Putin “Orders” U.S. Fighter Planes Out of Syria, Bombs non-ISIS Opposition
[guest post by JVW]
As we know, our lead-from-behind President has happily left the mess in Syria (a mess that he partly inherited but largely exacerbated with his own fecklessness) to our new and staunch ally Russia. Now we hear from Fox News that Russia is demanding that U.S. planes stop flying in Syrian airspace.
BREAKING: Senior US official tells @JenGriffinFNC Russian officials demand US warplanes exit Syria immediately
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 30, 2015
According to the Jerusalem Post, U.S. officials are said to be ignoring the request, but given the general weakness exhibited by the Obama-Kerry axis, and given their desperation to wash their hands of the whole mess, would it surprise any of us to discover that within a week or so we are no longer conducting flying missions over Syria?
And then just a few hours ago Russia began bombing Syrian opposition parties in the northern part of the state, an area where there are not known to be any ISIS-affiliated parties. In other words, Russia has just made very clear that their top priority is to protect Bashar al-Assad against all parties who would oppose his despotic rule, not just those of the Islamic State. As if delighting in the humiliation of the world’s only remaining superpower (for now), Vladimir Putin has ordered this bombing a mere two days after Barack Obama said this at the United Nations:
Let’s remember how this started. Assad reacted to peaceful protests by escalating repression and killing that, in turn, created the environment for the current strife. And so Assad and his allies cannot simply pacify the broad majority of a population who have been brutalized by chemical weapons and indiscriminate bombing. Yes, realism dictates that compromise will be required to end the fighting and ultimately stamp out ISIL. But realism also requires a managed transition away from Assad and to a new leader, and an inclusive government that recognizes there must be an end to this chaos so that the Syrian people can begin to rebuild.
You can practically hear the chuckling at the Kremlin. Barack Obama will leave office in January 2017 and Bashar al-Assad will still be riding high in Damascus.
– JVW
The Carter Administration looks resolute by comparison.
JVW (ba78f9) — 9/30/2015 @ 1:40 pmclearly we need to build more boats
happyfeet (a037ad) — 9/30/2015 @ 2:23 pmThe Mau Mau has always only been doing what Putin has allowed him to do.
nk (dbc370) — 9/30/2015 @ 2:31 pmI think Putin is trying to increase natural gas demand in Europe by relocating just about every Syrian, Iraqi and Turk to Western Europe.
I’d check his E-Trade Account to see what equities he is holding.
Rodney King's Spirit (ab8c0d) — 9/30/2015 @ 2:47 pmGuess “more flexible” means that bend over more.
Pons Asinorum (e0a90d) — 9/30/2015 @ 3:23 pmThe Kurds are not getting anything from us. Why should anyone be surprised ?
Mike K (90dfdc) — 9/30/2015 @ 3:52 pmMel Brooks could have never imagined this comedy.
mg (31009b) — 9/30/2015 @ 3:55 pmPutin shows Obama how the hog eats the cabbage and Obama, in turn, soils his MomJeans and acts like he had meant for this to happen, it’s like he always says, blah-blah, blah-blah…
Colonel Haiku (fd5d8b) — 9/30/2015 @ 3:58 pmLet’s be syrious. This is not about Obama. Syria is Russia’s base in the Middle East. Literally. It has a naval base and other military bases there. Putin is not going to allow Syria to become another Libya or even an Iraq. Not any more than he was going to let Crimea go. Russia will put down any threats to the status quo, from any direction, it doesn’t matter who’s in the White House.
nk (dbc370) — 9/30/2015 @ 4:18 pmNot any more than he was going to let Crimea go. Russia will put down any threats to the status quo, from any direction, it doesn’t matter who’s in the White House.
No doubt that’s true, nk. But then that raises the question all the more of why Obama did all of that grandstanding and preening to warn Assad that he can’t use chemical weapons, followed by this feeble insistence that Assad step down from power. Was it because:
(1) Obama is completely ignorant of Russia’s relationship with Syria despite being surrounded by this allegedly crackerjack team of advisors culled from academia and all of the best liberal foreign policy think tanks, or
(2) Putin led Obama to believe that he too had grown tired of Assad and would support a quiet transfer of power to a new leader pre-approved by the Kremlin but Obama misjudged the degree to which ISIS/ISIL would establish a foothold in Syria, or
(3) Obama thought that he had the backing of our usual allies to take a hard line against Assad no matter what Russia thought, but our allies didn’t trust Obama enough to go out on a limb for him.
