Tag: United States

Syria’s Assad: Still the wrong choice

Syria’s Assad: Still the wrong choice – latimes.com.

It’s absolutely shameful that we still have to make this argument, that Assad is the wrong choice, even now, even after so much death and mayhem. How can a genocidal maniac ever be the right choice? Look no further than Ambassador Ryan Crocker who keeps making this argument to his dying shame. People like him whose voices were silent when Assad started his genocide now speak loud and clear, their realism offers nothing by way of preventing genocide but is good at accommodating a fait accomplit. People like him are not just the Devil’s advocates, they are his enablers, for all their good intentions.

US and Iran’s First Joint Military Venture: Fighting al Qaeda in Iraq

US and Iran’s First Joint Military Venture: Fighting al Qaeda in Iraq.

While Western coverage portrays the Maliki-led operations against the inhabitants of the Anbar Province as a battle against Al-Qaeda, and as the U.S. supplies Maliki with advanced weapons and intelligence information to carry out these operations, the story is far more complex and involves a legitimate grievance by Iraq’s Sunni minority regarding their representation in government and the lack of any serious effort to develop their areas. The Sunnis of Iraq are being punished en masse for the crimes of the Saddam regime. But the West, the U.S. in particular, seems oblivious to that, as a result it has created a void that Al-Qaeda was all too happy to fill, just as it was happy to fill the void in Syria generated by the U.S.’ unwillingness to invest in moderate rebel. In short, and in pure sectarian terms, the U.S. intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan brought misery to the Sunnis, and the U.S. lack of intervention in Syria achieved the same on an even larger scale. Sunnis are beginning to see a pattern, and Islamists are exploiting that. For all its pretension to noninvolvement, the policies of the Obama Administration put it squarely in the camp of Iran in an ongoing identity conflict that is quickly spanning the region. A backlash is bound to happen, and it’s bound to be violent and bloody.

Anne Applebaum: China and Russia bring back Cold War tactics

Anne Applebaum: China and Russia bring back Cold War tactics – The Washington Post.

Irrespective of what #Russia’s or #China’s intentions are, resorting to Cold War tactics in this globalized world of ours will pave the way for disasters for which no one is prepared: #Syria is a case in point. Unless the need for a serious attitude adjustment on their part is highlighted by a more proactive American administration, the consequences of this development will be dire.