Here's What We Should Do About Syria
October 22, 2019, 7:53 am

A Kurdish girl looks on as she holds a picture during a protest in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, on Thursday. Oct. 17, 2019.

The universal damning of Donald Trump’s back-stabbing the Kurds, by pulling American troops from Syria’s northern border area, may reinforce his cultists’ preconceived prejudices. Progressives outrage will strike Team Trump as classic hypocrisy: Isn’t the left anti-war, and isn’t our Syrian presence deepening our forever wars in the Middle East? Republican denunciations of the president, meanwhile, can be written off as more palaver from an establishment Trump sagely promised to disrupt.

Trump fans may enjoy the handwringing of everyone from pundits to presidential candidates who despair of cleaning up the shattered eggshells the president broke. “The damage,” mourned columnist Eleanor Clift, “cannot be undone.”

She’s right to a degree. U.S. credibility took a huge, needless hit last week; Trump immorally broke faith with an ally who’d fought shoulder-to-shoulder with us against ISIS and other enemies; his excuses were lame (“they’re not angels,” he said of the Kurds); and unsavory thugs benefitted from his cut-and-run: Turkish President Erdoğan, who moved in to mow down the Kurds, and Vladimir Putin, whose own military intervention saved his blood-stained ally, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

But knowledgeable voices, especially at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, put this mess in perspective while offering a way forward.

Herewith, three reality checks.

“Syria is not a vital U.S. interest.” That line in a Carnegie report reflects several facts. As welcome as Assad taking a bullet would be, it’s been clear for a while that the sadistic strongman’s downfall wasn’t in the cards. His Russian and Iranian allies saved him from toppling by rebels, and the regime now holds more than 60 percent of the country. No one, not even Trump, believes it wise to try to reverse that situation with a U.S. invasion and another all-out, Middle Eastern war.Yes, Putin is an anti-American autocrat who now has notched a geopolitical victory. But Russia has long had a foothold in Syria, and what has his pal Assad’s survival handed the Russian leader? “A war-torn society, a ruined economy, bombed-out cities, and millions of refugees,” Carnegie’s experts write. “If Putin wants to take on the burden of rebuilding Syria, fixing what his air force destroyed, brokering peace among Syria’s many factions, and propping up Assad — in addition to balancing the interests of Russia’s regional partners Turkey, Iran and Israel — then we should let him.”

“The idea that Putin’s Syria gambit will allow him to take over the Middle East is just silly,” they conclude.

Trump’s recklessness notwithstanding, Syria was not a “forever war.” While our troops could not stay there forever, "We had less than 1,500" soldiers in-country, Gen. David Petraeus told NPR. “Surely that's affordable for the world's only military superpower. What we were doing was not fighting on the front lines — we were enabling those who were doing that," namely Kurdish-supported fighters.

In short, Trump’s troop withdrawals totaled far fewer than the tens of thousands of soldiers deployed at a time to real forever wars like Afghanistan or Vietnam. (At the height of the former conflict, the Marines alone had 20,000 troops in the country.) We’d been drawing down our Syrian boots on the ground before Trump’s heedless blunder to wipe away the remainder in one move, something Petraeus calls a flat-out “betrayal.”

He’s seconded by Brown University fellow Stephen Kinzer, a long-time critic of American militarism and our Syrian involvement who still says we “deserve condemnation for abandoning promise to the Kurds.” Oh, and as Trump pulled troops out of Syria, he put twice as many into Saudi Arabia, bucking up that thuggish ally against Iran. Which Trump has empowered by withdrawing from Syria and from the Iran nuclear deal.

Big point: ISIS won’t resurge if we play our cards right. Ensuring that the terrorist butcher group does not metastasize, especially to where it could threaten the American homeland, is our one vital interest in Syria. Trump’s folly makes that harder. But --

As is often the case with maniacs and zealots, ISIS has enemies on all sides. Our allies in the region are more threatened by it than we are, and Assad certainly doesn’t want to cede any of his country to a group whose dreamed-of caliphate includes part of Syria. All of which points to future U.S. policy, Carnegie says:

We must be ready with drones and airstrikes to pound ISIS, while understanding that that will take coordination with the despicable Syrian regime. We must get our European allies, swamped with Syrian refugees from the crisis, to use their militaries “to kill ISIS foot soldiers.” We must get them and our Arab allies to share the financial cost of this anti-terrorism, not pile it all on American taxpayers.

