Quote:
Originally Posted by Trollheart
Nevertheless, Saddam aside, it's true that the reason the UN couldn't do anything but wag its finger at Assad was because Putin kept blocking the resolutions and using his veto. Russia and Syria are allies in that, so if Syria had been invaded Russia would have had to intervene, on their side, which is (unless I totally misread the news) the reason why we couldn't, and still aren't, intervening and this poxy civil war has been going on for years and that **** is still in power.
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putin was wagging his dick at the west, trying to make the statement that russia is still relevant. would he actually go to war over syria, if it really came down to it? kinda doubtful, tbh. but likewise the US wasn't trying to be too provocative towards russia, by actually invading their allies in syria, after pursuing a good decade of mid east adventures that russia was vocally opposed to. the syria situation is basically in russia's backyard, and deals with one of their allies, so they have a good deal more at stake than the US does regarding the outcome of that conflict.
so yea... we were bound to do nothing in syria. it wasn't the only mid-east regime we watched repress uprisings with bullets and bombs... but since it was such a high profile slaughter and was veering into the direction of the use of chemical weapons, the US had to 'take a stance' and try to look dominant, which is how obama ended up with egg on his face cause ultimately we were never going to commit to that cause. all we could spare in our arsenal in that conflict was empty threats, and assad/putin basically called obama's bluff.
likewise, we did nothing when russia invaded georgia and the ukraine... cause those were of real strategic interest to the russians, and while the US has to posture to try to 'contain' russian power, ultimately it means much more to them than it does to us, so they are willing to go much further over the future of those countries than the US is.
but i sorta get the idea maybe you think the US/russia beef has its roots in the mid east adventures? in all honesty, there was never much more than the facade of friendship between these two powers in the post-cold war world. they are natural rivals in the current geopolitical order. as such, they are bound to try to undermine the ambitions of the other at every opportunity. that's why russia cared about iraq in 2003, and that's why the US cared about georgia/ukraine just recently.
i have posted these videos before... i'll post em again, cause i never know who watched what. just a good background for understanding modern russian/us relations
the first video basically gives a decent historical background for understanding the russian strategic approach, in terms of which plots of land are key to their empire and why they came to value them as such.
the other two more specifically deal with modern day US/russian relations