Saturday, April 5, 2014

Syria Is The World's Biggest Threat, Not Ukraine

Free Syrian Army fighters and residents are seen near buildings damaged after what activists say were missiles fired by Syrian Air Force fighter jets loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in Erbeen, near Damascus January 21, 2013, in this picture provided by Shaam News Network. REUTERS/Maawia Al-Naser/Shaam News Network/Handout

Forget Ukraine, Syria Is Now The World's Biggest Threat -- Simon Tisdall, Special to CNN

(CNN) -- Russia's annexation of Crimea, and what many fear is its apparent threat to invade Ukraine, has riveted international attention since the crisis erupted with February's revolution in Kiev. Excitable talk has proliferated as fast as North Korean missiles.

Pundits obsess about a new Cold War, a showdown with "mad bad Vlad" Putin, and the resulting need to boost military spending (always a Pentagon favorite). The talk is all Ukraine, Ukraine. Politicians and diplomats have put everything else on hold.

Including Syria, which is a big mistake. Far more than an argument over an obscure shard of territory on the edge of Nowhere-on-Don, the catastrophe now taking place in and around Syria ranks as a fundamental challenge and threat to the current world order.

Read more ....

My Comment: I completely concur with this analysis. Ukraine has been a mess since the collapse of the Soviet Union .... and I expect this mess to continue into the foreseeable future. But civil war in Ukraine has not been an option that most Ukrainians have been in favor of .... and war with the Russia .... no one wants to go there. In the case of Syria .... that situation is now an ongoing disaster that is radicalizing the entire region to levels that have not been seen since the great Shiite - Sunni split over a millennium ago ... and it shows signs of spreading to Lebanon, Iraq, and who knows after that.

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