The Syria Gambit: A Game of the Broadest Ambitions by Phil Butler!
(2024-12-16 at 23:17:36 )

The Syria Gambit: A Game of the Broadest Ambitions by Phil Butler!

The departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad marks a pivotal shift in the geopolitical landscape, unveiling a calculated power play by global actors to reshape Syria and the broader region in their favor.

The Syria Gambit: A Game of the Broadest Ambitions

The day after Syrian President Bashar Assad flew out of Damascus, I was stunned, like (almost) everyone else. Syria had fallen into chaos after so many lives and resources had been spent, and the ramifications seemed unfathomable. Like my colleagues, I was anxious to report on the situation and its apparent repercussions. Then I stopped to think. This kind of upheaval does not just happen; there must be a more extensive work plan.

Here is what I think happened.

Israel will undoubtedly solidify its position in the Middle East by ruining the Assad-led Syria

The Lost Cause

For Assad and Syria, the game was over when United States-backed forces took the Eastern city of Raqqa in 2017. The reason Syria is now experiencing a regime change is that the United States and its allies planned to seize control of the oil-rich and grain-rich breadbasket of the country.

The oil fields of this region fell into the hands of the United States-backed SDF. Assad had to know his reign was nearly over, Putin certainly did, and what we are witnessing today is, for all intents and purposes, detente in the dark. The dark, of course, is a condition of the United States. I will explain later.

The United States has been the guarantor of security for the breakaway insurgents in Eastern Syria through the presence of 2,000 special forces and continuous air support.

And though Turkey has been miffed over the situation because of the Kurdish YPG, Ankara has been forced to ride the proverbial fence owing to the Russian card in the region.

In addition to this, Northeast Syria (NES) is Syrias most productive agricultural region, and it is not hard to understand todays events.

For those unsettled because Assads army failed to fight back the most recent insurgency, soldiers forced to work second jobs to feed their families are not what empires are made of.

The retreat was inevitable. As I said, Assad and his supporters in Russia, Iran, and the region knew this was coming for years. The only real question for the Americans, Israelis, and EU leadership was how far Russia was prepared to go to side with the Syrian president.

President Putin is the Smartest of All

I could go into how the Israelis have profited and will profit from the Syria carnage. Few will recall how ISIS* was shipping oil through Turkey, headed for Israel under the watchful eyes of United States Central Command.

Remember when Vladimir Putin televised his Air Force destroying 60,000 tanker trucks and other ISIS* activities in the region? I believe Recep Erdoğans brother was running the black market operation that dealt with; you can check my memory. What is more important today is what is about to take place.

I wonder how many people found it curious that Bashar Assad and his family took off for Russia on the day after President-elect Donald Trump met with Ukraines Volodymyr Zelensky, and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

At almost the exact moment Donald Trump demanded a ceasefire in Ukraine, the rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS*, along with an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army, drove their way into the heart of Syrias capital.

Within hours, the Turks and the Israelis moved to seize territory and position. The mainstream media in the West chimed in, telling us Putins administration had received a fatal blow. The ports the Russians "needed" on Syrias Western shores would surely fall into the United States orbit along with the "new" Syria. Now, let us turn the page, starting with the hidden truth in a sensational headline from The Guardian:

"Elon Musk, the worlds richest man who is now central to Donald Trumps election campaign, has been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin for the past two years, according to a report in the United States."

According to this derogatory report with "the sky is falling" whining from the corporate lackeys in the media, "Dmitry Peskov admitted the Kremlin had had with Musk over a single telephone call in which he and Putin discussed space as well as current and future technologies".

Let us sit back for a moment and digest this. Putins right-hand man makes no bones about a call that probably bears on what we are witnessing today. How so, you ask? There are several reasons, but one big one is that the eastern part of Ukraine has one of the worlds largest reserves of lithium and other rare Earth minerals. Okay, let us just say the worlds richest man and the guy in charge of streamlining Americas economy will soon be guaranteed key raw materials for his Tesla and other projects.

How about Trump and his bromance with Israels Netanyahu?

Well, Israel will undoubtedly solidify its position in the Middle East by ruining the Assad-led Syria and grabbing as much land as possible. Then there is the strategic-economic win for the Israelis. We must remember where a large part of that black market ISIS* oil ended up. Add to this the fact Hezbollah and Iran will be cut off from one another, and Israel is the second-biggest winner at this under-the-table detente.

What about Russia? Israel and Turkey get most of Syria and all those benefits, and Russia gets about a third of current Ukraine and the gas valves opened to Europe.

You see, all Vladimir Putin ever wanted was to make his people richer by exporting gas, oil, and other resources to energy-starved, resource-poor Europe.

Russia sidestepped the sanctions and blew up pipelines, which put the EU in a fix, but the plan is to open those lines and allow Iran to trade with China and South Asia in oil and natural gas. The Iranians may get some stuff blown up to make Trump and Netanyahu look good, but the Iranian people will be more prosperous, exporting more and preparing for war less.

Vladimir Putin looks at the world as a slick running machine, with each part playing an integral role. I also think Elon Musk and some others see this as well. Does shipping something that could be made next door 9,000 miles to a trusted customer make sense? Or does an optimized network of productive people and countries make more sense?

The Banksters Buy In

So, what do BlackRock and the European bankers who started all this mess get?

Well, the Russians are bound to snatch more Ukraine territory before the "deal" is sealed, but when relations cool down, the worlds biggest lenders will still get to rebuild and commit piracy in what is left of Ukraine.

They also get offshore gas deposits and innovative energy investments. Perhaps Musk discussed this with Putin, too? Who can say?

What seems pointedly apparent is that someone is looking at this whole "globalization" situation from a broader perspective. Take a look at the geography, for instance. Look how far it is from China to Germany or Cairo, for that matter.

The "belt and road" initiative is a viable conduit for region-to-region transport, but the world cannot afford it in the form most analysts understand.

What if Russia and other bordering nations grow sufficiently to replace the United States and Europe in trade? What if "distance" and "costs" are considered, and globalization is rethought?

Europe gets to make cars, cheese, olive oils, fashion, perfumes, and some mechanical exports, but it also serves as a tourist attraction and a consumer market.

What if Russia expands its industrial base to supply products that may be even cheaper than Chinese variants? Or the Middle East and Africa, which are in closer proximity? Let us pretend Donald Trump aims to make America more self-sufficient and isolationist. How much better off would North and South America be if globalization were segmented more logically?

Perhaps men like Musk and Putin see this. And if they see it, then the old liberal order certainly does. Two questions remain. First, are we seeing the first policy supermarket for global peace take shape? How will the big pie be organized? Perhaps this is what is meant by the multipolar world.

Let us see if I am right. Let us see if the biggest deal of all is in the offing.

*-banned in Russia

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books

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