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This is depressing. @BernieSanders is being advised by Rob Malley, the guy who initiated behind-the-scenes contacts with Assad, and used his functionary Nir Rosen to pseudonymously promote the Assad-approved policy of local surrenders newyorker.com/news/the-polit…
Euphemistically called "local ceasefires", this policy was personally approved by Assad. Perhaps conscious of its morally questionable premise, Malley encouraged Rosen to promote it pseudonymously. As I had predicted at the time, the policy proved catastrophic for Syrians.
Malley is now casting himself as a dissident in the Obama administration. But his dispute with the administration is not that it abandoned Syrians and failed to enforce its own red lines; in an interview with the conspiracy site "Real News", Malley claimed Obama was too gung ho.
I agree with @BernieSanders that the US needs to distance itself from the Saudi regime (though making sure that the vacuum isn't exploited by Putin), but I still cringed to hear him speak credulously about the Iranian regime's repressiveness or its murderous foreign policy.
It is true that Iran's educated youth tend to be pro-western and could be natural allies; but they are not on the same continuum with the regime. They are being thwarted and repressed by the regime.
Sanders also seems fond of Britain's pro-Brext, anti-Freedom of Movement, "antiwar" Labour leader who supported Russia's "humanitarian" military intervention in Syria in 2015 and later refused to condemn Russian war crimes or repudiate his support.
This is important context to understand the milieu. edition.cnn.com/2012/03/23/wor…
Remember, this Sanders advisor went on the pro-Kremlin conspiracy site "the real news" (really!) and denounced Obama's alleged "regime change" plot against Assad. (This would have come as a surprise to @SamanthaJPower). 
It is truly remarkable to be speaking about a "new authoritarian order" while ignoring Syria's totalitarian regime, receiving advice from Assad's enabler, and downplaying the Iranian regime's authoritarianism.
Also not sure what to think of @NewYorker's journalism. @benwallacewells conducts an entire interview about foreign policy, mentions Syria—the biggest human catastrophe of the decade—only once in passing. Shows you have insular US political culture even in its progressive form is
I might add that I welcome @BernieSanders's focus on rising authoritarianism and am glad that someone is making it the focus of their foreign policy. But you put your own commitment into doubt when you start heaping praise on the fellow on the left.
I might add that I speak out of disappointment rather than resentment. I like @BernieSanders and I appreciate the path he has blazed. But he needs fresh AND principled ideas on foreign policy. Not discredited formulas. He needs credible people like @naderalihashemi @DannyPostel
Engaging with Iran shouldn't have to mean enabling its regime. It will be a contradiction, given Bernie's stated commitment to opposing authoritarianism. He should be engaging with Iranian citizens and trying to empower its civil society.