If we had a free press in this country that was interested in reporting interesting stories rather than advancing a narrative, we would probably have some interesting leaks and some reports of serious Monday Morning Quarterbacking going on by now as various Democrats scramble for favor in a Clinton or Sanders campaign.
JVW (ba78f9) — 9/30/2015 @ 4:28 pmPutin must be racist for treating Obama like a …….
Rodney King's Spirit (ab8c0d) — 9/30/2015 @ 4:35 pmIt took the Russians 50 years to pay US back for their loss of face over missiles in Cuba our humiliation at their hands is just beginning unless the WH wakes up and hits that reset button again. This is a much bigger deal than even Obama’s critics realize. We are not in a military or economic position to stop them.
crazy (cde091) — 9/30/2015 @ 4:42 pm4. The Israeli lobby is not going to let Obama take a laissez faire approach to Syria, the supporter of Hezbollah, Israel’s most competent adversary to date. In fact, some of the rebel groups in Syria, including mini-ISIS ones, were made in Israel. He has to appear to be doing something even if it’s only theater, and Putin will play along, picking his battles (or, better, ju jutsu moves), as long as it remains theater. But when push comes to shove, Assad’s opposition be put down.
nk (dbc370) — 9/30/2015 @ 4:43 pmCuba bankrupted the USSR. The way the Middle East is bankrupting us.
nk (dbc370) — 9/30/2015 @ 4:45 pmwe have to borrow money and build the boats
boats of freedom!
happyfeet (a47575) — 9/30/2015 @ 5:09 pmNot to worry. John Kerry has already reported for duty and issued a strong statement that the United States would have “grave concerns” if Russia targeted US trained and backed “moderate forces” fighting Assad. Meanwhile, the “moderate forces” released a video of jets streaking across the sky just before loud explosions rocked their base. Kerry responded by saying: “Be vewy, vewy quiet, for I am hunting wascally Wussians.”
Walter Cronanty (f48cd5) — 9/30/2015 @ 5:09 pmI think that Obama should go to Syria and mediate.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 9/30/2015 @ 5:20 pmCuba bankrupted the USSR.
I think the Soviet military had something to do with it, between Afghanistan and their Star Wars freak-out.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 9/30/2015 @ 5:22 pmBut then that raises the question all the more of why Obama did all of that grandstanding and preening to warn Assad that he can’t use chemical weapons, followed by this feeble insistence that Assad step down from power.
5) He didn’t expect Assad to call his bluff.
kishnevi (28fa9f) — 9/30/2015 @ 5:36 pmThe Russian ploy may not be all bad for us. Obama is leading us down a path to defeat but Russia may not have the resources to prevail. That is all we are left with. Passive observer status. Romney predicted all this, of course. And Obama ridiculed the idea that Russia was not our ally.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 9/30/2015 @ 5:39 pm5) He didn’t expect Assad to call his bluff.
That is certainly obvious, but I think it’s pretty much accounted for in my scenario 3). Obama thought that he could draw the red line and that he would be backed up by Britain, France, Germany, and the rest of NATO — you know, seeing as how he “repaired” our “damaged” reputation in all of those countries — but was then surprised when none of them wanted to make any firm commitments seeing as how Obama had so ruthlessly bailed on Iraq and Afghanistan when those conflicts became difficult.
JVW (ba78f9) — 9/30/2015 @ 5:41 pmWhy would anyone be our ally right now?
JD (34f761) — 9/30/2015 @ 6:48 pmTangentially connected via China’s recent arrival in theatre:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-30/start-chinas-unrest-southern-china-city-rocked-massive-bomb-explosions-3-dead
Obie is good at losing wars won lessee how she does getting her abraded azz clear of Sunni intrigues.
DNF (51a50d) — 9/30/2015 @ 7:31 pm20. “Not all that bad”
No worse all over than 1914.
DNF (51a50d) — 9/30/2015 @ 7:35 pm“Let’s be syrious. This is not about Obama.”
Oh, but it is. He’s feckless, confuses our allies, emboldens our enemies. He’s done more to facilitate Soviet and Iranian domination of the Middle East than any other living person. He’s dangerous.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/30/2015 @ 7:59 pmokay, I was wrong, very seriously wrong. I didn’t think the present PotUS could make things worse at this point (post Iran treaty) in the Europe-Asia region.
