When Russia invaded Ukraine, Vladimir Putin was met with Western sanctions. When Russia invaded Syria, Vladimir Putin was met with Western coordination and cooperation. If the West truly wanted Assad gone, where are the sanctions against Russia for invading Syria?
Lacking any military response or economic sanctions, Russia invading Syria sums-up how the West lost to Syria’s Assad even though many Western leaders attempt to maintain a timid “Assad has to go” attitude.
In fact, people like Secretary of State John Kerry have yet to realize America losing in Syria. Calling for peace negotiations on Syria while lacking any military or sanctions leverage is laughable.
Let us face it, the Assad strategy in forging ISIS to freeze any tracks of Assad regime change has defeated the West. A West who is forced to permit Russia to plant both its feet in Syria in the hope Putin would mount a serious military ground campaign against ISIS. Even if that means Assad is the price to pay for Russian ground troops.
After all the terror Assad subjected Syrians to, the gassing of his own people, the barrel bombs against women and children, the missiles aimed at destroying civilian neighborhoods, the deliberate starvation of whole towns and cities, the raping of women, the systematic torture and killing of Syrians who marched peacefully against his regime, and the ethnic cleansing campaigns, all of this violence and terror has come down to the West saving a genocidal maniac for his crimes. It has come down to permitting Russia to invade Syria to battle the enemy Assad fabricated to save his skin.
Literally and genuinely, Assad defeated America, Europe, and Israel in one neat bundle of fanatic Muslim joy.
In diplomacy, nothing creates more leverage than military power. When President Barack Obama took that leverage off the table at the beginning of his term, courtesy of his ignorance and inexperience, he rendered any of his diplomatic efforts as potent as a mouse in a den of snakes.
Assad winning is as much about Obama losing out of ignorance and ineptitude.
How will Saudi Arabia respond to the threat of Russian soldiers fighting Sunni Muslims on Arab soil? During the Chechen theater siege in Moscow in December of 2002, the rebels called wealthy Saudis probably for instructions.
If anyone thinks wealthy Arab Sunnis are not going to respond to Russia for invading Syria, an Arab land, they are mistaken even though ISIS threatens Saudi Arabia as much as it threatens the West.
If Russian forces attempt to battle Jaish al-Fateh, which is highly expected, the Saudis would respond by recruiting and training more Sunni Arabs from an endless supply of hopeless youth, and by sending more weapons to protect the rebels from a coming Russian onslaught. Whether these weapons might include Chinese-made anti-aircraft batteries remains to be seen.
If al-Sauds believe an Iranian win in Syria might just land them in its scope, they would not hesitate to do what it takes to keep Syrians fighting to defeat the Russian/Iranian axis in Syria. Putin invading Syria is a magnet for more extremism.
For Saudi Arabia, a Syrian defeat to Putin and Khamenei becomes an existential complication.
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