What are our choices?
Where’s the strong coalition on the U.S. side?
All good questions to ask our elected officials I think.
Stray Chem Bio is Not The Least of Our Worries
Reports have it that the British SAS is running down stray chem-bio weapons caches and thank goodness for that. We’re a bribed border guard away from the next chemical or biological catastrophe on U.S. soil. A couple of the SAS were apparently and embarrassingly captured by the Syrians.
“As if the crisis along the Mexican border wasn’t bad enough, two veteran Border Patrol agents have been convicted for operating a multi-million-dollar human smuggling business in which illegal immigrants were transported into the U.S. in government vehicles.” Read more from Judicial Watch.
Trust Building
To the casual observer it seems like the U.S. is fighting a secret and losing war in Syria. If this was Vegas you would get great odds betting for America and our half-in support of the Syrian rebels. Sure, the CIA will throw a few weapons and some money to keep them in the fight, but that’s about the extent of it.
“We haven’t seen eye to eye with Russia on Syria” – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Not a very powerful statement in my opinion.
The U.S. continues to develop a disturbing trend of double talk and lack of loyalty to ethnic groups (The Kurds) and countries of interest. If the political winds shift we are quick to pull chocks and get the hell out of the fray, and this is not a winning formula for building trust or long term relationships.
Trust building is an essential building block for any relationship. My Army SF brothers know this best – they are experts at building networks of trust in foreign countries. Just look what they accomplished early on in Afghanistan.
America’s Secret War with Russia & Iran
Russia, Iran and China are not adversaries we should underestimate. The U.S. is keeping up just enough support to give the appearance of doing the right thing, but how long will this last? While the CIA and others wage warfare in secret, the Russians are apparently outspending and out supplying us in the Syrian arms race.
From the New York Times:
Russia, along with China, has vetoed three resolutions regarding Syria at the United Nations Security Council, but Mrs. Clinton had hoped Russia would show more flexibility as the violence worsened. Instead, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, publicly rebuked her on Syria, as well as on Iran.
“Our American partners have a prevailing tendency to threaten and increase pressure, adopt ever more sanctions against Syria and against Iran,” Mr. Lavrov said. “Russia is fundamentally against this, since for resolving problems you have to engage the countries you are having issues with and not isolate them.” (more here)
It’s a friendly game of real life chess, America versus Russian. We’ll see who has the stamina and desire to win. The tragedy is that the pawns are the Syrian citizens, and it will get worse before it gets better.
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