PrintOctober 24, 2012
Will the U.S. Take On the Russians to Take Out Assad?
There are two reasons for the U.S. to seek the demise of Bashar Assad's regime -- for what it would mean to Syria and for what it would mean to Iran. The first is insufficient reason for the U.S. to involve itself directly. The second raises the elephant-in-the-room question: "Would the Obama administration act against the expressed interests of Putin's Russia to achieve a victory against Iran in Syria?"
The administration currently takes the approach that a serious American strategic objective can be achieved without direct American military involvement. Arming the "good rebels" is supposed to oust Assad and provide later influence in Damascus. But while the CIA was looking for the good guys (we didn't have a serious presence in the area until August), the administration was outsourcing the political conversation and the transfer of aid and weapons from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to increasingly openly Muslim Brotherhood-supporting Turkey. That gave...(Read Full Article)
