Complaining about Russian military flights into Turkey’s airspace, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan warned Russia not to mess with NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin told the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 28 that he intended to protect his ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from various terrorist groups seeking to topple his Alawite Shiite government. Saudi Arabia, a main financier of many Sunni groups seeking to oust al-Assad, insisted that the Kingdom wants regime change in Damacus regardless of the consequences to the region. As the U.N. finished its yearly opening of the General Assembly on the East River in Manhattan, Syria was a member in good standing, with all the rights, privileges and obligations of U.N.-member states. No one in the U.N. General Assembly or in the Security Council has debated evicting Syria or calling for regime change.
U.S., European Union and U.K. officials, without making it official policy, insist that Bashar al-Assad must go for alleged war crimes against his people trying to defend his sovereignty since the civil war started March 11, 2011. Apart from using some dirty tactics against terror group to defend his sovereignty, including possible chemical weapons, al-Assad remains the legitimate ruler of Syria. Going to al-Assad’s defense has thrown the U.S., NATO and Saudi Arabia for a loop. Unlike President Barack Obama, that started air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Sept. 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to go all the way, supplying al-Assad air and ground support. U.S. and EU officials complained that Putin’s going after more targets than just the ISIS. Until the U.N. ends al-Assad’s membership, Syria’s still entitled to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Obama’s made a feeble case against al-Assad, despite crossing the red line of using chemical weapons in 2013. Unwilling to commit ground troops to fight the ISIS or topple al-Assad, Obama left the door open to Putin to act decisively. “An attack on Turkey means an attack on NATO,” Erdogan told a Brussels’ new conference today, speculating about the high risk of Russian flyovers in Turkey. What Erdogan won’t admit is that there’s no stomach in NATO for confronting Moscow regardless of possible mishap with Russian air force. “I will not speculate on the motives . . . but his does not look like an accident and we have see two of them,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, referring to Russian flights into Turkey. U.S. and NATO got caught flatfooted with a fence-sitting policy when it came to dealing with ISIS and regime change in Damacus.
Calling Russia flights into Turkey “extremely dangerous” and “unacceptable,” Stoltenberg has no answer for Putin’s defense of al-Assad. U.S. and EU officials have been sitting on their hands for nearly two years while ISIS seized more Iraqi and Syrian sovereign territory. Obama’s made it clear that he has no intent to putting boots-on-the-ground in Syria or Iraq to deal with ISIS, let alone topple al-Assad. Putin’s move trumps the U.S. and NATO, leaving the West looking indecisive, disorganized and incompetent. Focusing on Russia’s incursions into Turkey’s airspace belies an incoherent U.S. and NATO policy in Syria. Putin decisively acted to protect his ally, home to Russia’s Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. U.S. and NATO can’t figure out its priorities in Syria: Battling ISIS or regime change in Damascus. Putin focused his objective on protecting al-Assad’s sovereignty.
Moscow insists that any incursion into Turkish airspace were brief and accidental, something belied by the actual incidents. Russian MIG-29 fighters locked onto Turkey’s F-16’s radar for up to four-and-a-half minutes, clearly sending a message not to mess with Russian jets. “The impression is that the incident in Turkish airspace was used to plug NATO as an organization into the information campaign waged by the West to distort the arms of the operations carried out by Russia Air Force in Syria,” Alexander Grushko told the press in Brussels. No one masters propaganda better than the Kremlin when it comes to advancing Russia’s agenda. Were it not for the Kremlin’s March 1, 2014 seizure of Crimea, there might be more cooperation. Obama said the U.S. would not get pulled into a proxy war with Russia in Syria, agreeing to coordinate air strikes against ISIS in Syria.
Russia’s military intervention in Syria embarrasses the White House and NATO, showing, if nothing else, Putin plays a winning game of chess. With some 1,500 infantry and at least seven T-90 tanks defending al-Assad, backed up Russian air strikes, the U.S. and NATO haven’t figured out what they’re doing in Syria. Obama’s year-old air campaign has been a feckless way to dislodge ISIS from key Syrian towns. Putin makes no bones of his mission to shore up al-Assad’s weakened defenses. U.S. and NATO officials got bent out of shape when it became clear Russia was going after a whole range of al-Assad’s Saudi-backed enemies, not just ISIS. Putin told the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 28 that toppling al-Assad would make more of a mess in the region. Putin believes defending al-Assad, beating back various Sunni terror groups and defeating ISIS is the best way to end the Syrian crisis.
