Daily Beast: Russia Gloats: ‘Trump Is Ours Again’
If Moscow was happy about the Syria pullout, it’s ecstatic about Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ resignation.
The Kremlin is awash with Christmas gifts from Washington, D.C. and every move by the Trump administration seems to add to that perception. On Wednesday, appearing on the Russian state TV show “The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev,” Director of the Moscow-based Center for Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies Semyon Bagdasarov said that the U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis is “struggling to keep up” with the flurry of unexpected decisions by the U.S. President Donald Trump. The news that Mattis decided to step down sent shock waves across the world, being interpreted as “a dangerous signal” by America’s allies.
Meanwhile, the Mattis departure is being cheered in Russia. Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Upper House of the Russian Parliament, has said that “the departure of James Mattis is a positive signal for Russia, since Mattis was far more hawkish on Russia and China than Donald Trump.” Kosachev opined that Trump apparently considered his own agenda in dealing with Russia, China and America’s allies to be "more important than keeping James Mattis at his post," concluding: "That’s an interesting signal, and a more positive one” for Russia.
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WNU Editor: The Western press is trying to present a picture that yesterday's White House announcements on Syria, Afghanistan, and the retirement of Mattis is a victory for Putin/Russia/etc.. Nothing can be further from the truth. President Trump only sees endless wars in Syria, and sees no value for the U.S. to remain. So what will happen next is predictable. U.S. forces will deploy to Iraq and other places in the Middle East, the Kurds will relocate to the Kurdish north of the country, and the Syrian/Russian/Iranian alliance will then need to step up and fight against the remaining ISIS forces that are operating in eastern Syria. Good luck on that. That is going to be an occupation and a fight that is going to last a long time .... but from the U.S. perspective no American blood and treasure will now need to be spent. A possible U.S./NATO departure from Afghanistan is a nightmare situation for Moscow and for its allies in Central Asia. Russia is embroiled in an insurgency campaign against Islamic militants in the Caucasus, a Taliban victory in Afghanistan would not only embolden Islamic radicals in Muslim dominated parts of Russia, but the spill-over from Afghanistan will impact Russia's allies in Central Asia. And then there is the opium/heroin crisis in Russia. Most Westerners do not know, but narcotics from Afghanistan is destroying many young lives in Russia that surpasses the current opioid crisis in the U.S.. As for the retirement of US Defense Secretary Mattis .... he is known as a hawk, but he did not play a major role in U.S. - Russian relations. The three men who do influence U.S. - Russian relations are Security adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Pompeo, and President Trump, and it looks like they are going to be there for the next two years.
4 comments:
Wnu
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/alabama-senate-roy-jones-russia.html
Unbelievable! !!!!
100k!!@ won by 2%
And we spent 2 years on the 4k the Russians spent while Democrats were caught again red handed. ..freaking hypocrites and liars
These kind of VAST generalizations Russia Gloats make me gag.
Maybe ths author is gloating.
Editor,
You write: "nothing can be farther from the truth" eith a few minor differences you and I largely observing the same thing with regards to Syria. Also, what Trump sees here is largely correct. I've recognized this for a long time. It's great to hwve a POTUS who appears to get it.
You say "good luck" with Russian and Syrian forces defeating the remnants of ISIS. Actually ISIS in Syria is largely defeated. As such, for them to "mop up" shouldn't be that hard. Interestingly many knew this before Trump announced a planned redeployment. Once he did a 180 degree turn had to be done to justify the strategically unjustifiable and perhaps more importantly to oppose Trump just for the sake of opposing him!!
As for the Kurds, this deployment will be more economically viable, defendable, and sustainable than the current situatuin. When Chicken Little cried hysterically that the Kurds were being abandoned and about to be annihilated, I knew he was full of it. Interestingly he never worried about the Kurds before. He used the Kurds as a political prop and some Kurdish leaders were likely in on it.
I had no idea about the opioid epidemic in Russia. I suppose this makes me like most "westerners." I know how awful this is in America and you say it's worse in Russia!! I can't begin to fathom this!! Essentially your analysis on how a draw down from Afghanistan affects Russia is sopt on IMHO.
I may have been to harsh on generals Mattis and Kelly. Their job as generals is to command troops who break things and to obey the civilian leaders. It's understandable that these generals will not have as full an understanding of overall strategy as POTUS does.
They've done an excellent job at breaking that which needed breaking. Now it's time for the next page. POTUS has classily thanked them for their service. Now they need to go into retirement and KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT!!
As for the deep state and the so called "experts" who created much of what POTUS is trying to fix, they are to blinded by ideology and generally stuck in failed approaches to be able to be of much use for anything. The same generally applies to the media.
As for reports attributed to the Russian media and givernment, much of what they say seems carefully timed and calibrated to tweak the deep state, Trump's critics, the "experts," and the US and "western" media. Perhaps it didn't occur to them that they are likely being manipulated.
Welcome to the quagmire, Putin. You own it now.
AFGHAN,
RUDUX,
R,
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