Fubara David-West
3 hrs
Is Russia Humiliating the United States?---From Nigerian Internet Fora
This will make for a very good script, for Comedy Hour. Russia humiliating USA in Syria!!!! How is Russia doing that? Syria has been a long-standing ally of the defunct Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Republic. Syria has been one of the bitter enemies of Israel, which is a close ally of the United States.
Given those set of facts, why would the United States take it upon itself, to save Syria from an existential threat? That is the critical question to be asked. Of course, the threat that ISIS poses to the region, might spread to American allies such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. However, those states are wealthy enough; and they have the population, to be able to raise armed forces to meet the challenge from ISIS.
Furthermore, the ISIS threat is also a real threat to international peace and security, as recognized by the United Nations. ISIS wants to obliterate the territorial boundaries of some of the member states of the United Nations. That is the kind of a threat that the United Nations was created to deal with, following the experience of the international community with the threat from Nazi, which led to World War II.
The problem we have in Syria/Iraq is for the United Nations Security Council to solve. However, two Permanent Members of the Council with the authority to veto resolutions and collective action: Russia and China have used their vetoes to prevent collective action. Let us note, once again, that Syria is a Russian ally. Given the circumstances, why should the United States feel humiliated, if Russia stands up, finally, to do something about an existential threat to its ally?
The United States has the capability to move unilaterally, to attempt to impose its will on ISIS, but given its experience with the Iraq War, which cost American tax payers a trillion dollars, and hundreds of Americans killed, why should the United States do that? There is no compelling reason why it should, and President Obama seems to fully understand that.
President Obama, several months ago, did make a mistake of bluffing and then backing down, with his "red line." However, even in that case, which was mismanaged by the Secretary of State, John Kerry, the United States mission was supposed to be a well-defined punitive strike against Syria, for using chemical weapons. It was not a mission, for bringing about a solution to the overall threat from ISIS. In many ways, Secretary Kerry seemed to have done foreign policy on the fly, under the influence of the continuing bad taste in the United States, with another project like the Iraq War in the Middle East.
That bad taste persists. Furthermore, given the overall interests at stake, there is no good reason why President Obama should deviate from his doctrine of assisting as much as possible, the states which are directly threatened by these kinds of situations, to help themselves.
Russia could not possibly humiliate the United States, in the Middle East, unless and until an existential threat to the state of Israel crops up, and and two conditions are present. (1) The United States does not quickly move in with Israel, to destroy the threat. (2) The threat originates from the Middle East region. The probability of that happening is infinitesimally small.
The matter of rerouting American aircraft to avoid Russian bombers is just an intelligent big power political play, to avoid a real clash with a credible foe, when the national interests at stake are minimal. There is nothing to be gained, from inadvertently engaging in an air war with Russia.
Of course, it makes for good opposition politics and for shoring up a lawmaker's hawkish credentials to see "humiliation" here. Russia itself knows better. That was why, Russia did not dare to come out and warn the United States not to attack its ally, Syria, when President Obama readied American forces to carry out those punitive strikes on Syria, for using chemical weapons.