What the US Should Do about Putin’s Incursions into Syria
There can be no doubt that Russia's Vladimir Putin raised the already high stakes for the United States and its allies in the war in Syria and Iraq. It was already a highly complex and difficult situation before Putin moved Russian combat ground and air forces into Syria to help prop up the teetering government of Bashar al-Assad. Now the complexity and difficulty of that situation has increased exponentially. The obvious question is what should be the response of the US and its allies? However, before we begin try to answer that question, it would be best to understand what Putin expects to gain by throwing Russian solders and aircraft into that fight.
I recently saw U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper interviewed by Fareed Zakaria. When Fareed asked Director Clapper what goal is Vladimir Putin trying to achieve by inserting Russian troops into the Syrian civil war, he replied: “I personally question whether he has some long-term strategy or whether he is being very opportunistic on a day-to-day basis, and I think his intervention into Syria is another manifestation of that." He went on to say, “What his long-term plan is, I'm not sure he has one. I think he is kind of winging this day to day.”
I recently read that one of Putin’s allies in the Duma (Russia lower house of parliament) was quoted as saying Putin had a primary plan and a back-up plan in Syria. Plan A was to keep Assad in power and more importantly form a coalition with the US and its allies to fight ISIS together. In exchange for Russia’s help in eliminating ISIS, Putin intended to insist that the US and its allies drop the sanctions they imposed on Russia as punishment for its invasion of the Ukraine. If true, that explains why Putin was desperate to talk to President Obama during his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly meeting.
Apparently when President Obama said “Nyet” to that proposal, Putin fell back to Plan B. .......
http://www.cajunscomments.com/what-the-us-should-do-about-putins-incursions-into-syria/
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