There can be no doubt that Putin doesn’t give a flying fuck for all the refugees fleeing Syria or the non Shiite Syrians still there facing extermination. Both Putin and Assad are gangsters and they need to be confronted.
At the moment Putin is taking delight in running right over Obama. My sense is that it is both personal, driven by Obama having a full 6 inches of height over Putin, and the prospect of his glory from his people.
Did I mention height ?
Napoleon 1.68 cm
Hitler 1.75
Putin 1.7
Do you see where I’m coming from?
While Europe groans under the weight of refugees from Assad, Putin adds fuel to the fire and actually attacks American proxies.
That is the same as attacking America isn’t it ?
What is next from Putin ?
As long as Putin thinks Obama is weak, the world will face a crisis…
Oh wait
Its already here
Its time to pull all the stops and storm Syria. The situation has become intolerable for millions of people.
There is nothing for the USA to gain by wasting life or material in Syria. Let the combatants all drain themselves. When the battle fatigue reaches a tipping point there might finally be some lasting peace in the region.
So you want the United States to invade Syria, dispose Assad, and then presumably occupy it to prevent someone similar or worse from taking over. You don’t see any problems with that idea?
Should the U.S. have invaded every country that had big wars and humanitarian disasters? Like Mexico, Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, and so on? Or is there something special about Syria?
Cold War standard operating procedure was to give top shelf AA arms to our allies. That should be the first step to respond to Russia’s attack on the non-ISIS Syrian resistance.
At the very least, Obama needs to stop letting Putin push him around. At least with Ukraine it was a case where no other President would have intervened either. It’s in Russia’s sphere of influence. Syria is not. Even if the PResident chooses not to challenge Putin in Syria, he has to have a plan to get the better of Putin somewhere else. It’s time to start screwing with Russian interests if they are going to screw with ours. If Putin wants to go back to the Cold War then we should oblige him. We’re much better positioned to beat Russia into the ground than we were then. Putin knows this, but as long as we don’t challenge him he can just do whatever the fuck he wants.
I’d note though that sending our armed forces into Syria is insane. it would bring American and Russian forces into direct conflict. We can fight another Cold War. Fighting WWIII is just insane. If Putin wants to fight in Syria to prop up Assad, let;s make sure he leaves a lot of Russian bodies behind like in Afghanistan.
If Cold War strategy and tactics are the wrong approach to take against Putin, then there’s a debate to be had about that. We can even go isolationist if you want and let Putin just have any part of the Eastern Hemisphere he wants as long as it’s not a NATO country.
But now’s a pretty good time to have that discussion, rather than just saying “no” to each of our bad options. We didn’t choose to restart the Cold War, Putin did. Now we have to figure out how to respond. Hopefully before he gets to thinking he can actually attack a NATO country without starting a war.
Most of the bad stuff that is happening now from Libya to Afghanistan is the direct result of America’s insistence on trying to bend history it’s way, to fix things so that America can feel safe and happy (and well-oiled). Is there anything in that region that has worked out well in the long run for the U.S.? Even leaving aside the impossibly stupid invasion of Iraq, is there any American initiative in that region since WWII that has had a good outcome over time, or has every single effort turned around and bit us in the nuts?
But the OP thinks that we need to do something brain-dead stupid just to bring Putin down a peg, because otherwise, I guess, we won’t be able to hold our head up in the international arena. Or something equally lame and stupid. Of all the motives for going to war, this ranks right up there with W and Cheney’s real reasons for invading Iraq (whatever those reasons were, you can make those up for yourself). And the result will be at least as bad, almost certainly worse.
Oh yes, one final thing: international relations don’t always happen only in front of the camera. The bleeding obvious isn’t always the only story.
Because then American soldiers will have to go over, rather than Canadian ones. He doesn’t have to worry about his own country being at war, obviously.
The reality is we don’t have any good outcome on the horizon for Syria. The idea that the forces of good were going to win was pretty slim. Heck, the idea that the forces of good even exist was pretty slim. Realistically, we were probably going to end up supporting Assad on the basis that he’s bad but ISIS is worse.
So quite frankly, we’re probably better off with Russia getting involved. Syria’s their ally. Why should we have to save the Assad regime? Let the Russians fight ISIS.
Their first targets weren’t ISIS though. And just abandoning our allies doesn’t exactly enhance our credibility. Our Syria policy has been an incoherent, weak mess.
