A Turkey Air Force pilot in what is likely a U.S.-made F-16 Fighting
Falcon: The downing Friday of a a fighter of NATO-member Turkey
raises
the stakes in the region significantly,
marking an escalation
of Russian military involvement.
Moscow’s Military Action in Syria
a ‘Gift’ to Washington (An Nahar, Lebanon)
“Russian
involvement in Syria doesn’t worry Washington, as it breaks a rule that has
stood since the fall of the Soviet Union, whereby Americans get involved,
and Russians take advantage of the involvement of the Americans. This time
around, it seems that Syria is the stage and it is Moscow pushing to be on it.”
Demonstrators protest the al-Assad regime in front of the Syrian consulate in Istanbul, May 27. With the first NATO aircraft shot down off the Syrian coast, the situation is rapidly escalating.
Whatever the truth behind the downing of a Turkish military aircraft
off the Syrian coast; whether it was for purely technical reasons, it was shot
down by the regime or it was brought down by Russian missiles mounted on
battleships off the coast, what is certain is that the Syria conflict has taken a turn much more serious than ever before.
The Russian position is firm, and suggests that Moscow will
go to even greater lengths to protect Bashar al-Assad’s
regime and prevent its downfall. As for the regime and its main regional supporter
Iran, they are willing to murder tens of thousands of Syrian citizens beyond
the 15,000 already killed, and wouldn’t hesitate to use the Samson Option, making al-Assad’s
downfall synonymous with the downfall of the entire region, plunging it into political
chaos and insecurity.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
[The Sampson
Option is Israel’s alleged deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with
nuclear weapons as a “last resort” against nations whose military attacks
threaten its existence].
With Moscow raising the pace and magnitude of its direct military
support to the point that it is clear it wants all concerned to understand that
Russia is fighting for Syria, the situation has become complicated beyond what we have seen. The transport and shipment of weapons of every description, the
mobilization of warships to Tartus and the presence of commando forces on the
ground, all under the pretence of protecting Russian nationals in Syria,
confirms the extent of the Kremlin's involvement in the battle for Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Sooner or later, Russian advisers
will become legitimate targets for the rebels.
On the other hand, the most recent information suggests that the
number of people in the “Free Syrian Army,” formed out of a combination of
dissidents and civilians, now exceeds 70,000, and the flow of arms and
ammunition has begun. They have achieved significant gains on the ground. International
observers, including General Robert Mood, head of the U.N. Observer Mission in
Syria, confirm that the regime has lost control of large portions of Syrian territory.
In other words, the “Free Army” rebels are the ones preventing the regular army
from regaining control of the land.
Russia’s gradual roll-out of military action on Syrian
territory is fraught with risk, because it adds the international dimension to a
local conflict and will result in the deaths of tens of thousands of new martyrs
as it aggravates the armed conflict on the ground. Is this really what the
United States fears? This is doubtful.
Russian involvement in Syria doesn’t worry Washington, as it
breaks a rule that has stood since the fall of the Soviet Union, whereby
Americans get involved, and Russians take advantage of the involvement of
the Americans. This time around, it seems that Syria is the stage and it is Moscow
pushing to be on it.
Syria is rapidly headed toward a confrontation in which
anything could happen. The most important thing for the revolution to grasp is
that a settlement that does not bring down the regime is not a settlement - no
matter the difficulty of the situation today. The tide of history is against
Moscow, Tehran andc … Qardaha.
[Editor’s Note: Qardaha
is a traditional Alawite town in Syria and home to
the al-Assad family.]
