Will Obama Push Back Against Putin in Syria and Iraq?

US President Obama and Russian President Putin used verbal swords Monday at the United Nations. ~~~~~ Obama, in his General Assembly speech, condemned Russia and Iran for fueling conflicts around the world. He urged world leaders to choose “cooperation over conflict” and warned of “dangerous currents pulling us back into a darker, disordered world,” where nations “assert themselves in a way that contravenes international law.” Obama said the US is willing to work with Russia and Iran to end the four-year Syrian civil war, but stressed there cannot be a return to the “status quo” under al-Assad, "who drops barrel bombs to massacre innocent children....We must recognize that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the prewar status quo." ~~~~~ Putin, however, told the General Assembly there is no alternative to cooperating with al-Assad's military in an effort to defeat ISIS, which has seized much of Syria and neighboring Iraq. Putin called for the creation of a broader international anti-terrorist coalition with majority-Moslem countries as members, a coalition that would compete with the US-led coalition assembled to fight ISIS. Putin blamed the US for fomenting democratic revolutions in the Middle East. "Do you now know what you have done?" he asked. Putin said : "We should finally acknowledge that no one but President Assad’s armed forces and (Kurdish) militia are truly fighting the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations in Syria." ~~~~~ The rise of ISIS has seriously challenged Obama’s foreign policy, as the terrorist group Obama long refused to see as a major threat to the Middle East has created a humanitarian crisis in Syria with 250,000 Syrians dead and millions fleeing, leading to a refugee crisis in Europe and the wider Middle East. Despite calling for al-Assad to go in 2012, Obama has not been able to broker a political transition in Syria. In defiance of Obama, Putin took a bold step in calling for an anti-ISIS coalition that includes the al-Assad government. The military equipment, weapons and personnel Russia is sending to Syria are, Putin says, meant to help the country combat ISIS. But, Obama has suggested that Putin is simply trying to prop up al-Assad. ~~~~~ Other world leaders are also speaking up. French President Hollande says he will discuss with his partners a proposal by Turkey and members of the Syrian opposition for a no-fly zone in northern Syria. With 1.8 million Syrian refugees, Turkey has long called for a no-fly zone to keep ISIS and Kurdish militants away from its border and reduce the number of displaced Syrians entering Turkey. The idea has gained support in Europe where up to a million Syrian and Iraqi refugees are flooding into the EU. "Refugees could return to this [no-fly] zone," Hollande said, adding that the proposal could be finalized by a Security Council resolution. But UN diplomats say Russia would not support any such resolution. Turkey and the US said in July they were working on plans to provide air cover for Syrian rebels and jointly sweep ISIS fighters from a Syrian area along the Turkish border. But, the US has ruled out jointly imposing a formal no-fly zone. ~~~~~ Dear readers, Obama’s confrontational words - words are cheap - came before he met with Putin for the first time in nearly two years. The two leaders obviously discussed Russian intervention in Syria, but no details have been leaked. However, it is clear that Obama's offer to work with Russia and Iran, both al-Assad allies, is a reluctant admission of their influence in Syria, as well as an admission that Russia's blitzkreig military takeover of Syria and of Iraq's Baghdad forces caught the Obama White House and Secretary of State Kerry flat-footed. It will take muscular US leadership to neutralize Russia and Iran. But, nothing is less likely from Obama, who still has no Middle East policy and refuses to fully engage his military or rally US allies against Putin's strong-arm Middle East tactics. Ukraine was the Putin trial run -- the Middle East is Putin's frontal attack.