Thread by @THE_47th

Biden’s chances of winning went from almost a zero pre-COVID to now significant.

This is great news, at least you have a normal human being in office who is respectful of gov institutions, basic tenets of decency & relatively better understanding of the world.

But as a Syrian😐

Syria surely is not looking forward to a repeat of Susan Rice, Samantha Powers, McGurk, Blinken, Sullivan..def not the Donilon brothers.

It is now obvious that the above will be running Biden’s FP and Nat Sec should he win. But with all due respect to all..that’s terrible.

We don’t have 2 wait until 2021. If you are from the region (Middle East), and if you view Biden’s lineup strictly from that prism: The rap sheet of Biden and his potential FP/NS team is disasterous.

You think Trump fucked up in the Middle East? Trump is in office bcz of them.

It is Biden’s team’s lack of leadership, action, vision, and their obessions with “re-pivoting” that lead to the one of the biggest humanitarian disasters of the modern world, rise of ISIS, the largest refugee and migration crisis since WWI...etc.

This rise is DIRECTLY related to the rise of populism, partsian right wing isolationism, the rise of semi fascist govts in Europe and elsewhere.

Syria, Syrian refugees, dead kids on boats and ISIS were used as arguments for Brexit, for building walls, for Muslim bans...

So to imagine having a new US admin that wants raproachment with Iran, going back to the nuke deal, an admin that legitimizes authoritarian regimes that 100s of thousands of ppl around our region have died fighting, is a bit fucking concerning- to say the least.

This presents a challenge to Syrian American advocacy/lobbying groups. What do you do if Biden wins?

When Obama was in office, u had lobbying grps 1000X bigger than any Syrian 1s -from Israel to the GCC- trying to convince Obama to be more decisive on Iran.

What to do?

How do you sit and advocate/lobby someone who believes that some ppl just don’t deserve “red lines”? How do you convince someone who believes that America should coccoon itself and not be the policeman of the world to do the right thing after “exhausting all other options?”

Rhodes, McGurk, Donilon and many Biden advisors genuinely believe in America washing its hands off of the Mid East. Handing over this hell to new actors: Iranians, Russians, Dr. Evil it doesn’t matter. To them it is re-pivot time, the Mid East is just full of bad ppl.

Obama summed up the above general view in his v candid and infamous intrvw with @JeffreyGoldberg, where he explained why the US should re-pivot away from the fucked up Middle East and focus elsewhere bcz...well, we wake up fucked up.

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

There’s no easy way 2deal w/ a potential re-peat of Obama’s FP.

Regardless..we need to 1st:

1- Admit that we (oppo), first and foremost failed.
2- Get rid of the little Baathi in all of us, unfuck our brains: learn to work together/discuss to understand, not to win points.

3- Support universal freedom & equality, not just freedom and justice to ppl we favor.

Once that’s done:

4- topple current political oppo leadership altogether
5- Genuinely unite & work 2gether w/ ALL Syrian advocacy orgs
6- focus on media & grassroots campaigns within Syria.

We can immediately gain leverage & become indispensable 2 any future admin by

A) Uniting Syrian oppo grps (at least on the Syrian American front)

B) Battling Regime propaganda inside Syria.

To do point A: Easy. SyrAmerican grps r strong & immensely powerful, we jst nd 2 unite.

We ignored Point B for 9yrs. Regime & resistance media have 1 voice, 1 message & one cause. Oppo? it is a fucking mess.

However, fighting the regime narrative & reaching Syrians inside Syria is super easy. Social media-> unite msg-> pay to play and re-shape the narrative.

Beauty of social media is we can reach Syrians, inside Syria, without getting a permission from Assad’s Ministry of Disinformation, Mukhabarat or anything.

- Assad says that Syria is being targeted bcz of its resistance? challenge that narrative inside Syria.

-Assad & RT say that Syrians are starving to death bcz of sanctions? Fight that narrative inside Syria and let Syrians know that sanctions can be lifted with a flick of a button- as soon as the war machine is stopped and criminals are handed over.

- State TV blames looming famine on Caesar? Sanctions don’t ban food imports...fight the disinfo campaign by challenging his smartest backers into a live FB debate.

and so on.

We just have 2 approach the media war strategically.

For that, we need serious ppl and serious money.