Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT has spoken directly to the American people in an opinion piece published in the New York Times today.
In the article, Vladimir Putin warned that any US strike on Syria would result in more innocent victims and an escalation of violence. It could also spread the conflict beyond the country’s borders he said.
“It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.
A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilise the Middle East and North Africa.
“No matter how targeted the strikes or how sophisticated the weapons, civilian casualties are inevitable, including the elderly and children, whom the strikes are meant to protect,” he added.
Moscow has staunchly opposed any military intervention in Syria as the US, the UK and France prepare to take action following a deadly gas attack in Damascus on 21 August which allegedly killed more than 1,400 civilians, including hundreds of children.
Russia has not denied that the attack but questions if Bashar Assad’s regime was responsible. Putin writes:
No one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria. But there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists.
Putin also warned that the United Nations could collapse (citing the fate of the League of Nations) if the US “bypass” it and take action without Security Council authorisation.
He argued that Syria is “not witnessing a battle for democracy” but an armed conflict in a multi-religious society.
“There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government,” he said, before criticising American foreign policy.
It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan “you’re either with us or against us.”
“But force has proved ineffective and pointless,” he continued, noting that Afghanistan is ‘reeling’, Libya is divided and dozens are killed each day in Iraq the civil war continues.
“In the United States, many draw an analogy between Iraq and Syria, and ask why their government would want to repeat recent mistakes.”
Concluding, Putin urged continued dialogue between Washington and the Kremlin on Syria.
“If we can avoid force against Syria, this will improve the atmosphere in international affairs and strengthen mutual trust. It will be our shared success and open the door to cooperation on other critical issues,” he said before claiming that his relationship with President Obama is marked by “growing trust”.
However, he finished by strongly disagreeing with some of his words about Americans being ‘exceptional’ from his Tuesday night address.
“It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation,” he said. “There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Geneva today to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on a plan for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons arsenal.
Overnight, the five permanent members of the Security Council held inconclusive talks on Syria at the United Nations.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
He’s not wrong
True but in Russia amazing how journalists can dissappear. ……
Michael Hastings anyone?
Thought Obama said only military strategic locations would be targeted if they did strike. Easy for us to say don’t strike sitting in Ireland, if it was our family & friends getting gassed by our own government we might have a different view of whether or not we’d want America / many other countries to intervene
Re Guardian.
Care to reply to Tesla Tower? Can you explain the death of journalist Michael Hastings in the US.
(Tesla Tower if you have not read “Where did the Towers Go?” by Dr. Judy Wood I think then you should. She goes onto great detail Re energy weapon and 9/11 and she only deals with facts).
Like toothpaste factories and water fluoridation plants? Any business or factory that uses large volumes of chemicals that could be incorporated into a weapon are a target if strikes fo ahead.
Not a defender of Russia at all (their homophobic laws are outrageous), but care to name some of these missing journalists or cite some relevant cases? If you don’t your comment is meaningless. There is plenty to criticise Russia on without resorting to innuendo and vague allegations.
Putin didn’t seem worried about old people and children when he was ruthlessly bombing Grozny.
William, you forgot to mention the fact that the Russians were quite liberal with their use of white phosphorus while bombing Grozny. A fact the anti-US crowd seem to have trouble remembering.
The chemical attack was horrendous but I’m not sure if helping Islamic fundamentalists win the civil war in Syria is the right way to go about helping its people.
Jason, the hatred many have for the US makes them deluded. At writing half of people have given me red thumbs for stating a fact. They obviously don’t like facts.
I know what you mean William. On other articles I’ve been buried with red thumbs for nothing more than pointing out that Russia and China vetoed moves to get UN peacekeepers into Syria.
@William Grogan @Jason Culligan.
You fellas are not defending the USA your defending the Bush and Obama administrations and no one that I can see that are critical of those administrations have shown any hatred to the people of the USA. So drop that “Hate America” card you sound like Joe McCarthy in the 1950′s with his witch trials.
People should be allowed to criticize Bush and Obama policies and not be dismissed with such weak and templated anti american rubbish.
You really can’t believe that the US administrations of the past 50 years are not guilty of crimes just like Russia/USSR, China, Syria etc.
In fairness you are blinded by you own hatred of everything that’s not American.
