First off an apology for deviating from the Florida oriented focus of this website. The crisis in Syria, the most serious foreign policy crisis the US has been faced with since 9/11 (Iraq was self created and inflicted so I do not view that in the same realm) has consumed most of my thoughts these past few weeks. I am a strong supporter of the President’s domestic agenda from Health Care to Environmental matters. However, I fear his performance on the world stage the past two weeks has ceded elements of our global leadership to Russia. With that in mind, I realize my strong opposition to military intervention may have been short sighted for the reason I feared two weeks ago- Russia. But then again it was the vacillation and inconsistencies of the administration that opened the door for Russian leader/dictator Vladimir Putin to seize the initiative.
When I articulated my strong opposition to the proposed intervention a few weeks ago I did so with a caveat. On September 2nd I wrote:
I’ve been outspoken to this point in opposition to the potential intervention but I understand we need to confront Vladimir Putin’s Russia real soon either diplomatically or through a proxy war. The major geopolitical strategic question that begs itself in this conflict is it better to have a Russian/Iranian proxy in Assad or an Islamist government in Damascus? As a secularist who find religious Muslim governments particularly oppressive and dangerous (not just in the Middle East but also in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa), my instinct would be for the former but logic tells me the later can perhaps be worked with better than anyone associated with Putin right now.
I have to admit now that I am beginning to hedge on Syria given the very open involvement of Putin and Russia. While two weeks ago I was very much aware of Moscow’s interest in the situation and concerned that not intervening might give them a victory, I did not anticipate things going in this direction where the President was unable to rally our western allies and Congress while Putin stepped into the void of global leadership ceded by the inept public handling of this matter by the President. I have long considered Putin to be our biggest enemy, and our biggest national security threat. Mitt Romney’s warnings about Putin were the only thing in his campaign last summer I found compelling about his candidacy, but the rest of his foreign policy was dangerous.
However, President Obama’s handling of Russia over five years has been poor. Putin has with minimal American opposition been allowed to occupy two provinces of Georgia which he invaded in 2008, continue using energy resources as a stick to beat over the head of the west, gagged the media, passed discriminatory measures against LGBT citizens of Russia and allowed a pattern of overt racism in public (particularly at football matches where foreign black players are subjected to monkey chants and open letters from fans about the need to keep the sport “pure” racially) to permeate Russian society at many levels. While the coddling of Russia began under notable Russophile Condelezza Rice in her tenure as Secretary of State it has continued under President Obama.
Russia is a dangerous adversary and while I do not like war and do not support the constant calls from my brethren on the left to intervene in foreign wars for humanitarian reasons, Russia to me is an overriding global threat to our economic security, our global hegemony (not hubris like the Bush administration but our ability to use soft power to promote a liberal global agenda is why I want American power to remain strong internationally and most importantly to our value system.
As far as intervention in Syria because of a 100,000 civil war deaths, the US has repeatedly sat still under administrations of both parties when genocide has taken place in countries such as Rwanda, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Mali. Syria is no worse a humanitarian crisis than the aforementioned recent happenings, and the need to relieve Turkey and Jordan due the refugees streaming across those borders should not be a consideration. Perhaps the US can help economically with the refugee crisis but given our large national debt and inability to properly fund programs that impact OUR CITIZENS, I do not think that is wise.
As a liberal I have real problems with the lack of secular governments in the Middle East. Syria under the Assad family has been far more secular than its neighbors and far more accepting of Christianity than the alternative might be. This has to be a consideration for US policy makers who represent the nation with the largest population of Christians on the planet. While many liberals want to see Muslims as a persecuted minority in the west, the reality is that many Muslim majority governments in North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia do much more persecution than any western nation does of any minority group. Placing another one of these Governments in power should not be in our interest as liberals.
The case against acting in Syria is clear based on Syria and the Middle East alone. But Putin’s sponsorship of Assad is really making me hedge. The battle with Russia is bigger and more critical for our national security and our values than anything else happening in geopolitics. The American public must wake up as to the threat Russia poses for us, and this administration should consider acting militarily to simply send a message that Russia cannot dictate events.
If we act militarily, I would hope that we could create an environment where we create a stalemate, bogging down Russia to prop up a client state while denying the ability for the Islamist oriented rebels to take power. I am still not convinced on the need to act militarily, but the Russia element and President Obama’s miscalculation about Putin’s reactions has me seriously reconsidering my established view on this matter. But obviously with the deal being made between Russia and Secretary Kerry the military option is now off the table until Putin violates the agreement which is almost certain given his hypocrisy and hubris.
Special TFS Syria Podcast
The Florida Squeeze 
Very big of you to reconsider this though your shots at Obama are unfair. Congress also to blame and honestly it was less Obama and more the incompetence of John Kerry that made the administration look bad. Kerry should be fired as Secretary of State. He made mistake after mistake inconsistency after inconsistency and then said something stupid which opened the door for Putin to seize the moment.
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I also believe Putin made this peace overture more for power geo-politics than humanitarian concern for the killing of innocent people in Syria with chemical gas.
