Former Ambassador Robert Ford on the US Role in Syria’s 10-Year War

From Pushback with Aaron Maté at The Grayzone:

On the 10-year anniversary of the Syrian war, former US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford speaks to Aaron Maté about the roots of the conflict, the US role, and why he now supports the withdrawal of US forces.

Guest: Robert Ford, retired US diplomat who served as US Ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014.

[There is some inaudible audio in the first half of the interview. Press the “CC” icon on the video to turn on closed captioning. Full transcript is here.

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11 thoughts on “Former Ambassador Robert Ford on the US Role in Syria’s 10-Year War”

  1. Remember this guy, Robert Ford, who was the U.S. Ambassador to Syria back in 2011 when protests and police crackdowns turned violent, quickly turning into civil war that destroyed Syria? Ford had previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Bahrain from 2001 until 2004, and also as Political Counselor to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2004 until 2006. Initially he encouraged the civil unrest and also supported US (and other Allies) arming Syrian dissidents and fighters.
    Despite his defensiveness in response to Aaron Maté’s questions, it’s nice he’s realized the failure after 10 years and all the destruction and misery that ensued but Ford clearly has his story and is sticking to it. He was complicit in ratcheting up the violence for purposes of “regime change” from the start. Now he just blames Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s for their sending jihadists into Syria (and also he blames Obama’s too little too late arming of the good “Free Syrian Army” types) for why the “Timber Sycamore” CIA Operation didn’t work.
    I can’t remember all the specifics but I also remember at the time how Hillary or other US officials made sure the UN negotiations in Geneva came to naught: see https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-and-the-s_b_9231190 .

    1. I love Aaron’s work! But I agree, Robert Ford, is definitely no friend of the Syrian people. He supported Al Qaeda/islamist terrorists in Syria to topple a secular government. Assad would not have survived if Syrians did not see this simple truth. We reject a Syria that looks like Saudi Arabia.

    2. Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, motto: diplomacy in action, spent a good part of her tenure designing a shadow government for Syria, a government that State had told Congress was “a dead man walking.” This included important meetings in Istanbul and Cairo with promoters of democracy (not) like Saudi Arabia and Qatar designing regime change in Syria.
      My favorite prospective Syria PM from that era, and the first, was a guy from Texas. Ghassan Hitto was selected prime minister on 18 March 2013 by a narrow margin over former Syrian Arab Republic agricultural minister Assad Mustafa. Hitto resigned several months later on 8 July 2013. Saudi Arabia didn’t care for him, he was too close to Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood. He was replaced by Ahmed Jarba who said he expected advanced weapons supplied by Saudi Arabia to reach rebel fighters “soon” and that they would change the military balance in Syria.
      A Texas-based businessman [Murphy, TX] Hitto had lived in the US for over 30 years. Bashar al-Assad remains the President of Syria.

      1. So what do you think of Ford’s ego-defensive narrative? He seemed hard-pressed to sell it or even believe it himself. But this seems to be the same “Fog of War” excuse of MacNamara and so many others who can hardly ever come to grips with the horror of their hubris-laden, murderous exercise of power.

    3. Robert Ford blames Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia for sending Jihadists into Syria but won’t admit he approved of them doing it, he should admit it and that would make him a better man.
      He reminds me of Colin Powell, Scott McClellan and maybe some other people in W’s Administration saying they were misled into supporting the Iraq War. Ford should have admitted the war was wrong and resigned and that’s also what Powell, McClellan and anyone else that changed their minds should have done.

    1. The real life” Hunger Games” are in Syria, Yemen, Cuba, North Korea and were in Iraq after the Gulf War.

      1. Here is some backround during the J.F.K. years few know.

        Nov 24, 2013 Dark Legacy: George Bush And The Murder Of John Kennedy

        A thorough, documented, criminal indictment of George Herbert Walker Bush, establishing beyond a reasonable doubt his guilt as a supervisor in the conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NlJQJUUqR4

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