I sincerely hope you are joking. His widow, family, the IFJ and CLJ believe that his death was an accident. As for Russia, there has been at least 14 confirmed and unsolved homicides of journalists since 1993.
Martin, ironically Bush & Obama represent about 90% of the US electorate, so they most certainly do represent the US.
People who criticize the US irrationally and often by exaggeration are obviously anti-US. Otherwise why behave like a bunch of religious fanatics.
To suggest that the democratic US has committed crimes on par with the Communist Soviet Union, Communist China and Stria is laughable. You’re as deluded as Tom Cruise.
That’s not much considering all the journalists that got killed in the middle east whilst America went out stealing oil
Here in Ireland Innocent people are suffering similar strikes by this government of ours and nothing being done about it. Roll on general election.
Martin, if you read my past comments you’ll see I have been quite critical of the US over their policy with Israel. Just because I challenge those who blindly follow the Russian line it does not mean I am a blind supporter of the US.
I’m talking about the targeted assassination of journalists like Anna Politkovskaya (not those killed in crossfire). Not a single one of these murders have been solved by the Russian police since 1993.
@William
Bush being the most unpopular president since Andrew Johnson with the US people you claim the opposite..laughable!! .
You seem to like making stuff up here are the facts:
Bush 28% in his last year as President (that’s a 72% disaproval rate)
Obama 45% currently (that’s a 55% disapproval rate)
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500160_162-2384943.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-approval-rating-syria-foreign-policy-poll-2013-8
So by the fact you added their fake popularity together and got 90% . Let me follow your logic and look what happens : 117% of the US population say they don’t represent them.
How can you dismiss these following facts as irrational:
Bush started an illegal war on Iraq which cost 1 million Iraqi lives that’s a small crime is it.
The US under Johnson, Nixon committed war crimes when they used chemical weapons and napalm on civilians. Ever heard of the My Lai Massacre, the Quang Nam Massacre,or the My Khe Massacre. All done by US troops . No jail time served by any soldiers involved save some under house arrest. The US ousted democratically elected governments both in central America and Europe and replaced them with US puppet dictators who subsequently massacred there own people.
You are the irrational one here William. The US saved the world from Hitler then in the 60′s replaced him by turning into a corporate controlled superpower. You should understand what you are defending. America like the one Adams and Jackson tried to create in 1700′s died with Eisenhower and Kennedy. If you are a democrat you should study the history of the US and maybe you will see what it has become and maybe then we will see some critical thinking coming from you.
Martin, why pick the approval rating from a poll rather then their vote when being elected? In a democracy it’s the vote that counts.They were both elected by the US with a majority. In the US 90% of the population who could vote voted for Bush and Obama. So between them they represent a huge majority of the US electorates support.
The US along with a coalition of other democracies invaded Iraq to get rid of a mass murderer who they thought had weapons of mass destruction and who had already gassed his people. Just like today Syria is suspected of doing. What’s illegal about removing a dangerous dictator? It’s a great and noble undertaking. It’s now up to a democratic Iraq to plan out its future. If Hitler had been taken out earlier maybe 55,000,000 lives including 6,000,000 Jews could have been saved. If the US and the world does nothing the UN will have the blood of maybe hundreds of thousands of more dead Syrians on their hands.
I wrote a long reply which never appeared for some reason so heres a short one.
“”"”What’s illegal about removing a dangerous dictator? It’s a great and noble undertaking.”"”"”
The US have installed Dictators all over the world by ousting democratically elected governments, Those dictators went on to murder their own people on a grand scale . Was that a great noble undertaking also?( whats the bet you don’t reply to that point)
Those Historical fact number 2. The Iraq war was fought for WMD’s not ousting a Dictator to who the US used to supply weapons.
Haven’t a clue what point you are trying to make with the Hitler element.
B lowe no problem Hastings was witnessed to have died driving at high speed. Lost his mind poor lad. Straight forward.
Anyway would you like to comment on the 228 journalists killed in russia from 1994 till today.
Tin foil hat ???:) can make you one. Ah go on go on go on :)
And that folks is how you silence someone
His views on American foreign policy are bang on.
