Issues Under Fire: Vladimir Putin Changes the Game in Syria

Issues Under Fire: Vladimir Putin Changes the Game in Syria 

With the Western powers at its wits end in finding an effective strategy of irradiating ISIS and it many allies, Russia's Vladimir Putin muscled his way back on the world's stage with a plan. After a longwinded and nothing new to write home about speech at the U.N. General Assembly yesterday, President Obama was followed shortly thereafter by Russian President Vladimir Putin. And from the very start, Putin let the world know Russia had its own ideas and proposals to confront the ISIS scourge. 

Already forging intelligence sharing arrangements with Syria, Iraq and Iran in order to combat ISIS, while sending arms and military advisors to prop up Bashar al-Assad, the Russian leader has clearly sent a message to the Obama administration and Western Europe that Russia would be intricately involved in stabilizing the Syria going forward and Bashar al-Assad would be indispensable in those efforts. 

When Iran's Hassan Rohani spoke, he too reiterated the need for Bashar al-Assad to remain at the helm of Syrian authority and that Tehran would support his government's efforts to remove all terrorist elements out of Syria and beyond. Like Russia, Iran is sending arms and military advisors to Syria to prop up the Assad government and like Russia, Iran didn't ask for permission. They saw a need and they've started addressing it. 

Since Russia has maintained a tight working relationship with Tehran, secured a strong foothold in Damascus and gained a toehold in Baghdad, these four maligned allies have formed an effect response to flawed Western middle east policies. Hyping this new proposal as an anit-Hitler type alliance sounds like something few would reject without closer inspection. Since Baghdad and Tehran among other silent partners will presumably sign on to Russia's proposal for a coalition of regional players to address the ISIS threat, its no longer clear what role the United States will play going forward. 

If one considers Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's latest willingness to fight along side Assad against ISIS, outside of Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United States and a few other oil rich but nervous Sunni Arab states, the Western backed power base may be taking a back seat for awhile. However, if the United States keeps insisting Assad must leave power and refuse to allow talks or military cooperation to move forward as long as Assad is part of the process, the world will see the conflict intensify not subside. 

Bottom line: No one can possibly know if Russia's plan will work because no one can possibly know what Russia's true motives and ambitions are. But there's two things everyone should know by now. Firstly, the West has tried and failed miserably to mitigate the regional damages left in the wake of the Iraq debacle. Secondly, the West has finally admitted its completely out of ideas to stop the killing. From this observer's perspective, a change of course is critical, but one can only hope change is something Barack Obama is still understands. Podcast below!