Washington: Over 50 US State Department officials signed an internal memo protesting US policy in Syria, calling for targeted military strikes against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and urging regime change as the only way to defeat the Islamic State.
According to a US cable, Washington policy in the Middle East has been “overwhelmed” by the continuing violence in Syria. It calls for a “judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed US-led diplomatic process.”
CNN reviewed a draft of the memo, which has since been classified.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the memo’s existence.
The internal memo was sent throughout the “dissent channel”, a mechanism for State Department officials to offer alternative views on foreign policy without freedom of retaliation or retaliation.
It was established in the 1960s during the Vietnam War to ensure that senior leadership in the department would have access to alternative policy views on the war.
The 51 officials who signed the memo are mostly from the rank and file of the department, many of them career officers in the Foreign Service who have been involved in Syria policy over the past several years either in Washington or overseas.
There are no high-level names but they reflect a widespread view in the State Department that tougher military action in Syria is needed to force Assad to negotiate a diplomatic solution.
US Secretary of State John Kerry himself has advocated a more muscular US military posture in Syria to force Assad to negotiate a political settlement.