I still cannot forget the image of the execution of those 7 soldiers by the rebels. There are no innocent participants in this conflict. America getting involved is a recipe for disaster
The soldiers who raped and murdered women and took videos of it. Those soldiers?
Obama should hand Putin his nobel peace prize.
Bomb Syria back to the stone-age on the flimsiest of evidence?Yes we can!
Putin blocked US efforts to get a UN-led peacekeeping force on the ground in Syria when there were clear signs that the riots were drifting towards rebellion. If the Russians hadn’t selfishly blocked these moves to keep an ally of theirs in power then it’s likely the death toll in Syria would be in the thousands, not in the HUNDREDS of thousands it is now. In my mind that blood is on Russia an China.
Putin deserving a peace award? Clearly not.
Al S, they have the chemical evidence of Sarin from people’s flesh, they have 1400 dead bodies, they have the bomb cases, the area that was bombed is the biggest threat to Assad, the bombs were fired from Assad controlled territory, the US has intercepted phone calls from the Assad forces discussing the attack, the people who were bombed believe it was Assad, Assad has chemical weapons, Assad is a mass murderer like his Daddy, how much more evidence do you want?
William can you cite a source for thus evidence?
I think you can point out Obama’s less than ideal record without claiming Putin deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. Neither have behaved ideally.
Alan, I don’t intend spending the rest of the day creating a large document because you’re too lazy to look it up yourself. I’m sure you’re as aware of the evidence as much as I am. You may not have heard of the intercepted call so read here http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2013/08/27-syria-nerve-gas-shachtman
Calm down there William lad. My question was a fair one given my ignorance of this new evidence.
Thank you for providing the link which I will read and verify.
Your defensive tone is…interesting.
If you provide what you believe to be a fact then it is custom to also provide a link to the source so others can avail of the info and green thumb you (if that’s what you’re chasing here).
Alan, I would say that his defensive tone is quite justified. Some people who like to “challenge the narrative”, including Golden, can become quite aggressive when they themselves are being challenged. It teaches you to become quite defensive when commenting on the Journal about this topic.
Okay now that I’ve read it I can confirm that this is not evidence. It is conjecture based on a particular phone call. As the opinion piece itself suggests there is no confirmation that it was Assad ordered this or it was an official overstepping his mark.
We know that Syria have chemical weapons so it is not beyond the realma of possibility that given a chemical attack, Syrian officials would contact each other in panic to find out what happened and who was reponsible.
This evidence is not beyond all reasonable doubt and thus cannot be used to justify a US led military strike.
Alan, of course it’s evidence. The lab evidence that is was Sarin doesn’t mean Assad did it either but it does prove that Sarin gas was dropped on innocent people. Of course until the soldiers say that Assad ordered them to bomb his people with gas we will never know with certainty. Evidence needs to be beyond a REASONABLE doubt. Furthermore because he insists on holding chemical weapons he must take the risk that if they are used he will be blamed. The same happened to Sadam. Thankfully justice was served on him eventually. Hopefully Assad will be arrested and charged with crimes against humanity and we can wait for the court case. In the meantime do we want him to carry on and kill another 100,000 of his people?
William we all know that Sarin was used. As it stands there is only circumstancial evidence that Assad ordered this.
My point remains that this is not steong enough evidence to support US strikes against Syria.
Based on the US previous record of foreign invasions they are likely to kill far more than 100k civilians in their quest for “justice”. I trust I do not need to explain this to you.
Note that I do not in any way support the Syrian regime. Nor do I support the US war machine.
One man’s “war machine” is another man’s Department of Defence. The US “war machine” saved Europe, The East and many other countries on more than one occasion from Fascism, various Dictatorships and Totalitarian Communism. How many countries that the US liberated would want their dictators back? The enormous success of the US (with 5% of the world’s population) economically, technologically and militarily has saved humanity from all sorts of Fascists.
William are you ignorant of the direction of US foreign policy over the last 15 years?
They have no interests but their own.
For the last 12 years, the US “interests” have been exactly the same as the interests of all non Muslim Jihadists.
The only thing US is top of the list is spends on military. They are not the biggest economy in the world and they are miles behind in technologies advancements
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/12/best-economies-in-the-world/2802701/
Your own quoted link has this sentence, “The worldâs largest economy is also home to many highly sophisticated businesses”. It was ranked 5th with only Finland and Germany ranked marginally higher (except for 2 non countries) in your list.