All hell is going to break loose in the USA on Jan19-20th when the pardons come down, but it may still be better than being in Europe-Asia with what the present PotUS is doing.
(Yet in 2 years he will be ranked as one of the great Presidents by academia)
seeRpea (421cb3) — 9/30/2015 @ 8:31 pmokay, I was wrong, very seriously wrong. I didn’t think the present PotUS could make things worse at this point (post Iran treaty) in the Europe-Asia region.
Don’t forget the 10,000 “refugees” we are supposed to be taking in right away, with up to three times as many coming in subsequent years until we reach the target number that the Europeans have so helpfully assigned to us. What do you want to bet that Europe gets the families and we get the single men with little education and few discernible skills?
JVW (ba78f9) — 9/30/2015 @ 8:45 pmWe have a jokey saying in Oz, brought out when something minor has happened (oh no, I spilled my water – what would Putin do? He’d go wrestle a bear . . . and the list goes on).
Well, now we know . . .
awfulpod (9f6eaa) — 9/30/2015 @ 9:06 pmAbout that number, JVW:
Dana (86e864) — 9/30/2015 @ 9:19 pmI would like to remind everyone that the President is a grandmaster of foreign policy. I only know what I read in the papers.
Ag80 (eb6ffa) — 9/30/2015 @ 9:20 pmThe Obama administration will increase the number of worldwide refugees the United States accepts each year to 100,000 by 2017, a significant increase over the current annual cap of 70,000, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.
I know, Dana, but a huge chunk of our refugees are already and will continue to be coming from Central America. Our Middle East allotment will probably be something like 30k per year. It should be noted that naturally Obama and Kerry do not suggest lowering our Central American quota in order to bring in more Middle Easterners. No, that would be sensible and wouldn’t allow the moral grandstanding that residents of the Kenwood section of Hyde Park and Lousiburg Square like to engage in, knowing that their cozy little domiciles will not be affected.
JVW (ba78f9) — 9/30/2015 @ 9:48 pmHow is our WAR on ISIS……errrrrrrrr ISILLLLLL going??? I mean our WAR on the JAYVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Please remember, THE FIRST LETTER OF ISIS….is ISLAMIC. But not according to our BALL-LESS Community Organizer in Chief.
Gus (7cc192) — 9/30/2015 @ 10:16 pmIs it sinking in yet folks??? OBAMA is a MARXIST/LYING/WORTHLESS clown.
Count on you to bring up how the Jooooooz are the puppetmasters behind our foreign policy, nk. Followed by more inane comments which I won’t address. One can only point and laugh at such cluelessness.
The Elderz of Zion sure got a sweet Iranian nuke deal, didn’t those wily Jooooz. Yup, we can see their hidden hand behind everything.
You know, if the Joooo lobby was so all powerful things wouldn’t have gotten to this point. It’s already too late. It can’t be fixed or mitigated, at least not by this crowd. They can only aggravate the situation. What is Obama (and the next President, more importantly) supposed to do? Invade Syria? Syria is still Assad’s private club and he’s got a new bouncer. There is nothing practical nor legal that Obama can do about this mess now.
Thanks to Obama’s infantile delusions the Russians have set up a fairly effective air defense system. For years people have been urging Obama to declare a no fly zone (why, I don’t know; it would have been stupid). Now, though, somebody has seen fit to set up an enforceable no fly zone and for a good reason from their perspective. To keep the US out.
We could roll it back, but that would require a lot more effort than what minimal effort we could have taken to destroy ISIS if we were at all serious. But we weren’t serious. And no one as unserious as Obama is now going to take on this far more difficult task of rolling back the Russian air defense system.
What’s more important, the US wouldn’t have a shred of legal justification for doing so. Assad’s regime is the recognized government of Syria. Russia is there by invitation. We are not. There wasn’t much Assad could do about it on his own. But now he’s not on his own. Assad could order US forces out and we would have to leave or commence a war of aggression.
I wish the international Joooooz who run the world did have some sort of conspiracy. A conspiracy to make Prom Queen grow a brain and maybe have his testicles drop. This has been a long time coming. The article at the link is from March 2010. Five and a half freaking years ago. If we had had a six year old child as President in March 2010, of average intelligence and no knowledge of the Middle East, that child would now be nearing puberty and would have learned some things about the Middle East.
Our President Tiger Beat is no closer to puberty or learning anything about anything then when he was smoking pot in Hawaii.
