Fearing Ugly Surprises, Trump Aides Want Syria Off the Agenda at Putin Summit

[DonViejo]

Source: The Daily Beast




Many Syrians worry Trump will leave them to the mercy of Russian proxy Bashar Assad. Trump aides say no such deal's in the making, but want to make sure. Anything can happen.

SPENCER ACKERMAN
07.14.18 9:06 PM ET

Aides to President Trump are trying to keep the conflict in Syria off the agenda when Trump meets with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, a senior administration official told The Daily Beast.

That’s an increasingly unlikely proposition. In London on Friday, Trump told reporters that he plans to bring up Syria with Putin when they meet one-on-one on Monday – supposedly without aides, unmediated.

What frightens some U.S. officials, Syrian activists, and many Middle East analysts is that Trump, who muses that “hopefully, someday, maybe [Putin will] be a friend,” will finally accede to Russia’s insistence on the U.S. leaving Syria — something Trump recently expressed an eagerness to do.

That would leave Russia’s client, the blood-soaked Bashar Assad, without any remaining obstacle to a final victory in perhaps the most pitiless conflict thus far seen in the young 21st century.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/fearing-ugly-surprises-trump-aides-want-syria-off-the-agenda-at-putin-summit?ref=home

[marble falls]

1. Of course the biggest ugly surprise to be worried about is Trump himself.

[olegramps]

7. I can only say why doesn't Trump what us to know what he promises to his boss?

[marble falls]

9. Because even he knows he went too far in his "victory".

[yuiyoshida]

2. Trump doesn't care how he messes up his sandbox

Even if there is blood stains left behind. #pureAsshole.

[Honeycombe8]

3. Like anyone can control what Trump says and agrees to? hahahahaha.

There's no telling what Trump & Putin will say and agree to.

I think the mid-term criminal hacking will be discussed. Of COURSE it will be. That is a PRIMARY concern for both of them. There is no way that that won't be discussed. Syria? Like Trump cares about that sh*thole country, as he thinks of it?

[Corgigal]

4. Aides, that's what they call themselves?

Besides fetching his bucket of chicken, you really accomplished nothing.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

6. They do that so they can sleep at night.

"Enablers" is such a derogatory word.

[keithbvadu2]

5. Donald's meeting of treason with no American witnesses allowed.

[Snellius]

8. What agenda? They're colluding in secret.

They could be playing "Truth or Dare" for all we will know.

[Arazi]

10. We're withdrawing. Bank on it

[metalbot]

12. We are

But independently of Trump, I don't see what the viable alternatives are:

1. We aren't going to escalate and add a meaningful ground presence outside of our current special forces footprint.
2. We can't enforce a no-fly zone without seriously risking conflict with Russian jets pilots by Russians, as opposed to Russian jets piloted by Syrians.
3. We can potentially degrade his air force further by blowing up his planes on the ground, but at some point you start to kill Russians doing that
4. We can attempt to better arm Syrian rebels, except that it's sort of hard to tell the good rebels from the bad rebels, and better arms don't do much against artillery and bombers.

I'm open to the notion that there are military options other than 1-4, but I'm not sure what they are (hope for an Israeli invasion?).

That leaves us with diplomacy:

1. We could potentially get Putin to scale back support for Assad in exchange for recognizing the annexation of Crimea.
2. We could offer to look away while Putin takes something else that he wants
3. We could something-something with the UN security council, but Russia would veto
4. We could unilaterally decide to further sanction Russia, though that really just gives Russia incentive to help Assad win faster, since an end to the civil war would remove the basis for sanctions

Am I missing some viable options here?

I'd argue that we've actually taken the worst possible path, and that by supporting Syrian rebels, we've actually prolonged the civil war without any real gains, and the Syrian people are the ones who pay for this every day by getting in the cross fire. We played this game in Central America for years fighting proxy wars with the Soviets - the effects of those wars is still being felt today.

[oberliner]

11. What is the actual agenda?

Is it posted anywhere?