William, regardless of the facts of who initiated the attack within Syria, what pretext does the US have to interfere in an internal conflict?
Also are the US threatening this to save Syrian lives or to have control of Syria?
The question I always ask when these conflicts kick off is, If there was not 2 million refugees 3 years ago they must have been living in a stable enough Syria otherwise they would have left 3 years or more ago. . The rebellion/foreign proxy war has destabilised the country and now we have the refugees leaving.
We may not like the leaders of these countries but there is a clear intent on the US to up-end the middle east and change the power structures to suit it’s foreign policy. Each Arab spring movement has not stablised the countries involved, just look at Egypt.
US doesn’t care about Syrians or any other nationality of the areas they intervene in. They only care about maintaining the presence in client states and supporting their global agenda.
The only way I would agree US should intervene is if the USA was attacked first or it was clear the USA was about to be under attack.
Also ask yourself if Assad’s regime is so bad because it’s undemocratic or a family has been in power for decades, why doesn’t the US try to attack Saudi Arabia, they have had this in place far longer than Syria.
PFA, your opening point is that no country, say a democracy, can interfere in a dictatorship if the dictatorship is mass murdering and gassing its people. Is that correct? Is that what you actually believe? Say the Jews started gassing the Palestinians. Would that be OK then?
[I do accept that real world politics come into this. During the cold war the US could not invade Russia if it did something similar if they thought that Russia would launch a nuclear war.]
“Say the Jews started gassing the Palestinians”
Say they used white phospourous against the Palestinians which they did, the US should definitely overthrow the regime in Israel then.
The contempt from people towards US interventions is that they are not what they say they are, people are not stupid.
Also if the country that is proposing going to war is a democracy, it must recognise the democratic will of the people and all sides agree that the vast majority of US citizens do not want interventionist wars in the middle east. So much for the democracy cloak so.
PFA, your opening point is that no country, say a democracy, can interfere in a dictatorship if the dictatorship is mass murdering and gassing its people. Is that correct? Is that what you actually believe?
Try answering the question.
Without a clear mandate and crucial evidence no, we can only assume an agenda in the absence of those specific requirements.
“God created us equal”….Really?? Tell that to Russia’s gay population.
Oh FFS not everything Russia related should be brought back to Russia’s anti-gay laws. This is becoming the new ‘slam the bankers’.
Eimear is just pointing out that Puitn is a hypocrite
Actually it is connected and he was quite right to point out Russias horrific human rights record. If your gay there you may as well be a paedophile. Also if your opposition political party. …. well was nice knowing ya.
So pls what putin says really id trust as much as kim jong un
Human rights? Better look at the USA too so. Still no WMD. Agent orange, napalm ring and bells? And let’s not forget the Americans rounding up all the Japanese and American born Japanese in America during WW2 and putting them into concentration camps. Also the 2 biggest single killing devices in war history were dropped by American forces on civilians. Wasn’t it MLK day not so long ago?
Show me one politician who isn’t!
America is the ‘land of the free’,well America’s biggest client state in the region Saudi Arabia happens to have anti-gay laws,which make Russia look like a beacon of liberal tolerance in comparison.I have yet to hear an American president lecture the Saudis on human rights.
Johnny, how about the purges? Or the gulags? Or the forced imprisonment of a whole country (the Berlin Wall)? The crack-down on pushes for independence in Poland and Hungary? Or what about the fact that Afghanistan was actually a decent country before a Soviet-backed coup? Sure while we’re at it lets throw in Chernobyl and the fact that the biggest nuke ever made was Russian.
The US is absolutely nothing when compared to the atrocious record of Russia.
Johnny, if you sons were in the Pacific ready to invade a fascist Japan, which had already raped and slaughtered millions of civilians, where 500,000 casualties were expected, where in preparation they built the biggest hospital ever, and a politician told you they could stop the war by dropping a nuke on the enemy what would you say?
How come people are so concerned with Russia treatment of homosexuals and Russia’s human rights? America is the country that gave us Guantanamo bay and rendition flights and water boarding. It also has a poor record on equality for homosexuals. It’s still illegal for homosexuals to get married in many states in America .
