Gabbard was one of the first Democrats to meet with the then-Republican President-elect Donald Trump after his election in November which led to media speculation that she was being considered as a candidate for Secretary of State in the incoming Trump administration, or possibly the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, but neither one of those possibilities materialized into a reality.
Given the absence of any presidential appointment, Gabbard’s current job as an elected member of the House of Representatives for the state of Hawaii continues to be representing the interests of her constituency in Washington D.C. which leads one to wonder at exactly how her trip to Syria fits into that job description?
Syrians involved in the difficult struggle to get out from under the boot heel of Assad, as well as those who support their fight to free their own country from the brutal dictator’s ‘kneel or die’ policies, have been wondering since the controversial election what the new American president’s policy regarding Syria will be.
Given Gabbard’s support for Assad, and her staunch belief that his presidency is “legitimate” and “sovereign”, the major concern is why did she go to Syria and was it at Trump’s request?
If Trump is indeed looking to Gabbard to give him advice on how to best handle the Syrian conflict, then it would be safe to assume that the U.S. policy of supporting democracy around the world has been further compromised by the election of a man who will do even less to challenge the atrocities being committed by Assad against the Syrian people than Obama did.
“I don’t think Assad should be removed,” Gabbard has been quoted by the media as saying on several occasions.
As one of only a few members of the US Congress who strongly oppose the overthrow of Assad, Gabbard has ignored the dictatorial regime’s long history of using torture and imprisonment of political opponents to maintain control of the country and has bought into Assad’s propaganda of the Syrian revolution as a western conspiracy intended to topple a “legitimately-elected president.”
It is impossible to believe that Gabbard’s “fact finding” mission, as her secret trip to Syria has been called, was anything more than an effort to collect evidence to support her own unpopular efforts to improve the image of the Assad regime, especially considering that it is a well-known fact that no foreign dignitary or member of the press is allowed to enter Syria without Assad’s express permission.
Gabbard’s spokesperson Emily Latimer told Foreign Policy on Wednesday that "Tulsi felt it was important to meet with a number of individuals and groups including religious leaders, humanitarian workers, refugees, and government and community leaders" in order to secure Assad’s power once the "conflict" is “resolved.”
Whether she was there at the request of Trump, or as the result of an invitation from Assad, there is no doubt that her travels inside the country were accompanied by members of the Assad regime and were far from an objective effort to establish the reality of Assad’s war against Syrian civilians.
Both Gabbard and Trump hold the belief that fighting ISIS is a priority when it comes to the US as well as international security, but both parties have also refused to acknowledge that the underlying reason for the proliferation of ISIS in Syria and Iraq has been the Assad regime since 2011.
In addition there have been more than half a million Syrians killed, hundreds of thousands injured and now living with permanent disabilities, a large percentage of Syria’s infrastructure destroyed and more than half the pre-2011 population internally or externally displaced by Assad and Putin’s bombs which is also being ignored if not outright justified by Gabbard.
Unfortunately no one in the international community has so far been able to put an end to the ceasefire violations and multitude of crimes against humanity being perpetrated by Assad which also appears to be of no concern to the U.S. Representative from Hawaii.
Now that Trump has been sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, we will all have to wait and see what kind of influence Gabbard and her likes will be having on his Syria policy in the coming days.
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