Thread by @TimInHonolulu

1. I remember Nasser. As a boy I thought he was cool.

Imagine an integration of Iraq, Syria & Lebanon as members of the United States of the Levant. Oil, gas, hydro and fresh water with motivated educated populations. None of that is possible under Islamist extremism.

2. Absent an integration, the great powers will forever use this region to compete. Clearly an international integration is a dream. But the federalization of the independent states, particularly Iraq & Syria, would result in a decentralized political system that is

3. self-defending. These nations will not survive outside of a secular society. They will continue to erupt on a regular predictable basis.

I have not seen any study on it so I will comment from my own observation based on mostly anecdotal evidence. Regions of Syria that

4. are under #SDC #SDF control have markedly less corruption than anywhere in the Levant. The clearest evidence of that is how much had been done to get the economy going prior to the Turkish War of Aggression & Genocide. The limited funds are being distributed fairly and

5. based on negotiation, not graft. Local governance works. And for the Americans, the ideology that bind the #PKK and the #YPG #YPJ and now the multi-cultural #SDF #SDC derived from a Vermonter. Its foundation is American federalism applied to the #MidEast.

6. The goal is a free society providing the promise of a democratic secular gender-equal society that protects the People not a dictator and not a minority government. By federalizing the Alawite minority can create federal state entity or entities with home rule to protect them

7. Idlib could be classified to allow to exist as conservative Sunni Arab federal state but without extremists.

I'm going to link my post in May, 2017 where I proposed the Syrian federal state districts. All for discussion. @POTUS @NSC @USEmbassySyria

https://twitter.com/TimInHonolulu/status/866089587830947841?s=20