Syria has morphed into a proxy battlefield. What began as the people’s cry for freedom five years ago evolved into a civil war hijacked by terrorists of all stripes and is now being used by Washington and Moscow as a chess board. Tragically, rather than work together to find solutions, both the US and Russia are shamefully competing for geopolitical dominance. Their respective goal is to be seen to ‘win’ no matter the cost. Neither has behaved responsibly as befitting a world power with a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
US President Barack Obama’s ‘moderate rebels’ are anything but. Most of those trained and armed by the Pentagon and the CIA collaborate with known terrorist groups, while Russia’s comrades-in-arms include a dictator with blood on his hands, the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group and Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Both countries have bombed untold numbers of civilians even as the Syrian city of Raqqa remains the declared capital of Daesh (the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) where, according to recent reports, those monsters are severing children’s limbs and torturing women. When they are supposed to have been targeted by US, Russian and Turkish warplanes, not to mention Kurdish and Syrian ground forces, the wonder is they’re still there calling the shots.
Neither Obama nor Russian President Vladimir Putin can claim to be heroes. They are purely motivated by interests and it could be argued that if they had stayed out, the conflict would have reached its conclusion years ago. Surely, just about any conclusion permitting Syrians to live without fear of bombs would have been an improvement on the status quo!
At the very least when almost half a million Syrians have been killed, millions more struggle to survive under siege and approximately 11 million are displaced (six million internally and five million rendered refugees) their interventions have been abject failures.
Putin has adamantly refused to tell Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to start packing, the opposition’s prime set-in-stone prerequisite to engage in serious peace talks.
Obama erased his own red line against the advice of his Secretary-of-State John Kerry and shied away from striking convoys transporting oil stolen by Daesh until Putin got in on the act, looking like he meant business.
And now that the regime is on the ascendant in various parts of the country and is poised to take back eastern Aleppo thanks to its no-holds-barred brutality, US officials are panicking, issuing threat after threat. Naturally, if the mighty superpower is seen to be at the losing end, it’s regional and global influence will be undermined. The worry is that this US-Russian war of words could spin out of control. Neither side can afford to make empty threats, thereby seeming impotent. However, it appears the White House has already blinked.
Last week, the Washington Post disclosed that the Obama administration is considering striking the Al Assad regime now that cooperation between Russia and the US has completely broken down. Options on the table included bombing “Syrian air force runways using cruise missiles and other long-range weapons fired from coalition planes and ships,” according to an unnamed official.
A spokesman from Russia’s Ministry of Defence fired back warning in that event it would shoot down coalition planes over government-held territory. “I remind US strategists that air cover for the Russian military bases... includes S-400 and S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, the range of which may come as a surprise to any unidentified flying objects,” he said.
‘Unintended consequences’
White House spokesman Josh Earnest subsequently confirmed that the president is not in favour of military action, adding, “It is much more likely to lead to a bunch of unintended consequences...”
Kerry is calling for Russia and Syria to be investigated for war crimes. He has a point but he knows fully well that Russia is protected by its UN veto power and would presumably defend Syria that has not ratified the International Criminal Court. Moreover, coming from the US, that demand could be construed as the pot calling the kettle black as a spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry inferred, citing American actions in Iraq, Libya and elsewhere.
As tensions ratchet-up, western papers are milking the scare-factor. British newspapers are churning out articles portending a brewing nuclear war, citing Moscow’s construction of nuclear bunkers capable of sheltering 12 million and a massive country-wide civil defence drill involving the evacuation of 40 million citizens.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence is putting on a convincing poker face, but like those of us who lived through the 1961 Cuban missile crisis know well, such posturing can easily spiral out of control.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com.
