Syria and the Putin Connection

Syria and the Putin Connection

The dictator of Syria has a grassroots challenge to his authority and income.  He responds with death to anyone who supports the opposition.  War between the two sides ensues.  The dictator of Syria is losing control of areas important to his authority and income and so he responds with poison gas. 

President Obama has said that the use of ‘chemical weapons’ is a red line in the sand, which is a colloquialism for “a point beyond which such behavior will not be tolerated”.  The UN team determined that sarin gas had been used on the victims and the dictator of Syria is the one who had the means to deliver the canisters to the target. 

Even before the UN team investigated, Sen. McCain was calling for the bombing of Syria, with Sen. L. Graham on a leash behind him yapping for the same thing.  The press picked the ‘red line in the sand’ story to headline the news for weeks now, calling for bombing Syria and some of the most vociferous are calling for bombing of Iran, Hezbollah, and anybody else living and breathing over there.  

A press harried President Obama calls for bombing Syria, then asks for congressional support for his position, which was a wise move that averted the new war McCain and so many members of the press were slavering for.  I saw commentators who probably get out of breath walking to their cars ranting for our best young men and women to be sent to another war.  President Obama is criticized by the press for asking for congressional approval for military action in Syria, many of the same press who criticized President Bush for doing just that.  So many of the press are war mongering about Syria, I wonder why past massacres of people in Africa received no press attention….

So warships converge on the Eastern Mediterranean and other areas, all in anticipation of a showdown over bombing Syria, a crisis manufactured by President Obama and the press manipulating national policy.  Fortunately, President Putin of Russia has the common sense to defuse all this war talk and to work towards a diplomatic solution to the enforcement of a ban of chemical weapons.  As a trading partner with Syria, President Putin has leverage over what power the dictator of Syria actually has over the future of his nation.  Assad is free to make his own decisions and any member of the press who reports that Assad is Putin’s boy is lying.   Assad is totally responsible for his own decisions, including the use of poison gas.  I suspect that President Putin does not want the use of poison gas anywhere in the world, including Syria as a means to prop up a failing regime.  I applaud Vladimir Putin’s common sense in defusing this phony crisis. 

President Obama is shown to be inexperienced for creating crisis situations with loose comments and threats.  Yes, threats!  Drawing a red line in the sand is an offer to fight, just like on the playground where one kid draws a line in the dirt and dares another kid to cross it.  He is also foolish to respond so much to goadings from the press and he allocates too much power to the war mongering press.  Certainly, the images of gassed people were horrible, but the response to the atrocities should not be more death of innocents, inevitable if Syria is bombed.  A diplomatic response is preferable, and I hope that President Putin’s offer to mediate is successful.  Too many people have died. 

The sector of the war mongering press has been forced to publish surveys of the American people, who do not want a war solution to the violation of the chemical weapons ban by the Syrian government.  Congress is suddenly aware that the majority of their constituency does not want more military involvement in the Middle East.  The time for peace is nigh.