Because Stephen Fry didn’t post about that.
It’s still illegal for same sex couples to get married in Ireland, so some American states are doing better than the average on that regard.
And I don’t think anyone is saying Guatanamo should be ignored, just that it’s probably a bad idea to canonise Putin. LGBT rights is, for obvious reasons, something a lot of people feel quite passionately about.
Jason, do you get such a kick out of mentioning sometimes quite irrelevant historical facts about Russia whenever anyone criticises USA on the Journal?
What does the fact that the biggest nuke made was Russian has to do with Syria? It was never used (except being tested on an empty island far away from anyone), and in fact Russia never dropped nuclear weapons onto two cities full of civilians.
What do gulags and purges have to do with Syria? Yes, Stalin was very cruel and very paranoid and unfortunately in power which allowed him to send millions to death. But these were internal Russian struggles. What does it have to do with “Russia’s atrocious record”? In the same vein I can mention the American extermination of the Native American population, treatment of slaves, and so on and so forth, and then smugly announce how awful USA’s record is.
No supernation or empire was ever completely benevolent. All superpowers starting with Ancient Egypt, Rome and ending with USSR and the USA had their merits as well as blood on their hands. Please quit your irrelevant trolling and stay on topic.
Sergé, the relevance comes from the fact that too many people here are one step away from canonising the Russians. I’m merely trying to provide some balance.
Exceptionally well said, Sergé!
He has made Obama look like a fool !
Agree with what he is saying , but it must be in Russia’s interest to prevent war – I’m sure there is a flip side and of course we are being fed with very different media than other parts of the world – an interesting story is unfolding ..
Russia sure aren’t the best boys in the class but on a global scale US foreign policy is massively more destructive. Putin has hit a sweet ball into Obamas court.
Yes William, the US foreign policy stopped the Nazis, freed Europe from Communism and also liberated many other countries. Can you imagine the 1984 Utopia we would all be living in if the US didn’t exist.
1984 is here now !
So Stalin alone racked up an estimated death toll of up to 20 million, but the US is more destructive than Russia? How did you come to that conclusion?
If we were in 1984 you wouldn’t be posting. If we lived in the people’s Utopia that was Communist Russia I wouldn’t be.
@william grogan I said ‘is’ not ‘was’ sure the US did much through through WWII however in the last recent decades they have become the great new empire and the cop of the world, cops guilty of serious human rights abuses
William, do you have problems with relativity? All cops in all times and in all countries committed abuses. Why would you think the US is any different?
In the last 12 years the US have, along with every other democracy, had to set out to destroy the most evil movement since the Nazis, the Muslim Fundamentalists. Do you seriously think they should have done nothing? I spend a lot of time in London and some time in the US, I don’t want to be blown up by a religious fanatic’s suicide bomb, nor do I want anyone else. I want to fly safely. I don’t want to experience what a school friend experienced when as he sat in the World Trade Centre 12 years ago a plane with his sister and her 3 year old daughter fly into it.
*flew
Not 1984″ The Obama admin has admitted that our phone calls are listened to, our text messages are crawled for keywords our internet searches recorded.
Shatter has the power to shut down the Internet when ever he feels, The police can as of yesterday obtain and keep on file the DNA profile of any Irish person not even convicted of a crime.
All this by government that force the people to pay massive taxes to cover the debts accumulated by rich bankers ,the same bankers that are then allowed by the government to evict the very same people from there homes.
yup I guess we are all just paranoid.
Served an ace!
Stalin is dead shut up that’s history
Living in fear like the rest of them are you?
Martin, do you NOT want the US to spy on phone calls so they can catch those planning mass murders in US & European cities? I certainly do. The FBI and CIA have caught criminal mad men and prevented atrocities by spying. Are you not glad to hear this?
Bankers? I read 1984 some decades ago but I can’t remember anything about bankers. I’m sure you’re misremembering. Does someone ALWAYS have to bring up the banks. No one put a gun to anyone’s head to pay twice as much for a house as it was worth.
Tom, what relevance does that have? Plenty of people on here are allowed to bring up the US’ history in Vietnam and WW2 yet I cannot bring up Stalin? That wouldn’t happen to do with the fact that history shows the Russians are a lot worse than the US, would it?
