Syria’s President to Visit Russia
Syria’s anti-American President will visit Russia, one of the main enemies of the U.S. after its invasion of Georgia which reminded many of the Cold War, Wednesday.
The decision to visit Russia comes after Russia decided to take on a key ally of the West and therefore the West itself. It took the latter days to respond forcefully to the Russian aggression and, to this day, the media narrative is that Georgia actually caused the war itself by invading South Ossetia, the breakaway Georgian province.
Instead of responding with anger and disgust to Russia’s behavior, the West seemed to have trouble dealing with it. Days went by before the West finally took Georgia’s side and told Russia to back off. No threats of sending troops to Georgia – a country that would almost join NATO earlier this year – were issued. Nor was there talk about a defense of the country, ‘no matter what.’
Many believe that the lesson Russia learned was it can do what it wants; the U.S. is not willing to go to war with the Russian bear. Not even when its key allies are under attack. Russia is, it seems, allowed to dominate the region (although it has to be said that the West is now finally truly responding which may very well result in a policy of containment, not appeasement).
Other enemies of the U.S. have learned that lesson as well. Syria, seemingly believing it could benefit from joining forces with Russia, has now decided to strengthen its bond with the country led by Medvedev and Vladimir Putin (the man behind the scenes is, of course, the actual leader, not Medvedev, president in name only).
It will be interesting to see what comes out of this effort on the Syrian side.
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