This course requires the diplomacy and wisdom of a respected, patriotic American president. Given that we lack one, there is cause for concern. The impeachment inquiry is not only a moral necessity; it might be a national security one as well.

source:wbur

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BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the company’s headquarters in the Seef District.
During the meeting, shareholders approved all items listed on the agenda, including the ratification of the minutes of the previous AGM held on 26 March 2024. The session reviewed and approved the Board’s Annual Report on the company’s activities and financial performance for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2024, and the shareholders expressed their satisfaction with the company’s operational and financial results during the reporting period.
The meeting also reviewed the Independent External Auditor’s Report on the company’s consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024. Subsequently, the shareholders approved the audited financial statements for the fiscal year. Based on the Board’s recommendation, the shareholders approved the distribution of a cash dividend equivalent to 10% of the paid-up share capital.
Furthermore, the shareholders endorsed the allocation of a total amount of BD 172,500 as remuneration to the members of the Board for the year ended 31 December 2024, subject to prior clearance by related authorities.
The extension of the current composition of the Board was approved, which includes ten members and one CBB observer, for a further six-month term, expiring in September 2025, pending no objection from the CBB.
The meeting reviewed and approved the Corporate Governance Report for 2024, which affirmed the company’s full compliance with the corporate governance directives issued by the CBB and other applicable regulatory frameworks. The AGM absolved the Board Members of liability for any of their actions during the year ending on 31st December 2024, in accordance with the Commercial Companies Law.
In alignment with regulatory requirements, the session approved the reappointment of Ernst & Young (EY) as the company’s External Auditors for the fiscal year 2025, covering both the parent company and its subsidiaries—Sinnad and Bahrain FinTech Bay. The Board was authorised to determine the external auditors’ professional fees, subject to approval from the CBB, and the meeting concluded with a discussion of any additional issues as per Article (207) of the Commercial Companies Law.
Speaking on the company’s performance, Mr. Mohamed Al Bastaki, Chairman BENEFIT , stated: “In terms of the financial results for 2024, I am pleased to say that the year gone by has also been proved to be a success in delivering tangible results. Growth rate for 2024 was 19 per cent. Revenue for the year was BD 17 M (US$ 45.3 Million) and net profit was 2 Million ($ 5.3 Million).

Mr. Al Bastaki also announced that the Board had formally adopted a new three-year strategic roadmap to commence in 2025. The strategy encompasses a phased international expansion, optimisation of internal operations, enhanced revenue diversification, long-term sustainability initiatives, and the advancement of innovation and digital transformation initiatives across all service lines.
“I extend my sincere appreciation to the CBB for its continued support of BENEFIT and its pivotal role in fostering a stable and progressive regulatory environment for the Kingdom’s banking and financial sector—an environment that has significantly reinforced Bahrain’s standing as a leading financial hub in the region,” said Mr. Al Bastaki. “I would also like to thank our partner banks and valued customers for their trust, and our shareholders for their ongoing encouragement. The achievements of 2024 set a strong precedent, and I am confident they will serve as a foundation for yet another successful and impactful year ahead.”
Chief Executive of BENEFIT; Mr. Abdulwahed AlJanahi commented, “The year 2024 represented another pivotal chapter in BENEFIT ’s evolution. We achieved substantial progress in advancing our digital strategy across multiple sectors, while reinforcing our long-term commitment to the development of Bahrain’s financial services and payments landscape. Throughout the year, we remained firmly aligned with our objective of delivering measurable value to our shareholders, strategic partners, and customers. At the same time, we continued to play an active role in enabling Bahrain’s digital economy by introducing innovative solutions and service enhancements that directly address market needs and future opportunities.”
Mr. AlJanahi affirmed that BENEFIT has successfully developed a robust and well-integrated payment network that connects individuals and businesses across Bahrain, accelerating the adoption of emerging technologies in the banking and financial services sector and reinforcing Bahrain’s position as a growing fintech hub, and added, “Our achievements of the past year reflect a long-term vision to establish a resilient electronic payment infrastructure that supports the Kingdom’s digital economy. Key developments in 2024 included the implementation of central authentication for open banking via BENEFIT Pay”
Mr. AlJanahi concluded by thanking the Board for its strategic direction, the company’s staff for their continued dedication, and the Central Bank of Bahrain, member banks, and shareholders for their valuable partnership and confidence in the company’s long-term vision.