Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on 'Worldwide threats to America and our allies' in Washington, February 2016. (Reuters)
Washington Post: U.S. officials: Russian airstrikes have changed ‘calculus completely’ in Syria
Russian military intervention in Syria has turned the course of that country’s civil war against U.S.-backed rebel groups, increasing the likelihood that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his loyalists will remain in power, U.S. intelligence officials testified Tuesday.
The assessment amounts to an acknowledgment by U.S. spy agencies that Russian airstrikes have derailed the Obama administration’s aims of pushing Assad aside as part of a political settlement to the nearly five-year old conflict.
“The Russian reinforcement has changed the calculus completely,” Lt. Gen. Vincent R. Stewart, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in Senate testimony. Assad is “in a much stronger negotiating position than he was just six months ago,” Stewart said. “I’m more inclined to believe that he is a player on the stage longer term than he was six months to a year ago.”
Read more ....
WNU Editor: So much for President Obama saying that Syria will be Russia's quagmire .... The Syria War Will Not Be a Quagmire -- Because Putin and Assad Are Winning (Alastair Crooke, Huffington Post). The Washington Post is also brutal in its editorial on President Obama's Syrian policy .... Mr. Obama stands by silently as Russia continues its onslaught in Syria (editorial, Washington Post). But in defense of President Obama's policy ..... there are really no good options in the Syrian conflict short of the U.S. becoming actively involved and even possibly getting into a shooting war with Russian jets over Syria.
4 comments:
The language people use to talk about politics is often telling as regards their subconscious state. In this case the fun part is that it was Obama and his crew that were talking about changing Putin's calculus. I don't think they succeeded (if something did change Putin's calculus in Ukraine then it wasn't the sanctions or the American bluster but the fact that the whole thing didn't collapse when pushed). And now he's changing their calculus without saying he would. That has to hurt, assuming they even realise the first part.
It's US readjustment time. The "world leader" is powerless to affect events. But the US won't stop acting like there's something it can do, even though the holes it's dug for itself in various places are pretty deep. The US enmity toward Russia will only deepen as Russia succeeds instead of the US.
Russia did nothing in Libya in 2011. Russia did not do much until last year.
Obama had 3 or so years to do something. But he did not want to or had trepidations. He has lost the initiative. He may never have had it, but he certainly gave it up over the years.
Obama may have had the public with him, but in some media there has been an anti-FSA army campaign. So on top of war fatigue and the budget, Obama would have to deal with that. But he does not do much that is hard. He only works were the media flies cover or the DNC prepares the ground.
Obama is a man of substance and conviction. He voted present 132 times in the state house. At least he knew where he was.
WNU Editor,
Only a month ago, the US MSM were telling us that the Russian intervention in Syria, had changed nothing, and Russia was going to wind up trapped in a massive quagmire.
Funny that.
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