Juan, you missed another climate issue in this campaign - Syria's trouble started in 2006 with a 4 year devastating climate change drought and record heat that ruined farms and herds and sent farming families to the cities for help. Our government knew but did nothing to help. We sent sanctions and war instead of aid. Nobody's talking about this.
"... John Kerry cautioned that this cease-fire might be Syria’s last chance to remain together as a single country." I have heard Kerry float this idea before. It makes sense if you consider the Israeli plan presented in 1982 by journalist Oded Yinon. It outlines the idea that if the Arab governments around Israel can be disrupted and broken into powerless statelets then power and control can be extended throughout the middle east. They thought they had accomplished that with Lebanon in '82 but it didn't hold. The US government embraced the idea in the New American Century. Iraq has fallen, then Libya, the coup in Egypt and now Syria? And why do we call elected governments of sovereign nations we don't like "regimes"? Was our government telling the truth about Iraq's "regime" - weapons of mass destruction, yellow cake uranium, etc? No. Then why do we think they're telling the truth about Assad and the Syrian government? I'm skeptical about the US government's intentions as expressed by Kerry.
I agree that the Arabs must be left alone to create their own state. At the end of WWI they already had the elements of a regional state with specific borders in place. In trade for agreeing to join the British against their Ottoman rulers the British agreed to assist them with financing, infrastructure and administrative advice after the war. Key to continued trading success was the Mediterrean coast. Sadly, with Sykes-Picot and subsequent British governments the Zionists were given preference and the Arabs were betrayed and lost the coast to boot. In the 1980s Israel developed a plan, later embraced by the neocons to 're-make the Middle East' by fomenting sectarian violence to keep the Arabs weak so the US could control resources and Israel could be safe to expand its control. Arabs would be divided into small weak states. There is already talk of "federalizing" Syria. The plan is already starting to back-fire. To stop the violence (assuming the west wants to) the first requirement is for Israel to grant full equality to the Palestinians and form a single Arab/Israeli state. If that state were to recognize itself as part of the larger Arab region, peace and re-establishment of the original post-Ottoman state would happen more quickly than Mr. Khanna envisions. Pie-in-the-sky? I wouldn't be too sure - it could happen. We just need to let them alone to do it.
I agree that the Arabs must be left alone to create their own state. At the end of WWI they already had the elements of a regional state with specific borders in place. In trade for agreeing to join the British against their Ottoman rulers the British agreed to assist them with financing, infrastructure and administrative advice after the war. Key to continued trading success was the Mediterrean coast. Sadly, with Sykes-Picot and subsequent British governments the Zionists were given preference and the Arabs were betrayed. In the 1980s Israel developed a plan, later embraced by the neocons to 're-make the Middle East' by fomenting sectarian violence to keep the Arabs weak so the US could control resources and Israel could be safe to expand its control. Arabs would be divided into small weak states. There is already talk of "federalizing" Syria. The plan is already starting to back-fire. To stop the violence (assuming the west wants to) the first requirement is for Israel to grant full equality to the Palestinians and form a single Arab/Israeli state. If that state were to recognize itself as part of the larger Arab region, peace and re-establishment of the original post-Ottoman state would happen more quickly than Mr. Khanna envisions. Pie-in-the-sky? I wouldn't be too sure - it could happen.
Juan, you missed another climate issue in this campaign - Syria's trouble started in 2006 with a 4 year devastating climate change drought and record heat that ruined farms and herds and sent farming families to the cities for help. Our government knew but did nothing to help. We sent sanctions and war instead of aid. Nobody's talking about this.
"... John Kerry cautioned that this cease-fire might be Syria’s last chance to remain together as a single country." I have heard Kerry float this idea before. It makes sense if you consider the Israeli plan presented in 1982 by journalist Oded Yinon. It outlines the idea that if the Arab governments around Israel can be disrupted and broken into powerless statelets then power and control can be extended throughout the middle east. They thought they had accomplished that with Lebanon in '82 but it didn't hold. The US government embraced the idea in the New American Century. Iraq has fallen, then Libya, the coup in Egypt and now Syria? And why do we call elected governments of sovereign nations we don't like "regimes"? Was our government telling the truth about Iraq's "regime" - weapons of mass destruction, yellow cake uranium, etc? No. Then why do we think they're telling the truth about Assad and the Syrian government? I'm skeptical about the US government's intentions as expressed by Kerry.
I agree that the Arabs must be left alone to create their own state. At the end of WWI they already had the elements of a regional state with specific borders in place. In trade for agreeing to join the British against their Ottoman rulers the British agreed to assist them with financing, infrastructure and administrative advice after the war. Key to continued trading success was the Mediterrean coast. Sadly, with Sykes-Picot and subsequent British governments the Zionists were given preference and the Arabs were betrayed and lost the coast to boot. In the 1980s Israel developed a plan, later embraced by the neocons to 're-make the Middle East' by fomenting sectarian violence to keep the Arabs weak so the US could control resources and Israel could be safe to expand its control. Arabs would be divided into small weak states. There is already talk of "federalizing" Syria. The plan is already starting to back-fire. To stop the violence (assuming the west wants to) the first requirement is for Israel to grant full equality to the Palestinians and form a single Arab/Israeli state. If that state were to recognize itself as part of the larger Arab region, peace and re-establishment of the original post-Ottoman state would happen more quickly than Mr. Khanna envisions. Pie-in-the-sky? I wouldn't be too sure - it could happen. We just need to let them alone to do it.
I agree that the Arabs must be left alone to create their own state. At the end of WWI they already had the elements of a regional state with specific borders in place. In trade for agreeing to join the British against their Ottoman rulers the British agreed to assist them with financing, infrastructure and administrative advice after the war. Key to continued trading success was the Mediterrean coast. Sadly, with Sykes-Picot and subsequent British governments the Zionists were given preference and the Arabs were betrayed. In the 1980s Israel developed a plan, later embraced by the neocons to 're-make the Middle East' by fomenting sectarian violence to keep the Arabs weak so the US could control resources and Israel could be safe to expand its control. Arabs would be divided into small weak states. There is already talk of "federalizing" Syria. The plan is already starting to back-fire. To stop the violence (assuming the west wants to) the first requirement is for Israel to grant full equality to the Palestinians and form a single Arab/Israeli state. If that state were to recognize itself as part of the larger Arab region, peace and re-establishment of the original post-Ottoman state would happen more quickly than Mr. Khanna envisions. Pie-in-the-sky? I wouldn't be too sure - it could happen.