State Dept.: We Brought ‘Peace’ to Syria

[n2doc]

The State Department believes it brought peace and security to Syria in 2015. A year-in-review blog post that details this year’s achievements in foreign policy (and uses the hashtag #2015in5words) summed up the United States’ involvement in Syria as: “Bringing Peace, Security to Syria.” John Kirby, spokesman for the State Department and the post’s author, touts the United States’ “humanitarian aid contributions” to the war-torn country and praises Secretary of State John Kerry for his role in the UN Security Council resolution that laid plans for upcoming peace talks. “From the humanitarian crisis endured by refugees fleeing violence, to the reprehensible human-rights violations and violence carried out by the Asad [sic] regime, the Syrian people have borne a heavy load,” Kirby writes. Indeed.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/12/28/us-claims-it-s-brought-peace-to-syria.html

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/state-department-claims-peace-syria-2015-win-217168

[tazkcmo]

1. Down is up

War is peace

[LittleBlue]

2. This country is full of gullible people

Someone is bound to believe this.

[AngryAmish]

3. What a collection of shitheads.

[MisterP]

4. Clinton bragging about foreign-policy experience is like Christie bragging about his experience

with transit and infrastructure

[anigbrowl]

5. Quite misleading headlines

The State department is not claiming to have brought peace to Syria, but to be working on bringing it, and I think Sec. Kerry deserves some credit for patiently advancing the peace process that would eventually result in Assad leaving - not by being ousted but through an orderly transition of power or somesuch. The most likely scenario is that he doesn't stand for re-election next time and gets to retire somewhere pleasant where he can enjoy immunity from prosecution. Morally this is less than satisfactory given his extremely repressive behavior over the last several years, but pragmatically I support such an agreement if it brings an end to the civil war and an orderly transition of power.

On the other hand it's not surprising that the press would mislead their readers for a cheap headline, even less so when the State Department is dumbing things down for the Twitter audience.