Sunday, June 23, 2013
Intervention in Syria is a Fool's Errand: Analysis
Armstrong Williams writes:
The Cold Warriors, like Sen. John McCain, want to jump into Syria in order to fight another U.S.-Russian proxy war. For the likely outcome, see Vietnam.
Humanitarian interventionists, represented by recently appointed U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, decry the loss of innocent life and demand involvement to prevent another mass genocide like Rwanda. (Recent estimates put the Syrian death toll at more than 93,000 so far.) For the likely outcome, see Somalia.
Neocons still want to spread democracy and think the rebels are the best chance for a secular, peace-loving democracy in Damascus, as well as a means to weaken Iran and create another bulwark around the mullahs. For the likely outcome, see Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read the entire essay.
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Russia's role in his flight from Hong Kong is raising tensions with the United States. Click here for the story.
U.S. lawmakers and officials are understandably upset. But why should relations with Russia be so bad in the first place? The Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended more than two decades ago. Russia and the United States share a common enemy--radical Islam. Moscow and Washington should be allies in the struggle against Islamic clerical fascism; instead, they are each trying to ride an Islamist tiger without being eaten by it. Russia is backing nuclear/missile-mad Shiite Islamist Iran and Hezbollah while the U.S. is supporting Suuni Islamists, including Turkey's neo-Ottoman Islamist regime, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda-connected, -collaborating, and -sympathizing groups aiming to overthrow Syria's Shiite-Alawite Assad regime--Russia's longstanding Arab ally.
The stage has thus been set for a new Cold War and a confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers akin to the Cuban Missile Crisis that nearly ended in a nuclear holocaust. Recall that a menacing Soviet intervention in Cuba, only 90 miles from Florida, sparked a superpower confrontation that came perilously close to all-out war. This time, the U.S. is meddling in Russia's backyard--Syria is driving distance from the Russian border. Khrushchev's offensive, nuclear-tipped missiles were aimed at Washington. Putin's defensive missiles could shoot down U.S./NATO or Israeli warplanes; and clashes could result in Russian casualties as well as U.S., NATO and Israeli casualties.
None of this was necessary. Syria did not have to follow the … disastrous … Libyan script. Syria could and should have been … and perhaps still can be … politically neutralized, divided along ethnic and religious lines into demilitarized provinces under a federal parliamentary republic.
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