Wall Street: US State Department officials call for strikes against Syria's Assad

Dozens of US State Department officials this week protested against US policy in Syria, signing an internal document that calls for targeted military strikes against the Damascus government and urging regime change as the only way to defeat Daesh, The Wall Street reported.

The "dissent channel cable" was signed by 51 US State Department officers involved with advising on Syria policy in various capacities, according to an official familiar with the document. 

The Wall Street Journal reviewed a copy of the cable, which repeatedly calls for "targeted military strikes" against the Syrian government in light of the near-collapse of the ceasefire brokered earlier this year.

The views expressed by the US officials in the cable amount to a scalding internal critique of a longstanding US policy against taking sides in the Syrian war, a policy that has survived even though the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been repeatedly accused of violating ceasefire agreements and Russian-backed forces have attacked US-trained rebels.

The US State Department acknowledged the existence of the cable, which is a formal, confidential diplomatic communication, but wouldn’t comment on its contents until top officials had a chance to review it.

John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, said the "Dissent Channel" is an official forum that allows employees to express opposing views. 

US State Department regulations expressly prohibit retaliation against any employee who uses the channel to voice disagreement.

The complaint filed by the State Department officials wasn’t unusual, current and former US officials said, but the number of diplomats actively opposing a major White House position was.

"It’s embarrassing for the administration to have so many rank-and-file members break on Syria," said a former State Department official who worked on Middle East policy.

Source : MENA