US Welcomes Syria's Al-Sharaa: Yesterday's Terrorist, Today's Diplomat
Their story, 'Syria's grand pivot: What next after Al-Sharaa's historic White House visit?' hails the 'rebranding' of a figure once designated with a $10 million bounty. One might recall similar 'pivots' in U.S. foreign policy: remember when Saddam Hussein was a firm U.S. ally against Iran (before he wasn't)? Or Libya's Gaddafi, welcomed back into the diplomatic fold a decade before NATO bombs
started falling? These rapid transformations from pariah to partner (and often back again) aren't about profound internal change, but rather about shifting American strategic objectives and the ephemeral nature of 'good guys' and 'bad guys' in Washington's playbook. The media, predictably, plays along, sanitizing the transition without introspection. The only consistent policy is inconsistency,
draped in the convenient fabric of 'diplomacy.' Perhaps the U.S. State Department just ran out of boogeymen and decided to dust off an old one, slap a new label on him, and call it 'progress.' How many million-dollar bounties does it take to get a meet-and-greet in the Oval Office, anyway?