Time Is Runnng Out in Syria

Time is running out for President Obama and Defense Secretary Carter to do something more than talk about the Russian campaign in Syria. Obama and Carter have been whining about Russia's takeover of the Bashar al-Assad war against the Free Syrian Army and other moderate rebel groups supported and armed by the US and coalition Arab states. They cry 'foul' because Russian President Putin says his forces are attacking ISIS, whereas only 10% of Russian air strikes have been against ISIS targets. Early yesterday, that changed spectacularly when four Russian warships in the Caspian Sea launched 26 long-range rockets at ISIS in Syria, traversing Iranian and Iraqi airspace to hit targets a thousand miles away. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and President Vladimir Putin confirmed the strikes in a joint TV appearance. ~~~~~ While Putin exercised bragging rights over the rocket hits, Russian air strikes had already destroyed the main weapons depots of a US-trained Syrian rebel group, their commander said on Wednesday, describing an expansion of Russian attacks on US coalition-backed moderate Syrian rebels. The Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, whose fighters have attended CIA military training programs in Saudi Arabia and Qatar - a program separate from the Pentagon's failed program to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight ISIS. The latest strikes hit the group's main weapons depots in Aleppo province, completely destroying them late Tuesday, its commander Hassan Haj Ali told Reuters yesterday. Liwa Suqour al-Jabal operates in areas of western and northern Syria targeted by most Russian air strikes but where ISIS has no significant presence. The group has coalition-supplied guided anti-tank missiles that have had significant impact on the battlefield. Liwa Suqour al-Jabal has also been fighting attempts by ISIS to advance in areas north of Aleppo near the Turkish border, where it was also targeted last week by Russian air strikes. In addition, under Russian air cover, on Wednesday the al-Assad army and militia, likely Hezbollah, carried out ground attacks on rebel positions. ~~~~~ Russian Defense Minister Shoigu said that on Tuesday Russia had summoned (summoned???) foreign military attaches in Moscow and suggested they supply Russia with any intelligence on ISIS positions : "Today we are expecting a reply from our colleagues and we hope they will tell us about those targets which they have," he said. Shoigu also said Russia was ready to agree a document with the United States to coordinate actions in Syria. But, Secretary Carter said yesterday that while the US is willing to hold technical discussions with the Russians to secure the safety of US pilots : "We are not prepared to cooperate in a strategy which as we explained is flawed, tragically flawed, on Russia's part," again accusing Russia's strikes of not focusing on ISIS militants. "Despite what the Russians say, we have not agreed to cooperate with Russia so long as they continue to pursue a mistaken strategy and hit these targets," Carter said. ~~~~~ Dear readers, if Putin's swaggering Syrian power play seems familiar, it is. In Ukraine, he was less public while taking military control of the eastern provinces, but he marched boldly into Crimea. The result was a Russian total takeover. If Obama does not act decisively soon - which he refused to do in Ukraine - Russia's takeover of al-Assad-controlled Syria, followed by the creation of a Syria-Iraq-Iran axis, will be a reality that Obama will not be able to alter, short of direct confrontation with Russia. Obama's "leading from behind" strategy is a case study in naivete that has destabilized the world and destroyed the Middle East. Can the US military, NATO, Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia make Obama see reason? The Wall Street Journal recently called him 'unteachable' : "History will remember Barack Obama as the President who conducted foreign policy less as a principled exercise in the application of American power than as an extended attempt to justify the evasion of it."