Saad Saeb
- Articles
- Posted
The “Pen-Breaker” Hysteria, and What Underlies It
The neurotic state of the "pen-breaker", the US special envoy to Syria, Joel Rayburn, raises a great deal of ridicule among Syrian politicians. Beyond that, his case, in our opinion, epitomizes the US policy toward Syria, particularly in the last two years.
In Facts
In the past two days, news spread that Rayburn had become hysterical during a meeting with the Coalition [of Syrian Opposition Forces] while discussing the Northeast issue. In the hysteria, he is said to have broken a pen to relieve his tension. This news is not the first of its kind; Syrian politicians enumerate many similar incidents ...
Initial Explanation
As for the recently broken pen, during a meeting with the Coalition, it is not difficult to say that it expresses the high level of contradiction between Washington and Ankara regarding their respective policies in Syria; We had been accustomed to find the Coalition in a complete submission to, and identification with, the American agenda, whether in sanctions or other policies and stances. The newly developed stance of the Coalition, however, cannot express an emergent "national independence", as much as it specifically expresses the contradiction between the Turkish and the American, as mentioned above.
Beyond That
The crux of the matter lies, we think, especially with the striking indication of the last broken pen, in the fact that the stage of American acrobatics game on various ropes is over, and that the margins of manipulation that the Americans have worked on for a long time aiming at hitting everyone by everyone in order to create the "quagmire" and perpetuate it, have become significantly narrow. The additional tension stems from the urgent American need to plant as many mines as possible within short periods of time before the forced withdrawal that looms in the near future. Two things can be added: First, no one has still had any confidence in US politics. Secondly, the United States no longer has enough power and influence in the international sense in general and in the regional sense in particular, to the point that compels some powers to swallow up the bizarre American contradictions without rejecting them or even commenting on them.
In short, Rayburn's escalating hysteria is a condensed expression of the situation of US policy in Syria, which is losing day after day in points, and the day will not be far when it shows its loss to its full extent!