@William
“Martin, do you NOT want the US to spy on phone calls so they can catch those planning mass murders in US & European cities?”
Nope I don’t see any such threat to warrant the imposition of police state. The power of these tiny Islamic crackpots groups have been exaggerated out of all proportion. While such fundamentalists exist they are being used to cause fear in order to empower states controls over its population. Banks and corporations run most countries now particularity the US.
Martin, you must have been asleep when these harmless crackpots blew up the World Trade Centre and killed 3,000 people. You probably didn’t hear either about their plan to blow up 10 planes in mid air that was thwarted either. The US government and it’s police have no desire to control the people. You’re just living in fantasy land. Time to move on to Jim Corr’s position and go the whole hog and believe that Ms Merkel is an alien shape shifting Lizard and they control the world.
@William
The old link to aliens and poor old sado Jim Corr chestnut to anyone that pose valid points of view that differs with the mainstream, does that still work on people I wonder?
9/11 happened 12 years ago thousands of experts including professors of physics and structural engineers not to mention pilots, demolition experts and victims families are currently demanding and re-investigation of the events of that day. I don’t know about you but I need to see credible evidence before I point the finger at an invalid in cave, do you ever question anything ever I wonder, were you one of those that believed the government when they said the IMF would not be coming to Ireland or that Gilmore would not give another penny to the banks. If I was you I see someone about you thinking Merkel is an alien that kind of thinking will see you in a white jacket with strap hugging yourself all day, and rightly so.
You should take yourself off and join the marines you seem to have the right mentality to make ideal cannon fodder for the banks spewing out cliches like you do. Seriously read a book some time. Maith an Fhearr
Oops! I see you are already with Jim Corr and company. You’re already a conspiracy theory nut. Bye bye. I can’t help you. People who believe in such things needs medical help. Try it.
ha ha point out my conspiracy Jarhead :)
Thought so !!. Ahh the simpleminded can provide great entertainment. Don’t trip over that tail between your legs now Willy. :- )
Former KGB leader is trying to convince a Nobel Peace prize winner not to go to war. #facepalm
It’s not what Putin wants. Putin couldn’t give a toss about any human beings. Putin doesn’t want Syria to become a Western leaning country. It’s his only ally in the Middle East.
Putin worried about women and children. That’s a good one.
Assad his alloy kills them with sarin.
Ally/alloy
Just one dictator showing support for another! This guy cannot be trusted just look what he’s been doing in Russia with the suppression of anyone who disagrees with him. Can a man who introduces anti-gay laws etc really be worried about women & children in Syria?
“Yes we can”. Looks like he can’t.
Sadly the people in Syria are caught in the middle of this bizarre debate. To be killed by gas poisoning or missiles?
The elephant in the room of course is who exactly supplied Aasad with the Sarin gas?????
John, presuming, of course, that it was Sarin and it was used by Assad’s forces. UN Inspectorate seems unable to be definitive on either count. Not taking sides, just saying.
England supplied 4,125kg of dual purpose chemicals to Syria between January and July in 2012.
Syria developed chemical weapons as a deterrent against Israel’s nuclear weapons system. Military facilities have been taken over by rebels at different points during the conflict. A number of these have contained chemical weapons. A number of months ago the US tried to start up this whole chemical weapons thing after a chemical attack but it was proved that the rebels had been behind the attack so it was dropped intil the recent attack.
Lamb, it has never been proven that the rebels have committed any chemical weapons attacks. The closest any report has come has only said that they suspect the rebels did it. No concrete evidence and no direct accusation.
Kidnapped Assad supporters showing up in the videos of the aftermath of the chemical attack, FSA ‘rebels’ acting as doctors…hmmmm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdF6aSnxhDs
That’s it… Another war, time to turn on sky news & get the popcorn & maltesers!!
Think of the rates for advertising.
Wake up….. US want full control of middle East and all its oil reserves. Iraq, Afghanistan!!!! Syria is just a stepping stone to enter Iran then.
Syria is a good hop away from Iran. Across a major civil war the US walked away from ….odd idea attack Syria to get to Iran? Iran will be all nuclear missiles from Israel as there will be no one to stop them any easier than that and Israel will not let a suicidal bomber country get a nuke.
