Virginia State Senator Richard Black stands with citizens of Palmyra.Virginia State Sen. Richard Black (R-District 13), representing parts of western Prince William and Loudoun County, recently returned from a trip to Syria in which he met with President Bashar Assad, a ruler considered an enemy of the United States.
While there, Sen. Black also met with Christian Syrians with whom he sympathizes.
In an hour-long phone conversation with Bristow Beat, Sen. Black defended his visit, explaining that President Assad is not the evil ruler that the media and the U.S. State Department have portrayed him to be.
“I’ve just gotten back from Syria. I’ve had a very, very long trip: very interesting and very productive,” Black said.
He went on to say that the Syrian narrative is very complex and that he believes the U.S. might be aligning with the wrong Middle Eastern nations.
The Syrians have been struggling almost against the entire world for five years. We had been supporting the Al Qaeda terrorists and Turkey is supporting the ISIS terrorists, and the poor Syrian people are just struggling to keep things going. I think it’s a great tragedy that we ever started the aggressive actions that we did against them along with Britain and France.
Black said that while in Syria he visited amputees. He explained they need medicine and prosthetic limbs, which the U.S. sanctions prevent them from getting.
He said it is “criminal” and blames the U.S.’s alliance with the Saudi’s. “ our slavish devotion the Saudi Arabians and their money. We have cut off medical supplies."
Black said Assad is very westernized, and that Syria had enjoyed a level of religious freedom and tolerance unseen throughout most of the Middle East.
He explained that the westernized thinking also applied to the level of freedom and respect that Syrian women enjoy. During visit, he witnessed the majority of Syrian women wearing bright colors and fashionable attire.
For those reasons and for the protection of Christians, he believes it is criminal that the United States ha played a hand in destabilizing Syria, as he believes it has.
“My great concern is there is a great number of Christians in Syria,” said Black, who added, “I certainly care about everyone and the suffering of everyone.”
However, he believes it is the rebels intent to kill all non-Muslims, which is why he has great concern for Syrian Christians.
And Black defends his meeting with Assad. He asserted there are many political forces operating in Syria, but the threat does not come from the Syrian government itself.
He does not believe that-Assad authorized the use of sarin gas on his own people in Ghouda in Augusto of 2013.
Instead, Black believes it was covert operation to frame the Assad regime of which Turkey participated. He said the Syrian President hinted he would have to be a fool to poison his own people in front of U.N. inspectors.
Black said one of his sources on Syria is Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, who writes politically about the Middle East.
Black recommends people read Hersh’s “The Red Line, The Rat Line” to understand the complicated politics of the situation, and how America supported what we have called “moderate” rebels in Syria, which Black believes has only helped the terrorists.
“We began this policy of toppling governments, and our big tool has been generating religious hatred, and it doesn’t stop, so we see bombings in Paris, Brussels, Boston and San Bernadino… it’s just metastasized everywhere.”
Meanwhile, Black said the narrative has been over-simplified, and Americans believe Assad is simply a “bad guy.”
“He simply is not what you think of,” Black said, saying he’s not a strongman bellicose leader. “He’s soft-spoken…intellectual…His wife is just delightful.”
In Black’s account, the threat to Syrian includes other Middle Eastern nations whose leaders want to see Syria’s demise, especially Turkey and Saudi Arabia. On top of that, Syria faces the terrorist rebels, who control much of the land outside its cities and suburbs.
“Syrians don’t want the rebels, they want them out. The problem is we keep sending them in,” Black said.
Black said the rebels have been brutally killing civilians --be they men, women or children.
Senator Black also think it’s a problem that the rebels unite under their extremist beliefs, but Europe has become too secularized, which could be a problem.
“The forces of Christianity have weakened so greatly over the last hundred year,” Black said, claiming, “we can’t fight a religious war without a religion.”
He said religion is the force that binds the terrorists and allows them to employ a level of violence that would have been dumbfounding even to the Nazis.
Black is not a fan the current administration. However, he believes the policy to topple Middle Eastern nations can be traced back to before the Obama administration to after 911. He claims the State Department and CIA planned to topple several Middle Eastern regimes as they did in Iraq.
And, while Arab Spring seemed hopeful, peaceful demonstrating soon deteriorated to rebel infiltration.
Black wants to be clear that he applauds our military men and women, though he is critical of the U.S.’s foreign policy.
“I love our country. I’ve probably fought in more fierce combat than any member of the U.S. Congress had. I’ve been wounded both of my radio men had been killed right beside me,” he said, which is one reason he wants to speak up.
“I have been prepared to die for this country, but one of the things we have acquired a habit of doing is labeling people ‘bad guys’ and toppling regimes and replacing them with jihadist murders.”
Black believes Christianity has a role to play in Syria. He describes it as a tolerant, forgiving religion.
Sen. Black also worries about the domino effect of allowing Syria to fall, calling it a center of gravity.
Many media outlets have reported that Black’s visit to Syria was a strange and surprising. They note that Black is known for his extreme conservative views, and often inserts himself into national politics.
However, beyond his work in the state senate, Black has worked for the Pentagon, heading the Army’s Criminal Law Division. According to the bio on his website, Black advised senior government officials on issues of national significance. He has appeared several times on CNN discussing military affairs.
Sen. Black also served as a marine, seeing his fair share of bloodshed.
While Black said he supported Ronald Reagan’s policy regarding the Middle East, but now sees the U.S. on the wrong side of the conflict in Syria.
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