A move is afoot to issue all employees of the Department of State those tee shirts that say "I'm with Stupid" for use in case Secretary of State Kerry makes an appearance. Kerry has always been a remarkably dense and self important man. Since taking over at State, that problem seems to have gotten worse. The latest bit of idiocy being pushed by Kerry is the behind the scenes move to try to stop the flow of arms to the Syrian rebels. Just to be clear, these are not arms coming from America, but rather from countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia, American allies. The purported reason from the slowdown is to operate as a sign of good faith to Russia, so that it will, in turn, slow the flow of weapons to Assad.
Here are two important facts that Kerry and president Obama seem to have overlooked: 1) Russia has already confirmed that it will be delivering both anti aircraft and anti ship missiles to Assad and that those deliveries are already underway. Russia says that these are weapons, the delivery of which was agreed to about a year ago. The Russians say that they cannot break these old contracts. 2) Russia is not the main supplier of weapons to Assad. Iran holds that position, and it will not care whether or not Turkey and Saudi Arabia hold up weapons flow.
So what does this all mean? Russia is already delivering the key weapons that it is selling to Assad. The anti ship missiles are in Syria as I write this. None of the moves by the USA will change this. Even were Russia to stop deliveries after the quantity contracted for last year, the Assad forces would have a major stockpile of these weapons. And the weapons in question that are coming from Russia are really not aimed at the rebels. There is no rebel air force and no rebel navy. Syria cannot use these new weapons against the rebels. The new weapons are aimed primarily against any other country that might intervene to protect civilians or to assist the rebels and, of course, also at Israel. Should Turkey and the Saudis actually listen to Kerry and Obama and hold up deliveries to the rebels, they will just be giving Assad a major advantage as the civil war continues. That will probably mean another 50,000 dead Syrians and a few million more refugees. The policy is completely idiotic.
I realize that I have focused this piece on Kerry rather than on Obama. My guess is that it is at best 50-50 that Kerry has even told the president of this diplomatic initiative. In that way, if the move fails, Obama can claim to be outraged that it happened and he can launch another never-ending investigation.
Here are two important facts that Kerry and president Obama seem to have overlooked: 1) Russia has already confirmed that it will be delivering both anti aircraft and anti ship missiles to Assad and that those deliveries are already underway. Russia says that these are weapons, the delivery of which was agreed to about a year ago. The Russians say that they cannot break these old contracts. 2) Russia is not the main supplier of weapons to Assad. Iran holds that position, and it will not care whether or not Turkey and Saudi Arabia hold up weapons flow.
So what does this all mean? Russia is already delivering the key weapons that it is selling to Assad. The anti ship missiles are in Syria as I write this. None of the moves by the USA will change this. Even were Russia to stop deliveries after the quantity contracted for last year, the Assad forces would have a major stockpile of these weapons. And the weapons in question that are coming from Russia are really not aimed at the rebels. There is no rebel air force and no rebel navy. Syria cannot use these new weapons against the rebels. The new weapons are aimed primarily against any other country that might intervene to protect civilians or to assist the rebels and, of course, also at Israel. Should Turkey and the Saudis actually listen to Kerry and Obama and hold up deliveries to the rebels, they will just be giving Assad a major advantage as the civil war continues. That will probably mean another 50,000 dead Syrians and a few million more refugees. The policy is completely idiotic.
I realize that I have focused this piece on Kerry rather than on Obama. My guess is that it is at best 50-50 that Kerry has even told the president of this diplomatic initiative. In that way, if the move fails, Obama can claim to be outraged that it happened and he can launch another never-ending investigation.
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