Doing anything about those qualities is beyond any earthly power, even the international Jooooz.
http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/the-spine/the-multitudinous-disasters-the-obama-administration-here-syria-and-iran
Read the whole depressing thing to rediscover just how obstinately clueless this man is. That’s how he entered office, and that’s how he intends to leave office.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/09/obamas-u-n-message-kick-me-i-wont-feel-a-thing.php
If the Jooooooz are smart, nk, and we both know they are or they wouldn’t also control all the money in the world and the media and the weather and be able to kill thousands at this years Hajj by making cranes fall on mosques and muslims stampede just with their awesome Joooo minds, they’d want to keep President Selfie on the golf course. They wouldn’t want him to try to take a more active role in Syria if they want Israel to survive.
Steve57 (59a8e4) — 9/30/2015 @ 10:43 pmAll hell is going to break loose in the USA on Jan19-20th
It would be terribly stupid of Obama to do that. Not saying he won’t, but it would be terribly stupid.
1. A person who has been pardoned cannot invoke the 5th Amendment. Nor can a pardon prospectively cover perjury. They have to testify and they have to testify truthfully. Nixon had to testify on Watergate after he was pardoned.
2. If he pardons all his underlings, there’s only one guy to charge with the crims, and infinite witnesses who HAVE to testify.
3. He doesn’t need them any more.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 10/1/2015 @ 1:26 amI hope the next president sends Obama’s portrait back to Kenya.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 10/1/2015 @ 1:29 amre #34: i’m not talking about his underlings.
seeRpea (421cb3) — 10/1/2015 @ 1:56 amThink people in jail for committing violent crimes , including terrorism and cop killing.
34. Salient points, thanx.
35. Truly apropos.
DNF (51a50d) — 10/1/2015 @ 2:47 am33. The Lord of Hosts has chased his Chosen back to the Blessed Land. He has thrown down a challenge to the Nations that their enmity toward Jews who honor His Name and fight in so doing the godless have selected Him as their adversary.
Pass the popcorn, please.
DNF (51a50d) — 10/1/2015 @ 2:59 amToo bad Putin didn’t conquer Greece last month.
mg (31009b) — 10/1/2015 @ 3:16 amthe world is run by those who show up
russia did while america cowered
can you imagine if it’s Russia and Iran what rids the world of perverted saudi royal trash while america trembles and wets itself
the saudi trash sure can
happyfeet (831175) — 10/1/2015 @ 3:34 amSaudi prince flees US after accusations of raping several women
a cowardly failmerica what can’t even confront a single saudi royal rapist
this is Israel’s best ally?
oh dear
happyfeet (831175) — 10/1/2015 @ 3:46 amLargest flying boat ever:
— Bumper Book of Berkshire Records, 2004 edition
nk (dbc370) — 10/1/2015 @ 5:28 am41. There are no alliances the USofA will not shirk and abandon.
DNF (51a50d) — 10/1/2015 @ 6:01 amAfter the abandonment of scores of friends in Vietnam and their subsequent slaughter at the hands of the commies I realized my country had degenerated into pure crap. The State Dept. wouldn’t even allow a few of us to sponsor, at our own expense, several Vietnamese allies for American asylum. They helped us when we needed them and we let them die like dogs at the hands of the commies.
Yet today the Idiot-In-Chief wants to bring in tens of thousands (to start) moslems under the guise of “asylum” as “refugees”. Bull! The pattern is and will continue to be whatever is bad for the United States is good for us. “Us” being the leftists entrenched in our own country.
Any person or nation that trusts or depends on the United States are fools and idiots. All the animals in this administration have done is lie to the people and lie to our allies.
Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 10/1/2015 @ 6:24 amdon’t believe the targets are just fsa,
http://www.vocativ.com/news/236176/mosque-hit-five-killed-in-second-day-of-russian-airstrikes/
there was a prince down in miami, in the 80s who stiffed a whole string of hotels, there was another in the late 90s, nephew of the late Nayef, who ran a cocaine smuggling network
narciso (ee1f88) — 10/1/2015 @ 6:29 amWikipedia on the size of the Saudi royal family
Normal odds mean some of them are criminals. That is the size of an average town.