If the US launch an attack on Iran from Iraq (where it has amassed military bases and infrastructure) , it has to be concerned that Syria may help Iran and effectively Iraq can be attacked from both sides.
Syria from the Mediterranean side and Iran retaliating from the opposite.
Also Syria could easily attack Israel if the US attacks Iran.
Rolling into that place,Iraq, again would throw the US into instant chaos. The GOP is not coming back into office. Iran is likely to end up settled by Israel. No tanks, no armies rushing about. There is something I barely heard from somewhere that the present top Mullah is less in a rush to play for victory or Paradise.
It may be that Iran blinks. Being able to develop a bomb is out. Hanging tough may have backed them off. Syria may have backed off because for the US to bomb an ally of the Russians would be quite embarrassing. And they could really do nothing about it. Now the US-Russian relationship looks more equal and the US gets what it wants, a continuation of this ban.
Good win-win stuff here. The Big KGB thug must have had his prayers answered, or whatever this Gandhi of Grozny was saying about GOD, GOD…..omg…lol
“Rolling into that place,Iraq, again would throw the US into instant chaos”
They are still there now that they have secured control over Iraq. That’s the way it works, US still have bases in Philippines and Germany since WW2, and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. They hardly changed policy in Iraq and just legged it out the door when the news reports and war machine eased off.
From wiki
“With the collapse of the discussions about extending the stay of any U.S. troops, on 21 October 2011, President Obama announced the full withdrawal of troops from Iraq as scheduled before. The U.S. will retain an embassy in Baghdad with some 17,000 personnel, consulates in Basra, Mosul and Kirkuk, which have been allocated more than 1,000 staff each and between 4,000 to 5,000 defense contractors. President Obama and al-Maliki outlined a broad agenda for post-war cooperation without American troops in Iraq during a joint press conference on 12 December 2011 at the White House. This agenda includes cooperation on energy, trade and education as well as cooperation in security, counter-terrorism, economic development and strengthening Iraq’s institutions. Both leaders said their countries will maintain strong security, diplomatic and economic ties after the last U.S. combat forces withdraw at the end of 2011.”
“When asked by Charlie Rose in a PBS interview how big the American “residual” force would be in Iraq after 2011, Secretary of Defense Gates replied that although the mission would change, “my guess is that you’re looking at perhaps several tens of thousands of American troops”.”
There are, at present , 160 us embassy troops in Iraq as is average for embassies. The numbers you made up would be public knowledge unless the Iraqis became suddenly miraculously less-adept than before with their IED’s. Yes, there are a few US advisors still in the PH. In Mindanao there is a very nasty Al Q group that is murder on the local Catholics as they want to rule in the South. The democratic gov’t of PH could ask the US to leave. After all they left the biggest base in Asia, Subic when asked, but who is asking? Germany could ask the US to leave as the Russians don’t seem to be coming through the Fulda Gap to roll over the population but they don’t seem to ask. Do you think this long after WW2 the US would refuse to leave Germany. Why for the donnerkebab?
Look up the hologram theory of attack on the Towers. That is a great one. I never heard of the death ray theory except from some nutter on here…also the flying drone/UA?American A theory I heard on here, first. I wonder if the nutters on here are making up new theories or are these sprouting like mushrooms in the fecund shit between some pointy ears…..
The numbers you made up would be public knowledge unless the Iraqis became suddenly miraculously less-adept than before with their IED’s.
Syria is pretty much surrounded
http://japanfocus.org/data/US_military_bases_in_the_world_2007.PNG
Putin:US strikes would harm the amount of oil we had coming into Russia. Is what he really means
I doubt it,considering Russia is the world’s biggest oil producer bar none.
U should probably tell taftnet (Russian oil company) that they are wasting their time spending all that money making the Arab pipeline through syria so and the 12 million worth of exploration Wells are also a waste in Iraq…. As if he’s just doing it for the elderly people’s benefit
Gazprom wants to build infrastructure in the region to bring oil/gas to Europe. Qatar/Saudi/US want Assad out to prevent the deal going through and make sure they all get a slice of the pie with the new government Saudi installs. A lot of the money to fund “the rebels” seems to be going to jihadi nutters though.
