Over 30 years ago, the president of Egypt ordered all of the Soviet troops out of his country. With that move, all Russian soldiers were out of the Middle East. Since then, the only Russian military personnel in the region were either military attaches in embassies or the small number of sailors from the Russian navy who were at the Russian base on the Mediterranean coast of Syria. Keeping Russian troops out of the area has been a long time American foreign policy goal, and that goal has been in place through presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush. Now, with Obama in office, the Russians are returning. While we do not yet know the scope of what the Russians are doing, we do know that there will be Russian ground troops, planes, pilots and other support personnel coming to Syria to be part of the forces defending the regime of Bashir al Assad which is likely to collapse without that support. In other words, the Russians are coming to keep the civil war in Syria from ending in a way that they don't like.
The AP wrote a story today about John Kerry "warning" the Russians against the move. Of course, if you read the story, you find that while the letter from Kerry is called a warning, it really is not. Kerry in essence tells the Russians that the USA would rather they not make this move; that's all. There is no threatened action by America in response to the Russian move. There is nothing which indicates to Putin and Moscow that there will be any sort of consequences to bringing forces back to the Middle East. In other words, a policy that has been successful for three decades is being abandoned by Obama. This is not leading from behind; it is running away and hiding. Obama's plan seems to be designed to leave this mess for the next president.
Once again, Obama has made clear that his foreign policy is not to pay attention to reality.
The AP wrote a story today about John Kerry "warning" the Russians against the move. Of course, if you read the story, you find that while the letter from Kerry is called a warning, it really is not. Kerry in essence tells the Russians that the USA would rather they not make this move; that's all. There is no threatened action by America in response to the Russian move. There is nothing which indicates to Putin and Moscow that there will be any sort of consequences to bringing forces back to the Middle East. In other words, a policy that has been successful for three decades is being abandoned by Obama. This is not leading from behind; it is running away and hiding. Obama's plan seems to be designed to leave this mess for the next president.
Once again, Obama has made clear that his foreign policy is not to pay attention to reality.
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