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John Kerry a joke. He more than Obama is responsible for this capitulation to the Russians.
I agree with the above comment that he should be fired.
Well at least we didn’t do Netanyahu’s bidding so that’s good. Screw Russia and Israel and worry about America.
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I cannot believe how you go after Obama in this post without even mentioning that the President is only as good as his foreign policy team and that John Kerry is no Hillary Clinton. Kerry was the one dancing all over the place, saying things that didn’t make sense, allowing Putin to call him a liar because he did in fact lie and then changing the story about the proportion of the attack and the motives every other day. Then he opened his mouth and said the STUPIDEST THING POSSIBLE and Putin ran right in and said, “if you feel that way let’s do this.”
The ONLY thing Obama did wrong was appoint Kerry as a political payback for passing him over in the first term and allowing him to play Romney in debate training!
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it’s the same old thing, religion and belief trumps facts…..this is complex because of the atrocities committed on innocent people in Syria, but we have seen this scenario before….and politics gets in the way….it appears the president is not looking steady because those who will gain aren’t the people of the US or Syria, but those who want power and control of the natural resources…..We still have the military power to defend ourselves…lets’ not make any more mistakes that harms our own welfare, but show real strength by not invading…..It’s about time that the people have their say…. Where is the leadership and American exceptionalism, just the boys playing their games…..
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I am pleased you have revisited your knee-jerk leftist position but VERY ANGRY you would blame our President. Like the above posters I believe STRONGLY that John Kerry is lying his way through this job and should be fired immediately. He is a clown. If it wasn’t for him we would not have had four more years of Bush. His skills on the stump continue to be terrible and he was for it before he was against it played out again.
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Remember Russian arms deals keep the Syrian Assad government and Arab rebel terrorists killing each other. Gangster governments on all sides deceive the mass with intelligence lies while the poor and worker fight for a living. Who represents the people?
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Really Kartik you make good points but totally miss the boat where to assign blame.
Kerry’s misleading of the Senate Foreign Relations Cmte on terrorist influence among the rebels is what got Putin active to begin with and then Kerry’s misstatement which the administration soon tried to correct the record but the damage was done and Putin swooped in and made this offer which you rightly decry.
So how is this Obama’s fault and not Kerry’s?
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Really people? Kerry did not act on his own without instructions and approval from the Administration, and don’t forget, it was Obama that chose Kerry to be Secretary of State and he is ultimately responsible for Kerry’s actions. I generally support the President but it’s time to call bullshit. If this was going on under Bush he would be portrayed by us as incompetent, if not downright evil. Just because Obama is our guy does not mean that we cannot let him off the hook when he is wrong or makes mistakes.
We are always screaming about the hypocrisy of the right with the “our President right or wrong” attitude. Let’s not fall into the same trap.
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Well said.
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Blind allegiance is the mother of tyranny!
Mitt Romney said to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on March 26, 2012, “Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe. They – they fight every cause for the world’s worst actors.” (http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/26/romney-russia-is-our-number-one-geopolitical-foe)
At the Democratic National Convention, Secretary of State John Kerry replied about former governor Mitt Romney, ““He’s even blurted out the preposterous notion that Russia is our ‘No. 1 geopolitical foe. Folks: Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from Alaska [she didn’t]; Mitt Romney talks like he’s only seen Russia by watching Rocky IV.” (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/80886.html)
Also at the Democratic National Convention, President Barack Obama replied that Mr. Romney was “new to foreign policy” and further stated, “After all, you don’t call Russia our No. 1 enemy — not Al-Qaida, Russia — unless you’re still stuck in a Cold War mind warp.”
The president and secretary probably thought they were being cute but in hindsight, they were wrong; they should have shown more humility towards Mr. Romney; and they should have taken Russia more seriously. To suggest that President Obama is completely innocent and that Secretary of State John Kerry is wholly responsible, is to ignore everything from President Obama’s handling of the anti-ballistic missile defense system forward.
Serious minds understand these important nuances; naive, political partisans don’t. I don’t agree with Mr. Krishnaiyer’s party alliance, but I respect his willingness to more carefully consider the slight variation in these very hot, divisive issues whether its on this subject, transparently describing the history of race relations no matter how embarrassing it is for Democrats or other issues that don’t fit neatly into the partisan boxes we’ve constructed for ourselves.
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This “hedging” underlies the basic stupidity with forming opinions based on “press reports and news analysis by so-called experts/consultants/bloggers”.
Yes, I believe in an open government, but we seem to have forgotten we elected the people we feel are “qualified” to make the correct decisions during they’re term in office. If we don’t agree with what they’ve done we should not re-elected them!
To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt…..a smart businessman hires the best people he can find and then has the good sense to get out of their way and let them do the job he’s hired them to do! THE SAME IS TRUE IN GOVERNMENT!
In this case we’d all be better off if we’d allow the President we elected do his job without the constant questioning, second guessing and back biting that lacks full knowledge and understanding!
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