The problem in Syria is that the only credible opposition to Assad are all jihadis. Obama contributed to that, but I am not sure even the most intelligent and best executed US actions under another POTUS would have changed that.
kishnevi (31ba4e) — 10/1/2015 @ 7:03 amwell those would be the ones that the Sauds and Qatar would tend to recruit, yes the princes are bad, the Iranian regime, is worse, the siloviki are somewhere in between,
narciso (ee1f88) — 10/1/2015 @ 7:06 amSyria and its Assad are a big quagmire, lots of “between a rock and a hard place” scenarios. If President “Goddamn America” at least were a principled isolationist, I could accept that, particularly in regards to Assad versus ISIS. But Obama is not.
Moreover, this is the US during the era of the current horror in the White House (from the other thread):
Mark (f713e4) — 10/1/2015 @ 7:33 amHell, Mark, with the new Secretary of the Army Obama wants to appoint, that’s going to be a recruiting inducement: “Join the Army. You will go to places where sodomizing little boys is legal.”
nk (dbc370) — 10/1/2015 @ 7:37 amIt’s real simple: if you are going to act like a pussy, some people are gong to treat you like a pussy, and that’s what Vladimir Putin is doing to Barack Hussein Obama.
Yeah, I recognize that the language isn’t exactly what Patterico’s Pontification normally sees, but sometimes you have to tell the unvarnished truth.
The brutally direct Dana (f6a568) — 10/1/2015 @ 8:07 amwell the earlier account was incomplete,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3255876/Russia-pouring-gasoline-fire-Syria-s-civil-war-says-America-Putin-defies-West-drops-bombs-non-ISIS-forces-fighting-Assad.html
narciso (ee1f88) — 10/1/2015 @ 8:24 amIt’s real simple: if you are going to act like a pussy, some people are gong to treat you like a pussy, and that’s what Vladimir Putin is doing to Barack Hussein Obama.
Just when we needed the First Black U.S. President to be Shaft, he turns out to be Urkel.
JVW (ba78f9) — 10/1/2015 @ 8:44 amGreetings:
On the France24 English language TV broadcast this morning, it was mentioned that John McClain, the US Senator from Arizona and Hero of the Maidan, has decided to split his intellectual and diplomatic forces by entering the verbal fray about Syria.
11B40 (0f96be) — 10/1/2015 @ 8:52 amNo, kishnevi, the Freshman Dorm administration’s problems with Syria started years before the choice came down to supporting jihadis against Assad.
Again:
http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/the-spine/the-multitudinous-disasters-the-obama-administration-here-syria-and-iran
At the moment the DoD IG is investigating whistleblower claims that CENTCOM was tailoring their intelligence reports to conform to the Freshman Dorm administration’s foregone policy conclusions (foregone since bong sessions at Columbia U. circa 1980). I can tell you that not only has CENTCOM been doing so, but this administration has been purging the IC of anyone who would offer analysis contrary to what Obama and his Muslim Brotherhood-infused administration wanted to hear (I can name names, beginning but not ending with Mehdi K. Alhassani and Huma Abedin, the latter not only was employed by a MB front group but the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs, which can best be described as the foreign policy arm of the Saudi Ministry of Religious Affais).
The facts can not be allowed to contradict what author Martin Peretz correctly perceives as Obama’s obsessions.
Did you not catch Obama’s preening, delusional speech before the UN the other day? The world can’t be allowed to backslide now that the lightworker has dragged us all kicking and screaming out of our caves into post-historical, post-American enlightenment.
We’re all wrong, you see. America was wrongly conceived, and has been wrongly and stupidly conducting foreign policy thus spreading violence, mayhem, poverty, destruction, and hate (he learned that from Rev. Wright, or rather Rev. Wright reinforced what Obama already knew; the “audacity of hope” was a sermon and became the title of one of Obama’s autobiographies, in which Wright notes that “white greed drives a world in need”). Prom Queen put a stop to that, plus he doesn’t look like all those other dead white Presidents, has a multi-cultural name, and what he and the other freshmen in the foreign policy dorm believe to be a compelling personal story. So prophecy has been fulfilled, and those stupid intel analysts who say otherwise need to just go away.
And yet, and yet, foreign leaders are just as stupid. None of them, most particularly that chickens**t Bibi, can perceive what’s in their best national interest nearly as well as Tiger Beat.
Hence the lectures and finger wagging.
And what’s up with Putin? President Selfie already warned him when he took the Crimea that this is not how nations behave in the 21st century. Yet here Putin is in Syria, on the wrong side of history again, repeating the doomed-to-fail policies of the past.
