Russia Follows U.S. Script And Intervenes In Syria: Vladimir Putin Wrecks Washington’s Mideast Plans – Forbes
9 years ago
Pointed out by Cato Institute
Vladimir Putin opened a new game of high stakes geopolitical poker. He is using military force to support Syria’s President Bashir Assad and counter U.S. backing for Assad’s opponents.
Russia’s intervention could, and likely will, turn out badly, but Washington has no complaint. America has been meddling in Syria’s tragic civil war from the start with little effect, other than to impede a negotiated settlement. Moscow has the same geopolitical “right” to make a mistake.
At the end of the Cold War Washington was anointed as the “unipower,” “indispensable” and “essential” nation, and “sole superpower,” and acted as such. The U.S. intervened anywhere anytime for any reason. Washington considered international support, whether from the United Nations, NATO, or the “willing,” to be convenient but wholly unnecessary.
Of course, the U.S. insisted that only it could act this way. Everyone else was obligated to follow America’s lead. Further, Washington decreed that aggressive U.S. military action—against Serbia, for instance—should not be considered a precedent by others. America not only got to attack any nation for any reason. Only America got to attack any nation for any reason.
But that world has passed away. Perhaps more than any recent event, Russia’s dramatic intervention on behalf of Syria’s beleaguered Assad government formally buries any illusion that “what Washington says goes,” even in the Middle East.
Moscow has moved military forces to Syria and begun bombing regime opponents. Instead of focusing on the Islamic State, as it initially claimed, Russia targeted “moderate” insurgents backed by the U.S. and other Western governments. Sounding almost like the George W. Bush administration, the Putin government insisted that it was fighting terrorism and there really wasn’t a “moderate opposition.” Rather, you either stood with the Assad regime or with terrorists. Although Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted that his government was fighting terrorism, not “defending the regime,” Moscow obviously views defending the regime as the best way to fight terrorism.
This is not likely to be a short-term commitment. As America unfortunately discovered, fighting “terrorism” can be a well-nigh permanent occupation. Moreover, having put its credibility on the line Moscow cannot easily disengage, irrespective of the cost.