What’s your point?Russia has it’s own interests at stake.Just like USA,France,UK,China etc.
It’s more likely that there is a planned oil line from Russia to Africa avoiding Iran and maybe US controlled Iraq
‘The Prophet Putin’
People are making the us out to be heroes saving us from Russia and what they would do – people forget things like the Russians had already defeated Berlin in ww2 , the Americans just raised their flag and claimed the victory . America also has a brutal history of eliminating native Americans , carpet bombing Vietnam and using Guantanamo bay to get results by torture – imprisoning on suspicion and no evidence – much like what happened to bobby sands and the Birmingham 6..
“Good” is just a point of view .
I agree that USSR’s role in WW2 is sometimes underestimated in the West, but let’s not forget that the USA supplied the Soviets with food and machinery (debt for which they were paying off decades later, USA didnt do it out of charity). Would USSR have been able to thwart the Nazi invasion as it did without American supplies I cannot tell.
Basically, WW2 was a joint effort by the Allies. Britain would have fallen if Hitler has thrown all his forces on Britain and didn’t split them in two and send one half to Russia. Russia may not have been able to pull through the winter of ’41 and after that liberate all of Eastern and most of Central Europe from the Nazis had they not have got help from the US in form of supplies.
@Sergé, my father sailed on one of the convoys to Murmansk but it’s too late to buy him a pint :-)
Brave man. 1/3 didn’t make Murmansk. If a ship was torpedoed the convoy could not stop and make sitting ducks out of themselves. They had to get through for the reds. Free people should never forget men like your ‘Da.
Putin is speaking the truth. Obama has no balls
He says we are all equal, is that unless your Gay. The man has a good point about America but I find it hard to take anything the man says at face value given his human rights record.
What about humqn rights history and policy in the US. Do you choose to conveniently ignore that?
Alan, if I go to the US I can openly criticise the Obama administration with no issue. In many states gay marriage is legal or in the process of being made legal. They’re making their healthcare more accessible and even crackpot conspiracy theories can be aired to the public.
Compare that to Russia and you will see that the US is nothing compared to them.
No I don’t thats why I said the man has a point about America, I just don’t think he should be the one to make it. Personally I think America have a lot to answer for.
My god thats a new tactic for the Russians playing peace maker, Syria has really nothing to do with this- other than it will be found out the the Syrian army use weapons from both Russia and the USA
It’s a game of one up man ship, Russia getting a chance to make the Americas look bad- as Putin is a little more savy than other Russian leaders
Russia and the USA are not really that different in foreign policy- Russia roll into foreign countries when it suits them like Afghanistan ohhh wait so did the Americans
America is damaged after its fake war on terror – and it will take something huge for people to look at it as the Sheriff of the world again- gasing of the Syrian people isn’t that thing
Obama is screwed either way damed if he strikes – a war monger – damed if he does nothing – that shows all the crazy people they can push the boundaries of what they can get away with- chemical weapons- whats next!!!!!!!l
Is it anybody’s place to interfere in Syria – in a civil war- or is it our place the UN to stop atrocities by force-
More disturbing is I read putins letter to the USA and whats frightening is that he believes that it was the Syrian rebels that carried out the gas attack- there is a bigger game here going on behind the scenes cloaked by Syria – that whole region is a powder keg, Syria Iran Egypt Israel – a rocket falls in the wrong place and what then- if Israel invaded Syria would everyone stand back, a rocket falls in Turkey- it’s a scary situation that’s not good
The audacity of this fowl creature to imply he bares the ability to show compassion.
What a rancid hypocrite.
Putin preaches “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional” … Unless of course you are a heterosexual Russian. “We must not forget that God created us equal” unless of course you are Russian and LGBT – hypocrite!
Didn’t chamberlain say something similar when Germany first attacked Poland??
This conflict is not about oil or gas or gay rights, it’s about the spread of Islamic fundamentalism.
“fundamentalism” or freedom? the poor muslims living in Syria haven’t had the best time of it to be fair.
Personally I think the US motivation was to build support for use of more drones and other technique where they won’t loose any of their own.
The tribal wars across the ME and North Africa have been going on since long before oil and gas were discovered.
The UN report has been leaked and that Assad’s side is to blame but not him directly
have your say