T. Belman. There’s a lesson here. Don’t pussy foot around. Get the job done as quickly as possible. No matter how brutal, it will save lives. This lesson should apply to the PA. Stop supporting them so that they are forced to compromise, even capitulate. Destroy the negotiating table and dictate to them. Never empower your enemy to stand up to you.
SU-35 Russian warplane for ground targets deployed this week in Syria
Russia is determined to bomb Syrian rebels into submission by a massive aerial campaign, comparable to the American 2003 “shock and awe” offensive over Baghdad. Only this time, it is Russia which is invading Syria. Tuesday, Feb. 2, saw a wave of air strikes, for which heavy Tupolev Tu-22M strategic bombers flew in from their base in Russia. President Vladimir is not deterred by the hundreds of civilian casualties caused in these raids, or the cries rising from the Syrian town of Aleppo which was targeted Monday.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the Russian air strikes are of equal intensity in northern and southern Syria. Tuesday, Feb. 3, 300 sorties were conducted against rebel forces holding the small southern town of Nawa, just 10 km from Israel’s Golan border. They were clearly audible to the members of Israel’s security cabinet, led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, when they toured the northern border that day.
This may have been meant to demonstrate to all parties concerned Moscow ruthless determination to smash the Syrian rebellion and close all its options except for two: 1) Continue to take brutal punishment from hundreds of bombing raids per day; or 2) Play ball with the political solution Moscow has presented to the Geneva conference for resolving the Syrian conflict.
The concession to Saudi Arabia and the UAE offered by Russia for letting the rebel groups they support come to Geneva was that Putin planned the political process he projected to culminate in Bashar Assad’s departure.
Lacking a specific timeline for this event, Moscow added another incentive: the removal not only of Bashar Assad from power, but also making a clean sweep of his clan members from their positions of control over the Syrian military and intelligence services.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on a visit to Abu Dhabi Tuesday, stressed that the Gulf rulers had every reason to go along with Moscow’s plan for Syria, since Assad’s ouster is built in as its end-product, an elusive goal for which they laid out billions of dollars in support for rebel groups..
The heavy bombing campaign was not Putin’s only tool of leverage. DEBKAfile’s sources in Washington and Moscow report that US President Barack Obama is behind the military and political game plan which Moscow is selling to the region.
The two powers are therefore engaged in a joint initiative for bringing the horrendous five-year Syrian war to an end, their first such partnership for a Middle East conflict. They have agreed to assign the Russian military the lead role for imposing a political solution on the various parties. Because their alliance is powerful enough to crush any resistance in its path, neither Washington nor Moscow is overly concerned by the threat by rebel delegations in Geneva to walk out unless Russian air strikes are halted.
For them, Geneva is a sideshow. The political process for ending the war is rooted in the deal between the United States and Russia. Even if some delegations do walk out of the conference, their forces will continue to face savage Russian air strikes, until they are cowed into downing arms on terms dictated by the Kremlin with Obama’s support.
You cannot expect American boots on the ground, unless the are part of a UN military. This is not going to happen with Obama, Trump, Cruz, Rubio, or with Sanders or Clinton. 300,000 troops in the middle East is never going to happen again.
The USA is moving towards isolation, both politically and in trade, They plan to return to self-sufficiency. No conflict should interrupt their abilities to live well or be able to have domestic manufacturing of electronics, and other military essential commodities.
@ lsatenstein:
Yes diplomacy worked if you are a Mullah in Iran.
You now have 100 billion plus dollars to further terrorism.
You can keep working on miniaturizing a warhead to put on a missile to reach all corners of the globe including over Nebraska to set off an EMP that would put the USA (plus much of Canada) back to the 15th century with no working electricity or electronics.
When you have miniaturized the warhead you can at any time break out your Uranium production. What will stop it Obama?
You can also wait 10 years or so and make a legal nuclear bomb per the agreement.
You now have fighter planes on order.
You are on the border of Israel and basically Obama has said I will NOT defend Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi or any of the gulf states or other allies.
The gulf states and Egypt are working on getting nukes.
Yep diplomacy worked if wanted to try and skew power to Iran in the middle east.
Yes Obama was very helpful to the Hezbollah, Iran and left the door completely open for Russia to spread their wings (fighter jets) in the middle east.
Yes diplomacy works if you are Obama and Kerry and live with your heads in the sand like an Ostrich.
I like Obama’s approach. The USA has better military equipment than does Russia. That is why Russia looks at concern at the USA.
Obama’s approach is to walk softly and carry a big stick.
Diplomacy works. Iran dismantled their bomb making and nuclear facilities beyond the requirements of the deal that was negotiated. Iran might have gotten the bomb, but it could not survive as 20 other countries would get the bomb and start pointing their bombs at Iran and at each other.
My view and our own Prime minister publicly stated “Obama is the first intelligent president. Obama has brains and is doing good things for the citizens of the USA.”
Russia will insure peace in the middle east. It will cost Russia many lives trying to do so, and in the end, dictatorships will prevail.
Ted, in your opening statement – you are quite correct. Never capitulate to your enemy. Also I think the writer of the main article is giving Obama too much credit. Mr Putin is the man here, and Obama is a quisling.
In 10 years, Russia will be counting their dead as a result of their activities today. Many of the dead will be found within Russian heartland.
Moscow is also not able to protect itself, neither is the KGB.
Hatred has no limits for revenge.
The way Russia fights its enemies is precisely the way the USA and Israel should fight their own enemies.
Russia is the superpower that will call most of the future shots in Israel’s extended, dangerous, and hateful neighborhood. And Russia is the superpower with which the Jewish state should cultivate political, military, economic, and cultural relations, in order to counterbalance it’s similar relationships with the USA.
I really do not give a damn about the bitter thoughts of everything Russian that some of Israpundit’s other commenters publish in their comments. Because if you are Jewish nationalists, then all that counts in the present and future is whatever it takes to augment the national power of Israel. Forget about negotiated peace agreements with any of the local Arab gangs or the blatherskite and frequently murderous governments of most of the Arab states — and for that matter, of all the Moslem states. What Israel needs is raw power, not paper agreements that would be more useful to wipe your asses with. Even if they could be achieved. And they cannot.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker