Syrian Blowback: History of American Meddling

Secretary of State John Kerry recently expressed the opinion that the Syrian rebels deserve support in their civil war against the Assad regime:

We are determined that the Syrian opposition is not going to be dangling in the wind wondering where the support is or if it's coming. And we are determined to change the calculation on the ground for President Assad.

Given the tragic blowback that occurred in Benghazi following President Obama’s “kinetic military action” in Libya, one would have hoped that the administration would think twice before meddling in the affairs of Syria. American covert meddling in Syria during the late 1940s and 1950s was instrumental in creating a left-wing oppressive regime in Syria which supported the Soviet Union during the Cold War. This meddling also set the stage for the oppressive Ba’athist Assad regime currently engaged in a campaign of violence against its own people. What follows is a brief timeline of the machinations of the United States in Syria.  

1948

CIA operative Stephen Meade made contact with right wing Syrian army officers to discuss the possibility of a coup in Syria to put Syrian Army Chief of Staff Husni Zaim into power as a dictator. Although the United States knew that Zaim was a “Banana Republic dictator type,” they admired his “stronganti-Soviet attitude.” The United States was also interested in securing the rights for the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) to build the Trans-Arabian Pipeline (TAPLINE) through Syria. Negotiations for this had been stalled in the Syrian Parliament. Meade and Zaim planned a Syrian coup for early 1949.

1949

Shortly after American Secretary of State George McGhee arrived in Syria, Zaim staged his coup against the democratically elected government of President Shukri al-Quwatli on March 30, 1949. Zaim arrested Communists and left wing dissidents, approved the ARAMCO TAPLINE, signed a peace treaty with Israel, and considered allowing 250,000 Palestinians to be resettled in Syria. While awaiting an expected $100 million in military and economic aid from the United States, Zaim was overthrown and executed by Colonel Sami Hinnawi. Hinnawi’s coup returned Syria to electoral democracy and gave Syrian women the right to vote. Hinnawi’s Populist Party won in a landslide in November 1949 elections, but Hinnawi was quickly ousted in a coup led by Colonel Adib Shishakli.

1951

Shishakli began to exercise blatant dictatorial control over Syria. The United States supported Shishakli behind the scenes from the beginning because Shishakli was considered “one of the strongest anti-Communist forces in the country.” The United States State Department provided military material to Shishakli’s dictatorship, and in return Shishakli was willing to renew the TAPLINE concession, consider a treaty with Israel, and resettle Palestinian refugees within Syria as long as more financial aid was provided to Syria.

1952

President Eisenhower lobbied the World Bank to expedite a $200 million loan to Shishakli’s government.

1954

Before an arms deal between the United States and Shishakli’s dictatorship could be consummated, Shishakli was overthrown on February 22, 1954. The post-Shishakli Syrian government became increasingly left wing and increasingly sympathetic to the Soviet Union and other Communist countries.

1957

Shukri al-Quwatli had again been elected President of Syria. The United States again used the CIA to meddle in Syrian affairs. The CIA in conjunction with the British Secret Service “called for Turkey to stage border incidents, British operatives to stir up the desert tribes, and U.S. agents to mobilize SSNP guerrillas, all of which would triggera pro-Western coup by ‘indigenous anticommunist elements within Syria’supported, if necessary, by Iraqi troops.” Washington provided $150,000 to the conspirators in the plot and sought to return the anti-Communist Shishakli to power. This clumsy plot was quickly uncovered by Syrian intelligence and was ultimately called off by President Eisenhower. The result of all of this CIA cloak and dagger meddling in Syria was that the Syrian government became even more left wing in the aftermath and became a staunch ally of the Soviet Union for the remainder of the Cold War.

2012

Having learned no lessons from the fiasco in Libya, on December 11, President Obama announced that the United States would formally recognize the Syrian opposition – the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (National Coalition) – as Syria’s legitimate representative and praised the opposition for being “well-organized” and “representative of the Syrian people.”

Four months earlier Obama signed a secret order authorizing the CIA and other U.S. agencies to provide aid to the rebels. Obama attempted to be a bit more careful than he was with Libya by blacklisting the Syrian terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra – which is linked to Al Qaeda – for killing numerous Syrian civilians during 600 attacks that the group conducted against Syrian cities. However, Jabhat al-Nusra has great support among the other members of the rebel coalition. One rebel praised Jabhat al-Nusra, saying that “they rush to the rescue of rebel lines that come under pressure and hold them. They know what they are doing and are very disciplined. They are like the special forces of Aleppo.” Such praise of the terrorist group is not uncommon among the Syrian rebel groups. Immediately following the American blacklisting of Jabhat al-Nusra, Moaz al-Khatib – the leader of the National Coalition – asked Obama to reconsider, claiming that “no group fighting Assad should be considered a terrorist organization.” Immediately after al-Khatib’s public display of support for Jabhat al-Nusra, 29 groups within the National Coalition signed a petition in support of the terrorist group and called for mass demonstrations in support of it. The petition included the phrase “No to American intervention, for we are all Jabhat al-Nusra” and recommended that supporters should raise the Jabhat al-Nusra flag as “a thank you.”

Two days later, thousands of Syrians took to the streets and to the internet social networks in support of the terrorist group. If President Obama believes that he can pick and choose whom among the National Coalition to recognize, then he is seriously mistaken. There is also no telling what manner of terrorists may be among the other groups in the National Coalition. The UN has warned of possible war crimes that have been committed by members of the National Coalition. Human Rights Watch has claimed that it has documented over a dozen cases of extra-judicial executions by members of the National Coalition.

2013

Syrian rebels formed an exile government and eagerly waited for American funding. While the American government announced that it would be providing $60 million in new non-military aid to the Syrian rebels, Secretary of State Kerry claimed that the United States would not be providing military aid – at least “at this moment.” However, if the rebels do not turn the tide against government forces, one suspects that it is only a matter of time before the United States or NATO begin engaging in “kinetic military action” in Syria. Doing so will be perilous. There is simply no way to guarantee that the power void will not be filled by Jihadists sympathetic to or even affiliated with al Qaeda if the Assad regime falls. By intervening in Syria, the United States will be creating new enemies at a time when it has more than enough already.