Thoughts;
4 min. in, the guy in the lower left, the ex-CIA, makes a distinction between strategic interests and economic interests (i.e. political interests), essentially saying the establishment has no long term strategic vision. I don't think that is an accurate statement.
He is right though, the West is lying about what it is doing, as opposed to what it says it is doing.
When he talked about Martha Raddatz distorting reality of what is going on over there in the debate, this is what he was talking about.
How A Presidential Debate Moderator Distorted Syrian Reality
The guy in the upper left, from the Brookings institute, is a shill for the establishment. He is full of shit. Everything he says can be discounted. That think tank is connected with the establishment and the CFR.
It matters not what Assad did or didn't do. If America entered into a full blown civil revolt, what wouldn't give the Chinese or the Russians any legitimate right to fund insurgent groups or operate militarily in our borders.
Further on, the ex-CIA agent is absolutely correct. Going back to the Bush admin., the secret ops of both America and Britain were responsible for trying to destabilize not only Syria, but the entire Middle East. It is part of the Greater Middle East strategy (the one presented by Condolezza Rice) that eventually led to the Arab Spring in many of the nations in the Middle East. They want to redraw all the borders to make the region more stable, and to make shipping energy to Europe more monopolized and more profitable for the West.
Good blog on this;
chycho: Target is Still Iran: Clear Cutting the Middle East and the Coming Blood Bath (Mapping World War III)
This would, of course, cut into China and Russia's piece of the action and compromise their national security.
I was surprised at how measured and sober the Oxford Academic's analysis of the situation was, good on him.
I found it a bit disingenuous how they separated long term economic interests with strategic interests. Personally, I believe they are the same. Any political scientist worth their salt knows this, it is a axiomatic, established going back centuries.