Enough with the sarcasm; the bottom line is that reality never intrudes into Obama’s bubble. That’s why Kerry is his SecState. He’s been wrong on everything, too, throughout his entire public life.
Even a less than brilliant, borderline competent US action would have yielded better results just so long as it was developed and executed by anyone not wearing Obama’s ideological blindfold.
Steve57 (fe8ad6) — 10/1/2015 @ 9:07 amUrkel would be a step up.
Our first black President is the hooker. Putin is his pimp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_83lyKaXBZw
Steve57 (fe8ad6) — 10/1/2015 @ 9:13 amThat is the size of an average town.
town is precisely what the royal saudi rapist skipped Mr. k
happyfeet (a037ad) — 10/1/2015 @ 9:35 am“The 1980s are now calling,” said Neville Obama dismissively, “to ask for their foreign policy back.” #RomneyWasRight!
Colonel Haiku (fd5d8b) — 10/1/2015 @ 9:57 am30. But the game Putin is playing is not chess, but poker.
Sammy Finkelman (2972ba) — 10/1/2015 @ 10:51 amAs has been said before, by myself and others far smarter than me:
When your adversary is making mistakes, get out of his way.
The US should let Russia enter the Syrian quagmire and hopefully they will get bloodied. Russia is teetering on the brink financially. They have made many blunders and right now they are in real trouble. This little expedition by Vlad is totally for show and domestic consumption. Should anything even remotely go wrong, it will be very bad for him. The behind the scenes chatter has certainly heated up in Moscow.
Check out the value of Russia’s forex reserves. They have dropped precipitously in the past 15 months. THey are now at the level where they could seriously inflict harm if they don’t maintain at least at the current level. And the problem is that Russia has significant debts maturing in the near future that are not ruble based (mostly euro/dollar funding of private companies) that will be very difficult for the country to roll or pay at maturity.
Russia is using what for them are truly scarce resources right now in this intervention. Get out of their way
JeffreyL (2eddb6) — 10/1/2015 @ 12:33 pmGreetings:
It looks a bit like President Putin pulled a page out of President Erdogan’s Turkish playbook, no ??? The latter was supposedly going to go after the ISIS horde but took a wrong turn and jumped the Kurds.
11B40 (0f96be) — 10/1/2015 @ 1:23 pmJeffrey – this is all just a brilliant political play by Obama, right?
JD (3b5483) — 10/1/2015 @ 2:17 pmLooks like it’s not only going to be air strikes against non-ISIS forces – Irani, Iraqi and Hezbollah ground troops are/will be sent in against non-ISIS forces:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/01/us-mideast-crisis-syria-iranians-idUSKCN0RV4DN20151001
Walter Cronanty (f48cd5) — 10/1/2015 @ 2:23 pmIt looks a bit like President Putin pulled a page out of President Erdogan’s Turkish playbook, no ??? The latter was supposedly going to go after the ISIS horde but took a wrong turn and jumped the Kurds.
Nice pretext for doing a little bit of housekeeping, no?
JVW (aa050c) — 10/1/2015 @ 2:37 pmJeffreyL, you raise some legitimate points, but I submit to you the following:
* Russia’s involvement in Syria is only to pound the enemies of Assad. They aren’t trying to capture land (that’s left for Assad’s troops) or rebuild war-torn areas, they simply seek to go out and destroy those who are opposed to the regime of their new regional allies, Syria and Iran. Because of that, I don’t see them being as easily drawn into a quagmire (though it certainly could happen) as we have been in our overseas adventures or as the Soviets were in Afghanistan.
* Russia expects that our abdication in the Middle East combined with our curious decision to simultaneously lift sanctions on Iran will open up plenty of economic opportunities for trade with a neighbor. I’ll bet a lot of wealthy Iranians start vacationing in Russia’s Black Sea and Caspian Sea resorts, and that Russian products start flooding the markets of Tehran.
* Even if we think it’s good policy to let Russia tire herself out in Syria, are we really supposed to be cool with them bombing the bejeezus out of Syrian opposition parties that we have trained and supported? Obama seems to have this weird thing for abandoning all of our allies; it will be a wonder if anyone ever trusts us again.
JVW (aa050c) — 10/1/2015 @ 2:51 pmso after today’s speech at the UN,
anyone else concerned that Israel and Russia are going to be at war within 6 months?
(btw: check out what NYTimes had to say in 2012 about Romney’s view of Russia)
seeRpea (421cb3) — 10/1/2015 @ 6:26 pm