thousands have been killed since it began.
There was actually a report in the New York Times today that Saudi
Arabia was recruiting children from Darfur to fight on the front lines
and paying their families $10,000. Sudan has been part of the Saudi-led
alliance, and deployed thousands of ground troops to Yemen. In the NYT
report they said that five Sudanese fighters who had returned from
Yemen told them that that children made up 20-40 percent of their units
in Yemen.
The fact that House of Saud is on the UN human and woman’s rights
council while also being the leading violator in crimes against humanity
and the main sponsor of terror in the world shows the western worlds
blatant hypocrisy. A United Nations-sponsored peace agreement was signed
in Sweden earlier this month, and was agreed upon by both sides to
implement a ceasefire in Hodeida. The panel will be meeting again on
January 1 to discuss “detailed plans for full redeployment”.
Every
effort needs to be made for this conflict to end.
